John Butterworth

Director for Employment Systems Change and Evaluation and Senior Research Fellow

John has over 40 years of experience in research, training, employment support and the management and development of employment services. He manages projects on employment support and state systems change including Access to Integrated Employment, a 35 year national data collection project on day and employment services and outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the State Employment Leadership Network, a membership network of state developmental disability agencies committed to improving employment outcomes. John’s interests include systems and organizational change, data-based management and planning, state policy and strategy, employment outcomes, organizational development and transformation, improving employment supports, natural supports , and person-centered planning.

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BRINGING EMPLOYMENT FIRST TO SCALE: Assisting Job Seekers with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Guide for Employment Consultants

The literature about effective support practices for assisting job seekers with disabilities is extensive. However, employment consultants do not always implement these practices consistently. This suggests that there is a need for articulating these practices into a clearer, more easily communicated support guide. This brief provides a checklist of support activities, organized around five key elements: 1. Building trust; 2. Getting to know the job seeker; 3. Addressing supports planning; 4. Finding tasks/jobs; 5. Providing support after hire.

Supporting employment consultants in their work with job seekers

This Spotlight on Research shows that on average, employment consultants invest most of their work hours (44%, 3.5 hours/day) in either administrative activities or non-employment related activities, compared to only about 30% (2.4 hours/day) in supports that lead to hiring of job seekers with disabilities.

Building quality supports: Implementation support beyond training

Improving employment outcomes requires not just training, but intentional investment in coaching and supervisory practices that support implementation of best practice. This presentation for the Reinventing Quality Conference 2021 addresses strategies for improving implementation support from practice, research, and policy perspectives.

Manuscript: Using data-enabled performance feedback and guidance to assist employment consultants in their work with job seekers: An experimental study

The success of job seekers with disabilities in achieving their employment goals depends in large part on the quality of employment supports that they receive from employment consultants. This article describes a study testing the effectiveness of data-enabled performance feedback to assist employment consultants in implementing standards of effective employment supports.

Report: Employment and Economic Outcomes by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender for Individuals With and Without Disabilities, 2017

This report describes the employment and economic outcomes for individuals with and without intellectual disabilities in 2017. Results are summarized for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. These data are divided according to race, ethnicity, and gender and are drawn from the American Community Survey, the Rehabilitation Services Administration 911, and the National Core Indicators.

Key Findings and Lessons Learned from Research on Integrated Employment for individuals with IDD

This presentation highlights key findings and lessons learned from the RRTC on Advancing Employment for People with IDD (2014-2019). ICI staff discuss a “knowledge to action” agenda that applies empirical data towards the development of strategies to positively impact the employment outcomes of individuals with IDD and their families.

Developing Interagency Agreements: Four Questions to Consider

Interagency collaboration can be a powerful tool in expanding the ability of state systems to provide effective supports that lead to real change for individual citizens.

The Power of Disability Employment: The Impact to Arizona’s Economy

Arizona’s working-age population (ages 16–64) of people with any type of disability (10.2%) who are working hovers around the national average (Erickson, Lee, & von Schrader, 2019). In addition, individuals with a disability in Arizona, as in the nation as a whole, are more likely to live in poverty (30.5% and 26.1% respectively).

Key Elements of Organizational Transformation: Lessons Learned from the Provider Transformation Network

This document contains slides from a presentation given at The Arc Summer Leadership Institute in 2019. The information covers key lessons in organizational transformation that can help disability services providers implement best practices.

Click here to view and download the presentation slides

The Numbers and the Stories Behind Them: Higher Performing State Employment Systems

This document contains the slides from a presentation given at the APSE national conference in 2019. It presents statistics that illustrate the characteristics of relatively higher-performing state systems with regard to employment and community engagement outcomes for individuals with IDD. Click here to view the presentation slides.

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