tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27081983757932676012024-03-13T09:35:55.826-05:00Employment First: Full Throttle Ahead!"We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper."Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-63715412021860614472010-07-21T08:45:00.005-05:002010-07-22T18:11:35.438-05:00A Beautiful Mind: The Final Chapter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/TEb2uFk16kI/AAAAAAAAAI4/Z_StpyoZj-U/s1600/Dan1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" hw="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/TEb2uFk16kI/AAAAAAAAAI4/Z_StpyoZj-U/s200/Dan1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I was there to say good-bye to an old friend. And I had arrived a little early to express my sympathy to his former wife and a few family members and friends. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was “disability” that had brought us together by chance many years ago. He was in need of a job and a serious mental illness (SMI) had derailed his career dreams. And I worked for an organization that just happened to be in the business of supporting people in finding a good job. After 30 years now, we were just friends. And we got together for lunch every month or so to catch up on what was happening in each other’s lives. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I knew he was terminally ill. And I’d been checking in with him more frequently of late. And then late one afternoon in May, his home phone was disconnected. So I knew something wasn’t right. I received a voice mail message at my home phone the next day confirming the sad news. On May 10, 2010, <strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Dr. Daniel C. Brodhead</span></strong> had died from cancer at the age of 69 at a local hospice in the Twin Cities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Dan and I shared a number of similar interests. Most importantly, we shared a strong passion about work and its fundamental importance to illness management and recovery of individuals living with SMI. Only five short years ago, I had shared Dan’s story and life-long battle to reclaim his career dreams. I titled my blog entry “<a href="http://donlavin.blogspot.com/2005/02/beautiful-mind-revisted_01.html"><strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">A Beautiful Mind Revisited</span></strong></a>” and the piece was inspired by Ron Howard’s cinema masterpiece <em>A Beautiful Mind</em>. After seeing Howard’s movie, I was awestruck by the many life parallels of its main character, John Nash, and my good friend Dan. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 25 years ago now, Dan and I worked together on a groundbreaking program called <em><strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Mainstream</span></strong></em>. It was Dan’s vision to reconnect individuals with SMI to their career fields through the use of mentoring and customized employment practices. In the early 1980s, the use of <em>social capital</em> (i.e., recruiting and involving job mentors) and <em>customized employment</em> practices (i.e., self-employment strategies, negotiating jobs with business leaders to custom fit the interests, strengths, and skills of job seekers) was virtually unheard of. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">With Dan as its original Program Manager, Minnesota Mainstream was launched and delivered successful employment outcomes into high paying jobs in the competitive labor force for hundreds of its program associates. Dan’s “brainchild” was featured as a promising practice in the Torrey Report, a national advocacy publication reporting on successful mental health practices and strategies. Indeed, Minnesota Mainstream had exceeded our wildest imaginations, and trust on me on this one--Dan could think big!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After a couple of successful years as Minnesota Mainstream’s manager, Dan decided to leave the program to pursue his own career development. And Dan looked to the many lessons learned through his Minnesota Mainstream experience. He tapped the powers of <em>social networking</em> by contacting colleagues he had graduated with from his Doctoral Program in Physics at Yale University many years ago. And by using his newly honed skills in <em>customized and supported employment</em>, Dan negotiated a job for himself with a former colleague who was now running the Physics Department at Texas A&M University. Dan negotiated a Post-Doctoral Fellowship position and customized the duties to his talents. The position involved working on problems in theoretical physics. Dan telecommuted from his home in suburban Minneapolis by tapping the powers of modern electronics. Through the use of his computer, e-mail, phone, and fax machine, Dan executed his job duties and maintained routine communications with his colleagues working in Texas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After more than 30 years of unemployment or working sporadically in unskilled labor positions, Dan was finally doing what he loved best—working to solve classical problems in theoretical physics. He often shared his excitement with me about the sophisticated work he was doing, but frankly speaking, his mathematical formulas and physics concepts were way over my head! Dan worked in a customized job in the field of physics for seven years until his retirement. And afterwards, he continued to take on short-term projects to occupy his time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/TEb42s_pLUI/AAAAAAAAAJA/8L4DyZ1TfmE/s1600/Dan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" hw="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/TEb42s_pLUI/AAAAAAAAAJA/8L4DyZ1TfmE/s200/Dan2.jpg" width="198" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I knew how much this job appointment at the university meant to Dan. He spoke with great satisfaction about coming full circle and overcoming the debilitating effects of an illness that had shattered his independence and career aspirations for much of his life. And he understood the importance of his contributions as a role model by demonstrating to others what could be accomplished in not giving up and working smart to defeat the social stigma associated with mental illness. Dan was very proud of his work with Minnesota Mainstream and he helped to pioneer new thinking and practices about career possibilities that break the proverbial glass ceiling for job seekers with SMI. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And so here I was sitting alone in the Chapel at the funeral service celebrating Dan’s life. I was seated among a medium sized crowd, a majority of whom I did not know. A number of touching eulogies were delivered by Dan’s family and friends. They were brutally honest about his mental illness and the challenges it brought into his life. With that said, people spoke about Dan’s unique zest for life, his self-deprecating sense of humor, those terrible jokes he abused us with, his love for music, reading, and poetry, and his unbridled love and dedication to family and friends. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And everyone spoke eloquently about the importance of his career! Each eulogy touched on Dan’s advancing beyond his illness to finally do the work that he was meant to do. It was abundantly clear that work was very important to Dan and it brought meaning, respect, and accomplishment into his life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was very moving for me to hear about the impact of Dan’s career achievements through the words, minds, and hearts of others who knew him best. I have no doubts that Dan would have preferred for his career journey to take on a much earlier, vertical trajectory into the workforce. However, suffice it to say that his employment at a major university did matter a great deal to him. Dan was brilliant in so many ways and this prestigious appointment as a Post-Doctoral Fellow challenged his vast imagination and intellectual capacities. I know this career achievement in the latter years of his life was very fulfilling and helped to lighten past disappointments. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In all candor, I learned more about mental illness and employment from Dr. Dan’s life experiences than any scholarly book or research study I’d ever read. He helped me to understand the importance of employment to illness recovery in ways that no one else could articulate it. Dan made significant contributions to our understanding about the power of social capital and customizing jobs and practices to reach better outcomes. Minnesota Mainstream was demonstrating these principles in its daily practice many years before the research and journal articles documented their fundamental importance. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Dan was very gracious about allowing me to share his story so I could inspire others to follow in his footsteps. And I’ve spoken to literally thousands of consumers and professionals about his incredible career journey. In a recent presentation I was making about customized employment practices, I shared the “Final Chapter” of Dan’s life. And quite unexpectedly, I found myself getting pretty emotional about it. I talked about Dan’s key lessons learned and how they were validated posthumously by family and friends at his funeral service. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You know, I‘m often told that employment is only a “choice” people with significant disabilities can make among many options. Well, indeed it is. And Dr. Daniel Brodhead taught me that it’s the clear, obvious choice if physical, social, intellectual, economical and emotional health is important to you. </div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-34406016709559734022010-05-30T10:45:00.001-05:002010-06-18T23:54:33.154-05:00The Year of the CAT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/TAKGk6e5elI/AAAAAAAAAG8/wH1dFlilV8c/s1600/Cat..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/TAKGk6e5elI/AAAAAAAAAG8/wH1dFlilV8c/s200/Cat..jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Following the Minnesota Employment First Summit in 2007, a consensus report (known as the <strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Employment First Manifesto</span></strong>) was published and widely distributed with eight core recommendations. These eight recommendations continue to guide Minnesota in the direction of becoming an <em>Employment First</em> state with a goal to promote integrated employment at competitive wages and benefits as the preferred outcome of Minnesotans with disabilities and other barriers to employment. One of the Manifesto’s core recommendations amplifies on the importance of developing local learning communities to introduce new practices and produce sustainable outcomes through guided policy support, training, and technical assistance. The attendees of the Minnesota Employment First Summit stressed the importance of “thinking globally, but acting locally.” The Summit consensus report states the following: <br />
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<span style="color: black;">“It is recommended that Minnesota consider funding several <em>Communities of Practice</em> (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.”</span><br />
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The <a href="http://www.mntat.org/main/"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Center</span></a> (MNTAT), funded by the State of Minnesota and launched by <a href="http://www.griffinhammis.com/"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Griffin-Hammis Associates</span></a> (GHA) in 2009, are providing a new source of energy in organizing and developing these COPs (now called <strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Community Action Teams</span></strong> or <span style="color: #0b5394;"><strong>CATs</strong></span>). 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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 <strong>Discovery</strong>, 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 <em>non-comparative</em> job development practices leading to <span style="color: #0b5394;">customized employment</span>. <br />
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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. <br />
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At the same time, the <a href="http://www.mn-epi.org/main/"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative</span></a> (MEPI), a state funded project led by <a href="http://www.mnapse.org/"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota APSE—The Network on Employment</span></a>, 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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In 1976, one of my favorite music artists, <em>Al Stewart</em>, recorded his classic hit song <strong>The Year of the Cat</strong>. He ends the song with these lyrics:<br />
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<em><span style="color: black;">But the drum-beat strains of the night remain</span></em><br />
<em><span style="color: black;">In the rhythm of the new-born day<br />
You know sometime you're bound to leave her</span></em><br />
<em><span style="color: black;">But for now you're going to stay</span></em><br />
<em><span style="color: black;">In the year of the cat</span></em><br />
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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.<br />
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<span style="color: black;">For more information about Minnesota's CATs, you can visit the <strong><a href="http://www.mntat.org/main/">MNTAT website</a></strong> or contact MNTAT Director Bob Niemiec at </span><a href="mailto:bniemiec@griffinhammis.com"><strong><span style="color: black;">bniemiec@griffinhammis.com</span></strong></a><span style="color: #6aa84f;"> </span>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-81012026772066106932010-04-30T21:57:00.001-05:002010-05-06T07:35:05.753-05:00The Gateway to Customized Employment: Think Laterally!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S9zvelsgbUI/AAAAAAAAAGs/tJvSKgGuu4Y/s1600/wkt054.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S9zvelsgbUI/AAAAAAAAAGs/tJvSKgGuu4Y/s200/wkt054.jpg" tt="true" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #38761d;">“<strong>Imagination</strong> is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand. Imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”</span> <em><span style="color: #38761d;">Albert Einstein</span></em> <span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with my colleague, Bob Niemiec, Director of the <a href="http://www.mntat.org/"><em><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Center</span></em></a> (MNTAT), about a learning phenomenon each of us has observed in the teaching of <strong><span style="color: #38761d;">customized employment</span></strong> (CE) practices. I thought this topic deserved some discussion here because of its importance to the <span style="color: #38761d;"><strong>Employment First</strong></span> movement in Minnesota and the United States.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div></div><br />
First, the good news is there’s a lot of excitement about the promise of CE. And second, there is a growing public investment in workforce training to transform practices and improve integrated employment outcomes in support of people with disabilities. In increasing numbers, direct service practitioners from the fields of education, rehabilitation, employment, business, and disability are enrolling in training seminars to learn new skills so they can support more people in going to work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
The bad news is this—many adult learners are struggling to grasp the concept of CE. The core problem is not their ability to learn new ideas but rather to <em>unlearn</em> old ideas. In particular, experienced, seasoned providers of disability and employment support have strongly ingrained patterns of thinking and behavior with respect to delivery of their services. And what we are seeing consistently is this internal struggle to integrate CE principles into old paradigms of education, transition, disability, and community rehabilitation services. <br />
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People are hesitant to give up on obsolete practices despite their ineffectivess. Speaking candidly here, it’s a lot easier training new, inexperienced learners about CE because they do not view these practices through a lens of past work experiences. At a recent training event, I even joked with attendees that I was searching for powers to “permanently erase their memory banks,” so we could make room for a new way of thinking. And then a new way of working.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
One of our greatest challenges is that people want a quick fix. They are looking for the kind of clarity you will only find in a high definition television. People want a concrete model. They want a program or a recipe of ingredients that will lead simply to the development of integrated employment outcomes for all. And this is troubling to say, but many are looking for a logic model that offers no pain and fits in conveniently with their existing policies, economics, staffing roles, and program service structures. Well, you know, it just doesn’t work that way. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Here is a common misunderstanding—customized employment is <strong>not</strong> a program. It’s not a program, service, or model. Customized employment is an outcome. It’s an outcome driven by a job seeker’s interests and signature strengths, designed to meet an identified business need, and negotiated in ways to customize the ideal conditions of employment for both parties. CE offers social integration and competitive wages and benefits for job seekers who are unable to benefit from a traditional, comparative job placement approach. If you really need a recipe, this is it—we plan and secure CE one person at time. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
