Community Initiatives and Partnerships

padli-ovr

Mission Employment

In Partnership with the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation – PA Department of Labor and Industry

  • Mission Empower staff will provide students with disabilities in the Erie School District an opportunity to receive presentations, educational workshops, consultations, and work-based learning experiences as they transition from high school, in collaboration with a program set forth by OVR.  Learn more about this program on our Mission Employment page.
  • Education on the benefits of early career planning and the development of independent living skills
  • Linkages to resources that will assist youth with disabilities to pursue participation in the workforce and independence

 

doeCommunity Parent Resource Center (CPRC) Designation

In Partnership with the U.S. Department of Education

Community parent resource centers are parent training and information centers, operated by local parent organizations, that help ensure underserved parents of children with disabilities, including low-income parents, parents of children who are English learners, and parents with disabilities, have the training and information they need to enable them to participate effectively in helping their children. Community parent resource centers are required to establish cooperative partnerships with the parent training and information centers in their States.

In order to receive an award for a parent center, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that applicants must be a parent organization that has a board of directors, the majority of which must consist of parents of children with disabilities. The board must also include individuals with disabilities and individuals working in the fields of special education, related services, or early intervention. The parent and professional members of the board must be broadly representative of the population to be served, including low-income parents and parents of English learners.

Read more about CPRC designation on the Office of Special Education Programs website.

1672754-inline-iconbwWeb Accessibility Campaign

In Partnership with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Mission Empower is striving to make its website more accessible for everyone on all devices. That’s why we are implementing tools to adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization (ISO) for the Internet. They are a set of guidelines that specify how to make content accessible, primarily for people with disabilities—but also for all user agents, including highly limited devices, such as mobile phones.

The current version, WCAG 2.0, was published in December 2008 and became an ISO standard.
To read more about this initiative, please visit the W3C website here.