>> NANCY BROOKS-LANE: Welcome to today's webinar, Making room
for employment best practices: Lessons learned from agencies.
I am so excited to be able to share with you some of the
information that we have learned over a five-year process of
working with agencies that have actually implemented best
practices by doing.
The overview of the projects which occurred in the south and
west involved competency-based training, technical assistance,
and side-by-side mentor utilizing employment best practices.
Leadership from state organizations that had the mission and
vision to help increase the employment rate of individuals with
disabilities.
Such as IDD organizations, mental health, our
behavior health organizations, vocational rehabilitation, the
American job centers, Medicaid were a part of the collaborative
that helped formulate how we would move forward as we
implemented this project.
Additionally, many of the states used a specific 3 phase policy
analysis, which I'll share more about.
The development of a replicable cost effective model for
employment initiatives that breaks down barriers was the goal.
New sources of funding was leveraged through community
connections, grants, increased use of work incentives, and other
braided funding strategies, and we'll talk more about that later
in today's webinar.
And, in one state, we actually developed a systems change
replication manual.
To explain further the three-phase policy analysis that I
mentioned, it is simply consisted of development of a statewide
leadership collaborative of those organizations that have
increasing the employment rate for individuals with disabilities
as their mission and vision, phase I was policy analysis and
review for change to incorporate best practices.
Policy development, where the actual policies were
changed to reflect the impacted best practices, and then policy
implementation.
In many cases, it was a competitive process to be a part of the
initiative.
So, there was a memorandum of understanding.
The participants in the project had to agree to
develop person centered support teams, the work that we do,
as we'll talk later, has to be a team-based model.
They also had to commit to supporting a minimum number of job seekers
to become employed.
They had to agree to utilize employment best practices
methodology, and also they had to agree to utilize community
connections to create opportunities for job seekers to become
employed.
So, under the training and technical assistance phase that was
provided, we utilized a competency-based training model.
Knowledge transfer was the goal.
It involved pre and post- testing with a minimal score on the post-test
to achieve the accreditation, and it's important to note
by requiring competency-based trainings, the aim is to
improve not only the quality of employment services for people
with disabilities, but to additionally raise the national service
delivery standard.
Under the technical assistance piece, it's important to note
that performance improvement was the goal.
And, we utilized metrics such as tracking fidelity to the methodology
of best practices, development of collaboratives to
achieve goals.
Expanding new funding sources.
Utilizing agency and board social capital.
And, increase in time and community building, and we'll talk more about what that looked
like.
Increased use of work incentives, and that policy procedures
and HR practices had to be revised to incorporate the best
practices methodologies and expectations.
The delivery method was immersion, and by that we mean
interactive curriculums, real-life experiences and scenarios,
practicing the new skills learned, fieldwork, side by side
mentoring with a subject matter expert as the team or the
employment specialist worked with a job seeker.
And, we also used adult learning theory.
And, again, we will pick back up on what that means, as well.
We also required that outcomes be tracked, such as the number of
job seekers who became employed, the types of jobs that they
employed in, work hours, benefits, pay, and development of
natural supports.
And, providing a road map through these training and technical
assistance processes we were able to continually focus on the
process of quality improvement.
It's critical to recognize that adults learn very differently
than what we think about as children, teenagers, or a school-
based model of training.
Malcolm Knowles is the father of adult learning theory, and these are the components
of his theory that we incorporate in the way that we work with
providers and other individuals involved in the training, such
as advocates, job seekers, families, champions, anyone interested
in learning more about how we can increase the employment rate
of individuals with disabilities through effective training.
So, for adults, it's important that they understand why the
information is being taught, learning is task oriented, not
lecture, content is relevant to their life or work.
The learning process is less formal with opportunities
for active participation.
Learners are respected as equal partners in the
process of learning, and socialization has to be a part of the
process of learning.
We also know from the work that we've been doing that practice
is critical.
We often don't think about that in the work we do
with human services.
In other areas, doctors, lawyers, sports figures, hair salon, trainees, and I could
go on and on, but I think you get the point, practice before they
get in real life situations to do the work, and we don't think
about that, and it's critical that as we are teaching individuals
new skill sets, that they have the opportunity to practice.
So, we think about individuals, and this is critical, who
receive training, achieve higher quality outcomes when time
is allotted for practice, utilizing the methodology learned
under the supervision of subject matter experts.