As I observed the struggle to grasp CE principles during a recent training event for professionals, I was reminded of a passage I once wrote in a publication back in 2000. I titled this book <em>Reach for the Stars: Achieving High Performance as a Community Rehabilitation Professional</em>, and my underlying theme was identifying the core characteristics of high performing employment consultants. I shared ten basic qualities that separate high performers from the rest of the crowd enabling them to produce consistent, high quality outcomes. And I dedicated an entire chapter to <strong>creativity</strong> and <strong>imagination</strong>, the capacity to deliver person-centered employment services and manage complex problem-solving in unique, individualized ways. There’s little question the highest performing employment consultants approach their roles with a firm grasp of creativity skills that are challenging to package into a formula and to teach. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
In my research for writing this chapter, I was introduced to the principle of <span style="color: #38761d;"><strong>lateral thinking</strong></span>, a term coined by <em>Dr. Edward de Bono</em>. In de Bono’s research on creativity, he refers to lateral thinking as <em>low probability</em> or<em> sideways</em> thinking. Lateral thinking is complete freedom of our thought processes regardless of its contradictory nature or logical acceptance. It’s stepping outside of an existing paradigm (i.e., people can’t work) and examining a problem from every possible angle (i.e., What will it take for <strong>this</strong> person to work). And it’s recognizing that setting aside the dominant factors in a problem-solving process (i.e., we don’t have transportation) is sometimes the best way to begin a search for new ideas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
In most problem-solving situations, there is a tendency to use high probability or vertical thinking. Vertical thinking is both linear and high probability because it takes into account common cause and effect laws. Vertical thinking is usually driven by a logical assessment of the “facts” as we understand them. Although vertical thinking is a sound process for many basic problem-solving activities, it’s not necessarily effective for the most challenging ones. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
According to de Bono, a lateral thinker’s goal is to search for different (creative) ways to look at and approach a particular issue under study. While vertical thinking is grounded in rules of logic and requires a definite direction to be effective, lateral thinking has no particular direction, form, or rules. In other words, lateral thinking offers complete freedom of thought without any rigidity or inhibitions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Here is sage advice about the use of lateral thinking from Dr. de Bono’s research:</div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Use lateral thinking to generate an abundance of ideas.</li>
<li>Be wary of using logical judgments in problem-solving because: a) we can only deal with the facts we’re aware of; and b) the “facts” we’re aware of may not be true or relevant. </li>
<li>Conventional thinking is to accept something as adequate or true until something else proves it to be inadequate or untrue. What if we reversed our thinking process?</li>
<li>Be wary of letting rigid paradigms block your thinking about a situation or problem area. And you should consider the usefulness of getting an outside view of a challenging problem (i.e. use of consultants).</li>
<li>Remember that trying to be right often interferes with one’s ability to see what is wrong.</li>
<li>One simple, helpful technique is to shift the focus from a part of your problem to another. By placing each element into the spotlight, you’re sometimes able to generate new ideas and associations.</li>
<li>Lateral thinking has no fixed direction so it’s important to look at your presenting problem from every possible angle including the top, bottom, and sides. </li>
<li>It’s acceptable, and sometimes helpful, to move entirely away from your problem in order to solve it. (<span style="color: #38761d;"><em>hint, hint....the workshop!</em>)</span></li>
<li>Chance is important to the generation of ideas. And chance offers something for you to look at when that something could have never otherwise been a serious consideration.</li>
<li>It’s sometimes helpful to examine associations from outside fields because a standardized idea in one field can become an original idea in another.</li>
<li>Be wary of seeking out relevant information alone in your problem-solving; it's often a hindrance because relevant information is usually borne of old ideas not new ones.</li>
<li>Brainstorming ideas with others is mutual cognitive stimulation with no inhibitions. Brainstorming activity is often helpful to generating new ideas and building on associations for possible solutions.</li>
<li>Simplicity and effectiveness are your two major aims of lateral thinking.</li>
<li>Logic should only be used to confirm your conclusions not to solve your presenting problem.</li>
<li>If you do not use lateral thinking, you will eventually be eclipsed by someone else who does. </li>
</ul><div style="text-align: justify;">If you think about it, CE is an example of lateral thinking at its very best. For many decades, people with significant disabilities were presumed unemployable in the competitive labor force. It was lateral thinking by the pioneers of supported employment and customized employment that challenged false truth claims about the employability of individuals with disabilities. Supported employment and customized employment are replacing old ways of thinking with bold new practices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Lateral thinking is fundamental to the success of employment consultants because their ultimate goal is to come up with winning ideas and strategies to resolve challenging unemployment and underemployment problems. For this reason, <em>lateral thinking</em> and <em>creative problem-solving</em> ought to be integrated as critical skills components in the job training and preparation of employment consultants and other practitioners of CE services. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Is this training really necessary? Well, here’s one thing we know for sure—vertical, linear thinking has resulted in a 21% employment participation rate for Americans with disabilities nationally. We need to transform practices and perform our job roles with higher creativity if we hope to achieve better results. And this goal will require fundamental changes in approach. Here's a thought--<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Think laterally!</span></strong> </div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-89977631344823367422010-03-06T11:30:00.000-06:002010-03-09T08:14:40.154-06:00Chasing Answers to Age Old Questions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S5KMexYfQUI/AAAAAAAAAF8/6cFSIeiui7U/s1600-h/Chasing+Answers+to+Old+Questions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S5KMexYfQUI/AAAAAAAAAF8/6cFSIeiui7U/s200/Chasing+Answers+to+Old+Questions.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I thought I would share some “sound bites” encapsulating the spirit and challenge of the <strong><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Employment First</span></strong> movement in the United States. I take no credit for originality in framing these fundamental talking points. In fact, a number of them have been presented in one form or another by various colleagues of mine either in Minnesota or around the nation who are working toward a common vision of integrated employment in the workforce as the first, preferred option of men and women with disabilities. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
I wanted to share these core principles with my readers because when examined together, they so clearly define the importance of our movement and articulate a logic model for social and economic change. Here they are:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to embracing principles of <em>universal design</em> and redirecting our energies toward integrated employment and community living—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Why do we feel a need to re-create what already exists in our community and workforce?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• And if it really doesn’t exist, and it’s still a good idea, then why don’t we create it to benefit everyone?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to <em>integrated employment</em> and <em>informed choice</em>—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Why are 80% of Americans with disabilities not participating in the workforce and “<em>choosing</em>” a lifetime of dependency, segregation, and poverty?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to <em>person-centered</em> and <em>individualized service plans</em>—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Why do educators and adult disability service providers say they engage “person-centered’ and “individualized service plans,” when they really support people with practices designed for groups or congregate service participation? (i.e., sheltered employment, work crews, work enclaves, etc.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to making sound public and organizational <em>economic investments</em> to increase and expand integrated employment outcomes—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Why do we invest the least (our money, time, and energies) in what we say we want the most? (i.e., integrated employment at competitive wages and benefits)<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to new <em>policies</em> and <em>practices</em> to improve integrated employment outcomes—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
• Why are we content to continue policies and implement practices that obtain integrated employment for only 20% of working age adults with disabilities?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to using traditional <em>rehabilitation</em> vs. <em>strengths-based, customized employment</em> practices—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Why do traditional rehabilitation practices intended to “change” people with disabilities continue to dominate current practice (i.e., use of vocational evaluation, work adjustment training, adult day habilitation, adult day treatment, sheltered employment, etc.) when “strengths-based” practices (i.e., discovery, customized employment, self-employment) are far more effective in identifying and negotiating ideal conditions of employment customized to fit each individual? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to the use of <em>traditional job development</em> practices—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Why do we exclusively use job development practices that focus on placing “job qualified" workers when such approaches obtain integrated employment for only 20% of potential job seekers with disabilities?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to <em>workforce equality</em> and <em>economic justice</em>—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Why is there a minimum wage floor that applies to all American workers except job seekers and workers with disabilities?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to <em>money</em> solving most of our problems associated with expanding integrated employment problems—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Why do we believe our existing economic business models to operate adult disability services are sustainable in their current form?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• How do we redirect existing resources and implement new economic business models to encourage, support, and sustain integrated employment services for all?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to making the <em>business case</em> for employment of Americans with disabilities—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Since customized employment is by its definition a negotiation of job tasks or duties designed to meet an identified business or economic need as well as the identified interests and strengths of an individual job seeker, then why wouldn’t employers act in their self-interest to hire individuals with disabilities who can make a measured contribution? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to narrowing the wide gap between <em>vision</em> and<em> practice</em>—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• If we can fundamentally change what it means to be “qualified” to work in the competitive labor force through the use of discovery, customized employment, and other strengths-based practices, why not encourage and extend these opportunities to all individuals including those with complex lives and significant disabilities? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">With respect to personal and professional <em>accountability</em>—</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• If you don’t like your own answers to these questions, why not seek out training or technical consultation to move in new directions?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• If you don’t like common responses to these questions, why aren’t you actively involved in the Employment First movement?</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-65302463687540872422010-02-24T21:28:00.000-06:002010-02-25T15:46:53.566-06:00The Politics of "Choice"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S4Xsr-Ta91I/AAAAAAAAAF0/8Vwt5-9Uz88/s1600-h/Picture2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S4Xsr-Ta91I/AAAAAAAAAF0/8Vwt5-9Uz88/s200/Picture2.jpg" width="159" /></a></div><div align="justify">Critics of the <em>National Employment First Movement</em> often refer to “choice” as a fundamental argument in promoting their point of view. Needless to say, a diverse range of stakeholders hold strong opinions about integrated employment as a valued, preferred outcome in support of people with disabilities. This is especially true with respect to men and women who live with complex and significant disabilities. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
So going to work is a choice?? Well I guess there are a lot of people who believe it should be if you live with a disability. If fact, individual choice is imbedded in many public policies associated with disability education and adult services. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Promoting an individual’s rights and choice about services they receive is about staking the high ground. It’s the honorable and respectful thing to do, right? Well, of course, it is. However, it’s also a clever and convenient cover for maintaining the status quo. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Let me be perfectly clear here. This is America. People should certainly have a “choice” about whether or not to work. And few people I know take issue with this point. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Despite strong values about the importance of work, leaders in the National Employment First Movement are not interested in forcing or coercing anyone to work against his or her will. Everyone needs to come to his or her own conclusions about the value of working and make a thoughtful decision fitting to personal circumstances. This is true for all working-age adults whether they live with a disability or not. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
For most Americans, however, choosing an occupation and going to work is pretty much an <span style="color: #0b5394;"><strong>expectation</strong></span>. And “not working” is rarely included in a menu of acceptable options. For most Americans coming from modest means, the real choice is not about whether to work but rather making choices about the right career. And most Americans take affirmative actions to make a living if for no other reason than to avoid a lifetime of dependency and poverty. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My wife Colleen and I raised our three daughters with high expectations about choosing a career. We encouraged each of our daughters to use their natural strengths. We supported them to discover these strengths and consider their proper impact in the workforce. And we encouraged each of them to exploit her interests and talents for economic, social, and person gain. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">No doubt, these are common expectations rooted in the American family tradition and certainly embodied as underlying values in our nation’s educational system. Well, that is, unless you are born with or acquire a disability.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Let’s examine some facts. The federal Department of Labor indicates only 22% of Americans with disabilities were participating in the workforce in January, 2010. By way of contrast, 70% of all Americans were participating in the labor force despite the worst economic recession in more than 60 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Educators and disability service professionals often make claims about delivering “person-centered” and “individualized services.” In fact, development of individualized education programs (IEP) is the law for a majority of students supported by special education in our local high schools. Yet eight out of ten Americans are <em>not</em> participating in the workforce due to the presence of a disability. Well sorry, but I’m not buying this argument that 78% made an informed choice <em>not</em> to work. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be brutally honest, employability issues are complex and the deck has always been stacked against individuals with disabilities. Our communities in America were not crafted with universal design principles encouraging the participation of all. And this fact is evident in policies and practices associated with our schools, communities, and workforce. The truth is a majority of Americans with significant disabilities will spend much of their lives in a parallel universe designed primarily to support them apart from their peers who don't have disabilities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite the best of intentions, low expectations continue to prevail. And low expectations continue to drive public policies that sustain disability “silos” in support of youth and adults with disabilities. And direct participation in the workforce and earning competitive wages is considered an unobtainable goal for far too many. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">With respect to emerging practices, we are now living in an era where integrated employment in the workforce can be developed or created around the known interests, strengths, and abilities of job seekers. It’s called <strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">customized employment</span></strong>. Customized employment is changing what it means to be “qualified” to hold a job in the workforce because these positions are carefully crafted and negotiated with business leaders around what people can do. We need to fund and expand customized employment practices so everyone who wants to work has the opportunity to participate in the workforce.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
