Disabilities

What is Progressive Employment?

What if you’re interested in trying a job in a new industry but you have no experience? What if you’re not sure whether a different work environment will be a good match with your disability? Progressive employment may be the answer.

VocRehab Vermont is one of the top public VR agencies in the nation. We serve more than 8,000 Vermonters with significant disabilities each year, and achieve successful employment with two-thirds of our jobseekers.

Our innovative programs and commitment to reaching those most in need means that we serve a high proportion of people facing significant barriers to employment. Our success is reflected in our statistics, and in what our customers and employees say about us.

VocRehab Vermont is founded on community and collaboration. We have a large network of groups we partner with to serve people facing special challenges in the world of work.

These include offenders, welfare recipients, veterans, social security disability beneficiaries, people with serious mental illness or developmental disabilities, and youth moving from school to work. These partnerships allow VocRehab to provide customers with a wide range of services and supports.

VocRehab Vermont has a professional staff of 160 in 12 field offices across Vermont, with a wide array of skills and expertise.

All staff receive extensive ongoing training—a necessity for professionals hoping to support VR consumers as they face very personal and life-altering decisions about working with a significant disability.

As you work with VocRehab, you'll meet VocRehab Counselors, Case Aides, Employment Consultants, Benefits Counselors, and others. They'll work with you as a team, guided by your interests and unique needs.

VocRehab Vermont is part of the public VR system governed by the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration. We are housed in Vermont's Agency of Human Services.

We are guided by representative consumer boards that oversee our needs assessment and our policies and procedures. We are managed by experienced VocRehab professionals who have risen through the ranks.

VocRehab Vermont believes in putting the customer in the driver's seat. And that includes both our customers: people with disabilities and employers.

You know what's best for you or your company. But you can't possibly know everything about a wide range of disabilities and the benefit programs, incentives, assistive technology, and services available to help people with disabilities succeed in the workplace. That's why we exist. It's our job to help guide you along the way.

And what guides us?

Work is central to adult life. Work defines us, giving us purpose, independence, and community.

Disability affects all of us eventually - whether we're born with it; experience disability through illness, accident, or aging; or have a loved one or colleague with a disabling condition.

When disability gets in the way of productive work, that's when VocRehab Vermont steps in. We provide a wide range of services and supports to help you get to work, and to help your employer keep you there.

Creative Workforce Solutions (CWS)

VocRehab Vermont is leading a new initiative in the Agency of Human Services called Creative Workforce Solutions. CWS is designed to streamline and improve services to AHS customers and employers across the state by offering consistent, coordinated workforce development in local communities. Offering a variety of innovative placement options to job seekers and employers alike, CWS represents a broad coalition of employment programs, all working to increase job opportunities for Vermonters.