And, we're going to talk a little bit more about that later, as well.
And, individuals who receive training without side by side
mentoring tend to interpret what they hear in the training based
on their own lived and work experience, and the cautionary tale
tied to that is that they -- there may be issues around fidelity
to the process, or truly understanding what is learned in a
classroom setting and how that looks in real life situations may
be the point at which the individual needs greater support.
Additionally, critical to learning around the notion of
practice, observation, and critique by a mentor of the learner's
performance as they utilize the methodology taught is critical.
So, they get immediate feedback.
Structured opportunities for peer practice and critique is also
critical, because the work of best practices requires a team-
based model.
And, then use of scenarios to practice with co-workers, family,
their organizations HR department, or the participant works,
friends, those safe places and safe people where you can
practice and they can critique also helps improve skills.
The model of training requires a minimum of 40 hours, and this
includes both classroom work and community-based fieldwork.
And, all of this is still under the umbrella of training.
During the classroom work, we utilize learning labs, so there is
demonstration of the methodology being taught, practice by the
participants, observation, and then debriefing or critique.
And, it's all a team-based process.
I just can't stress enough that for best practices to be effective, it
has to be under a team-based process and not an isolation.
So, we spend time training in developing successful work teams.
In a team-oriented environment, the individuals contribute to
the overall success of the organization and work with fellow
employees to produce quality outcomes.
Even though the particular employee has a specific job function
and may be long to a specific department in the organization,
there is a unity and a cohesion with other co-workers to accomplish
the overall objectives.
So, the whole goal is to work together in a
cohesive manner to improve services and supports for
individuals.
Under the next heading where I point out community fieldwork,
community-based learning and practice, this is still under the
training format of what we know creates better outcomes.
So, under the tutelage of a subject matter expert, we go now
into the community to practice what we have been learning in the
classroom setting.
And, we focus on informational interviews as
one of those methodologies that can be so powerful.
And, we can use it in one of two ways.
During the discovery process as the job seeker is identifying and emerging vocational
themes are beginning to materialize, we can use informational
interviews to meet with individuals who work in the particular
field of interest of the job seeker.
It's information seeking process where the job seeker can learn more about
what is it like to work in that particular field, or that particular
type of work.
The second way we use informational interviews is to get to know
the businesses and the business needs that may then lead to
opportunities to negotiate job opportunities to meet the
business's needs.
Additionally, under the training format, we practice how we go
through the process of assessing a business's needs.
That includes questions like, what are you most
proud of?
What is not getting done?
What is keeping you awake at night?
What product or service would you like to expand
into?
And, utilizing those questions we're able to get
to those areas that might offer opportunities to create ways to
meet the needs of a business and match well a job seeker who can
help that organization, that business become more effective
and efficient.
We also learn about business culture.
This is critical, because many times we think if we have identified
the job seekers interest preferences, accommodation needs,
ideal conditions to be successful, all those things that help
us understand who this individual is, we forget to think about sometimes
what type of culture would the person be best suited for
if someone likes to work very independently and they can do the
job task and their interest are tied to what the business needs,
but if they're not a good fit, or the fact that maybe the business
is very family oriented, then we're setting them up for failure
just as much as if we had not identified well what the tasks
are that the individual has an interest in.
The other piece during the fieldwork in a particular location in
the south, I love that the participants came back after doing
the fieldwork and identified in the particular culture of one of
the businesses that they did the informational interview with is
the example of the bulletin board.
And, I'm quoting from the participant.
There is a bull hit ton board that is updated daily and is where everyone checks first thing
when they arrive at work.
This is important as one of the cultural practices of
the business and ties to opportunities to fade supports and
build natural supports.
So, any opportunity where the individual with a disability has
become employed, that they can be in the same space with co-
workers, that creates opportunities to build those bridges to
shift from the employment specialist providing supports to those
natural support in the work setting that we all depend on.
That insight would not have occurred without the
participant actually practicing and experiencing what these methodologies
look like in the real world and being able to debrief.
So, that was a moment of learning for everybody that is so
critical.
Fieldwork also has to involve building community.
And, by building community, we look for those opportunities
to connect with others around interest.