And so on to the central point of this post. I tend to hear a lot of unbalanced arguments about individual choice. And many of them are deployed in ways to exclude integrated employment as a viable option, or to push it away as a distant, unlikely goal for many people. <em>Dr. Roy Grizzard</em>, a former Assistant Secretary for the federal Department of Labor, once referred to dismissing the job potential of Americans with disabilities as <em>“the subtle bigotry of low expectations.”</em> Dr. Grizzard was spot on.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You can count me in this camp that believes people with disabilities are more alike than different from other Americans. And when given real opportunities to make informed choices, most would choose integration over segregation, competitive wages over sub-minimum wages, and contributing their talents in the workforce over prolonged dependency in disability service programs. With the right levels of education, encouragement, opportunity, and support, I believe most people would choose integrated employment as their first option. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, when I hear shallow arguments in defense of traditional (re)habilitation programs and an individual’s right to choose them, I am reminded of the wisdom shared by author <em>Steven Covey</em>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">“While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.”</span></strong></div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-79046955185304066922010-02-20T10:01:00.000-06:002010-02-24T21:30:39.718-06:00Minnesota's First Annual Disability and Employment Conference<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S4ABhiM917I/AAAAAAAAAFs/6tp9-dJa_G4/s1600-h/Presentation1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S4ABhiM917I/AAAAAAAAAFs/6tp9-dJa_G4/s200/Presentation1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div align="justify">The <span style="color: #0b5394;">First Annual Minnesota Disability and Employment Conference</span> was held on December 1-2, 2009. Sponsored by <em>Pathways to Employment</em>, Minnesota’s Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG), and presented by the <em>Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative</em> (MEPI) and <em>Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Center</em> (MNTAT), the conference was attended by more than 300 participants representing varied constituencies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The <span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Disability and Employment Conference</span> used a unique format with topical presentations on foundations in customized employment practices. Topical presentations by leading experts in the field were followed by facilitated table discussions led by trained volunteers with all conference attendees. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following the lead of Minnesota's highly successful <em>Employment First Summits</em> held in 2007 and 2008, the <span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Disability and Employment Conference</span> was another big step in the State’s goal to build capacities and increase integrated employment in support of Minnesotans with significant disabilities using strengths-based practices. The conference challenged all 300 attendees to work together to <strong>double the employment participation rate</strong> of Minnesotans with disabilities by the year 2015 through the development of new policies and and expansion of more effective practices. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A copy of the conference proceedings can be downloaded at the link below. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><strong><a href="http://www.mn-epi.org/docs/Final2009ConferenceProceedings.pdf"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota First Annual Disability and Employment Conference Proceedings</span></a></strong></div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-76677551260371327042010-01-25T08:08:00.000-06:002010-01-27T08:15:06.863-06:00Employment First: Full Throttle Ahead!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S12i_OZBC0I/AAAAAAAAAFc/0Q7A9dM5zp4/s1600-h/empfirst%5B4%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; height: 185px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; width: 147px;"><img border="0" height="200" mt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S12i_OZBC0I/AAAAAAAAAFc/0Q7A9dM5zp4/s200/empfirst%5B4%5D.jpg" width="185" /></a><br />
</div>To my readers, <br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">I work for an organization that specializes in customizing job placement, training, housing, and employment in support of people with significant disabilities and other life challenges. Also, I am actively involved in promoting organizational systems changes to improve policies and practices that will lead to integrated employment, education, and community living opportunities for all.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2005, I created a blog called <span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="http://donlavin.blogspot.com/"><strong>A New Vision</strong></a></span> with a goal to promote awareness, public education, and discussion about the importance of productive employment and community integration in the lives of people with disabilities. After a five year run and 125 posts later, I decided to develop this blog to refresh the focus from one of vision to the importance of coordinated goals and action.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Most Americans don’t realize that people with disabilities are the single largest minority population in the United States. The United States Bureau of Census and Statistics reports that 54 million people are living with some level of disability in our country. Even more amazing, the United Nations estimates there is are a half-billion people with disabilities throughout the world!<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The personal, social, and economic impacts of living with a disability are simply staggering. Many research studies have closely examined quality of life factors for people with disabilities in comparison to their American peers. Virtually all studies validate the existence of wide gaps in almost every important quality of life measure. For example, people with significant disabilities are far more likely to be living in poverty. They are much more likely to be unemployed, underemployed, or homeless. And people with significant disabilities are more likely to have difficulties accessing a quality education, affordable housing, adequate health care, child care, recreation and leisure, and public transportation.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a general rule, disability is a key factor in poverty and dependency on others. In other parts of the world, children and adults with disabilities do not enjoy the same quality of life benefits as their peers. Here in the United States, most people with significant disabilities are financially dependent on some form of government assistance or welfare for a majority of their lives.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">To illustrate this point, the federal <em>Department of Labor</em> revealed that only 21.6% of Americans with disabilities were participating in the workforce in contrast to 70.0% of all working age Americans in December of 2009. Other studies document the connection between disability and poverty. For example, a <em>Louis Harris/National Organization on Disability Poll</em> revealed 34% of adults with disabilities live in households earning less than $15,000 as compared to 12% of people without disabilities. This wide gap in the employment participation of Americans with and without disabilities is significant and unacceptable to most fair-minded people. And what a waste of human potential!<br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">As a society of diverse people, Americans need to accelerate the idea that employment, social, and economic change is possible. The inclusion of all Americans into every aspect of community living such as education, employment, housing, leisure and recreation, and civic participation is within the reach of everyone when communities are designed with universal principles and offer the right measure of support. This, of course, includes the workforce. <br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">We can longer ignore that policies and practices of the past have been ineffective in producing opportunities and quality of life outcomes all Americans deserve. That said, the scope and dimensions of implementing universal design will demand time and colloborative action to improve public policies and embrace practices known to produce better employment and economic outcomes.<br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
Social and economic change is possible if we are willing to move ahead with bold goals and act on a shared vision. Simply said, we need to establish a culture of expectations where employment is the first choice of <span style="color: black;"><em><strong>all</strong> </em></span>adults who live with disabilities as it is for <em><strong>all </strong></em>working age adults who need a job. The time for talk and good intentions has past. As we enter a new decade, we must choose to act to make employment a reality for all.<br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Employment First—Full Throttle Ahead!</span><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Don Lavin<br />
</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-44977155518316910612010-01-24T21:10:00.000-06:002010-01-25T09:48:09.176-06:00MNTAT: Tackling Minnesota's T&TA Needs<div style="text-align: justify;"><em><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Originally posted on August 24, 2009</span></em><br />
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S10MJxzFU2I/AAAAAAAAAEU/rhP0syZp7WM/s1600-h/ghalogo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S10MJxzFU2I/AAAAAAAAAEU/rhP0syZp7WM/s320/ghalogo.gif" /></a>Back in November of 2007, the <strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Employment First Coalition</span></strong> convened the first of its annual summits with more than 120 invited stakeholders inside our state. The first summit was a new beginning and important revitalization of a lost focus among Minnesota’s employment first champions. In my view, this energy slowly evaporated after the sunset of the Minnesota Supported Employment Project (MNSEP), a five-year, state systems change grant that concluded its run in the late 1980s. Approximately 20 years later, attendees of the employment first summit vowed to recommit their time and energy to pursue the original dream—to open and widen opportunities in the workforce for anyone who would like to work including adults with significant disabilities.<br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The summit in 2007 resulted in the writing of a consensus report also known as the <a href="http://www.mnapse.org/Employment-First-Report.pdf"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Employment First Manifesto</span></a>. Our Coalition referred to this document as its Employment First "Manifesto” because the consensus report was a public declaration of our shared principles and intent to act on them. The Employment First Manifesto articulated a blueprint for the future and detailed eight specific recommendations to move Minnesota in the direction of an employment first vision.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since 2007, the Minnesota Employment First Coalition has been working actively with state and county agencies, business leaders, educators, self-advocates, employment service providers, and other community groups to pursue tangible systems changes based on these recommendations flowing from the original summit. A progress report concerning Minnesota’s employment first performance was issued following the second employment summit held in December of 2008. The second Minnesota Employment First Summit Consensus Report, also known as “The Scorecard,” measures specific progress made within our state with respect to core recommendations voiced by attendees during Summit I. <a href="http://www.mnapse.org/Employment-First-Report-Summit-2.pdf"><strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota's Scorecard</span></strong></a> can be downloaded for review at this link.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In January of this year, the State of Minnesota took an important step to correct a critical systems weakness cited by attendees at the original summit. There was a unanimous concern about Minnesota's need to develop a training and technical assistance (T&TA) entity to support the leadership, management, and direct service staff of secondary and post-secondary education programs as well as disability, business, and employment provider communities. It was strongly recommended this publically funded T&TA resource be grounded in employment first principles and promote evidence-based, researched practices that will lead to successful employment outcomes in Minnesota's workforce.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">The State of Minnesota’s <em>Medicaid Infrastructure Grant</em> (MIG) called <em>Pathways to Employment</em> (PTE) issued a request for proposals (RFP) to create such a center and support the varied T&TA needs of organizations, businesses, and practitioners in our state. Following a competitive grant review process, PTE awarded a state contract to <em>Griffin-Hammis Associates</em>, LLC, a nationally recognized consultancy firm with a strong reputation in the areas of customized employment, job creation and job site training, employer development, Social Security benefit analysis and work incentives, self-employment, management leadership, mentoring, and social entrepreneurship. Griffin-Hammis Associates had worked closely with Minnesota APSE’s leadership to craft a proposal responsive to the state’s T&TA service needs as articulated in the Employment First Manifesto. <br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S10KkP9082I/AAAAAAAAAEM/5JNYSdm8VZ4/s1600-h/Bobn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S10KkP9082I/AAAAAAAAAEM/5JNYSdm8VZ4/s200/Bobn.jpg" width="152" /></a>In April of 2009, the <strong><a href="http://www.mntat.org/"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Center</span></a></strong> (MNTAT) was officially launched and Griffin-Hammis hired my colleague <em>Bob Niemiec</em> as its Director. Bob is an excellent choice to lead MNTAT. He has more than 25 years of professional experience in the field of disability and employment and has served a senior manager, direct service professional, consultant, trainer, mentor, and adviser. Bob is a former President of National APSE as well as Minnesota APSE and a founding member of the Minnesota Employment First Coalition. In sum, Bob is an employment activist uniquely qualified to direct MNTAT and provide the kind of leadership we need to advance emerging service practices in Minnesota.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">By its design, MNTAT is a cross-disability initiative with a wide geographic reach that includes urban, suburban, and rural locations of Minnesota. The Center will use a variety of formats and media to respond to T&TA requests throughout the state. This includes the use of web-based training (webinars and webcasts); local and regional training events in collaboration with Minnesota APSE, and co-hosting an annual statewide disability employment conference with MEPI, the Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative, a newly funded project managed by Minnesota APSE. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">MNTAT will work closely and collaboratively with MEPI to insure an alignment of planned T&TA activities with policy listening sessions to be conducted with constituencies throughout Minnesota. The leadership and staff of MNTAT and MEPI are meeting regularly to share expertise, integrate project objectives, build cooperation, and foster synergy between the two newly funded projects.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition, MNTAT’s workplan will feature the development and support of five local <em>Community Action Teams</em> (CATs). The CATs will feature interagency, collaborative approaches to addressing the employment and workforce development needs of job seekers with disabilities within local or regional communities. The CATs will be supported by MNTAT with T&TA and will work to achieve measurable customized employment outcomes and systems change objectives in their respective communities. Finally, the CATS will serve as employment demonstration sites where employment first principles and customized employment practices are showcased, documented, shared, and replicated to expand opportunities throughout Minnesota.<br />
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MNTAT recently created a new website that will serve as its public portal to T&TA information, a calendar of scheduled events and activities, employment success stories, and a virtual library of resources accessible to the Center’s varied customers. To learn more about MNTAT and its project objectives, you can visit the Center's website here...<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="http://www.mntat.org/">MNTAT</a></span></strong><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This past year, an Employment Leadership Innovations Institute comprised of state and community leaders crafted a value proposition for Minnesota. The value proposition says this—‘<em>We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper.”</em> The creation of MNTAT is another critical step in transforming Minnesota’s workforce development system so all of its citizens will have opportunities to contribute their talents and skills. The launch of MNTAT will reinforce the idea that all Minnesotans can be economic assets when they play to their strengths. To this end, MNTAT will support educators, business leaders, self-advocates, family members, employment providers, county case managers, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and others with the critical T&TA they need to encourage and produce high quality employment outcomes in the workforce…<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">one person at a time</span></strong>. <br />
