A New Vision

Employment First: Full Throttle Ahead!

2010-01-24T22:26:00.013-06:00

To my readers,

I launched this blog back in January of 2005 with a goal to contribute to a national dialogue promoting integrated employment in support of adults with disabilities. I called this blog “A New Vision” and tried to encourage people to see the employment possibilities of men and women with disabilities through a new lens. With the rapid advance of better public policies, well researched support practices, as well as my own professional experiences, I knew so much more could be done to narrow an unemployment gap that I consider to be a national disgrace.

During this time, I offered commentaries, essays, information, and importantly, real stories about people who successfully broke through the “glass ceiling” by obtaining competitive jobs customized to their individual strengths and skills. I talked frequently here about the role of public expectations and importance of work incentives to advance the employability of youth and adults with disabilities. I shared stories making the “business case” for hiring people with disabilities and how businesses who employ individuals with disabilities gain loyal and valuable employees.

I wrote about the personal stories of individuals who have shattered public myths and misconceptions about the employability of men and women with a wide array of disabilities. I tried to educate my readers about efforts being made, particularly in my own State of Minnesota, to change public expectations, promote new policies, encourage organizational change, retool our profession with new skill sets and employment approaches through training and technical assistance, and replace ineffective practices with service strategies documented to produce better employment outcome results.

After 60 consecutive months and 125 posts, I have decided that it is now time to close this blog. Why?

Well, for starters this idea that integrated employment is a “new vision” is no longer true. Proponents of supported employment, and more recently customized employment, have been promoting a new way of thinking about and delivering employment services for more than two decades. Today, we have entered a new era where it seems that everyone is talking about how to expand employment opportunities in the workforce for youth and adults with disabilities. Although the vision is no longer new, what is certainly new is a growing national interest in making something happen on a wider scale. This is welcome news!

In my 35 years of promoting supported and customized employment services, I have never witnessed such a high level of interest in advancing these options particularly in support of individuals with significant disabilities. Emerging interest in employment first and strengths-based practices is now being embraced by a cross section of stakeholders including federal, state, and local governments, secondary and post-secondary education, vocational rehabilitation, welfare and social security, consumer and disability advocacy, business, professional trade associations, and disability provider communities. And what is truly new is the high level of interest in collaborating and working together across the public and private sectors to widen opportunities.

In sum, it's no longer about the vision. Rather it’s about forging ahead with new policies and practices to make integrated employment and increased economic self-dependency a reality for all.

And so I’ve decided the blog not only needs a new brand but a brand new look. For this reason, I’ve been working on the launch of a new Blog. And I’ve entitled this one Employment First: Full Throttle Ahead!

My new blog will also feature articles, commentaries, and stories about the employment first movement and I’ll continue to report on progress my own State of Minnesota is making to double the employment rate of Minnesotans with disabilities by the year 2015. To offer an historical perspective as well as information about the Minnesota's employment first movement, I’ve taken steps to transfer a series of key articles from this blog to the new one. And I intend to continue writing articles and stories with a goal to accelerate the pace of change through rigorous discussion and coordinated action.

During the past five years. I’ve had more than 18,400 readers visit my blog from every state in the United States and 30 countries from around the world. I’ve received hundreds of emails, letters, and phone calls providing me with opportunities to exchange ideas with people I never would have met otherwise. A New Vision has been a labor of love but I’m certainly richer in my understanding about the issues impacting disability and employment because of these connections with people who hold diverse perspectives. I would take this opportunity to offer my sincere thanks to the many readers who have visited the blog over the years and have shared their views with me.

Finally, if you’re interested in visiting my new blog and bookmarking the site, you can visit at the link provided below.

Best Wishes and Full Throttle Ahead!

Don Lavin

Employment First: Full Throttle Ahead!

A Holiday Gift

2009-12-31T09:11:00.006-06:00

I hadn’t been at the Rise holiday party for 10 minutes when Pauline Niznik, one of our employment consultants, waved to get my attention. She motioned me in the direction of a table where she was sitting with a group of individuals she is supporting in integrated employment.

Recently I had been in touch with Pauline due to a phone call I had received a couple of months ago. The call came in from a parent of someone Rise had assisted in finding a competitive job a number of years ago. According to the caller, her daughter was having problems with a newly hired supervisor at her company and there was grave concern about losing a good paying job. The caller was inquiring about the possibility of re-engaging services with Rise to help stabilize her daughter’s employment situation.

You know, I don’t handle a lot of these calls directly but I guess this was my lucky day. And so I proceeded to ask the caller some questions. Since this was a third-party call, I wanted assurances her daughter and employer knew about this call and shared an interest in receiving on-site technical assistance to resolve the problem. I then asked the caller for additional job and contact information so our staff could provide a rapid response in addressing the situation. During our conversation, I learned this individual had been working as a housekeeper at a major hotel in the Twin Cities. And here’s the kicker…she’s been working in the same housekeeping job at the same hotel for 27 years!

I guess the caller was initially hesitant about contacting Rise because she apologized for bothering me with this issue. “Apologize?” I asked her in amazement. “You’ve just informed me that someone Rise once supported with job placement services is still on the job after 27 years! And you’re telling me she’s making great money and is high on the seniority list of her company. This is the best news I’ve heard all week,” I said.

Of course, I wasn’t sure what the specific employment concerns were at the time. And I wasn’t sure if this individual was in desperate need of a job change after so many years of doing the same work. So we dispatched Pauline, one of our most experienced employment consultants, to examine the issues at hand. Pauline was authorized to work to with this individual and her employer to stabilize the present job situation. And, if necessary, she was prepared to recommend alternative arrangements to support any desired changes (i.e. explore the interest or need for job placement services).

As this story unfolds, Pauline has been working closely with the housekeeper and her employer for a couple of months now. She is helping to smooth out communications, dealing with presenting job performance issues, and coaching the new supervisor on training and support strategies. In short, Pauline is offering supported employment services to monitor the situation and delivering targeted assistance to correct identified areas of concern. And so it appears the working relationship between the housekeeper and hotel management has improved to a level of satisfaction for all parties involved.

So back to the Rise holiday party….I knew Pauline had invited this individual to the holiday party and here she is now motioning over to me so she could formally introduce us. As I reached her table, Pauline went through the social formalities. I shared my pleasure in finally getting to meet her and congratulated the housekeeper for her long tenure on the job. I especially congratulated her for having the courage to reach out for support when she needed it most after so many years. The housekeeper expressed her gratitude and mentioned Pauline’s guidance and support has been very helpful in working through a tough patch on the job. Further she expressed optimism our services would make a difference in maintaining a job that pays her excellent wages and benefits after so many years with the same hotel chain.

I remember praising the housekeeper for her 27 years of employment and remarked how this was a clear testimony to her work ethic and dedication to her job. As she acknowledged my compliment, Pauline suddenly jumped back into our conversation.

“Hey Don, there are THREE women sitting at this table who have worked in the same job for more than 20 years.”

“Wow, really?,” I shot back in amazement.

Pauline then proceded to introduce me to two other women sitting at the table who are working in the health care industry. One individual has worked for 29 years as a laundry aide at a local nursing home! And the other has worked as a nursing assistant and dietary aide at a health care facility for the past 23 years. Wow!

It was truly a delight meeting all of these working women and it was the highlight of my evening. I’ve worked at Rise for 34 years now and it’s still a joy for me to hear firsthand about the job successes of people we have had the privilege to support.

On this particular evening, I learned how measured investments Rise made 23, 27, and 29 years ago were still paying dividends in the lives of people today. And if you think about it, these three women together have logged 79 years in competitive employment! After 29 years, one of them is now retiring from the labor force. And the other two women are still pursuing individual employment goals.

It’s been a couple of weeks now and I ‘m still thinking about these three working women. I was struck by the durability of their employment matches and how Rise's investment in customized and supported employment services many years ago had enriched each of their lives. Success stories like these drive home the importance of making integrated employment an accessible, attainable opportunity for all.

You know, I wasn’t really expecting to receive a gift at the Rise holiday party but Pauline Niznik gave me three. Thanks Pauline!

Let It Be

2009-12-15T07:34:00.013-06:00

Many of my regular readers know I made a professional conversion from a model of “rehabilitation” thinking and strategic practices to one of strengths-based practices many years ago. The reason is simple—strengths-based practices deliver more efficient and effective employment and community integration outcome results.

It makes no difference whether you live with disability or not, our greatest opportunities for excellence is realized by identifying and exploiting our individual strengths. I’ve learned over the years there is a fundamental truth in what author and speaker Marcus Buckingham says best: “As people get older, they really don’t change very much. Rather they become more and more of who they already are.”

Instead of trying to create fundamental changes in people through a process of “rehabilitation,” I believe we as a society will be many miles ahead by making a decision to accept people as they are and supporting them to identify, develop, use, and build upon their individual strengths, skills, and talents. In the business of disability and employment services, strengths-based practices are best engaged using strategies called discovery and customized employment.

Recently, I came across a video that emphasizes the core values of using strengths-based practices. Interestingly, this video entitled From service animal to SURFice animal deals with the subject of strengths practices through a heartwarming story about a “would be” service animal and her unique collaboration with an individual with a disability. Judy Fridono, the video's producer, said this about her epiphany in training a "service animal" named Ricochet--

“When I let go of who I wanted her to be,
And just let her “be,"
she completely flourished.
And I reveled in knowing
she’s perfect just the way she is.”

Let it be. This prophetic wisdom of a Beatle's classic applies to many lessons in life. And it holds an uncommon truth in the field of disability and employment services. People don't need to be "rehabilitated." They need to be supported in customized ways that enable them to use their individual strengths in the workforce and community.

In its simplicity, the video drives home the benefits we realize by focusing on putting talents to work. And apparently, the concept is universal. The video can be viewed by clicking on the link below. Enjoy!

From service animal to SURFice animal

What I've Learned About Organizational Change

2009-11-29T22:44:00.010-06:00

According to recent labor statistics produced by the Department of Labor for October, 2009, only 21.7% of Americans with disabilities are participating in the workforce in contrast to 70% of all other Americans. This wide gap is troubling and unacceptable to most fair-minded Americans. There is little question we need to work smarter and in new ways to promote principles of universal design. By this I mean investing in policies and practices that benefit all and widen access to fuller participation in the workforce.

I am Co-Director of a new project called the Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative (MEPI). MEPI, in concert with its many public and private organizational partners, is working to increase the employment participation rate of Minnesota with disabilities by promoting and recommending more effective policies. Also, MEPI is working closely with the Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Center (MNTAT) to infuse emerging and researched practices to drive better employment outcomes throughout the State of Minnesota. Together, MEPI and MNTAT are working to promote a bold goal—we are proposing to double the number of Minnesotans with disabilities who are participating in the workforce by the year 2015!

This goal is exciting and our challenge is formidable. As illustrated by labor statistics cited above, current policies and practices are ineffective in producing competitive employment for a majority of working age adults with disabilities. Getting better results, therefore, will mean trying out some new ideas. We cannot be satisfied with the status quo and must work smarter and harder to introduce better practices, increase choices, and widen opportunities available to people. This is especially important in our support of Minnesotans with the most significant disabilities.

In practice, this means moving incrementally away from “disability silos” and working harder to connect people with disabilities to our workforce. Our goal is to encourage secondary and post-secondary education, workforce, employment, and disability service systems in Minnesota to move measurably in new directions to increase integrated employment outcomes over the next five years.

For most public and private organizations supporting individuals with significant disabilities, this means engaging person-centered approaches designed to identify individual talents and strengths. Also, it means identifying ideal conditions of employment for each job seeker and negotiating jobs with employers based on opportunities presented by these strengths. It means being a vigilant steward of financial resources and investing them in ways to obtain the best results possible. And finally, it means investing efforts and resources in public education and key partnerships most critical to attaining real change (i.e., working with business leaders, families, educators, policymakers, and others).

A couple of months ago, someone asked me about what I consider to be the most important factors to successful organizational change. There are many ingredients that contribute to successful change, but a few overlapping issues are absolutely essential. And they all must be present to drive any sustainable, measurable systems change over time.

So here’s what I’ve learned. First, I’ve learned success is intentional. It happens because we plan for it and work incrementally and with discipline to attain it.

Second, I’ve learned that living with a disability is not a tragedy but rather a naturally occurring human condition. And people with disabilities can certainly live full, satisfying lives that includes work when we change our expectations, use strengths-based employment strategies, identify the ideal conditions for customized employment, and deliver the job supports people need to reach their goals.

The third thing I’ve learned is leadership matters. Without a strong articulated vision and engagement by the highest levels of an organization, the necessary improvements are difficult at best and often impossible to achieve. Weak leadership will not get the job done no matter how excited an organization’s staff or key constituents are about change. For this reason, we need to invest considerably more time and resources in developing our next generation of leaders.

Although leadership is fundamental to making successful changes it does little good to have a strong leader and 99 followers in an organization employing 100 people. The most successful organizations have many leaders who are willing to work together and unselfishly to achieve goals much larger than themselves. In other words, leadership is both encouraged and abundant in organizations that have a strong culture for learning and pursuit of excellence.

The fourth most important I’ve learned is this-- real and enduring success is about developing and nurturing a strong corporate culture of change. This means empowering people with a purpose, goals, policies, knowledge, information, tools, and resources needed to get things done effectively and efficiently. As Michael Lacey, CEO of the Twin Cities Company Digineer, once said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

What Lacey is saying is strategy sometimes has the shelf life of bread. Strategy is continually reshaped by changes in customer demands, new and emerging ideas, development of new technologies, economic conditions, markeplace competition, and so forth. A healthy corporate culture needs to be vigilant to excellence and not embrace the latest idea dominating the marketplace. Furthermore, strategy is sometimes dimmed by a resistive or apathetic corporate culture where “buy in” is weak. Strategy demands a fertile corporate culture where it is nourished and executed with skill and passion.

An ideal corporate culture is one where everyone belongs and shares in a common bond and vision, has high clarity in its goals, is committed to excellence, is not bound by tradition but sanctioned to be creative, is self-directed in choosing its strategies, has adequate fiscal resources and expertise to achieve its goals, agrees to a division of labor to achieve measurable, well-defined outcomes, and shares collectively in the ultimate rewards of success.

Needless to say, corporate cultures are highly dynamic in nature and sensitive to internal and external influences, changes, and factors over time. For this reason, a healthy corporate culture requires attentive leadership and an ongoing process for renewal and self-improvement to sustain high performance over time.

To summarize, success is intentional and requires a good workplan. A majority of people with disabilities can work and be integrated into the competitive labor force when jobs are crafted around their signature strengths and responsive supports are actively engaged. Leadership matters and is critical to establishing a vision and plan for real organizational change. Finally, a forward thinking, engaged corporate culture is a critical ingredient to making successful, sustainable changes in both service directions and outcomes. When these core factors are in place, real organizational change tends to take care of itself.

2009-10-04T18:55:00.025-05:00

Why?

It’s one of the most intriguing words in the English language. It forces a person to drill down deeper. It makes us work and think a little harder to discover, or perhaps to uncover, an underlying rationale for the human condition and its connecting circumstances.

While attending the annual National APSE Conference in Milwaukee this past July, I had an interesting conversation with Dr. David Mank from Indiana University. Our conversation has stuck with me many weeks later. Dr. Mank said this: “Why won't people honor their commitment to the vision?”

What Dr. Mank was sharing is our lack of integrity in transforming the vision of a free, productive, and contributing life to all Americans including citizens with significant disabilities. He shared with me his frustration about the need for debate. Why do we lack the commitment to make necessary changes in policies and practices that are well documented to improve employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities?

I didn’t have a good answer for Dr. Mank. And in all honesty, I don’t understand it either.

A little more than a month ago, I had the opportunity to listen to another colleague of mine speak on the topic of “true inclusion.” Jim Meehan is Executive Director of KFI, Inc., an organization that supports individuals with significant disabilities in obtaining integrated employment in a rural region of Maine. Under Jim's leadership, KFI has undergone extensive reorganization of its programs and practices in favor of integrated employment. For this reason, he was recruited by the State of Wisconsin to serve as a peer mentor for its Rebalancing Initiative, a statewide project designed to shift the organizational emphasis of 10 community rehabilitation programs (CRPs) to integrated employment practices and outcomes.

At this gathering with Wisconsin CRPs, Jim was asked to share his experiences and facilitate a group discussion about true community integration. Jim began his presentation introducing a quote by Al Robichaud, Executive Director for the State of New Hampshire’s Developmental Disabilities Council. As I understand it, Robichaud once advanced this fundamental question—

“Why do we try to re-create what already exists in the community?”

And Robichaud built upon this rhetorical question with yet another provocative inquiry--

If it does not exist in the community, and it’s a good idea (a real need), then why not join with others to create it for the entire community?

Imagine that! Planning a community and workforce without the need for disability silos, just supports.

Jim Meehan went on to describe how KFI has created opportunities for true inclusion for its participants in the workforce and local communities. It was wonderful and convincing presentation. He shared personal stories about creating meaningful, integrated social and economic roles for individuals with disabilities. And he shared with us how an entire community benefits when it is done well.

According to recent statistics provided by the federal Department of Labor for August, 2009, 22.2% of Americans with disabilities were working in the labor force. Yes, that’s correct! Only a little more than 2 out of the 10 Americans with disabilities are working and contributing to their self-support. So this brings me back to the “why’s”—

Why is there such a lack of urgency in dealing with this national problem?
Why aren’t we demanding and implementing public policies to encourage and reward the goal of integrated employment for all?
Why can’t we see “disability” for what it truly is?—a naturally occurring and manageable human condition for most individuals, not a tragedy.
Why do we invest most of our public resources in programs and services that deliver outcomes we want the least?
Why do we say we value individualized, person-centered outcomes and then limit choices by offering people what we have available?
Why aren’t we infusing strengths-based practices that deliver the best possibilities for obtaining integrated employment and competitive wage outcomes?
Why aren’t we retraining and changing the roles of educators and adult service professionals to use and build upon these practices regularly?
Why is it that businesses and industries are not leading our cause and making the business case for hiring workers who are available and want to contribute their skills and talents?
Why aren’t more people with disabilities and family members demanding integrated employment opportunities from the education and adult service systems supporting them?
Why isn’t there greater accountability in expanding and widening integrated employment results in support of youth and adults with disabilities across educational, workforce, and adult service systems?
Why isn’t there a public "call to action" to use principles of universal design—in other words to use environments and practices that welcome and benefit everyone?

As I drill down deeper and think about these fundamental questions, I am inevitably returned to Dr. Mank’s comment—“Why won't people honor their commitment to the vision?”

As I look around at what we know and what is possible today, it leads me to this conclusion--it’s not only about learning and incorporating new tricks, it’s also about unlearning and being willing to leave some old ideas behind us. When I think about all of these “why” questions in the context of bringing strengths-based employment into the lives of people, it leads me to the biggest "why" question of all—

Why not?!

A Whack on the Side of the Head

2009-09-13T22:10:00.008-05:00

To my readers, please take a careful look at the chart I’ve attached at the beginning of this article. I will wait for you at the next paragraph, OK? If you would like to enlarge the chart for ease of reading, click on it twice.

OK, are you back with me now? Great! This chart was developed by a colleague of mine named Alyssa Klein. Alyssa is a progressive employee of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS), and she works for a statewide project called Pathways to Employment (PTE). PTE is Minnesota’s Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG) funded by the Center for Medicaid Services (CMS) and a state interagency initiative of the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) and DEED. My colleague, