“It is recommended that Minnesota consider funding several Communities of Practice (COP) demonstrations in both urban and rural areas of Minnesota (e.g., school-to-career transition services). By design, Minnesota COPs would engage interagency practices with key collaborating secondary and postsecondary schools, workforce centers, and other adult service providers leading to post-secondary education, training, and/or competitive employment outcomes.”
The Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Center (MNTAT), funded by the State of Minnesota and launched by Griffin-Hammis Associates (GHA) in 2009, are providing a new source of energy in organizing and developing these COPs (now called Community Action Teams or CATs). MNTAT introduced three CATs in the past few months and the possibility of a fourth is now in the works. The CATs are teams of change agents and community leaders representing education, workforce development, employment, county social services, mental health, disability self-advocates, adult service providers, business, and other stakeholders who are concerned with the competitive employment of Minnesotans with significant disabilities.
The CATs are serving as real time laboratories and engines of change in local communities within urban, suburban, and rural areas of Minnesota. Each CAT team is receiving focused training and technical assistance (T&TA) from MNTAT and GHA to introduce new practices in support of individuals with a wide array of disabilities. The goal is to replace old, ineffective practices with promising strategies documented to be more effective in producing competitive employment outcomes especially for job seekers considered among the most challenging-to-employ by these local communities. Each CAT has made a commitment to work as a local interagency team and support a minimum of five individuals with significant disabilities in obtaining integrated employment. As learning communities, the CATs are less concerned about the quantity of results, and rather, focused on achieving qualitative, sustainable outcomes through engagement of new service approaches.
What approaches? MNTAT and GHA are equipping the CATs with a new vision, expectations, skills and competencies, tools, and importantly, the confidence to carry out employment approaches in brand new ways. The CATs are receiving hands-on training in methods of creating strengths-based employment through the use of Discovery, a thorough, rigorous process of identifying dominant employment themes of interest and possibility to a prospective job seeker. Also, the CATs are receiving guided T&TA to carry out a wide range of employment possibilities driven by each job seeker's Discovery process. This training includes building new systems capacities for social networking, use of Social Security PASS plans and work incentives, planning for healthcare support, interests-based employment negotiations, systematic job instruction, self-employment and supported entrepreneurship, resource ownership, business within a business concepts, and the engagement of other non-comparative job development practices leading to customized employment.
Stated simply, the CATs are actively developing and negotiating integrated jobs carefully crafted to fit who people really are (their known interests and skills). The overarching goal is to change expectations of local stakeholders and build new skills and capacities so anyone who chooses to work will have opportunities to do so. In the future, job placement and employment opportunities in these communities will no longer be limited to “qualified” job seekers but also “quality” job seekers who have bona fide skills to contribute to the local workforce.
At the same time, the Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative (MEPI), a state funded project led by Minnesota APSE—The Network on Employment, is paying attention to policy issues each CAT is encountering as it rolls out these new service approaches. The fundamental goal is to examine and address all policy concerns inhibiting the workforce participation of individuals who are supported by the CATs. The body of MEPI’s findings will be consolidated and shared with state agency policymakers and local leaders to promote changes and expand the employment and workforce participation of unemployed and underemployed individuals.
By design, each CAT is supported by a lead organization or individual who is responsible for managing logistics associated with all T&TA activities and scheduling. Each CAT holds monthly team meetings including on-line interactive sessions with MNTAT and GHA consultants. The monthly meetings are organized to provide updates on participant progress, address local problem solving concerns, and identify critical T&TA needs. In addition, each CAT works with MNTAT and GHA to develop an on-site schedule so guided T&TA support is accessible to practitioners who are carrying out the employment support practices in real time. This consists of one-day of formal training and two days of field-based TA. The consultants work directly with practitioners as well as job seekers and their families and help to guide local collaborations. In addition, the T&TA is organized to support organizations and CAT members with administrative issues, funding strategies, and conducting hands-on outreach to the local business community.
The use of CATs in Minnesota is due to a growing recognition that wide scale, sustainable change really gets down to translating theory and policies to practical strategies that will result in tangible, measurable change for individuals. Also, the use of CATs enables Minnesota to address complex systems changes locally by engaging all key stakeholders who are impacted directly by the proposed changes. The CATs, therefore, offer communities new pathways to change with access to the guidance and technical support they need to implement new ideas in manageable, incremental steps.
In 1976, one of my favorite music artists, Al Stewart, recorded his classic hit song The Year of the Cat. He ends the song with these lyrics:
But the drum-beat strains of the night remain
In the rhythm of the new-born day
You know sometime you're bound to leave her
But for now you're going to stay
In the year of the cat
Well, I am an active member of the CAT serving Anoka County, Minnesota. Anoka County has the honor and distinction of being the first CAT to be organized and launched by MNTAT. Our CAT has taken on the task of addressing the employment outcome goals of individuals with a wide array of disabilities and employment barriers. I have no idea how far the Anoka County CAT will take our community in driving necessary changes and building new pathways into the workforce for all. But I do know this—there is indeed the rhythm of a new born day in Anoka County. I'm impressed with the spirit of the CAT and the energy our team is investing to re-imagine local service strategies. It's the year of the CAT and I have no interest in turning back.
For more information about Minnesota's CATs, you can visit the MNTAT website or contact MNTAT Director Bob Niemiec at bniemiec@griffinhammis.com
