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>> Good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you for joining us for today's LEAD Center webinar, LEAD Center Inaugural Year in Review.
My name is Elizabeth Jennings.
I'm the assistant project director for the LEAD Center and I'm going
to be your facilitator for today.
We have a great lineup of speakers for you, including Karen McCulloh, our project director
for Year One LEAD Center and current of Special Projects, Kelly Buckland, Executive Director
of NCIL, Angie Seigler, Director of Employment and Vocational Services for Paraquad Center
for Independent Living, Michael Morris, Executive Director
of National Disability Institute and LEAD Center Public Policy Team Lead, Bobby Silverstein,
Principal at Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville,
and our new LEAD Center Project Director, Dr. Rebecca Salon.
For those of you who haven't joined us before, the National Center on Leadership
for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities,
commonly called the LEAD Center, is a collaborative of disability,
workforce and economic environment organizations led by National Disability Institute,
with funding from the US Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy.
Before we go any further, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge our colleagues
at the Office of Disability Employment Policy, and invite Chris Button,
Supervisory Policy Advisor with the Workforce Systems Policy Department to offer a welcome.
>> Thank you so much, Elizabeth.
I am sitting here in a room full of folks here at ODEP, and we are really excited to be sharing
with folks across the country the activities and outcomes
of the LEAD Center's first year of work.
You know, employment, economic and advancement and leadership are three pretty big terms,
and I think really that LEAD is making an incredible difference in all
of these areas already, in just the first year.
From looking at kind of the nexus of employment with Medicaid and healthcare, to blending
and braiding resources and expertise across systems, both disability and generic,
to promoting partnerships, both at the federal level and the state implementation level,
to bringing entities, really important partners to the WIA system,
like the Centers for Independent Living, to generally helping ODEP
with a variety of policy analysis activities.
We have been really honored honestly to be able to say that the LEAD Center truly is a partner
to us at the staff level in helping to move a progressive public policy agenda
through the range of activities that it is implementing.
And of course, with amazing staff, both those who are on the phone today,
as well as other national consultants who are helping us
to implement projects across the nation.
So, I'm really excited about the webinar, really excited to share all this exciting stuff
from this year with the nation, and also looking forward
to equally exciting activities for next year.
So, thanks!
Thanks Elizabeth.
>> Thank you so much Chris, and we're very happy to have you all back.
I'm now going to offer a moment for my colleague, Nakia Matthews,
to offer you some housekeeping tips.
>> Good afternoon, everyone.
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Please use the Q&A or the chat box to send any questions that you may have during the course
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If you are listening by phone and not logged in to the web portion, you may also ask questions
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If you experience any technical difficulties during this webinar, please use the chat box
to send me, Nakia Matthews, a message, or you may also email me at nmatthews@ndi-inc.org.
>> Thank you, Nakia.
Today, we're going to provide for you an overview of the LEAD Center's Year One efforts,
the initial findings of one of our demonstration projects, the LEAD Center CIL project--
pilot project, an overview of the Public Workforce Systems policies and practices related
to serving job seekers with disabilities, so we're going to do a quick view
of the LEAD Center Season 2 efforts to give you an idea of what's still to come next year.
We're going to leave some time for questions and answers and for those of you who are new
to the LEAD Center, we're going to provide you with some information on connecting
with the LEAD Center so you'll be updated on activities and efforts as we head into Year Two.
We hope that by the end of the webinar, you will have a better understanding
of the LEAD Center's Year One efforts, the initial findings of the CIL pilots,
the public workforce systems structure for serving and supporting customers
with disabilities, the LEAD Center's plans for Year Two and how to stay up-to-date
on LEAD Center news, including training opportunities.
I'd now like to take a moment to introduce you to Michael Morris, Executive Director
of National Disability Institute.
He's going to provide you with an overview of the LEAD Center's history
and priorities and our Year One efforts.
Thank you, Michael.
>> Thanks, Elizabeth.
Let me take you first to the background and history of the LEAD Center.
The National Disability Institute was an applicant to the Office
of Disability Employment Policy, and we were successful and the result was the establishment
of the LEAD Center in October of 2012, just a year ago.
Our focus is on employment, economic advancement, and leadership,
with particular attention in how we can continue to develop and reform public policy
for the benefit of people with disabilities nationwide.
Our collaboration within the LEAD Center involves seven other national organizational
partners, nine subject matter experts, and 16 knowledge transfer dissemination partners.
So, our reach has been pretty extensive, both in Washington, DC and across the country.
The mission of the Center is to advance sustainable individual and systems level change
that results in improved competitive, integrated employment
and economic self-sufficiency outcomes for individuals
across the full spectrum of disability.
Let me share with you some of the highlight from our Year One efforts.
First, and as I mentioned just a moment ago, we have worked with a dynamic consortium
of strategic partners to implement a comprehensive high-impact work plan
that cuts across five goals.
Our goals relate to bringing innovation to scale, it relates to public policy,
it relates to really increasing capacity of the workforce investment system
to better serve people with disabilities.
We have identified systems issues and developed policy recommendations and tools
to improve integrated service delivery, employment and economic advancement
for youth and adults with disabilities.
The highlight of the year took place in July
when we conducted our First Annual Policy Roundtable on the topic of Blending
and Braiding Resources across Multiple Public Funding Service Delivery Systems.
We were able to bring together some 50 individuals, representing government,
the research community, practitioners, the workforce development system, policy makers
and decision makers at a federal level, state level and local level.
We are working now on compiling the findings from the roundtable and will have soon
to you recommendations for policy change across federal agencies and some very specific
to individual federal agencies and service delivery systems.
We were also able, in the first year, to bring together a one-of-a-kind first meeting
of a knowledge translation consortium of federally-funded training
and technical assistance centers.
So, these were centers beyond those funded by ODEP, Office of Disability Implement Policy,
and ETA, Employment and Training Administration.
We also brought together other centers that were funded by other federal agencies
within the Department of Education, within the Department of Health and Human Services,
the Social Security Administration.
And we-- what we really started to do and we will continue during Year Two,
is to look at ways we can better collaborate, coordinate resources, and make it easier for all
of you, multiple target audiences, people with disabilities, professionals,
workforce investment providers, the business community,
figure out ways that it will be easier for you to identify the resources we have available,
and better able to work together to meet that common mission of advancing employment
and economic outcomes for people with disabilities.