Examples are community gardens, topical clubs, festivals, craft, arts, must
music appreciation, cars, musical concerts, activism, green spaces
and environmental causes and urban farming.
So, whatever the interest that the job seeker has, there are so many opportunities,
and I suggest using Google to look at where in the community
are people meeting who have that particular interest
and helping the job seeker being in those spaces over and over
creates the opportunity for those relationships to form.
And, if you are bonding around a similar interest, you already
are a step ahead of the process of being able to create those
connections and relationships in the community.
Also, building community has to include the work that we do.
We have to go to those civic and community opportunities
where individuals who are interested in economic
development, and increasing the employment rate in communities,
we've got to also be in those spaces around the work that we
do so that we can begin to develop those networks and those
bonds of trust and relationships.
So, it's not just building community around a
job seeker and their particular interest, and that's critical,
but also it's critical for you to be able to build those
community connections around the work that we do to increase the
employment rate of individuals with disabilities being part of
the workforce.
And, you can't talk about community building without recognizing
social capital.
And, I'm quoting from Robert Putnam's, better together.
The positive effects of social capital, people in
relationships can reach goals that would have been far beyond
the grasp of individuals in isolation.
And, social capital involves doing for others and others doing
for you.
That's how we move through life.
We are social beings and it takes us helping one another to have
a quality life, to work through those hard times, and to create
those opportunities for the kind of quality life we want.
And, after each community-based activity that we do together for
individuals to practice, as well as is opportunities for
individuals to observe the work from a subject matter expert, we
always debrief what worked, what didn't work, what are the
strengths that the individuals involved feel that they have,
what are the areas that they would like more support to shift
challenges to strengths.
And, that completes the classroom and the community-based fieldwork training.
And, culminates in the post test.
And, for those individuals who achieve the minimal score,
achieve the certificate.
So, Phase II, and this is the piece that is critical.
We begin to work side by side in this particular model
with the employment specialist, who are part of the
project, and job seekers.
And, this is the exciting fun part of the work that we
get to do.
And, it begins with a conversation with the job
seeker, the family, and their significant other, to explain how
we're going to move forward to help them become employed.
And, each one of the stages, of the work that we
do, utilizing employment best practices, is done with the
employment specialist, the team, and the job seeker.
And, that's that aspect of this particular model that I was
referencing earlier, when individuals don't, then, translate the
knowledge learned during the classroom activity in the fieldwork
in the community during that training period that results in
the post testing, there can be disconnects between how that
individual implements best practices in the community if they don't
have that mentor to lead them through that process.
So, during the home visits, we go together and the purpose of,
of course, today is not to go into great detail about how these
various methodologies are implemented, it's to get the overall
view of what the lessons learned are based on the agencies that
choose to do, to begin to implement, to begin to take action
around the work we do.
We also work together around familiar activities.
Those activities that the job seeker loves to do,
because that helps us get to know who the person is at their
best.
We work together to identify individually based community
activities.
Identified as those activities the person would
like to do, but as never done.
This helps us see not only what interest a person may have when they get to
get in the real world and talk to folks who do this work,
but also, what does it look like when the individual may not know
what to expect?
What might be some stressors?
And additional strengths regarding the person handling unfamiliar experiences, because
that can tieback into how we support the person in a job.
And, then, at that point we are beginning to synthesize and
analyze information for emerging vocational themes and we begin
to talk to those folks who do the work in those particular job
settings.
What distinguishes this model from the labor market approach,
and of course the labor marked approach is based on those
traditional ways that we have helped people become employed,
those jobs that have openings or vacancies, ads, tapping into
how organizations recruit, jobs that we hear about, and it
usually involves an application, an interview with an HR
representative, and we know that that approach, because it's a
competitive approach, leaves many individuals out who have the
greatest impact of disability and we need all individuals
working, so we think of the work under the best practices model
as an economic development model.
So, folks who can participate well in a competitive model, then the labor
market approach is a great model for many people.
The economic development model works for individuals who would not have an
opportunity to compete in those traditional approaches and
we miss out on a group of individuals, those of us who have
disabilities, those of us who have the greatest impact of disability,
and they have so much to offer.
We have so much to offer to solving the needs of businesses.
So, the economic development model creates opportunities that
did not exist, because we get into the work with small business
owners of identifying what are their needs and how can we help
solve them.
