Abstract
Customized Employment is a relatively new service offered to job seekers with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. As with any new service, there are significant challenges in implementation. This paper focuses on an early adopter organization and the perceptions of employees throughout a time of transition towards best practice implementation. By interviewing staff, the researcher found significant knowledge gaps regarding how Customized Employment should work, what it should look like, and how it is different from other modalities of employment supports. Support professionals largely expressed positive views of Customized Employment while also misunderstanding what it is and how it is achieved. While issues of funding and organizational structure are certainly barriers to new service development, direct support professionals did not seem to view these elements as specific hindrances to their work or provision of services.