Griffin-Hammis Associates (GHA) and the Kansas Small Business Development Center (KSBDC), with sponsorship from the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities, are establishing a statewide technical assistance center promoting business ownership by individuals with developmental disabilities. GHA and the KSBDC offer this resource in the spirit of community inclusion and equal access to community resources, increasing personal autonomy through economic equity, and creating sustainable economic development.
Over the three-year initial incubation phase of this project, we will jointly:
Provide in-state classroom training to a cadre of KSBDC staff statewide to understand: the impacts of self-employment on public benefits such as Social Security and Medicaid; individualized business supports for individuals with developmental disabilities; leveraging resources from multiple sources (e.g. Plans for Achieving Self Support, Individual Development Accounts, Unsecured Loans, Vocational Rehabilitation, and Medicaid Waiver) to capitalize and sustain small businesses; how to develop business plans that merge personal preference, disability considerations, and essential business practices; and create lasting KSBDC capacity.
Provide in-state classroom training to prospective business owners, family members, community rehabilitation personnel, school transition staff, Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors (VR), and others in using the Discovery process to formulate highly individualized business ideas; develop draft business plans and financial projections; outline public benefits options and cautions; and design extended business support plans.
Provide on-line competency-based training in self-employment related to the caveats of disability to a cadre of KSBDC staff, prospective business owners, family members, community rehabilitation personnel, school transition staff, VR, and others.
Provide intensive live and video-conferenced co-counseling sessions (by GHA and KSBDC staff) to Prospective Business Owners culminating in business start-ups across the state.
GHA and the KSBDC will work with the various partners and stakeholders above, as well as Network Kansas, the Great Expectations employment project, and other community economic entities, to leverage and expand funding while transferring GHA’s role to sustainable Kansas resources.
For information please contact Cary Griffin or Janet Steveley at GHA (cgriffin@griffinhammis.com; jsteveley@griffinhammis.com); Greg Panichello at KSBDC (ksbdc.gpanichello@fhsu.edu); or Shelly May at the Kansas DD Council (smaygm@ksdd.org)