It involves community exploration to understand business owner needs, as I just reiterated.
Job negotiation is mutually beneficial to the job seeker and
the employer.
And, we utilize social capital and community connections.
Depending on the statistics, and the world of work generally,
over 60% of jobs come about because someone knew someone,
they utilized their social connections, so this is not a
foreign concept.
I just want to give a couple of examples to demonstrate how to
think about the work we do differently under this model.
During one of the informational interviews, we were
able to meet with this lovely business owner, Michelle's salon
and spa.
Michelle is her daughter, and they work together.
And, so, when we began to talk about the business and the point was
not to go in and say are you hiring, do you have openings,
that leads nowhere in the approach that we're talking about.
Our goal was not for an ask.
Our goal was to learn about the business.
And, much like discovery, we spend time in the community
connecting with businesses to get to know them just as intimately
as we get to know job seekers, because it takes knowing
the small business owner and the job seeker to be able to match
them well.
So, with Michelle when we began talking to her
about her business, she had just opened it and she was in desperate
need of a receptionist, because she was trying to do
all those tasks.
So, she's in the middle of working with a customer
and the phone is ringing, she had to answer it, because she's
trying to grow her customer base.
So, not only did she share that she would like
to hire someone who is a good match for her business as a
receptionist, but the added value was that she wanted to offer
the opportunity for the individual to learn more about the salon
and spa business so that that individual would have an
opportunity for a career path.
The other aspect that we often overlook is many businesses have
diversity goals.
They want to have employees that really represent citizens in the community and, so,
with this particular individual, he owns an insurance
company and when we talked to him about what innovation, what
improvement he wanted to make to his particular business, was he
wanted to increase the diversity of the staff.
He wanted folks who could represent well the beautiful diversity in the community.
So, many times one of the aspects of being able to meet the
needs of a business is that they have diversity goals.
And, sometimes we don't think about that.
I love Richard Branson, and he was interviewed in the Harvard
business review, and he talks about career success.
This is how he hires, and it beautifully fits with a 21st
century work evolution of doing business in a way that
is not, you know, a traditional model that maybe our parents and
grandparents followed.
He hires based on considering life experience, what we learn as
we move through life is critical, he could care less about a
person's degree.
He hires on personality.
And, there are some great interviews that you can find on YouTube.
Richard Branson has dyslexia, and he knew that he needed folks
who could help him do those aspects of his business that
weren't his strengths, which then freed him up, because he's brilliant
in terms of innovation, thinking about systems, and so
he actually establishes his business utilizing a customized
employment model, finding the good people who can do
the work with the skillsets that are their strengths, identifying
the needs he has for folks to support him in those areas that
he has a learning disability that impacts aspects of the components
of his work, and again, freeing him up for that innovative
overall systemic brilliance that he brings to his work.
So, the way that he works is just a great example of the work
that we do in employment best practices.
And, of course, many of the methodologies that we use came out of progressive
business models.
And, at this point, we have moved through job negotiation,
developed employment proposals after those initial conversations
with small business owners, talking about the needs that they
have, matching well someone who can meet those needs, and it's a
good fit for the culture.
And, our celebrating the fact that we are increasing the number of citizens with
the greatest impact of disabilities to become employed.
So, I want to now talk about having giving you that grounding in
how this model works, what are some of the practical wisdom and
guidelines that together as agencies we want to highlight?
So, one thing that became very clear as we debriefed
on projects and looked at lessons learned, what worked, what
didn't work, what stood out was that staff had become community
builders using person-centered planning to be successful.
And, this involves assisting an individual with identifying their
interest.
Helping them identify how to participate and contribute to their
community.
And, having meaningful community roles and relationships.
And, this is no different than what any of us
want.
And, I think sometimes when we keep ourselves bound by a
disability model, we lose sight of the fact that we all want the
same things for quality life, relationships, valued roles, work,
involvement in the community based on our interests when we're
not working.
Safe places to live.
So, I think it is important to recognize that we're all one.
We move through life differently, we have different challenges,
we have different barriers, but we can creatively figure out
how, with best practices, to create opportunities for individuals
with support and accommodation, as needed to, to be a part
of the workforce and have a working life.
Communities are stronger and better when everybody has a valued role, and work
is part of that.
Another practical wisdom and guideline that is important is
social involvement, social participation equals social
engagement.
