As National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) gets underway, Disability Rights California (DRC) is excited to announce that it has been awarded a grant from The James Irvine Foundation to help advance economic justice and employment opportunities for people with disabilities, particularly those with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD).

Through its Better Careers initiative, The Irvine Foundation supports efforts to build a more equitable and inclusive workforce system and connect undervalued workers and jobseekers to good jobs with good pay and clear career paths.  This $100,000 grant to DRC extends their work to the disability community by supporting a landscape analysis of employment opportunities for Californians with I/DD.  This research is connected to Irvine’s broader exploration of the intersection of disability rights and economic justice for low-wage workers in California, which is set to launch in 2025.

“We are grateful for the leadership of The Irvine Foundation in trying to build an inclusive workforce and look forward to partnering with them to help California to be more of a national leader in inclusive employment,” said Andy Imparato, Executive Director of Disability Rights California. “As California works to phase out subminimum wage employment and expand opportunities in competitive, integrated employment for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, this grant is timely and well-positioned to have an impact on policy and practice.”

In addition to describing the many different programs, funding streams and stakeholder processes in this area that currently exist across various systems, this comprehensive analysis will aim to identify the common threads that run through them all, the gaps that may exist, and the most promising opportunities for aligning and building on the work that is already underway.  Because disabled people are both disproportionally incarcerated and disproportionally likely to live in poverty, this analysis will also examine existing and needed pathways to good jobs for justice-involved individuals with I/DD.

“For too long, California has taken a piecemeal approach to helping people with I/DD find and maintain high-quality jobs,” said Vivian Haun, Senior Policy Attorney at DRC.  “The systems that serve them are complex and structurally siloed. But they don’t have to stay that way. We hope this project can point to ways that the California’s public and private sectors can be more effective at getting people with I/DD the support they need, when they need it, to earn a living wage doing work that is meaningful to them.”

DRC has a long history of advocating for people with I/DD to have access to good jobs, fair wages and more seamless employment supports, including through recent successes such as eliminating the use of Section 14(c) certificates to pay subminimum wage in California and creating a new Office of Employment First at the California Health and Human Services Agency.  We are grateful to The Irvine Foundation for the opportunity to build on these achievements, and for their intersectional approach to ensuring that all communities can share in California’s prosperity.

The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California. The Foundation’s current focus is a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically. Since 1937 the Foundation has provided more than $2.6 billion in grants to organizations throughout California. The Foundation ended 2023 with $3.1 billion in assets and provided $180.3 million in grants. For more, please visit www.irvine.org.

Media Contacts

Eric Harris
Associate Executive Director of External Affairs
Disability Rights California
(916) 504-5940
Eric.Harris@disabilityrightsca.org

Disability Rights California (DRC) – Is the agency designated under federal law to protect and advocate for the rights of Californians with disabilities. The mission of DRC is to defend, advance, and strengthen the rights and opportunities of people with disabilities. For more information, visit: https://www.disabilityrightsca.org