Disseminating a Model for Internal Evaluation of Supported Employment Programs for People with Developmental Disabilities

This paper reports on a project underway in Southwestern Ontario since 1992, that has sought to increase the internal capacity for program evaluation of a network of agencies providing supported employment services for people with developmental disabilities. Standardized service delivery indicators were defined and a computerized information system developed and disseminated. Lessons learned included the need to anticipate and assess barriers to using the resulting information; the need for both “bottom-up” support staff as well as “top-down ” management support; and the need for more emphasis on how the information collected can contribute to individual service planning. While recognizing the difficulty for organizations of sustaining healthy internal cultures for program evaluation over the long term, the dissemination of this evaluation model has been very successful