</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-56728951891399247062010-01-24T20:45:00.000-06:002010-01-24T23:07:03.516-06:00The Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S10EDc9WSGI/AAAAAAAAAD8/J2Dnk0i6Sr0/s1600-h/APSE_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="68" mt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S10EDc9WSGI/AAAAAAAAAD8/J2Dnk0i6Sr0/s320/APSE_.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
</div><em><span style="color: #38761d;">Originally posted on July 18, 2009</span></em><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><strong>What is your next bold move?</strong></span><br />
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This was one of the core questions posed to APSE members at a community organizing session held at the National APSE Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 7-2-09. The purpose of this session was to motivate APSE members into action in their communities and encourage the formation of partnerships and launch of policies, practices, and energies critical to improving integrated employment for Americans with disabilities.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am a board member of <strong>Minnesota APSE</strong> and our organization is poised to take on its next bold move. The State of Minnesota recently announced approval of a grant application from APSE to manage the <strong><a href="http://www.mn-epi.org/"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative</span></a></strong> (MEPI or referred to hereinafter as The Initiative).<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The purpose of the Initiative is to develop leadership and dialogue facilitation around disability and employment policy that will result in the increased employment of Minnesotans with disabilities in the competitive labor force and promote Minnesota’s value proposition: <em>“We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper.”</em> Employment is fundamental to adulthood, quality of life issues, and earning the means to exercise basic freedoms and choices as citizens. The Initiative will implement an ambitious workplan to build multiple pathways into the workforce for youth and adults with disabilities who want to work.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Initiative will work with numerous stakeholder partners to align policies, services, and practices to ensure that integrated competitive employment is widely recognized and routinely promoted as the preferred outcome of all Minnesotans with disabilities. Stakeholder partners will include business, government, education, disability advocacy organizations, employment service providers, community support agencies, self-advocates and their families. In addition, the Initiative will work in close collaboration with the recently funded <strong><a href="http://www.mntat.org/"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Center</span></a></strong> (MNTAT) to maximize the impact of employment policy and practice across Minnesota.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">APSE, in conjunction with its state chapter Minnesota APSE, provides leadership for this Initiative bringing more than 20 years of experience and knowledge in the area of employment policy through its proven record of advocacy and education on the value of integrated employment and improved employment practices. Among the activities planned by MEPI for the two year funding period are:<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Develop a joint website in conjunction with MNTAT <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Develop a policy component for an annual employment conference planned and run with MNTAT<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Write and disseminate policy briefs and issue papers based on 15 topical policy listening sessions designed to gather input and build consensus from stakeholder groups on policy changes needed to increase and improve employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities (this includes five sessions in conjunction with MNTAT Development Sites)<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Support four mini-summits hosted by business leaders to champion increased integrated employment opportunities in the workforce<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Develop and update a scorecard highlighting progress in advancing employment policies and practices in Minnesota<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Make recommendations toward the development of a uniform definition of employment and uniform data management practices across state agencies<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Collaborate with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and other state agencies to provide information on developing employment policies and practices that will lead to increased opportunities and pathways into the workforce by all Minnesotans who want to work<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Strengthen and build new alliances to enlarge the circle of employment champions<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Integrate systems change policy initiatives across federal, state and local agencies.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The following people will serve as the leadership team for MEPI:<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Carol Rydell</em> will serve as MEPI’s Project Manager. Carol has over 30 years of experience working toward inclusion for individuals with disabilities and has managed innovative projects at Kaposia for over fourteen years. She has developed a student-run business with secondary education students with disabilities, a welfare-to-work service, a customized employment service for Latinos with disabilities and has worked with local government and community organizations to maximize employment opportunities for women, minorities and people with disabilities. She also has experience as a consultant, advocate and teacher and is a trained facilitator and strategic planner.<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;">Contact information: Carol Rydell, Kaposia, Inc., 380 E. Lafayette Freeway South, St. Paul, MN 55107, 651-789-2815 651-789-2815, </span><a href="mailto:crydell@kaposia.com"><span style="color: #0b5394;">crydell@kaposia.com</span></a><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Jon Alexander<span class="skype_name_highlight" id="skype_name_injection_1_51" onmouseover="event.cancelBubble = true; event.returnValue = false;" skypename="jonalexander55432" style="background-image: url(C:/Users/D_Lavin/AppData/Local/Temp/Low/__SkypeIEToolbar_Cache/18ec7742fdda2ad4cdfd1daa2d0aad46/session/GIF/offline.gif) !important;"> <span class="skype_nh_arrow_hid" id="skype_name_arrow_1_51" skypename="jonalexander55432" style="background-image: url(C:/Users/D_Lavin/AppData/Local/Temp/Low/__SkypeIEToolbar_Cache/18ec7742fdda2ad4cdfd1daa2d0aad46/session/GIF/arrow.gif) !important;"> </span></span></em> will serve as Co-Director of MEPI. Jon is Chief Executive Officer of Kaposia where he has worked since 1998. He is a nationally recognized leader in the development and expansion of customized employment services. He has been on the national board of APSE since 2005 and is currently its treasurer. He is a founding member of the Minnesota Employment First Coalition.<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;">Contact information: Jon Alexander<span class="skype_name_highlight" id="skype_name_injection_1_52" onmouseover="event.cancelBubble = true; event.returnValue = false;" skypename="jonalexander55432" style="background-image: url(C:/Users/D_Lavin/AppData/Local/Temp/Low/__SkypeIEToolbar_Cache/18ec7742fdda2ad4cdfd1daa2d0aad46/session/GIF/offline.gif) !important;"> <span class="skype_nh_arrow_hid" id="skype_name_arrow_1_52" skypename="jonalexander55432" style="background-image: url(C:/Users/D_Lavin/AppData/Local/Temp/Low/__SkypeIEToolbar_Cache/18ec7742fdda2ad4cdfd1daa2d0aad46/session/GIF/arrow.gif) !important;"> </span></span> , Kaposia, Inc., 380 E. Lafayette Freeway South, St. Paul, MN 55107, 651-789-2817 651-789-2817,</span> <a href="mailto:jalexander@kaposia.com">jalexander@kaposia.com</a> .<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Don Lavin</em> will serve as Co-Director of MEPI. Don is Vice-President of Rise where he has worked since 1976. He supervises the planning, development, operations, and evaluation of supported and customized employment programs for youth and adults with a wide range of disabilities and other barriers. Lavin has a 34 year track record as a grant writer and strategist and is the author of eight books on competitive and supported employment practices. He is a national speaker, mentor, trainer and technical assistance advisor. He is also a founding member of the Minnesota Employment First Coalition.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Contact information: Don Lavin, Rise, Inc., 8406 Sunset Road Northeast, Spring Lake Park, MN 55432, 763-783-2815 763-783-2815,</span> <a href="mailto:dlavin@rise.org">dlavin@rise.org</a> <br />
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<em>Laura Owens</em> is the Executive Director of APSE, a national membership organization with a mission to lead in the advancement of equitable employment for people with disabilities. APSE provides advocacy and education on the value of integrated employment, improves practices to promote integrated employment and promotes national, local and state policy development to enhance the social and economic inclusion and empowerment of individuals with disabilities. She is also an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Director/Founder of Creative Employment Opportunities, Inc., an employment agency for individuals with disabilities.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Contact Information: Laura Owens, APSE, 451 Hungerford Drive, #700, Rockville, MD 20850, 414-581-3032 414-581-3032,</span> <a href="mailto:lowens@apse.org">lowens@apse.org</a> <br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><em>MEPI is funded with support from a Competitive Employment Systems-Medicaid Infrastructure Grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to Minnesota’s Department of Human Services (Grant #1QACMS030325). The funds for this grant were authorized through the Ticket to Work-Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (Public Law 106-170). Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 93768.</em></span><br />
</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-55381464312864644782010-01-24T20:28:00.001-06:002010-03-31T08:01:28.395-05:00Establishing a National Employment First Agenda<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S10CxxykWTI/AAAAAAAAAD0/HUgXvCI6nHw/s1600-h/New_APSE_Logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" mt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S10CxxykWTI/AAAAAAAAAD0/HUgXvCI6nHw/s200/New_APSE_Logo.png" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em><span style="color: #38761d;">Originally posted on July 26, 2009</span></em><br />
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Recently, National APSE released a white paper promoting and supporting the Employment First movement in the United States. Entitled Establishing a National Employment First Agenda, the white paper identifies key principles and issues behind launching and sustaining a successful collaborative initiative at the state or local level. I was given the opportunity to contribute to the writing of this white paper along with my colleagues, Bob Niemiec, Director of the Minnesota Employment Training & Technical Assistance Center (MNTAT) and Dr. Laura Owens, Executive Director of National APSE. The early response to the release of the paper has been excellent. If you are interested in reading or downloading it, you can obtain a copy as this link: <br />
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</div><strong><a href="http://www.apse.org/docs/Employment%20First%20Paper%20609%5B1%5D.pdf"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Establishing a National Employment First Agenda</span></a></strong></div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-3134576457328121512010-01-24T20:25:00.000-06:002010-01-24T20:26:45.884-06:00Minnesota's Employment First Scorecard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S10AGM2CHAI/AAAAAAAAADs/LVlAGXrliw4/s1600-h/Employment_First_Scorecard_1_Page_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" mt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S10AGM2CHAI/AAAAAAAAADs/LVlAGXrliw4/s400/Employment_First_Scorecard_1_Page_1.jpg" width="371" /></a><br />
</div><em><span style="color: #38761d;">Originally posted on June 27, 2009</span></em><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"> On May 18, 2009, the <strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Employment First Coalition</span></strong> released its second summit report at the Minnesota APSE State Conference. This report entitled <strong><span style="color: #38761d;"><a href="http://www.mnapse.org/Employment-First-Report-Summit-2.pdf">The Scorecard: A Progress Report Card on Employment First Performance in Minnesota</a></span></strong> is a summary of proceedings and new recommendations flowing from the 2nd Employment First Summit held in Saint Paul, Minnesota on November 14, 2008. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Scorecard details specific progress the State of Minnesota has made in advancing its agenda toward becoming an Employment First State. The report identifies unfinished business as well as a renewal of consensus recommendations with respect to promoting and expanding integrated employment outcomes in support of Minnesotans with disabilities. You can download a copy of <a href="http://www.mnapse.org/Employment-First-Report-Summit-2.pdf"><strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Scorecard</span></strong></a> right here.<br />
</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-18042484347600330212010-01-24T20:16:00.000-06:002010-01-24T20:18:27.549-06:00Minnesota's Employment First Movement in Mental Health<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1z9a3HKRgI/AAAAAAAAADk/BM3dWXr2Gzk/s1600-h/wkt035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1z9a3HKRgI/AAAAAAAAADk/BM3dWXr2Gzk/s320/wkt035.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
</div><span style="color: #38761d;"><em>Originally posted on March 27, 2009</em></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;">Editorial Note:</span> I recently wrote this newsletter article for Minnesota APSE-The Network on Employment. It will be featured soon in our State Chapter's quarterly newsletter issue. However, I thought I would share it here with my blog readers as well. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The State of Minnesota recently issued its annual report for 2008 to the State legislature concerning the employment status of Minnesotans living with serious mental illnesses (SMI). Although we have a long way to go, this status report is rich with data and supports the progress Minnesota is making in clearing pathways to the workforce for its residents with SMI.<br />
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One of the most exciting trends identified in this 2008 report is Minnesota’s gradual transformation to <strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">evidence-based practice, supported employment</span></strong> (EBP-SE) to improve the quality of employment outcomes in the State. EBPs are specific service interventions documented to support success in recovery from SMI through clinical research trials.<br />
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EBP-SE is one of six EBPs in psychiatric rehabilitation identified by Dartmouth’s Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center (PRC) and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). EBP-SE is characterized by an individualized job placement and support (IPS) strategy and focuses on bringing integrated employment in the workforce at competitive wages and benefits into the lives of working-age adults with SMI. <br />
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Also, EBP-SE requires a practical framework for imbedding supported employment services within a mental health treatment milieu due to the demonstrated benefits of integrated work in illness management recovery.<br />
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In 2006, Dartmouth’s PRC and the Johnson and Johnson Foundation (J&J), a philanthropic grants organization, awarded Minnesota a four-year, systems-change grant to transform its mental health and workforce development system to an EBP-SE model. The J&J initiative in Minnesota led to the funding of six pilot demonstration programs in local communities with a goal of adopting EBP-SE practices. These six new projects have already served 270 individuals with excellent results.<br />
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Why is EBP-SE so important to Minnesota? National research documents between 50-60% of consumers with SMI are successful in obtaining competitive employment when supported by EBP-SE programs. EBP-SE program performance is far superior to traditional employment approaches that lead to competitive employment for less than 20% of their enrollees. Also, EBP-SE research has documented superior outcome performance to other approaches regardless of geographic location, race or ethnicity, gender, age, or disability status.<br />
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My own organization, Rise, Incorporated, is one of the six providers participating in Minnesota’s EBP-SE initiative. Rise is working with Family Life Mental Health Center (FLMHC) and other collaborators in Anoka County including Minnesota Rehabilitation Services, affordable housing and supported living providers, mental health self-advocates, Anoka County Social Services, and others to better integrate EBP-SE practices within a mental health treatment and recovery team model.<br />
