Abstract

Organizations providing services to persons with disabilities typically conduct interventions where clients can choose participation through completion, participation before program completion, or non-participation. Evaluation of these interventions, however, relies typically on investigating the overall achievement of program objectives rather than the collective behavior of individuals or families. Framed through the lens of complexity theory, we compared adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities who were participating in an employment readiness program using an ecosystems model versus those choosing not to continue in the program over a two-year period. We consider an additional aspect of complex adaptive systems theory - conflict, cooperation and creativity - into their niche construction.