The changing role of community based instruction: strategies for facilitating workplace supports

This manuscript provides an expanded definition of community-based instruction that includes the systematic facilitation of natural supports in integrated work places. A model for considering workplace intervention and support is provided that defines natural supports by considering the relationship of support mechanisms to the workplace culture and the process by which supports are' initiated. A particular concern that has been cited about the growing emphasis on natural supports has been our ability to describe operationally specific strategies that represent a consultative or facilitative approach for ETS intervention. Data are provided that document relationships between strategies used by an employment training specialist (ETS) to facilitate natural supports, the extent to which the ETS emphasizes consultation over direct training, and the culture (or inclusiveness) of the workplace and outcomes of supports received in the workplace and workplace inclusion. Examples of specific strategies used in the expanding role of employment training specialists illustrate the changing role of the ETS as a consultant and facilitator in the areas of job performance and social interaction.