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What have we learned? The principles underlying EBP-SE are different from conventional supported employment services in a number of ways:<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <span style="color: #0b5394;">Zero Exclusion Policy.</span> Eligibility for EBP-SE is driven by a mental health consumer’s interest in working. There are no protocols for engaging participants in traditional “job readiness” type activities.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <span style="color: #0b5394;">Mental health treatment and supported employment services are fully integrated.</span> This is accomplished by establishing multi-disciplinary treatment teams that meet and coordinate their core mental health, housing, community support, and supported employment services regularly. An employment specialist is a critical member of the team and works full-time on the development and sustainability of high quality competitive employment.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <span style="color: #0b5394;">Competitive employment is the goal.</span> All participants supported by an EBP-SE program work in regular, individualized jobs at competitive wages and benefits in the community’s labor force. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <span style="color: #0b5394;">Rapid engagement and job search.</span> EBP-SE programs promote an assertive outreach process to engage unemployed individuals who express an interest in working. Also, it engages others who need ongoing job support to stabilize their community living and long-range goals for career advancement. In addition, there are no delays in beginning a competitive job search process for EBP-SE participants. The goal is to begin planning individualized job placement goals and contacting employers within 30 days of enrollment.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <span style="color: #0b5394;">Job placement outcomes are driven by preferences and interests of the individual.</span> The quality of job matching is fundamental to achieving personal satisfaction and long-term employment success. Therefore, EBP-SE programs focus on participants’ interests and preferences including job type, industry sector, business location, work schedule, and position duties or responsibilities.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <span style="color: #0b5394;">Job follow-along supports are continuous. Participants of an EBP-SE program have access to job support on a time-unlimited basis.</span> The EBP-SE mental health treatment team and employment specialist are in regular contact with the individual to maintain job success and assist with career progression goals. Also, the employment specialist may have direct contact with business leaders periodically if desired or requested by the employee. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <span style="color: #0b5394;">Benefits Planning.</span> The number fear about entering the competitive workforce by adults with SMI is the potential loss of disability and health care benefits. The impact of earned income through competitive employment is examined carefully and discussed with each participant before implementing a job search to allay fears and engage appropriate strategies. The mental health treatment team and employment specialist in an EBP-SE program share information about work incentives and monitor wage earnings once a participant chooses to engage in remunerative work.<br />
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<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Minnesota APSE—The Network on Employment</span></strong> and <strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Minnesota’s Employment First Coalition</span></strong> (MEFC) are excited about this emerging opportunity to transform policies and promote professional development training to expand EBP-SE services on a statewide basis. The reason for this excitement is EBP-SE is highly consistent with the articulated goals of Minnesota’s fast growing Employment First movement.<br />
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To illustrate this point, EBP-SE focuses on assertive, rapid engagement of integrated employment at competitive wages and benefits. This concept is congruent with core recommendations identified in Minnesota’s Employment First Manifesto published in 2007. Also, the proponents of EBP-SE are working to build on existing service systems strengths to promote the job preferences of Minnesotans with SMI and meet the workforce objectives of their employers.<br />
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Finally, EBP-SE promotes the engagement of community action teams (i.e., mental health treatment teams) to transform local policies, infuse researched practices, and increase the number and quality of competitive employment outcomes of mental health consumers. Indeed, a majority of EBP-SE’s core principles are complementary to the stated goals of MEFC.<br />
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Minnesota’s vision to become an Employment First State means embracing an “employment for all” philosophy so no one is left behind. And it’s abundantly clear working-age adults with SMI are one of the largest underrepresented groups in Minnesota’s workforce. For these reasons, Minnesota APSE and MEFC see great wisdom in working jointly with State agency leaders, policymakers, and local community mental health teams and providers to pursue mutually shared goals.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Together, we can do much more to increase public awareness about the employability of Minnesotans with SMI. And together, we can make sweeping changes in service policies and practices so competitive employment is routinely recognized and accepted as the first choice of Minnesotans with SMI.<br />
</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-52430093807446840272010-01-24T19:59:00.000-06:002010-01-24T20:04:21.701-06:00Minnesota's Value Proposition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1z5MWNFbhI/AAAAAAAAADc/F25aEVu2oqQ/s1600-h/Value_Proposition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" mt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1z5MWNFbhI/AAAAAAAAADc/F25aEVu2oqQ/s200/Value_Proposition.jpg" width="158" /></a><br />
</div><span style="color: #38761d;"><em>Originally posted on February 1, 2009</em></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">During this past year, I was invited to participate in a <em>State Leaders Innovation Institute</em> (SLII). The purpose of the SLII is to improve employment opportunities and outcomes of Minnesotans with disabilities. Our group is examining strategies for changing the fundamental landscape of Minnesota’s workforce development system by connecting policies to State and local economic growth and development goals. <br />
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The SLII is a project initiative of the <em>National Technical Assistance & Research (NTAR) Leadership Center</em> and <em>John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University</em> in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The project objectives for NTAR are sponsored by the Department of Labor’s Office on Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In early 2008, NTAR selected three states, including Maryland, Connecticut, and Minnesota, on a national competitive bid basis to participate in an intensive 15-month Leadership Institute. These three states were chosen "to become national leaders in pioneering new approaches and promoting the employment of adults with disabilities by enhancing partnerships with statewide workforce and economic development efforts." The NTAR Leadership Center is providing research, training, and technical assistance to support each state with its unique project objectives, initiatives, and systems change challenges.<br />
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Minnesota’s Leadership Team is working to develop new opportunities and better integrate adults with disabilities within high growth business sectors in our State’s economy. Specifically, our team is brainstorming new pathways into the workforce by building on recent efforts to increase job awareness, skills, opportunities, and outcomes of adults with disabilities within the State's manufacturing sector. Our team’s ultimate goal is to adapt and migrate these policies and practices to other high growth sectors to connect job seekers with disabilities to integrated, high-demand employment at competitive wages and benefits.<br />
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Minnesota’s team chose to breakdown its project workscope into manageable parts. For this reason, three work groups were launched with overlapping but discrete functional activities. Our first work team, the <strong>Regional Planning & Prosperity Group</strong>, is examining strategies to transform Minnesota’s Workforce Development and Human Services Systems through a new vision, better policies, improved use of funding, and promising practices that lead to increased employment in the workforce. This group’s core charge is to study and recommend policies to increase expectations, strengthen communities, forge critical public and private partnerships, leverage and integrate available funding, and promote community and business practices that increase employment and prosperity for all.<br />
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Our second work team, the <strong>Workforce & Economic Development Integration Group</strong>, is studying new ways to transform the "generic" workforce development system into a more accessible system with policies and practices that emphasize "universal design." This means a creating a workforce system that automatically includes Minnesotans with disabilities and works to link all labor resources within regional economic development and workforce sectors.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our third work team, the <strong>Value Proposition Group</strong>, is working to craft leading edge communication strategies to transform current views about the inclusion of people with disabilities in Minnesota’s economy. A "value proposition" is a business or marketing statement that summarizes the sum total of benefits a customer receives through the use of a product or service. Accordingly, our group’s charge is to build a strong business case for the inclusion of adults with disabilities as real economic assets in Minnesota's workforce.<br />
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A core value driving the workscope of all three work groups is maintaining a "demand-side perspective." That is, identifying critical State and regional economic development issues and engaging business leaders in partnerships to address current and future workforce development skills and needs. A second value is the importance of including all available workers from the supply side regardless of age, race, disability, gender, or sexual preference. Said simply, all means all.<br />
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I happen to be a member of our third work team–The Value Proposition Group. This team includes a passionate, creative group of individuals who are working together to craft an overarching vision and communication strategy for Minnesota’s workforce and economic development systems. Our charge is huge and the team has not nearly completed its work. However, we recently issued a paper articulating Minnesota’s Value Proposition for its workforce and economic development systems. Although a "work in progress," I am proud to share the team’s value proposition with my readers below. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Minnesota’s Value Proposition- </strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">"We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper."</span> </span></strong><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Summary</span><br />
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We start with an assumption: that self-interest is everyone’s primary inducement to act. This is true for individuals, institutions, organizations and businesses alike. It’s a basic economic precept, articulated best by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations: an individual pursuing his (her) own self-interest tends to also promote the good of the whole community. If the assumption is true, then the value proposition must reflect that truth. A demand-driven initiative that seeks to enhance competitive employment for people with disabilities should appeal to self-interest, not altruism. <br />
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This leads to five additional observations about an environment in which people with disabilities seek employment freely and businesses feel comfortable hiring them. We imagine an environment in which self-interested parties acting individually and together to achieve the goal of increased employment for people with disabilities. In this ideal environment the prevailing characteristics are:<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">1. Economies (or communities) in which businesses thrive and employees succeed.</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">2. Workplace flexibility (or customization) that maximizes productivity.</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">3. Work that transforms lives and economic performance.</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">4. Work experiences and evolving attitudes that change the workforce.</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">5. Hiring policies that distinguish but embrace "qualified" workers (who meet specific and rigid job requirements) and "quality" workers (who might not meet rigid qualification tests, but who demonstrate flexibility, skills, strengths, trainability and eagerness to work). </span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">These policies would bring new workers into the workplace rather than erecting barriers that keep them out. <br />
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Our final assumption is that demography – an aging workforce, soon to retire in large numbers – will persuade businesses that many of their future employees will come from previously nontraditional populations, including people with disabilities. Demand for workers from populations that are currently under-represented in the workplace will certainly increase over time, and employers will certainly come to realize that it is in their own self-interest to seek out employees from these populations. <br />
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But the workforce development system should not simply sit on the sideline and wait for this to happen eventually. <span style="color: #0b5394;">We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper.</span> <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the organizing principle of our work. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Minnesota’s Value Proposition Work Team includes:<br />
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<em>Jeff Bangsberg</em>, Member - Minnesota’s State Rehabilitation Council<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Steve Ditschler</em>, Chief Executive Officer, ProAct, Inc.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>John Fisher</em>, MN Department of Employment & Economic Development<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>MaryAlice Mowry</em>, MN Department of Human Services, Director, Pathways to Employment<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Don Lavin</em>, Vice President, Rise, Inc. & Minnesota’s Employment First Coalition <br />
</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-76019972364352250262010-01-24T19:44:00.000-06:002010-01-24T19:46:51.653-06:00Minnesota's 2nd Annual Employment First Summit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1z2eqY3RsI/AAAAAAAAADU/X3D8AiwHuJY/s1600-h/empfirst%5B4%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; height: 175px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; width: 139px;"><img border="0" height="200" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1z2eqY3RsI/AAAAAAAAADU/X3D8AiwHuJY/s200/empfirst%5B4%5D.jpg" width="185" /></a><br />
</div><span style="color: #38761d;"><em>Originally posted on October 15, 2008 </em></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">On November 14th, 2008, Minnesota’s Employment First Coalition will host its <span style="color: #0b5394;">2nd Annual Employment First Summit</span> in St. Paul, Minnesota. This event is by invitation only and will be a gathering of almost two hundred people throughout the State of Minnesota. Summit 2’s invited attendees will share one common focus– how to make employment the first and preferred choice of youth and adults with significant disabilities in Minnesota.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The outstanding success of <em>Minnesota’s Employment First Summit</em> held in Chaska, Minnesota on June 12, 2007 resulted in the development and distribution of a consensus report and manifesto for change. Minnesota’s Employment First Manifesto, as the report is called, identifies eight core recommendations to substantially increase integrated employment and competitive wages and benefits for Minnesotans with disabilities. In addition, the Manifesto takes a direct aim at defining what employment first means as well as crafting an operational definition of employment to be used as a Statewide standard in measuring the competitive employment rate of Minnesotans with disabilities.<br />
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<strong>Minnesota’s Manifesto</strong> has been a driving stimulus for collaboration and sustaining momentum among the champions of an employment first vision in our State. Indeed, one recommendation unanimously expressed by attendees of the first Summit was the importance of keeping the dialogue going and working together toward a common purpose. For this reason, Summit 2 has been structured to continue this process of building coalitions of the willing from varied stakeholder groups and tackling well-documented barriers to employment access and success.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Summit 2 has been organized with two principle objectives in mind. In the morning session, a business summit is scheduled to engage the participation of Minnesota’s business leaders in our employment first agenda. Business owners and senior managers from large, medium, and small companies throughout Minnesota will be invited to bring a demand-side perspective to our mutual goals. Our Coalition has invited business leaders with a successful track record in the direct hiring and support of employees with disabilities. Also, we are inviting business representatives who do not share this same level of experience.<br />
