The advent of the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA) and its Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) that required State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies (SVRAs) to set aside at least 15% of their federal funds to provide ‘Pre-Employment Transition Services to eligible ‘Students with Disabilities (14-21).
WIOA’s inclusion of “instruction in self-advocacy, which may include peer mentoring” fueled SVRA’s interest in technical assistance to pilot and implement peer mentoring programs as an outreach and support strategy to engage students with disabilities in self-advocacy and to support ANY and ALL of the 5 required
Pre-ETS.
“Research has shown that mentors, especially peer mentors, can positively affect the movement of individuals with disabilities towards self-sufficiency through the establishment of high expectations, support and empowerment.”