During the first year, we provided almost monthly a webinar, nine webinars in all.
And there were over 3185 participants who participated online as well
as on the ground, on-site training events.
We held two group discovery Train the Trainer Events in Kansas.
We participated in a Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund Forum in Miami.
We participated in the annual conference of the National Association
of Workforce Development Professionals, and we also participated and made up a panel
in a breakout session at the National Council on Independent Living.
We were able early on in our first year to launch the LEAD Center website.
If you haven't been there yet, I hope you will take the time today
and visit with us at www.leadcenter.org.
It is a one-stop hub for overall project information, as well as news and newsfeeds
from current articles across traditional and new media that would impact people with disabilities
and their advancement of their employment and economic status.
All of our webinars are archived on the website.
We have a regular blog.
We have a calendar of events.
We have a resource center, where you can access many other materials.
We also have a quarterly e-newsletter that you can sign up for and we are also engaging people
through social media, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
In our first year, we were very fortunate to have engaged you a so many others a total
of 2.1 million impressions made through our social media presence.
To continue about our first year efforts, we also are engaged with research
with a national employer to better understand their return to work
and workplace flexibility policies and practices
from both the national corporate level and local level.
We're trying to learn more in terms of workplace flexibility, in terms of ways to keep people
to stay at work despite primary or potentially secondary disability conditions.
And also, when someone has come out of the workforce, can we help them return to work?
We also completed a survey with the US Business Leadership Network and its corporate members
to identify policies and practices related to workplace flexibility and mature workers.
We are finishing up a demonstration project called Secret Shopper,
where job seekers with invisible disabilities have collected data from their visits
to American job centers to help us better understand ways to improve service delivery
and effective and meaningful participation of people with disabilities
within our workforce investment system.
We are very much engaged with Centers for Independent Living in five locations
to foster greater partnerships between CILs and the American Job Centers, AJCs,
to increase the opportunities for people with disabilities as customers, as job seekers,
to gain access to not just core services, but also intensive and training services,
and ultimately, achieve better results in terms of employment outcomes.
So hopefully, you get a sense of the breadth of our work.
This is just some quick highlights.
I do urge you again to visit our website and what I'm going to do next is turn to several
of my colleagues to talk with you in a little bit greater depth about some
of our demonstration projects, in particular the first one, just mentioned about our work
with Centers for Independent Living, and I'm going to call on Karen McCulloh,
who is leading this effort working with NCIL, and she will take it from there.
>> Thank you very much, Michael.
The Center for Independent Living demonstration project has been developed
from the grassroots level.
And that means that it never existed before.
So, we're partnered with and continued to partner with the National Council
on Independent living, and the National Association
of Workforce Development professionals.
NCIL, in particular, has been a very strong partner with us on this project and I'm going
to very quickly move over to ask Kelly Buckland, who is the executive director
of the National Council on Independent Living to share with us how we got started
and establishing the eligibility for this, the criteria that we use to select CILs.
Kelly?
>> Thanks, Karen.
Hi, everybody.
It is a real pleasure to be with you here today.
As Karen said, we worked closely together on this project and we wanted to make sure
that we've covered several things when we recruited the centers to participate in this.
So, we basically set up some basic eligibility criteria, if you will, that kind of set up a way
for us to make that we covered all the bases.
So, we wanted to make sure that the centers that were participating had
like an established employment program going on within their center,
and a benefit planning expertise, if you will,
amongst the staff that are working at the center.
We wanted to make sure that we had a good geographic representation, and a good diversity
within the population across the United States.
So, we tried to pick centers that were--
that would provide that geographic and population diversity.
And, we also wanted to pick centers that have an established linkage
with their American Jobs Centers.
So we went about recruiting centers and we got--
we went through quite a few but we ended up selecting really some great centers I think
that participated in the program that were-- there was 10 of them altogether.
I'll go back, if you go back to slide 20.
Once was IndependenceFirst in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The other one was the Disability Rights and Resources Center in Birmingham, Alabama,
and some of you may know that it was the center run by Dan Kessler, who was the President
of NCIL at the time, Paraquad in St. Louis, Missouri,
which has had an ongoing employment program for a long time,
and the Montana Independent Living Project, we were particularly pleased to get these guys
on board and that they were representing the rural area in Helena, Montana,
and then the Community Resources for Independent Living which is in Hayward, California.
And we-- those 10 centers really we thought had a good diverse geographic distribution
and diverse population.
And so, you can see kind of why we picked those.
The impact on the public policy by involving the CILs
and the public workforce system was something we think are going to accomplish
by hooking them up with their job centers.
And, we really are looking for these guys to come up with promising and best practices
to produce what we can replicate models for other CILs to utilize
and improve the employment outcome of job seekers with disabilities, and we wanted,
like we said, replicate this so that we can expand the CIL impact
and expertise to create systems change.
And I can tell you that I have already been learned that centers have much more involvement
in employment than even I thought that they did.
And we think that by doing that, we will also improve the service delivery
through the American Job Centers.
So, we've had a good first-year, and at this point, we're going to present some stuff
that will give you some results of what we came up with.
So with that, I will turn it back over to Karen McCulloh.
Karen?
>> Thank you very much, Kelly.
Kelly was instrumental in recruiting the CILs
for this demonstration project and thank you again for that.
We had to take a step back and say in developing this demonstration project what was needed,
and in collaboration with ODEP and the five CILs, we had a discussion
and we actually have developed some pretty dynamic materials
for the Center for Independent Living toolkit.
The first thing that we created was a Letter of Introduction for the CILs to use and present
to the American Job Centers, which was signed by ODEP and the LEAD Center
that basically told them what the CIL staff were doing.
We also developed a fact sheet that the CILs could present to the AJCs
so they would understand the pilot project better.
We created a checklist for the CILs to use prior to them sending the job seekers
over to American Job Centers to get started.
And that was in part, we wanted the centers to actually visit their American Job Centers
so that they would get to know them, they would introduce themselves,
they would have a chance to be on the premises.
And then they would be able to work with the job seekers to let them know what to expect
when they actually visited the American Job Center,
what they might be able to ask for and what to expect.
And we hope that that would help and the feedback that we're getting
from the CILs is that it is helping.