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The morning session of Summit 2 will feature a business-to-business peer model. We intend to give experienced employers an opportunity to share and discuss their success stories. This includes their initial fears and doubts about hiring someone with a disability as well as how using strengths-based employment practices can change what it means to be “qualified” in the workforce. Also, Summit 2 will educate business representatives about technical support that is available to them in finding, hiring, training, and supporting quality employees.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The overall strategy for the morning session is to challenge business leaders to serve as hosts of mini-summits with other peer businesses in geographic locations throughout Minnesota. Our Coalition intends to invite panels of experienced employers to these mini-summits to share their experiences and make the business case for hiring youth and adults with disabilities. Local mini-summits will be scheduled with goals of allaying employer fears and expanding the number and diversity of businesses willing to directly hire employees with disabilities.<br />
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We anticipate that public and private employment providers will play only minor, secondary roles as participants in these mini-summits at the local level. More appropriately, employment service providers will offer administrative support to business leaders to assist with planning and running these business mini-summits in urban, suburban, and rural areas of our State.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Summit 2's afternoon session will be dedicated to bringing back attendees from the original Employment First Summit held in Chaska in 2007. The principle strategy for the afternoon session is facilitating a town hall type discussion and developing a consensus about Minnesota’s performance with respect to core recommendations flowing from the original Summit. Our Coalition is referring to this afternoon session as The Scorecard. We have invited federal, State, and county agency representatives to attend and lead our discussions about specific goals, policies, plans, and activities in the making. In particular, we believe it’s important to share accomplishments that are moving Minnesota into the forefront as a leader in the national employment first movement.<br />
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Finally, the afternoon session of Summit 2 will shine a spotlight on unfinished business and building a shared consensus regarding “What’s next?” For example, there is a growing interest in planning future summits or conferences with other constituent groups who are critical to moving our employment first agenda forward in Minnesota. This includes summits with family members, secondary and post-secondary educators, residential providers, and others.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota APSE– The Network on Employment</span></strong> is proud to have played a high profile role in the creation of Minnesota’s Employment First Coalition and planning these Statewide Employment First Summits and mini-summits. Our State chapter views these activities as a logical extension of its long-range strategic plan and integrating APSE’s vision and goals for progressive change with concrete action steps.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Minnesota’s Employment First Summit 2 is now on the calendar. The space has been rented, the agenda is set, the speakers are in place, and its participants have been invited. Stay tuned!<br />
</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-35100784747153897482010-01-24T19:34:00.000-06:002010-01-24T19:35:19.510-06:00Vive El Manifesto!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1zzwmPHpYI/AAAAAAAAADM/IuNwYRECaIk/s1600-h/empfirst%5B4%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1zzwmPHpYI/AAAAAAAAADM/IuNwYRECaIk/s200/empfirst%5B4%5D.jpg" width="185" /></a><br />
</div><em><span style="color: #38761d;">Originally posted January 27, 2008</span></em><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">As I have shared here in other posts, I am a member of <strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota’s Employment First Coalition</span></strong> and assisted in the planning of a statewide employment summit. The purpose of the summit was to begin planning a coordinated strategy to increase the competitive employment and economic development goals of Minnesotans with a wide array of disabilities. The <strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota Employment First Summit</span> </strong>was the result of these efforts and this event was held in Chaska, Minnesota on June 12, 2007. The Summit was attended by an invited group of more than 100 employment-first champions representing government, education, community-based service providers, business, and disability advocacy organizations. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite many breakthroughs in education methods, school transition strategies, employment practices, and emerging technologies, most Minnesotans with significant disabilities are not working in integrated jobs in the workforce at competitive wages and benefits. When customary standards for competitive employment are applied, the generally accepted estimate of unemployment for working-age youth and adults with significant disabilities is 70% or higher. This is the highest unemployment rate of all minority populations!<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The leaders attending the Minnesota Employment First Summit acknowledged this unemployment rate is unacceptable and driven by low expectations concerning the job placement potential of youth and adults with wide array of disabilities. The lack of a clearly articulated expectation and coordinated vision is quite evident in inflexible public policies, complex and cumbersome funding, inadequate professional training and expertise, a low infusion of evidence-based research, fragmented and competing service systems, and historicity in long-term disability services. Collectively, these factors are contributing to ineffective practices and disappointing job placement outcomes.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><em>"We have been discussing the need for meaningful systems changes in Minnesota for more than 20 years. When are we going to take it seriously and do what needs to be done?"</em></span> asked one Summit attendee, speaking for many in the group.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Summit’s attendees shared many excellent ideas to increase the competitive employment of Minnesotans with significant disabilities. Individually and collectively, the Summit’s attendees shared diverse views about how we can move forward in making employment the first and preferred choice of Minnesotans with disabilities no matter how significant the disability is. All recommendations from the Summit are contained in a consensus report entitled <span style="color: #0b5394;"><strong>A Manifesto on the Employment of Minnesotans in the Competitive, Integrated Workforce.</strong></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In many ways, I view the Manifesto as a seminal document in promoting a new vision for the State of Minnesota. This consensus report offers specific action steps to begin a new dialogue about changing the fundamental direction of Minnesota’s public and private systems of education, employment, and disability services. Each of the Summit's core recommendations offer promise for improving services and outcomes. However, when taken together as a group, the eight recommendations deliver a blueprint for fundamental and sweeping changes in thinking, vision, expectations, language, goals, policies, and actions.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am pleased to announce here the release of this consensus report and all recommendations flowing from Minnesota's Employment First Summit in 2007. The Manifesto is available for download and review at Minnesota APSE–The Network on Employment's website or directly at the link provided below.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.mnapse.org/Employment-First-Report.pdf">Minnesota's Employment First Summit: A Consensus Report <em></em></a></span></span></strong><br />
</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-2095183211049030972010-01-24T19:24:00.000-06:002010-01-24T19:26:12.172-06:00Reflections on Minnesota's Employment First Summit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1zxK-t8leI/AAAAAAAAADE/_x_rRYsDf38/s1600-h/empfirst%5B4%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" mt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1zxK-t8leI/AAAAAAAAADE/_x_rRYsDf38/s200/empfirst%5B4%5D.jpg" width="185" /></a><br />
</div><em><span style="color: #38761d;">Originally posted on September 9, 2007</span></em><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">On June 12, 2007, an <strong><span style="color: #134f5c;">"Employment First Summit"</span></strong> was held in the State of Minnesota at the Arboretum in Chaska, Minnesota. The goal of the Summit’s planning committee was to bring together key constituents throughout Minnesota who believe strongly in the idea that integrated employment in the workforce at competitive wages should be the expected and first choice of Minnesotans with significant disabilities. The Summit’s planners invited people with disabilities, family members, disability advocates, educators, government policymakers, business leaders, employment service providers, human services professionals, veteran representatives, and other interested citizens to participate in the event.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The purpose for the Summit was simple. A high percentage of Minnesotans with significant disabilities are not working competitively and contributing their talents to our economy. Despite national research and service demonstrations showcasing the employment capacities of people with disabilities to contribute in meaningful ways, the unemployment and underemployment rates of adults with disabilities remain unacceptably high. With an unemployment rate of 4 to 5% for the general population in the United States, most national studies document that 65-70% of adults with significant disabilities are not employed in jobs that offer integration and competitive wages and benefits.<br />
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The primary reasons for this high gap in the unemployment of adults with and without disabilities are not a mystery. Many stubborn barriers inhibiting competitive job placement such as low expectations or lack of access to public transportation are systemic and resistive to change. For this reason, the Summit’s planners chose a strategy with a focus on creative solutions instead of rehashing old discussions as to why people are not working. Three fundamental questions were posed to the Summit’s attendees:<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• How can we invest in the economic potential of Minnesotans with disabilities so competitive employment is expected, planned, and engaged for all? <br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• What ideas do you have to minimize or reduce known barriers so competitive employment is the preferred choice of Minnesotans with disabilities?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• What can you do to encourage and collaborate efforts with other key partners to make competitive employment in the workforce the first choice of youth and adults with disabilities?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Summit’s opening keynote speaker was <span style="color: #0b5394;"><em>Neil Romano</em></span>, Founder of America’s Strength Foundation. In 2003, America’s Strength Foundation conducted a national study of emerging attitudes among American citizens about disability and employment in collaboration with the Gallop Poll and University of Massachusetts’ Center for Social Development and Education. Mr. Romano shared the surprising findings emerging from this study and their implications in an American economy that will experience serious labor shortages. Romano shared his provocative views about America’s need to move the away from a system that offers "programs’ and stagnation to a business model that "invests" in individuals as economic assets.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Summit was organized in ways to gather a cross-section of information from those in attendance. To illustrate, the planners chose to organize affinity groups to gather ideas among attendees from specific constituencies (i.e., disability advocacy, business leaders, policymakers, employment providers, etc.) In addition, the planners were interested in securing actionable recommendations that might flow from mixed constituent groups among the attendees. Therefore, a morning session was dedicated to facilitating specific affinity groups and the afternoon session focused on reactions from integrated teams of attendees. All group sessions were facilitated by representatives from the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Inclusion and recorders were assigned to each group to document proceedings and responses by all attendees.<br />
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More than one hundred people attended the Summit and offered ideas, suggestions, and recommendations to end segregation and bring competitive employment within the reach of all Minnesotans who live with disabilities. The goal was to extract specific ideas or strategies to increase better performance and to resolve or minimize the known effects of existing barriers to integrated employment through effective actions. For example, this might include specific public policy reforms, better transportation access, enhanced funding, existing service redesign, new legislation, professional staff development training, more effective coordination among education and adult service providers, use of assistive technology applications, introduction of customized employment techniques, and so forth.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A summary of the findings and priorities as recommended by Summit participants is still being processed by the event’s planning group. A written <strong>"Manifesto"</strong> will be disseminated to all participants and interested parties in the near future to help guide future public policy reforms, enhance interagency cooperation, and better articulate performance expectations and directions of public and private organizations alike. Although the written report is not as yet published, the attendees shared a consensus about several actionable items including the following:<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">• Ongoing Dialogue and Connectivity Among Minnesota’s Employment-First Champions.</span> There was strong interest for an ongoing dialogue about Employment First issues. The Summit’s participants recommended that the meeting format become an annual event in Minnesota to strengthen connections among key stakeholders and build ongoing momentum around specific systems change objectives in the future.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">• Employment First Vision & Supporting Public Policy.</span> A cross-section of participants expressed concerns that current public policies are not working in obtaining competitive employment for a majority of Minnesotans with disabilities. A number of participants identified a need for significant statewide public policy reforms similar to changes made in the State of Washington. Washington State recently engaged a Working Age Adult Policy (WAAP) thereby raising expectations about competitive employment in the workforce for all. This WAAP reinforces an employment first vision by limiting public funding to competitive employment outcomes or specific pathways leading to integrated employment at competitive wages and benefits.<br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">• Building on Minnesota's Known & Emerging Strengths.</span> Participants stressed the importance of building and expanding upon known and emerging strengths in Minnesota’s public and private employment provider system. To illustrate, emerging directions toward evidence-based practices in supported employment (EBP-SE) for adults with serious mental illnesses, customized employment practices for youth with significant disabilities in transition from school-to-careers, and the use of occupational communication practices in supported employment for adults who are deaf or hard of hearing should be reinforced and expanded.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">• Focused Training & Technical Assistance Resources.</span> There was an expressed need for the creation of a training and technical assistance (T&TA) entity in Minnesota to address critical training and technical support services for the leadership, management, and direct service staff of Minnesota’s secondary education, disability, and employment provider communities. It was strongly recommended that this entity incorporate T&TA strategies that focus specifically on employment first practices. This T&TA entity is needed to eliminate fragmentation and introduce a model of organizational change and staff development practices through the use of web-based training, State and regional training workshops, peer-to-peer mentoring, employment first issue forums, dissemination of promising policies and practices in workforce development, resource identification, individual case consultations, and other helpful strategies.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">• Launching "Communities of Practice" Demonstrations.</span> Attendees stressed the importance of "thinking globally, but acting locally." It was recommended that Minnesota consider funding several Communities of Practice (COP) demonstrations in urban and rural areas of the State with goals to engage employment first practices for youth and adults with significant disabilities (i.e. school-to-career transition services). By design, Minnesota’s COPs would engage interagency practices with key collaborating secondary and post-secondary schools and adult service providers leading to post-secondary education, training, and/or competitive employment outcomes.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">• Rebranding of "Rehabilitation" in Language and Practices.