ACCES-VR Peer Integration Project

Peer Specialists help ACCES-VR consumers prepare for and successfully maintain jobs in the community. They help people remove barriers to employment, understand their rights and secure reasonable accommodations.

AIM Independent Living Center employs Peer Integration Specialists who work with consumers in the state’s Adult Career and Continuing Education Services-Vocational Rehabilitation (ACCES-VR) programs.

Peer Specialists share their own experiences with disability and employment to help ACCES-VR consumers prepare for — and successfully maintain — jobs in the community. They help people with disabilities identify and remove barriers to employment.

Peer Specialists provide assistance to ACCES-VR consumers with:

  • Self-advocacy/self-sufficiency         
  • Obtaining reasonable accommodations     
  • Understanding rights and responsibilities in employment as a person with a disability 
  • Transportation coordination
  • Locating affordable, accessible housing
  • Navigating benefit programs and community services
  • Developing a Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS) for the Social Security Administration
  • Health care self-management
  • Applying for the Medicaid Buy-In Program for Working People with Disabilities

ACCES-VR Peer Integration Project services are free of charge. 

For more information, contact Peer Integration Coordinator Jessica Farin at (607) 962-8225, ext. 231.