In IT, manufacturing and healthcare
FRANKFORT, Ky. (Dec. 9, 2015) — Kentucky has been awarded a nearly $4.4 million five-year federal grant to train and employ people with disabilities in the Eastern Kentucky and Louisville metropolitan areas in information technology, manufacturing and healthcare fields. Kentucky is one of four states to receive the grant.
“The Project CASE grant helps us to assist individuals with disabilities in training, a career and independence,” said Kentucky Office for the Blind (OFB) executive director Allison Flanagan. “It is a commitment to ensuring that everyone in our state has the opportunity to be successful.”
The grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), will be administered through OFB, an agency in the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet.
Project CASE (Creating Access to Successful Employment) will serve approximately 1,900 people with disabilities in the local workforce development areas of KentuckianaWorks and the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program Inc. (EKCEP). The Kentucky Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) will partner with OFB on Project CASE.
Project CASE will help people with disabilities to utilize the Career Pathways program, a workforce development strategy to help train and educate people for in-demand jobs. Project CASE will connect academic and career courses with support services to help students with disabilities. By collaborating with partners such as Kentucky Career Center, Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Kentucky Adult Education and the Kentucky Department of Education, OVR and OFB can provide more services to people with disabilities.
“Project CASE helps us connect all of the pieces and services that are needed to give individuals with disabilities better employment outcomes so that they can enter the workforce and become self-sufficient,” said Kentucky OFB Executive Director Allison Flanagan.
EKCEP is the Local Workforce Development Board for 23 Eastern Kentucky counties including Bell, Carter, Elliott, Harlan, Lawrence, Menifee, Morgan, Johnson, Knott, Martin, Wolf, Magoffin, Floyd, Pike, Lee, Breathitt, Jackson, Owsley, Clay, Perry, Knott, Leslie, Letcher counties.
KentuckianaWorks, an agency of Louisville Metro Government, is the Local Workforce Development Board for the Greater Louisville region consisting of Jefferson, Bullitt, Henry, Oldham, Spencer, Shelby and Trimble counties.
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