</span> There was a recommendation to modernize and humanize the strategic marketing of "rehabilitation" in favor of a strengths-based employment model. The core goal is to craft new language and realign messages to encourage and expect integrated employment at competitive wages and benefits for all. This recommendation includes rebranding of fundamental messages about people with disabilities, their talents, and their employment potential in today’s economy.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">• Minnesota as a National Leader in Promoting the Employment of Adults with Disabilities.</span> Attendees recommended that a Statewide campaign be launched in Minnesota at the highest levels of government to educate employers about the untapped labor pool and opportunities in our State to increase the recruitment and employment of adults with disabilities. The ultimate goal is make Minnesota a model and leading State in the nation in the competitive employment of adults with disabilities, including individuals with multiple disabilities and significant job-related barriers.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Minnesota’s Employment First Summit was an exciting event and it energized many key constituencies around a common vision and purpose. A lot of great suggestions were communicated and supported by the attendees. And many of these ideas are being distilled into actionable priorities. These recommendations will not only be disseminated to all of the Summit’s attendees and other interested parties but a "mini-summit" will also be scheduled with State agency leaders and disability change agents to discuss the findings and determine what the next action steps should be. We are hopeful many of these recommendations will find their way into State agency workplans, employment legislative agenda, and strategic planning for various trade associations, workforce councils, disability advocacy bodies, secondary and post-secondary schools, business associations, as well as adult disability and employment service organizations. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When the federally-funded, <em>Minnesota Supported Employment Project</em> (MNSEP) ended more than 17 years ago, so did much of our State’s focus and energies in expanding these opportunities. Several people who attended the Summit lamented that it would be a shame if this event’s creative energies became history like so many past efforts to fulfill the vision of bringing competitive employment into the lives of Minnesotans with significant disabilities. A lot of synergy was created by bringing together a dynamic, diverse group of stakeholders and rallying them once again around an elusive dream. However, all of this good will and momentum will be meaningless without responsive leadership, action, and connecting the Summit’s proceedings to future goals.<br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota APSE-The Network on Employment</span></strong> was one of this event’s key organizational sponsors. Minnesota APSE’s membership met on September 7, 2007 in Duluth, Minnesota and took concrete steps by embracing many of the Summit’s core recommendations as its blueprint for the future. Minnesota APSE has launched a new and ambitious strategic plan and its membership is excited about advancing these ideas from suggestions to widespread practice. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wherever I go, people are still talking about the Summit and how this event seems to have ushered a new era in Minnesota. This time around, people seem to realize the unique timing of presenting opportunities. A majority of the Summit’s attendees recognize the critical need for integrated leadership and accept they have an important role in shaping and making things happen. Be certain about this–there will be a <em>second Minnesota Employment First Summit</em> scheduled for 2008. The dream is alive and the journey to social and economic justice continues. <br />
</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-48067947745648649042010-01-24T19:07:00.001-06:002010-08-20T07:33:29.690-05:00The Strengths Revolution: Rebranding the Future of Rehabilitation<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1zvVNG8niI/AAAAAAAAAC8/hGEWNOXmNC4/s1600-h/strengths.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" mt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1zvVNG8niI/AAAAAAAAAC8/hGEWNOXmNC4/s200/strengths.jpg" width="131" /></a><span style="color: #38761d;"><em>Originally posted on May 3, 2007</em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">"Find a small stream in which your strengths can flow and then see if you can carve it into the Mississippi."</span></div><br />
<em>Marcus Buckingham</em><br />
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About a week ago, I stole a little time away from work to visit my family in California. As I was getting dressed early one morning, I turned on the TV in my hotel room to catch the day’s news and weather. The TV was already set to a channel running The Today Show and Tiki Barber, a former professional football player turned National TV Correspondent, was doing a feature story about <span style="color: #6aa84f;">Marcus Buckingham</span>, a business management researcher, author, and consultant. I confess I had never heard of Marcus Buckingham prior to viewing the Today Show story. My gosh, where have I been?! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Within moments, I was sitting on the end of my hotel bed gripped by Buckingham’s message. He talked with Barber about a movement he is leading called The Strengths Revolution. Buckingham is a best-selling author of several books dedicated to identifying and promoting strengths-based practices in the workplace. His most recent publication is entitled <span style="color: #6aa84f;"><strong>Go Put Your Strengths to Work</strong></span> and was released on March 6, 2007 by Free Press.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a public speaker, Buckingham is in high demand and commands $60,000 a pop for his training seminars. His management consultant services include corporations that are household names such as Best Buy, Coca Cola, Disney, and Yahoo. Presently, Buckingham is on a multi-city tour promoting his new book and encouraging a strengths-based educational curricula inside America’s classrooms.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Buckingham’s management theory is indeed revolutionary. He is promoting a new vision about how we view ourselves in the workplace, classroom, and interactions with our world. According to Buckingham, all of us are born with natural talents and innate strengths. However, most of us tend to move away from what we knew instinctively about our individual strengths as children. After years of programming in the public education system, and then moving into highly structured roles inside the workforce, most of us tend to lose sight of our unique gifts and fail to maximize benefits from using these core strengths.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
The guiding principle behind <strong>The Strengths Revolution</strong> is this--people tend to be most productive, challenged, and effective when they are tapping into their signature strengths and skill sets. The fundamental question is-Are we? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Buckingham, research data supports that most people are not using their full potential. In fact, only 17% of people surveyed in a study reported using their full capacities in the workforce in 2005. In 2006, this data declined even further to 14%. In other words, less than two out of ten American workers feel they are fully using and maximizing their strengths.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Buckingham is a strong advocate of business practices that are individually-based and maximize one’s core strengths. To the contrary, most American workers are marginalized in the workplace by job descriptions that are highly structured to get things done. Oftentimes, these roles do not necessarily capitalize on their unique gifts or assets. According to this management expert, we are spending far too much time addressing shortcomings when we could be maximizing greater yield by building on our natural talents. The end result is that much of our available time and energy is misdirected and distracting us from reaching our full potential as students or workers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Buckingham’s strengths theory is counterintuitive to existing strategies in public education and corporate management. To illustrate, most of us have experienced job performance reviews where the primary focus is setting goals to improve our individual weaknesses. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with trying to improve ourselves or pleasing our employers. However, what Buckingham is saying is that most people in the workforce would be even more productive if they had ample opportunities to use and build upon their core strengths. After all, we are most comfortable and effective when we are operating in a natural comfort zone and encouraged to use our signature skill sets. It makes perfect sense. After all, these strengths are at the very core of who we truly are.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I fully understand what Buckingham is saying from my own experiences. Despite my company’s use of standardized job descriptions, we have a wide array of personalities, unique strengths, and skills sets among our various managers and staff. We use structured job descriptions with identified functions and desired qualifications as tools to help us recruit and supervise individual staff positions. However, my company doesn’t employ clones. All employees bring their own individual perspectives, experiences, and strengths to bear on the specific job roles they fill. As a senior manager, my job is to insure that these varied strengths are complementary, blended, and managed in ways that maximize performance results consistent with our defined mission.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
As I listened to Buckingham’s presentation, I could not help but see obvious parallels with <span style="color: #6aa84f;"><em>customizing employment</em></span> in support of youth and adults with significant disabilities. By its very definition, customized employment is identifying the core interests, strengths, and support needs of job seekers with significant disabilities. In addition, customizing employment involves negotiations with business leaders to hire identified strengths and real contributions that people can make in the workforce. Customized employment, therefore, is a negotiated value exchange between a job seeker and employer based on strengths-based principles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The fundamental goal of customized employment is reconceptualizing a workforce where individual strengths are identified and employed to increase opportunities for people with complex lives and employment barriers. In other words, customized employment is all about rebranding a rehabilitation system that is focused primarily on correcting or improving identified weaknesses so people with disabilities can join or rejoin the workforce. To say it simply, we need to modernize our approach. And transforming "rehabilitation" into a strengths-based employment strategy makes a lot of sense.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What is so interesting about Buckingham’s Strengths Revolution is that he is leading the way in marketing a universal design strategy compatible with trends in customizing employment. Frankly, I have no idea if Buckingham is aware of this fact. However, I have little question his leadership is increasing corporate attention to strengths-based research and practices. And this can only serve to open more doors to opportunities in the workforce for people with disabilities in America.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
After watching the Today Show feature, I became an instant fan of Marcus Buckingham. We may be traveling parallel journeys but we are headed to the same destination indeed. I am hoping to purchase his new book this week to learn more about his strategies in maximizing individual strengths. Needless to say, I’m a dedicated member of The Strengths Revolution. I just didn’t realize I was a part of a wider national movement until last week. Now how cool is that?!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">For more information about Marcus Buckingham and The Strengths Revolution, you can visit his web site at <a href="http://www.marcusbuckingham.com/">http://www.marcusbuckingham.com/</a>. </div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-30706280243912060942010-01-24T18:43:00.000-06:002010-01-24T18:57:29.977-06:00Washington State's Working Age Adult Policy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1zo9hSXh8I/AAAAAAAAACs/Yv2Fqe5Ipfw/s1600-h/286px-Map_of_USA_WA_svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><em><img border="0" height="130" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1zo9hSXh8I/AAAAAAAAACs/Yv2Fqe5Ipfw/s200/286px-Map_of_USA_WA_svg.png" width="200" /></em></span></a><span style="color: #38761d;"><em>Originally posted on April 12, 2007</em></span><br />
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I recently had the opportunity to attend a presentation by a team of professionals from the State of Washington. Our guests from Washington State were invited to take part in a video series about innovations in supporting employment for adults with significant disabilities. This video series is being sponsored by <em>Pathways to Employment</em> (PTE), the State of Minnesota’s <em>Medicaid Infrastructure Grant</em> (WIG). The panel presentation by the Washington group was fascinating and I took away two fundamental principles critically important to expanding integrated employment outcomes in the workforce in Minnesota (and presumably elsewhere).<br />
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My first observation about Washington’s presentation was the importance of bringing clarity and a strong policy foundation to an articulated vision. On July 1, 2006, Washington became the first state in the nation to develop a <strong><a href="http://www.reinventingquality.org/docs/strehlow.pdf"><span style="color: #38761d;">Working Age Adult Policy</span></a></strong> (WAAP), thereby, mandating a new direction promoting competitive employment in the workforce at living wages for its residents with developmental disabilities. With this new policy, Washington essentially discontinued its public funding of sheltered employment and other community service options in favor of job placement expectations in the workforce for all individuals. In other words, Washington introduced a new vision with clear expectations that its public resources will only fund services that lead to integrated employment at living wages. Although some exemptions are granted due to medical concerns, Washington is saying through its WAAP that real change is only possible by redirecting resources in ways that encourage and reward employment and self-sufficiency outcomes.<br />
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The panel shared Washington’s successes, experiences, and challenges in implementing this statewide WAAP. The speakers included a service provider, a supported employment training consultant, and a county administrator from King County, the Seattle metropolitan service area. <em>Jon Lund</em>, President and CEO of Tangible Systems, discussed the WAAP from a provider’s perspective including his experiences leading a conversion from a sheltered workshop model to supported employment. <em>Ray Jenkins</em>, Division Director for King County Developmental Disabilities, discussed his County’s role in implementing WAAP, redirecting funding resources, and changing public expectations about disability and employment in the workforce. And finally, <em>Cesilee Coulson</em>, Executive Director for the Washington Initiative on Supported Employment (WISE) discussed the role of her organization in delivering training and technical assistance to adult service providers to support systems changes and conversion to supported employment services and outcomes.<br />
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All three panelists offered a powerful employment-first vision as well as strong policy foundation for statewide systems change. This includes significant expansion of job placement opportunities in the workforce for adults with developmental disabilities in Washington. An interesting discussion point about this public policy change is that Washington did not direct its disability service organizations to shut down their sheltered employment or center-based services. Also, they did not delineate specific strategies or services to be delivered. They simply changed the overreaching vision and redirected organizational energies by changing expectations about outcomes.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Under WAAP, service outcomes were redirected by changing the patterns of what public funding could be used for. Today, public resources in Washington are only available to support individuals in competitive employment or those in "pathways" that lead to integrated employment at living wages. In the Seattle area, for example, this means working and earning $12.00 per hour in the workforce or participating in defined activities that will result in achieving this goal.<br />
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Hmm. Is it really fair that Washington is making employment an expectation and responsibility of all citizens? Shouldn’t adults with significant disabilities be offered a "choice" about engaging in work at competitive wages? According to Ray Jenkins, when we offer people with disability "choices" about whether or not to work, it is equal to subsidizing substandard lifestyles of ongoing segregation, dependence, and poverty with public funding. What kind of choice is that?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
A couple of days ago I attended a pre-conference meeting hosted by PTE concerning one of my favorite topics-- customized employment. This meeting was held with <em>Mike Callahan</em>, one of my colleagues and a nationally recognized expert on this subject. During the meeting, someone asked Mike a similar question about his view on "consumer choice." He answered the question this way. Mike went on to describe how his daughter had recently reached working age and it NEVER occurred to him to ask her about whether or not she "chooses" to work. Mike’s daughter, like most of us, was raised with high expectations about working and contributing to her self-support as an adult. Mike went on to say:<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">"Working ought to be a default position in life for all adults. Why shouldn’t we expect everyone to work? Why not let individuals with disabilities and complex lives "opt out" instead of making judgments about their potential or capacities to succeed in the workforce? With the emergence of customized employment practices, we are developing the tools to make employment in the workforce a real possibility for an expanding number of individuals."<br />