We also developed a Disability Awareness and Etiquette Guide for use by the CILs
to provide training to the AJCs who were requesting this.
And this guide was developed in collaboration with the LEAD Center
and the Job Accommodation Network.
We developed an AJC guide for the Centers for Independent Living
that helped them understand better the Workforce Investment Act
and the AJC Services that are provided.
And the last thing that we have developed is an acronym and glossary guide of terms used
with the public workforce systems.
And as we know, different systems have different language and different acronyms,
so we're hoping that this will be very useful as well.
So the interesting thing for us is of the five CILs,
they are working with 16 different local American Job Centers.
And I think it's important that when we say developing partnerships, the partnerships are
between two entities, the CILs and I thought it was important for us
to recognize those American Job Centers that the CILs are working with.
In Alabama, the disability rights and resources,
they're working with the Jefferson County Career Center in Birmingham and in Jasper,
the Walker County Career Center in Jasper, Alabama, and Alabama--
excuse men, Alabaster, in Shelby County, Career Center in Alabaster, Alabama.
And I want to say that in this Center for Independent Living is also working
with the satellite areas which is also representing more rural areas as well as city.
Paraquad, which is located in St. Louis,
is working with the St. Louis County North Oaks, St. Louis.
Missouri Center, the SLATE Missouri Center in St. Louis, the SLATE Downtown Center
in St. Louis, and St. Louis Career Center, Seven Hills in Florissant, Missouri.
IndependentFirst in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is working
with the Northeast Comprehensive Job Center in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Center--
Central in Maximus, in Milwaukee, and also the Southeast Comprehensive Job Center in Milwaukee.
Out in Montana, which we call our frontier state,
we are very happy to have them on board as well.
The Montana Independent Living Project is working with Bozeman, Montana Center,
job center, Butte Job Services in Butte, Montana,
and the Helena Job Service Center in Helena, Montana.
And our CRIL which is our Community Resource for Independent Living is working
in the Alameda County AJC in Hayward/Eden Area, Hayward, California,
and the Tri-County Career Center in Pleasanton, California
and the Tri-Cities Career Center in Fremont, California.
So as Kelly had shared with you, we were looking for geographically diverse
and also population diversity and the choice of the CILs and I think we represent
that from the geographic areas that I described.
When we-- We also needed to set up an online questionnaire to collect data on job seekers
and also develop a separate instrument to learn about what types of CIL trainings were occurring
and some of their other activities.
And they have actually-- we have begun to see quite a few results.
I believe we had 57 AJC staff and workforce investment board members going through some type
of training in the last couple of months.
As of the close of Year One,
the five participating CILs have collectively served 47 job seekers and we have statistics
on 45 of those job seekers which I would like to share 'cause I think it's very interesting.
What we know is, and I'm very pleased to say, as we look at the sequential development
of this program, where by January we have the CILs on board,
and we went through this educational process with the CILs.
They actually did not start recruiting and enrolling job seekers until June 1st.
So, since June 1st, we have eight job seekers who have obtained employment,
six are employed full time and two are employed part time.
And the job seekers are diverse.
The age range is from 16 to 63.
We have 26 women and 21 males enrolled, 44 percent are Caucasian
and 44 percent are African-American, 6 percent Hispanic/Latino, 4 percent Asian.
And it's interesting because we didn't know what the disabilities would be represented
by job seekers if they would be working with.
And what we found was is that 15 individuals were identified as having mental illness
or emotional-- some type of emotional challenge and 13 had cognitive developmental disabilities.
We have eight who has physical or mobility challenges,
and we had three with learning disabilities, two were identified as hidden, two have low vision,
one job seeker is blind, and we had one individual
that was identified with spinal cord injury.
So what is really encompassed here in our report on this is that we have our leader
from the National Council on Independent Living who helped us recruit the CILs
and we have the CILs really working so closely with the LEAD Center and with ODEP, but today,
we also have one of those CILs represented who's going to sort of tell their story
from the field, I would like to introduce to you, Angie Seigler.
And Angie comes to us with very unique knowledge.
She worked six years with a one-stop American Job Centers and left that position and went
over to Paraquad Center for Independent Living in St. Louis, Missouri.
She is the director of employment and vocational services, and we--
when I was discussing with her some questions in regard to what she would like to answer
for this, I did ask her, why was Paraquad interested in participating
in the CIL demonstration project?
How has Paraquad participation had an impact on job seekers with disabilities
and the development of partnerships with local American Job Centers ,
and what outcomes does Angie see from Paraquad's point of view will be the result
of Paraquad's participation in the CIL project?
So it's my privilege to introduce you to Angie.
Angie, thanks for joining us.
>> Oh, thank you so much, Karen.
And I want to thank the LEAD Center for this opportunity to advocate for and impact the lives
of those that we serve here at Paraquad.
So I guess I'll answer your first question first, why Paraquad was interested
in participating in the CIL demonstration project.
When I saw that the project was out there, and also as a former staff member at the AJC,
I really knew that the local career center could do better in helping individuals
with disabilities, particularly in accessing and navigating the services at the AJC.
So I thought that with this project that there would be an opportunity for the Paraquad staff
and the local AJC to really collaborate
and strengthen the service delivery system at the AJC.
And also, from working at the AJC and then also then coming to Paraquad, you know, anecdotally,
many of the participants in the Paraquad Employment Program,
they've shared negative experiences at the AJC and that they've talked
about only having a referral to vocational rehabilitation as their only service option.
So, I really wanted to do what I could on my end, on behalf of Paraquad,
to help our participants with disabilities go into the AJC and get the services
that they need, and not be siloed to a particular staff member who, oh,
well that person only works with people with disabilities so--
and that person isn't here right now so can you come back next week.
So we were hearing a lot of that and we really wanted to help the career center, you know,
engage those participants and give them the opportunity
to use the services of the career center.
So it kind of became a personal quest to ensure that all of the staff members
at the career center could interact whenever possible with a wide variety
of participants rather than just being siloed or being a specialist to a given population.
So I was thinking that developing a partnership between Paraquad and AJC would really allow us
to combine our resources so that they could be used in a more efficient fashion and you know,
that would be beneficial to the individuals, you know, in our catchment area.
