About Office of Disability Employment Policies (ODEP) & SkillsCommons
About Office of Disability Employment Policies (ODEP) & SkillsCommons
The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) is the only non-regulatory federal agency that promotes policies and coordinates with employers and all levels of government to increase workplace success for people with disabilities.
Mission: ODEP's mission is to develop and influence policies and practices that increase the number and quality of employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
To fulfill this mission, ODEP promotes the adoption and implementation of ODEP policy strategies and effective practices — meaning those that ODEP has developed and/or validated — that will impact the employment of people with disabilities. ODEP's approach is to drive systems and practice changes by disseminating ODEP policy strategies and effective practices, sharing information, and providing technical assistance to government agencies, service providers and non-governmental entities, as well as public and private employers. Through these activities, ODEP contributes to the achievement of: DOL’s Strategic Goal 1: Support the ability of all Americans to find good jobs, and Strategic Objective 1.3: Develop evidence-based policies, practices, and tools to foster a more inclusive workforce to increase quality employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
Vision; A world in which people with disabilities have unlimited employment opportunities.
Authorizing Legislation: ODEP began in Fiscal Year 2001 when Congress “…established in the Department of Labor an office of disability employment policy which shall, under the overall direction of the Secretary, provide leadership, develop policy and initiatives, and award grants furthering the objective of eliminating barriers to the training and employment of people with disabilities. Such office shall be headed by an Assistant Secretary.” 29 U.S.C. 567b (emphasis added). [Link] (Pub. L. 106–554, § 1(a)(1) [title I], Dec. 21, 2000, 114 Stat. 2763, 2763A–10.
SkillsCommons is creating a customized repository for the ODEP to store, curate, distribute, rebrand, and revise the resources created for ODEP and it's partners.
Partner with SkillsCommons | Visit the SkillsCommons Repository
California State University, Long Beach and its MERLOT program designed and implemented the national, open library of workforce programming and training materials called SkillsCommons. The SkillsCommons library is open for educators, workforce development staff, human resources staff, and individual workers and provides free and easy access to the innovative training materials across a wide variety of industry sectors that can be adopted and adapted for the local use.