Project IMPACT
Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission
In every survey taken in the past 25 years, when asked to identify barriers to employment for individuals with disabilities, one of the top reasons indentified is “fear of losing public benefits, including health coverage”. Project IMPACT provides benefit planning education and assistance services to consumers receiving SSI/DI who are looking to go to work in the following counties; Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket, Plymouth, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex. Virtually all of the participants in Project IMPACT have a severe disability. Therefore, in addition to becoming proficient in all public benefits, it is critical that the staff have the ability to deliver the information in such a way that the individual, and in some cases their family and those offering support, can understand the facts and issues in order to make an informed choice. Since 2006, the staff of Project IMPACT has provided benefit planning services to more than 10,000 individuals with disabilities and written more than 4,000 individualized benefit plans (25% of those individuals who had plans developed have become employed). Project IMPACT has been cited by the Social Security Administration as the number one program in the country. At that time, the staff of Project IMPACT was responsible for almost 11% of all the benefit plans written in the United States.
Team members include: Joseph Reale, Emmy Diaz, Ingrid Farelli, Herminio Miranda, Linda Muse, Marilyn Reale, Kimberly Thacker, and Marit Young
This information provided by the Human Resources Division