So I saw it as a two-way street that the AJC could benefit from the expertise
of Paraquad staff and use our guidance, resources and some trainings as an opportunity
to strengthen their service delivery model and they also--
well, we could benefit because our particular participants are looking for jobs,
we are trying to help them with that.
Our career center sponsors and hosts a lot of job fairs and a lot of seminars and, you know,
different type of activities that if we could engage our participants in those activities,
that would help them with their networking and help them find a job.
So, the next question is, how has Paraquad's participation had an impact on job seekers
with disabilities and the development of partnerships with local job centers?
Well, initially, we were able to provide the participant or the job seekers that came to us,
the 10 that we sent through and you know, tracked those outcomes for the project,
we were able to provide, before we did anything, some really intensive training
on the self-advocacy skills that would be helpful,
so that our participants could engage in the services at the AJC.
We've been able to talk to the-our participants about the processes, the way they do things
at the AJC, some of the assistive technology that's available at the AJC,
how to ask for a reasonable accommodation, to really explain their story so that--
and be comfortable with that so that they could receive the services that they need and also,
we have helped-- Paraquad has helped the AJC in ensuring that their facilities
and their services were accessible, not only programmatically but also physically.
Let's see, we also worked with our participants
on the way the job seeker services at the AJC work.
How to access job listings, how to get involved in the employer interviews,
the information sessions that they have, how to access training dollars?
And we actually have someone that, you know,
has been approved for training dollars so that's huge.
We're not aware of anyone with a disability that's ever been able to do that before.
So that was great.
We-- As far as our CIL and the impact of this demonstration project on the AJC, you know,
it's been phenomenal because sometimes, you know, what-- you know, the--
just the training, sometimes you don't know what you don't know.
And so we'd been able to provide the training to the staff
about the service delivery options available to job seekers with multiple barriers
to employment, how to help these job seekers determine their best employment options.
We have conducted lots of cross-training to promote that relationship building
between the various partner agencies.
We've had vocational rehabilitation involved, we've had other local disability providers
and our CIL staff and the job placement and the training staff and the administration
at the local AJC and we've talked about and trained in areas like job search techniques,
job development, job support strategies, reasonable accommodations
and it's been a great partnership.
One of the things that were really important to as we were having conversations
with the AJC staff is that we designed a needs assessment
to really help them identify their training needs
and the training needs of the other partners.
We have about 20 partner agencies that are represented in our AJC
as a one-stop career center, and there were lots of strengths that were already
in the career center, so we were able to pull everyone together and come up with a priority
of trainings that would really, you know, impact the participants with disabilities
or multiple barriers to employment.
We also provided some technical and much-needed assistive technology training so that
when our participants would go into the career center, they wouldn't be told, "Well,
come back next week because I don't know how to work that particular telecommunication device,"
or "I don't know how to make this workstation accessible for you and the person
that normally does it isn't here.
So we made sure everyone was trained and then we invited in some of our participants,
and the staff then was able to have a hands-on training where they were very comfortable
with how to use the technology and kind of some of the ideas behind it.
So that they could, you know, incorporate that into their service delivery model.
And the-- I think the outcomes as a result of Paraquad's participation
in this project is that, you know, our AJC now, they have the training and resources
to help individuals with disabilities access services.
We get calls everyday from staff at the AJC saying, you know, we talked to someone today
and we talked to them about services that they have received in the past and, you know,
we were thinking about this, this and this on their, you know, employment plan.
And that's been really great that people are starting to use the tools and the information
that we've provided to, you know, really make that AJC completely accessible to people
with disabilities, you know, in terms of both physical accessibility and service delivery.
I really feel like that we were able to walk in the door and help open the door
for the job seekers with disabilities.
And I think probably, the best outcome is that from a business vantage point,
we know that finding qualified employees is really a challenge for public
and private sector employers, you know, of all sizes.
So, we have offered the opportunity, I feel like, for our participants to go
to the career center, to use the AJC resources and then, you know, an employer is going
to get this great talent to expand their talent pool,
and that includes candidates with disabilities.
And I think that and accessing, you know, the services that, you know,
our clients need in order to get a job and achieve their goals, you know,
really are the most important outcomes.
So, I'll turn it back over to you, Karen.
And thank you so much for letting me participate.
>> Thank you very much, Angie.
I'm sitting here thinking about with a smile on my face hearing you talk,
because what I hear you say is that the AJCs as partners now know that they could pick
up the phone and call you if they need some assistance on knowing how to accommodate someone
and you're providing the resources and training at the AJCs, where you feel as though
that they are providing better service delivery.
Just to round this out before I turn this back to Michael.
The CILs and ODEP partners and LEAD Center staff and NCIL are all
on a monthly CIL call just to discuss what's happening.
A lot of dialogue is now beginning to occur in the sharing across the CILs,
which I think is really a very positive outcome as well as this project.
So, we are not done yet.
This program does not end until the end of the year.
And so, I know each center was to be working with 10 job seekers.
We are up to 47 and I'm sure, within the next couple of weeks, we will have met our goal
of 50 job seekers associated with centers.
So, thank you very much, Kelly and Angie, for participating in this segment of the webinar
and I'm delighted to turn this over to Michael Morris to pick up on the next segment.
Michael?
>> Thanks, Karen.
Terrific, terrific presentation and I know when we started a year ago, this is everything
that we had hoped for, in terms of what Paraquad is doing in St. Louis,
and what the other pilot sites are doing in their respective cities is opening up a world
of possibilities of shared expertise and resources between the staff
at independent living centers, and the staff at American Job Centers
and the possibilities are almost somewhat endless.
So, terrific.
I think what we have learned from this pilot today is
that AJC are underutilizing the expertise of Centers for Independent Living, and as well,
Centers for Independent Living are not utilizing the resource
in their own backyard, American Job Centers.
So we're building the bridge, we're showing it can work,
and the toolkit that's being developed is helping us realize
that we're going well beyond theory and abstractions
that AJCs truly can serve all job seekers, including those with disabilities.
Our end goal will be that what can we do to further improve and enhance the policies
and practices of the workforce investment system,
the public workforce system nationwide and, that will be some of our work in Year Two,
but I think what you presented today gives people a great snapshot of the potential that's
out there, and we'll continue to look at replicating these promising practices
and sustaining them through further policy and practice development.
So, if we can go to the next slide, we're going to turn to a second part
of our presentation today, and that is the work we've been doing in policy
with the subject matter expert, Bobby Silverstein,
who I've worked with for many years.
Ten years ago, we worked with ODEP in looking at Section 188 and looking at responsibilities
under the Workforce Investment Act to people with disabilities.
And, the result of that is at one point in time, was a disability checklist,
you'll hear a little bit more about.
But let me really turn it over to Bobby to give you an overview of the work he's doing,
which we feel can truly lead to further replication of promising practices and policies
within the workforce investment system nationwide.
So, Bobby, let me turn it over to you.
>> Thank you very much, Michael.
One statement that Michael made summarizing the work with the Centers
for Independent Living I think is very critical.
And that is the responsibility of American Job Centers to serve all job seekers,
including job seekers with disabilities.
And that's why the enactment of the Workforce Investment Act in August of 1998 was so critical
for people with disabilities and others experiencing multiple barriers to employment.
Because with the passage of the Workforce Investment Act,
Congress and the President basically changed the paradigm for people with disabilities
in these one-stops career centers.
Historically, prior to WIA, we have the JTPA,
Job Training Partnership Act, and before that, we had CETA.
And basically under the previous legislation, if a person with a disability showed
up at a one-stop or whatever it was called at that point,
they were basically told, "Sorry, we don't serve you.
Go to voc rehab, go to other agencies, state agencies,
local agencies serving people with disabilities."
With the enactment of the Workforce Investment Act, Congress changed that paradigm to say
that all means all including people with disabilities.
So, the state plan requirements specify that the state must describe how it will meet the needs
of individuals with disabilities.
State Workforce Investment Boards and Local Workforce Investment Boards are now responsible
for determining how best to organize the service system
to effectively serve people with disabilities.
The governor is responsible under Section 188 of the Workforce Investment Act to submit--
develop and submit what's called MOA, Methods of Administration program plans to the center--
the Civil Rights Center within the Department of Labor.
To CETA, and one part of that MOA deals specifically with implementation of programs
for people with disabilities consistent with the nondiscrimination provisions in 188,
consistent with the ADA, consistent with Section 504 of the Rehab Act.
And as Michael made reference to July 22nd, 2003,
the Department of Labor issued the WIA Section 188 disability Checklist,
which deals with not only physical but programmatic accessibility for people
with disabilities, sets out a number of questions dealing with compliance,
and provides a series of examples of nonmandatory practices
that American Job Centers may adopt.
Next slide, please.
One of the project's initiatives that the LEAD Center identified as being critical was
to basically do a comprehensive review of the states of practices,
policies and procedures affecting people with disabilities in American Job Centers
to just look at all the creative, innovative, promising, emerging best practices
that the one-stops American Job Centers were actually using and trying
to identify these practices so that we could share them with others around the country.
So, working with NASWA, that's Association of State Workforce Agencies,
working with the Civil Rights Center and the Employment and Training Administration at DOL
and working with folks at ODEP and DEI, Disability Employment Initiative grantees,
we did a comprehensive survey looking to identify these practices.
And a preliminary survey has been completed.
We will share our results with ETA, with the Civil Rights Center
in the Department of Labor, with ODEP.
And then eventually, share more comprehensively with folks around the country.
What we did-- next slide please-- is identify a series of topic areas
where these innovations are occurring.
And these innovative practices include having dedicated staff,
practices dealing with marketing and outreach, consultation with community groups,
operational collaboration, partnership and linkage agreements, training of staff,
the actual registration and orientation function,
and the use of person-centered employment planning, integrated resource teams.
Next slide, please.
Individualized resource mapping, asset development, customized employment,
specific best practices dealing with service delivery to youth, ensuring an adequate network
of providers, issues dealing with data collection and finally,
monitoring and continuous improvement.
What I'm going to try to do in the next 10 or 15 minutes is not give you a comprehensive review
of all of the practices that were identified based on reviewing these methods
of administration plan, reviewing information developed by the DEI grantees,
reviewing information provided by probably 15 states
who are part of the EO committee at NASWA.
This is not possible to give you a comprehensive recitation
of all of the practices we identified.
But we want to just give you in the next couple of minutes examples of some
of the practices under the different topic areas.
So let's start with a dedicated staff.
And again, what I'm doing here is just sharing what's happening around the country.
This is not developed in Washington, DC.
This is just sharing with you some of the practices, the innovative practices
that are being used by American Job Centers around the country.
So, in terms of dedicated staff,
there are centers that are actually assigning specific individuals
with expertise regarding the provision of services
and supports to people with disabilities.
This is to help individuals with disabilities navigate the--
the sometimes complex system with or different programs under which they may be eligible.
Providing support to staff when they have questions, leveraging funding,
conducting outreach to the disability community and providing training.
Next slide, please.
We identified a whole number of significant marketing and outreach practices.
But let me just share a few in the next couple of minutes.
Simple things like when you make general presentations.
Some of the American Job Centers are calling out and saying, and by the way,
we provide special services to ensure effective and meaningful opportunity for people
with disabilities, to send a message that they're welcome at the American Job Centers,
working with employers and employer groups to understand the value of flexibility
in customizing employment to recruit and hire a diverse workforce.
Offering customized training.
Next slide.
Some American Job Centers are conducting outreach by including speakers
with disabilities, sending again the message that of inclusion for people with disabilities,
holding tours in partnership with disability groups,
making sure that all off-site presentations are fully accessible for people with disabilities,
and providing notices to entities and groups.
Next slide.
The next category of practices deals with consultation with community groups.
Communication is absolutely critical, and not only a one-time communication
but developing a collaborative partner ship
which would include ongoing cross training of these groups.
And some of the topics that we identified in our survey was disclosure of disability, when should
and how should an individual disclose their disability?
What are the advantages, what are the disadvantages?
Making sure that people understood their rights
and when disclosure was appropriate, permitted, et cetera.
The work incentive provisions under SSI and SSDI, the responsibilities
for providing accommodations to people with disabilities.
And some of the resources that are available including
for example, the Job Accommodation Network.
Next slide, please.
Other American Job Centers pay particular attention to developing practices
for ensuring operational collaboration amongst the partners, to have a common intake form,
the concept of no wrong door, that a seamless system
so that an individual came in, there'd be just one intake form.
They may go to VR if they needed vocational rehab, if they needed comprehensive VR services.
But otherwise, they were welcome to receive the services and supports
by the American Job Center staff and the partner agencies.
And develop a universal release of information form was also identified and developed
by a number of American Job Centers around the country.
Next slide, please.
We also identified the importance of these formal partnership
and linkage agreements working to establishing working groups of mandated
and not mandated partners, including the WIPA benefit counselors as part of the team,
service coordination team, also very key.
Next slide please.
In terms of training of staff, there were a number of jobs--
American Job Centers that conducted crash training to promote relationships
between various job partners and community organizations providing not just one time
awareness training to staff and partners,
but doing this on an ongoing basis regarding best practices, civil rights responsibilities,
obligations, local and national resources and work incentive provisions.
Next slide please.
A number of American Job Centers around the country are participating
in ETA's Workforce3One website, the Disability and Employment Community of Practice,
where one-stops around the country are sharing with others what works and what does not work.
But particularly, the practices that have made a difference
in enhancing effective opportunities for people with disabilities.
Next slide please.
In terms of the practice of registration and orientation.
A number of one-stops are saying, you know, privacy of people with disabilities is critical.
So-- And we don't know who walks in the door who has a disability,
and so maybe we should routinely offer all new customers the option to talk in private offices,
offer all folks accommodations, so again you're not identifying necessarily people
with disabilities.
Next slide, please.
Including during orientation sessions presentation of customer's rights,
including customers with disabilities.
Listing of the auxiliary agent services,
sending a message that we actually can provide effective opportunity for folks.
Packet of information regarding disclosure rights.
Again, very important for people with disabilities to understand fully when they can
or must or should disclose their disability, very important.
Next slide, please.
A number of job centers around the country are establishing person-centered
employment planning.
Starting with a simple concept of expectation of success,
that people with disabilities can effectively be served by staff at American Job Centers.
And there's not a need as we had under JTP and the CETA program to automatically refer to VR
or other programs, people with disabilities.
To also start and focus on the strengths of people with disabilities, not their deficits.
Next slide.
To develop individual plans for employment using the important principles developed
by DEI grantees around the country for career exploration
and using the career exploration discovery process.
Helping job seekers create presentational portfolios in addition to traditional resumes.
Providing self-advocacy training for job seekers with disabilities,
not only in terms of their rights, but again, how to approach an employer,
or when to identify voluntarily, when not to.
Why it might make sense to do it.
For example, if you have an employer who's also a government contractor subject
to the new Section 503 affirmative action requirements.
Next slide, please.
We learned about folks who were using integrated resource teams,
helping folks where there were multiple service providers and resources
to help navigate the systems and to help coordinate these resources.
Particularly when you're dealing with possible funding sources from the Medicaid agencies,
from the mental health and developmental disability agencies in the state.
Next slide please.
There are a number of American Job Centers around the country
who are using individualized resource mapping to help sort through the maze of resources,
the funding and-- the blending and braiding of funding.
Next slide.
There are those folks who are also employing asset development strategies
to enhance long-term economic self-sufficiency of individuals with disability,
including financial literacy training, individual development accounts,
using Social Security work incentive provisions, particularly the past program, tax credit
and opportunities, and self-directed benefit in resource accounts.
Next slide please.
A number of American Job Centers are taking advantage of customized employment,
which is a process that has developed over the years with the leadership of ODEP and others,
which provides an avenue for the employment, for job seekers who believe
that the traditional job search methods have not addressed and met their needs.
So, developing this flexible process, individualizing the relationship
between the job seeker and the employer.
Based on individual determinations, the discovery of strengths
and interests using this process on an individual and/or group basis of this country,
again, focusing on individual strengths, priorities, interests, as well as their needs.
This customized employment often takes different forms, task reassignment,
job carving, as well as self-employment.
Next slide please.
There are a number of American Job Centers who were developing specific strategies for dealing
with youth that they serve, including exposure to school-based preparatory experiences,
career preparation, leadership, family involvement and support.
Next slide, please.
Ensuring an adequate network of providers is also deemed critical by a number
of American Job Centers around the country.
And they are integrating services and blending and braiding funds, and I'm going to ask Michael
at this point if it's possible for you to share some of the experience
by the Disability Employment Initiative grantees
where American Job Centers are actually becoming employment networks
and the very positive outcomes from that-- those initiatives.
Michael, are you able to join?
>> Yes. Thanks, Bobby.
One of the features of the Disability Employment Initiative, which is a joint project of ETA
and ODEP, is that any of the successful applicants, meaning states over four rounds now
of funding, are required to become actively involved in the Ticket to Work Program
and help their workforce investment system
at a local and/or state level become employment networks, or what are called ENs, as an acronym.
And what we are seeing from preliminary data just recently is
that there is a tremendous increase in participation of individuals with disabilities
who are Social Security beneficiaries or recipients of SSI or SSDI,
and that the result is very favorable outcomes related to employment.
So, it's in its early stages in terms of review of the data.
But it seems to be no question, there are over 100 American Job Centers
which have become employment networks and the majority of those, a very large majority
of those, became employment networks through assistance under the DEI initiative.
So again, it's another method of looking at multiple funding streams
across service delivery systems and truly finding added ways to be responsive
to the job seeker with disabilities through the Workforce Investment System and other partners.
So, I think it's again proving to be a very promising practice.
>> Thank you, Michael.
Next slide please.
A number of American Job Centers are recognizing in terms of establishment
of their data collection systems that it is absolutely critical to determine how some
of the-- they're meeting the needs of some
of the subpopulations including individuals with disabilities.
And they are developing the capacity to analyze data to see how they are doing with respect
to participation in core intensive and training services.
In other places, if you ask the question,
how many people with disabilities get training services versus core?
The answer is I don't know.
Well, other agencies are saying using the old maxim, what gets measured gets done.
And they say, "Well, we need to see how we're dealing with meeting the needs of people
with disabilities for core intensive, as well as training services.
Next slide, please.
The final topic area deals with monitoring and continuing improvement.
Some centers are recruiting a team comprised of folks with disabilities as part
of their monitoring continuous improvement teams.
Some are engaging on their own secret shopper.
Michael made mention of that as one of the projects for the LEAD Center.
But a number of centers around the country are already adopting that process
and then they're developing action-oriented plans to address the barriers
that have been identified or the needs that remain unmet.
Thanks for the opportunity to share some of these examples of innovative practices
that American Job Centers are adopting around the country.
>> Thank you, Bobby.
Again, I think this work is going to yield even more examples over time as we continue to work
with ODEP, NASWA, National Association of State Workforce Agencies, with ETA, Employment
and Training Administration, with the Civil Rights Center, and others and,
we really are mapping really unique grounds, helping document the fact
that the workforce investment system not only can be, but is in fact being--
finding ways to be responsive to the needs of job seekers with disabilities.
So, I hope with the examples we've given you today,
both with the Independent Living Center pilot project and with our policy project working
with Bobby on identifying promising practices within the workforce investment system,
you've gotten more of the depth of what the LEAD Center is working on
and will continue to work on in Year Two.
I do want to express my personal appreciation for the project director for the LEAD Center
for our first year was Karen McCulloh.
And, Karen brought to us a unique blend of both passion and commitment to these issues,
but also an enthusiasm for the opportunities presented by the LEAD Center
to really identify promising practices, build up capacity of the workforce investment system
to serve people with disabilities, and I think most importantly,
the true power of the LEAD Center was in its ability to build and create partnerships.
And Karen was an absolutely outstanding leader in building those partnerships
with so many other national organizations, both in the disability community and outside it.
So, I want to personally thank you, Karen, for what you helped us do in Year One
and appreciative that you're still working with us as director of special projects in Year Two,
but I want to turn it back to you for some further comments.
>> Hi, this is coming back to Karen.
Well, Michael, thank you for all of those wonderful compliments
and I am absolutely thrilled to still be working as on the special project, which will continue
through at least quarter one of Year Two.
And it is a great privilege for me and I'm joyful, I said this to Rebecca
when I recently talked with her, I was joyful that she's come
on as the new LEAD Center project director and I would love to have her share
with us what the plans are for Year Two so that maybe this time next year,
we could have another update on Year Two accomplishments.
So, Rebecca, can you fill us in on what's happening for Year Two?
And again, thank you very much for coming on board.
I'm looking forward to your leadership.
>> Thanks Karen and thanks for all the support you've given to me
in the few weeks that I've been here.
I'm thrilled to have joined the LEAD Center staff and to be part
of the momentum that has happened in Year One.
There's just been an enormous number of accomplishments,
you've heard just a few of them today.
We want to leave a little time for questions,
so briefly I'll give you some highlights of the plans for Year Two.
We're going to be building on what was accomplished in Year One, so the focus will be
on leveraging Year One findings to develop training and technical assistance materials
to improve capacity of workforce professionals to effectively serve job seekers
with disabilities and connecting job seekers with disabilities to American Job Centers.
So as you heard in these previous presentations, there's been a good foundation laid and we want
to build on what people have learned to figure out how to bring that to scale.
We're going to be developing tools to support job seekers, understanding and their use
of AJC services, share best practices and connecting CILs and their customers with AJCs.
And again, you've heard about the terrific foundation that's been built.
We're also going to be working with families and work institute.
They conduct national surveys, both with employers and employees.
This year, they're going to be conducting a national study of the changing workforce
and the LEAD Center is going to be playing a role in that.
So, they'll be surveying people across the country on their access to
and use of flexible work arrangements and the use of those findings
to develop new tools and training materials.
Some other things that we will be doing this year.
You heard about the projects, some of the work
in customized employment will be providing training and technical assistance
to selected AJCs in Kansas and Illinois to integrate group discovery
and customized employment and a lot of that work has been going on this year.
It will build on what they-- the tools that they've developed
and the curricula that they are developing.
They're developing facilitation manuals and doing training of trainers
to bring both customized employment and discovery to the AJCs.
You also heard about the webinar series from last year where there were nine webinars.
We again will be designing and delivering a multipart dynamic webinar series on topics
that have been identified by LEAD Center stakeholders.
We will be holding an additional annual policy roundtable in Year Two
and identify systems issues and develop policy recommendations and tools
to overall improve integrated service delivery employment and economic advancement outcomes
for adults with disabilities, which is of course the mission of the LEAD Center.
So, I'm very excited about being here.
I'm excited about what's been accomplished
and what we will be accomplishing in Year Two and going forward.
So, thank you, Karen, for all that you did in Year One
and to the rest of the LEAD Center staff.
And now, I'll turn it back to Elizabeth for questions.
>> Excellent.
Thank you, Rebecca, and thank you to all of our speakers today
for your dynamic presentations that's providing us a very thorough update of some of the efforts
of the LEAD Center's Year One project.
I'd now like to invite you to submit your questions either
into the Q&A box or into the chat box.
While you do that, I'm going to take a minuted
to tell you how you can learn more about the LEAD Center.
Please do visit us at www.leadcenter.org.
There, you can view archives of each
of the webinar miniseries that we held in the first year.
As you know, those miniseries were targeted around employment,
economic advancement and leadership or public policy.
The miniseries is available via archive.
You can also download the presentations as well as the transcript.
You can also go through the website to sign in to our LISTSERV, which will allow you
to receive updates and announcements about our Year Two training and events.
You can sign up probably different social media platforms
and you can subscribe to the LEAD Center LEAD On!
eNewsletter, as well as viewing some of the archives of that newsletter from Year One.
OK, we do have a few questions in the chat box and I encourage you to keep send those questions
in as we do have some time to provide answers.
Our first question is for Angie Seigler and for Karen McCulloh regarding the CIL pilot.
Our question is, are you planning any evaluations of how training is being put to use
in the AJCs in the future to gauge the effectiveness of those trainings?
I wonder too if you could please provide for us, Karen, as an intro to that answer,
some of the other trainings that the other CILs have been providing to AJCs
so we can have a greater picture of the training AJCs are receiving and then your plans
for any evaluations on how those trainings are being put to use by the AJCs.
>> Hi, this is Karen and I wanted to follow up.
That's a great question.
And, yes. So we have had CILs that have done trainings on the Americans
with Disabilities Act, on accessibility issues, vocational rehabilitation
on independent living services that are provided by CILs and also how to do referrals both ways,
from AJCs to CILs and from CILs over to AJCs.
And as far as the evaluation of the trainings, I was sitting here thinking about that
because we are going to do an evaluation which I've been in conversation
with some of the CILs already at the end.
Bu, let me just check in with Angie 'cause I think it's Paraquad that has done the majority
of the training, not all, but a majority of the training.
Angie, how have you followed up or have you in evaluating the effects of your training?
>> We have.
We've worked with the AJC and we send in Secret Shoppers in addition to our 10 participants
that we're working with in this project.
So, we send in Secret Shoppers each month and share the results of their,
you know, experiences at the AJC.
And we meet with several of the Paraquad staff meet with several of the managers
at the AJC monthly and we discussed issues and then we use
that to decide what we might need to train on again in the future.
And, you know, that really helps just kind of service the compass
to figure out where we need to go.
>> Thank you.
And I'm not so sure that answered the question,
but it certainly has my mind going a mile a minute because I think
that have more trainings that will occur.
The responses we've gotten from the CILs, for instance the are doing the disability awareness
and etiquette training, 'cause many of them have already done that,
have gotten extremely good responses from the AJC staff on that training and,
I think Bobby made an excellent point about this is not just a one-time opportunity to do this,
but it needs to be ongoing 'cause staff does change.
And that type of awareness and etiquette is important
on communication effectiveness with people with disabilities.
So, but that question has got me going and I think maybe we probably should talk
with the CILs about developing an instrument that would just very briefly be handed
out after a presentation is done for a training to get some of the AJC staff feedback
because I think that ongoing collaboration is a very important thing.
And also on what other kind of things do you want.
So, thanks for that question and thanks Angie.
>> Karen, we're going to stick with you and ask one more question about the CIL pilot.
>> OK.
>> The question is, is the CIL toolkit for job seekers, the awareness and etiquette guide,
the job center guide and the glossary available for download?
>> OK, terrific question.
Thank you for asking that.
Because we're looking at developing a replicable model for this, and working very closely
with NCIL, and Chris I know, Chris Button is still on with ODEP,
but I think once that we have all of the documents the way we want them,
there is anticipate-- we do anticipate that these would be available as a download
on the www.leadcenter.org website.
They are not available as yet, but we will be making those available and they will come along
with whatever models are finally developed for the replication of it,
for Centers for Independent Living across the country.
And I do want to say this because it's one of those things
where you wish you had said something and you did not do it.
And I remember I want to say this.
The unemployment of people with disabilities still have very high levels of people
who are looking for jobs and what I want to agree with, with Chris and others
as we are beginning to see some systems change and I think that's what it takes.
And this partnership that has been developed between Centers for Independent Living
who have a core service that is directed towards peer counseling can make all the difference
in the world and I'm sharing their area of expertise in working with people
with disabilities all the time with the AJCs.
And, the AJCs have services that the CILs don't.
And so, for me, this makes a perfect partnership in working with people and these two groups
in collaboration across the country.
I think it can make a huge difference if we have more
and more CILs during this kind of partnership.
So, thanks very much.
Elizabeth, do you have any other questions?
>> Thank you, Karen.
Our next question is for Michael and Bobby.
The question is, at what point, I understood the lead center intended to take a fresh look
at workforce development performance objectives.
Can you please provide an update?
>> Yes, thanks, Elizabeth.
The performance measures under the workforce investment act have been an area
that we have begun to look at.
We had commissioned some policy analysis and worked with Chris King who is a faculty member
at the University of Texas School of Government, LBJ School of Government.
And we do expect to work as well, we hope, with folks at NASWA, the National Association
of State Workforce Agency to see whether we can develop some fresh and creative recommendations
that make sure that there are no disincentives to serving individuals with multiple barriers
to employment including individuals with disabilities.
So, it is on our to-do list.
We have started some policy analysis of what some states have looked at,
but this is work that will continue in the Year Two of the LEAD Center.
>> Thanks, Michael.
Well, that concludes all of our questions.
I would like to offer if Rebecca or Michael would like to add one more comment
and then we're going to open up the lines for our partners at ODEP for a final word.
>> Thank you, Elizabeth.
Again, I think it has been a very busy and very productive first year.
We are excited about the opportunities to continue to build new knowledge
about promising practices and also to continue to improve ways people
with disabilities can be served and supported by the Workforce Investment System.
I think our partnerships will remain strong and we are particularly appreciative of the team
at ODEP that we work with and all under the leadership of Kathy Martinez
as the assistant secretary at ODEP.
I think we will have a great second year.
>> Elizabeth, this is Chris Button at ODEP and I want to really thank everyone
for their participation in the webinar today, all of the LEAD staff and partners, contractors.
And I want to thank everyone across the country who has been listening in to hear
about the exciting first year that the LEAD Center has done and hear a little bit
about what we're thinking about for Year Two.
I think that to me, Michael really captured it earlier when he said that we're really trying
to go beyond thought and abstraction to learning what can we learn,
what kind of new knowledge can we build through our special projects
and the impact then on the policy.
And actually coming up with recommendations for policy development and we're doing
that in a number of areas that started out this year, either as a special project
or as a policy analysis paper and we'll be taking it
to the next level next year, across a plethora of areas.
And it's been a wonderful year from the ODEP's perspective.
We are really excited about moving forward into the Year Two.
I want to iterate Michael's accolades and thanks to Karen McCulloh for her incredible leadership
in Year One and we're so pleased that she'll be staying on for a while
as our special projects director.
We want to welcome Rebecca.
We're really excited to bringing you on to the team and look forward to continued collaboration
with all of our various partners and with you stakeholders and interested folks
across the nation as well because you're all a part of what we're doing and trying to get
to that building of new knowledge and figuring out what's the best way to move the needle
on increasing employment and economic advancement for people with disabilities.
So thank you.
>> Thank you, Chris.
One last thank you to our incredible speakers today.
Kelly Buckland, Angie Seigler, Bobby Silverstein, Michael Morris, and Karen McCulloh
and Rebecca Salon and thank you to all of you for participating.
We value your input and if you have some thoughts
about trainings for next year, please do it.
Send me an email at ejennings@ndi-inc.org.
That concludes our webinar for today.
Thank you very much.
We look forward to seeing you on trainings in 2014.
Have a great day everyone.