To be able to be a part of the community and participate in the community and find those
opportunities around those common interests, we have to get out
of buildings, facilities, traditional disability systems
and look at the community is where the good work happens.
Where we're able to achieve those outcomes.
We have to seek out those opportunities to connect with
community and civic committees and organizations in the work we
do to build business connections.
We have to have a presence, we have to build trust, and we have to bond
with those businesses and organizations that also are
tied to increasing the employment rate of communities and being
able to help support and advocate for everyone to have
a working life.
Social capital has to be a part of it.
Investing in social relationships and the value of these relationships
to do for each other.
It's a give and take.
And, to build partnerships and capitalize on those relationships and
networks to achieve outcomes.
But, it can't be one-sided.
It can't be, we go into the business world and just ask, can you help
get this person become employed or a pity model.
You will be a better person for hiring this person.
That devalues and demeans the contributions that folks with individuals
with disabilities can make to becoming effective members of the
workforce.
Community organizations that can work together to achieve goals,
this creates the context for how we develop employment
differently.
Working collaboratively with job seekers, families, champions, change agents, advocate,
politicians, vocational rehabilitation services, the American
job centers are one stops, as we also call them, provider
school systems.
Any network that can support individual's goals
to achieve the outcomes of employment are vital to collaborate
with.
And, to look at how can we move past those traditional funding
systems to more creative ways of thinking about the community.
The power of grants, looking for opportunities.
Micro loans.
Some organizations have branched out and with flexible dollars
or donated dollars that the organization may receive to provide
short-term loans to the job seekers they're working with.
So, they have additional funding to help them
achieve their employment goal.
ITAs and IDAs, past plans.
Many times, families and individuals have contributions
that they can make either in matching funds or they may have
resources that they can pull into achieving the outcomes.
Churches, community businesses, civic and community organizations.
And, it's important to know that donated funds often
have a flexibility that some of the more traditional funds don't
have and can be richer sources of financial support and being
able to do more creative ways of helping the person to achieve
their employment goal.
We have to work in collaboration and develop strong bonds of
trust with the American job centers in the WIOA changes that
only make us stronger in terms of working together
collaboratively across systems.
Micro enterprise centers.
Chambers of commerce.
Economic development centers.
And, we have to look at how we can braid these resources
together to integrate as many opportunities to help the
person meet their employment needs, and to map how each resource
can support those larger goals.
Lessons learned.
This has been one of the most powerful aspects of some of the trends that we began to pick
up on over the five years that we began to look at this model
and collect both anecdotal and some actual data around emerging
approaches that create better outcomes.
One issue that I'm sure many of us can relate to is that
sometimes people are a part of such an initiative, but things
happen and they get called away.
So, there is an inconsistency and disconnect between the individual participating
in all aspects of systems changed, initiatives utilizing
best practices in the model that I previously went through
when we began on this webinar.
So, we know that leadership must ensure staff are
able to participate and make it a priority, protecting their
time to attend these trainings.
They also need to make sure that there is a recognize that being able
to practice what is being learned before the individual gets into
real life situations past the sustainability piece once
the classroom, the fieldwork, and then the side by side mentoring
is completed.
The practicing needs to continue, because that is how folks
learn and grow and become better.
Leadership must strategically integrate the competencies, the
methodology, the expectations of incorporating best practices
into the organization, and to the policies and practices.
It has to be part of daily expectations of staff.
And, also needs to be added to the annual reviews that organizations
complete on employees.
We also know that leadership need to be supported as they begin
to shift the best practices.
So, it's important to support organizations and leadership as they develop
the strategic plans.
We don't have to recreate the wheel.
We can provide to organizations and leadership models that can
be very, very effective that are highly documented through
a variety of sources to utilize that as part of their strategic
planning.
And, this helps leadership, then, develop the ability to lead
and support change, as well as manage change.
This is so critical, because we run across this.
If the organizational resources are not in place
to be able to dedicate staff to be a part of the systems change effort,
then the infrastructure has to be developed prior to
investing resources in training.
So, if an organization begins to just involve staff and available trainings, but they have
not done the work strategically to develop their infrastructure
so that when staff have the skill sets to begin building capacity
within the organization, and there is not a structure
where those individuals come back to new roles and responsibilities,
it's just a waste of time.
And, so, I want to stress that, because we have experienced that during the time that
this webinar is based upon.
Individuals, and I just want to stress some of these points that
we alluded to earlier, but individuals who receive best
practices training achieve higher quality outcomes when time is
allotted for practice utilizing the methodology under the
supervision of subject matter experts.
And, that's that knowledge transfer that occurs when working
in real life situations with job seekers, and it's so critical.
And, this ties to that.
Individuals who receive training without that side-by-side
mentoring tend to interpret the transfer of knowledge to
practice through their own lived and work experiences, and as a
result, the job performance typically fails to meet fidelity of
the process and results in low quality outcomes.
Building capacity is depended upon continuing to provide
best practice trainings.
We just don't do the initial training and then we're
done and things all move forward in a good way.
It has to be -- there have to be refresher courses, and then
also continual training formats where staff can tap into
these opportunities as new individuals are hired.
There needs to be a focus on social security work incentives.
We also see that there has got to be a strong focus on grounding the work of best
practices in the values, such as zero exclusion, and other
values that we work from.
Self-determination, and positive behavioral supports.
And, people need to understand the concept of inclusion.
And, sometimes folks don't see how those have to
be part of the basic foundation that we then move forward to focus
on employment best practices.
Outcome measures help us track how well we're doing as provider
organizations and create performance standards that we want to
reach.
We hear over and over across systems the desire for common
language.
One organization may use a phrase that an organization may have a similar phrase, but
they have totally different meanings.
So, we have to continue to work to identify and integrate into the various systems that
collaborate a common language.
So, when we use a particular term, it has the same
meaning for everybody.
Transformation is facilitated when best practices and
collaboration occur within and across systems.
So, we need to involve the residential component of provider
organization or organizations that provide that service so
that they're a part of the planning with organizations that may
just provide the employment piece.
Day programs.
Any employment supports in systems, the transition services through the
school systems, VR workforce organizations, and any other stakeholders.
The most successful and dynamic customized employment teams
consisted both natural and paid supports, community leaders,
community members that can assist with identifying individual
employment opportunities, social capital and growing social
capital, and all of that leads to good quality community-based
outcomes.
And, as I'm wrapping up, I want to also point out how critical
communities of practicing be for the sustainability solution to
this work, and also to continue to support one another as the
work continues in particular regions that collaborate together
across all those various systems that I mentioned earlier.
So, concluding, the webinar, what does it take?
Looking at community differently; moving toward economic
development; creating opportunities where opportunities
did not exist; spending time with local businesses and in
the community and less time in those traditional disability
systems; collaborating around the notion of person-centered approaches
that are driven by the individual's interests, preferences,
strengths of an individual, not a program.
Often, we think about in the past that we're disability programs that happen
to provide employment.
That is not going to resonate in the business world.
We have to redefine ourself as employment services.
We have to recognize that disability does not occur in a vacuum.
It is part of the local economy, it's part of the local
community.
If we live long enough, we're all going to have an
impact of disability.
Our sensory process, our mobility are going to change over time, so disability is
natural.
And, also, and I want you to hear this statement in the slide
that I'm e going to move to conclude our time together.
Recognizing that individuals with disability are the largest
minority group.
Those of us with disabilities have the purchasing power of 50 million strong.
And, I'm going to end on this.
The power of purchasing and employer engagement.
I'm going to read it.
The Nelson consumer and shopper analytics team found that 5.5%
of U.S. households have a member with intellectual disabilities,
representing 31 billion in buying power annually.
The team also found that 7.1% additional households have an immediate family
member, parent or child, with intellectual disabilities who
live outside the household.
They have a 35 billion dollar buying power, combined
this group has 66 billion dollars in collective annual buying
power, indicating that it's a robust and important group in the
U.S. consumer market.
So, imagine when you think about that across all disabilities
that 35 billion increases to even higher purchasing power.
So, I think we need to also market the fact that
individuals with disabilities need to be a part of the workforce,
and that they are a powerful customer base that businesses
need to recognize and respect and honor.
So, thank you for your time, and there will be opportunities for
questions, and this concludes the webinar, and I hope it's been
beneficial.
If you have questions or comments, please feel free
to share those so that we can have continued discussion of the
information that I presented today.
Thank you.
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