</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The second issue that continues to resonate with me after listening to the Washington group’s presentation is this State’s ongoing investment in training and technical assistance (T&TA) to improve job outcomes for its residents. Like Minnesota, Washington was one of our nation’s first States to participate in the early Supported Employment Systems Change Demonstration Projects funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) in the mid 1980s. These projects were intended to increase supported employment opportunities for adults with significant disabilities in the United States. With the sunset of these statewide systems change projects, however, many states lost momentum in expanding supported employment. This includes the updating of emerging and evidence-based employment practices in support of adults with the most significant disabilities. Not Washington State!<br />
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In Washington, local State and private agencies made a long-term commitment to sustaining T&TA activities and goals that were originally associated with the Supported Employment Systems Change Initiative. Through WISE, Washington presently invests 1.4 million annually to support a variety of training events, annual conferences, individual case consultations, and special projects to keep Washington’s organizational change efforts and staff development activities on the cutting edge. In Washington, access to critical T&TA activities helps to support the State’s progressive vision, organizational and systems change objectives, and ongoing skills development of professionals who manage or carry out the intent of the WAAP. It makes perfect sense!<br />
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On June 12, 2007, Minnesota will be hosting its <span style="color: #0b5394;">Employment First Summit</span> with a purpose to examine new ideas to make employment in the workforce the first choice of Minnesotans with significant disabilities. For my money, the Washington panel offered two gems that I intend to take with me to Minnesota's Summit. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">First, I believe we need a bold new policy similar to Washington’s WAAP to help guide our journey into the future. Second, we desperately need a formal T&TA body like WISE to plan, coordinate, and deliver timely training and consultation to reach our goals. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is wishful thinking to assume a progressive vision and policy foundation alone can drive our desired changes. We also need focused and adequate investment in Statewide T&TA to support organizations and professionals in improving career and workforce opportunities for unemployed and underemployed Minnesotans with disabilities. These two principles will go a long way in laying a strong foundation essential to achieving progressive and sustainable systems change.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hey Washington, way to go! And thanks! <br />
</div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708198375793267601.post-18935135735841907042010-01-24T17:39:00.000-06:002010-01-24T18:36:20.611-06:00It's Coming! Minnesota's Employment First Summit<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1zbHPGabmI/AAAAAAAAACk/ikM9sJwdxuY/s1600-h/empfirst%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430456168060972642" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ljVeU6LeOLs/S1zbHPGabmI/AAAAAAAAACk/ikM9sJwdxuY/s200/empfirst%5B4%5D.jpg" style="float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 186px;" width="186" /></a> <span style="color: #009900;"><em>Originally posted on February 21, 2007</em></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #990000;"><strong>Editorial Note</strong></span>: I am a member of Minnesota APSE-The Network on Employment and serve on this organization’s Board of Directors. In the past year, Minnesota APSE has been leading a statewide effort to promote employment as the first choice for Minnesotans with significant disabilities. We are not talking here about any type of employment, but rather individualized, integrated employment in regular jobs at competitive wages and benefits inside the Minnesota workforce. In support of this initiative, Minnesota ASPE is collaborating with other State, county, and private organizations, business leaders, disability service professionals, consumers with disabilities, family members, legislators and policymakers, and interested citizens to plan an Employment First Summit in our State. <br />
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In 2006, I had the opportunity to attend and speak at a summit with a similarly defined purpose in the State of Indiana. Indiana’s Employment First Summit was a successful venture and led to consensus about potential solutions to nagging systemic questions and barriers inhibiting the job placement of Hoosiers with significant disabilities. In Minnesota, we are hoping to achieve a similar outcome and energize interested stakeholders in making integrated employment the first choice for Minnesotans with disabilities. The concept paper below identifies the need for an Employment First Summit in Minnesota and what our collaborators and sponsors are hoping to accomplish together.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><strong>Minnesota’s Employment First Summit</strong></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Background</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
In November of 2006, the federal Department of Labor (DOL) announced the national unemployment rate in the United States had dropped to a five-year low of 4.4 %. Despite America’s flourishing economy and job growth, its largest minority population is far less likely to be employed in the workforce than its peers. This minority population includes millions of Americans who live with disabilities. Despite our best efforts at "rehabilitation," most national studies reveal the unemployment rate for people with significant disabilities to be in the range of 60-70%! This unemployment rate is a national embarrassment and unacceptable to most fair-minded Americans.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Interestingly, Minnesotans are often reported to be employed at rates higher than nationally reported averages. However, the unemployment rate for Minnesotans with disabilities tends to climb to nationally reported levels when standards for competitive employment in the workforce at regular wages and benefits are applied. In other words, a high percentage of Minnesotans with significant disabilities are unemployed and/or served in center-based programs that feature segregation, sheltered work, low wages, and non-work options.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">A Foundation for Change in Minnesota</span><br />
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National research initiatives in the area of job placement and employment have repeatedly documented the capacities of people with disabilities to secure jobs in the workforce when a willing employer is found and the individual has access to customized employment support. In truth, the real challenge for Minnesota is not “rehabilitating” people. Rather, it is our need to rehabilitate the vision and goals driving Minnesota’s educational, habilitation, and rehabilitation service systems for both youth and adults with disabilities. In other words, Minnesota needs to rebuild its infrastructure and craft an educational and adult service system that encourages, supports, and rewards paid, integrated employment in the workforce as the first option for every individual.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Why an “Employment for All” Vision Matters in Minnesota</span><br />
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There are several reasons why an employment for all philosophy makes sense for Minnesota:<br />
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1) <span style="color: #990000;">It's a human rights issue.</span> Why shouldn’t Minnesotans with significant disabilities live and enjoy their lives as their peers do? Working is fundamental to adulthood, quality of life issues, and earning the means to exercise our freedoms and choices as citizens.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
2) <span style="color: #990000;">We can’t afford to have people with disabilities not working.</span> It’s important for all Minnesotans to contribute to their self-support up to the level of their capabilities. A lifetime of financial dependency on disability benefit programs such as Social Security and Medical Assistance is a costly proposition. We need to change this pattern to one of self-support for as many people as possible.<br />
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3) <span style="color: #990000;">We need everybody contributing to our economy.</span> Virtually every national workforce study warns us about emerging labor shortages in the United States. Living with a disability doesn’t mean people don’t have abilities! Why can’t the job placement of unemployed people with disabilities be at least a partial answer to our forecasted labor shortages?<br />
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4) <span style="color: #990000;">Americans want people with disabilities contributing in the labor force.</span> In a recent national Gallop Poll sponsored by America’s Strength Foundation, 92% of the respondents reported they held a “more favorable” or “much more favorable” opinion about companies who hire people with disabilities. In addition, 87% of these respondents said they would prefer to “give their business” to companies who hire people with disabilities!<br />
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5) <span style="color: #990000;">Minnesota will lead.</span> The State of Minnesota has always been in the forefront of social change and creating better opportunities for its residents with disabilities. Our State is well-poised to move ahead with progressive changes and lead the nation in developing or creating integrated employment and higher education outcomes for its youth and adults with disabilities.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Minnesota’s Employment First Summit: A Blueprint for Change</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The core vision of the summit planning committee and sponsors is a building a Minnesota economy and workforce where youth and adults with disabilities, including individuals with significant disabilities, have real opportunities to become competitively employed, use their talents and skills, work alongside other Minnesotans in the workforce, and earn meaningful, competitive wages thereby contributing to their self-support.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Summit’s Purpose and Goals</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The summit’s leadership and planning group is not interested in conducting an event to further “study” or rehash issues driving the high unemployment of Minnesotans with disabilities. Many of the proposed reasons are well-known and documented. Instead, our defined purpose for this summit is to identify how the State of Minnesota can move forward and make historic changes leading to increased job placement and integrated employment in the workforce as the first option for all youth with disabilities. Our fundamental goal is to change conventional thinking about what is possible by sharing new ideas and strategies to narrow this unemployment gap and increase the productivity of all people with disabilities living in our communities.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Summit’s Focus: Youth & Young Adults in Transition from School to Careers</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The summit’s sponsors and collaborators recognize the best way to change the future is to begin by creating new pathways to opportunities for Minnesota’s youth. For this reason, we have chosen to focus this summit on developing integrated jobs in the workforce or enrollment in Minnesota’s higher education system as the preferred option for all youth and young adults leaving secondary education. The summit will directly address new accountability measures that must be implemented across all federal education programs and initiatives. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) is charged with responsibility for implementing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and monitoring each state’s compliance with performance indicators to insure accountability in obtaining desired outcome benchmarks.<br />
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Specifically, the summit will focus on performance indicators #13 and #14. These indicators address a coordinated transition and planning process for youth with disabilities and increasing post-school outcomes, including competitive employment, for youth one-year following graduation. Minnesota is now in the process of setting performance targets for the next six years and poised to report annual performance outcomes associated with these indicators to OSEP.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Summit’s Sponsors and Collaborators</span><br />
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Minnesota's Employment First Summit is an event co-sponsored by Minnesota APSE: The Employment Network, Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota Pathways to Employment, Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development, Minnesota Department of Human Services, and Region-Five Rehabilitation Research & Training Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition, numerous non-funding partners have agreed to participate and assist in this event.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">The Summit’s Logistics</span><br />
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Minnesota’s Employment First Summit will be held on June 12, 2006 at the Minnesota Arboretum located at 3625 Arboretum Drive, Chaska, Minnesota. On June 11, Minnesota APSE will also host its Annual Training Conference at the Arboretum. Both events will focus on making integrated employment in the workforce the first option for youth and young adults with disabilities in transition from school to careers.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">The Summit’s Core Strategies</span><br />
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Minnesota’s Employment First Summit is designed to accomplish the following–<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1) 120 leaders of change will be invited to a structured, one-day event with a goal to solicit their ideas regarding strategies for resolving or minimizing the known effects of identified barriers to employment through effective action. This may include specific policy reforms, transportation, funding, services redesign, new legislation, professional staff retraining, more effective coordination of education and adult services, assistive technology applications, use of customized employment techniques, etc...<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">2) summit participants will be champions of customized and supported employment from regions representing the State of Minnesota and nominated by the summit’s planning committee. Participants will represent specific “affinity groups” including people with disabilities, educators, employers, direct service professionals, program managers, funders, policymakers, family members, disability advocates, State and county agency directors, and interested community citizens.<br />
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3) summit activities will be professionally facilitated to secure valuable feedback, ideas, strategies, and recommendations to address specific areas of reform; all feedback will be recorded, catalogued, analyzed, and communicated in a consensus report representing the views of invited attendees;<br />
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4) nationally-known experts will share emerging and effective transition practices leading to increased job placement, self-employment, and customized employment of youth and young adults with significant disabilities leaving secondary education;<br />
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5) all proceedings will be recorded and prioritized so that helpful ideas and useful strategies are identified and organized by each affinity group as well as by integrated teams comprised of representatives from all affinity groups.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">The Summit’s Products & Outcomes</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1) A formal report will be written and shared with all stakeholders who are crucial to making the summit’s consensus recommendations viable in the State of Minnesota. This report will include specific outcomes of the summit’s proceedings, a blueprint for future actions to be taken, and specific recommendations to be shared with key stakeholder groups. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">2) The summit report will be shared with educators, agency directors, WorkForce Center managers, disability advocates, and business leaders throughout the State of Minnesota. This document will serve as a blueprint for new interagency agreements between public and private organizations, businesses, and interested citizens in local communities; these agreements will recommend measurable goals to increase higher education enrollments and enhance job placement and integrated employment outcomes in the workforce for Minnesotans with significant disabilities. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For more information about <span style="color: #38761d;">Minnesota's Employment First Summit</span>, you can contact Bob Niemiec at <a href="mailto:bniemiec@griffinhammis.com">bniemiec@griffinhammis.com</a> or me at <a href="mailto:dlavin@rise.org">dlavin@rise.org</a>.<br />
</div></div>Don Lavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083257289176321193noreply@blogger.com0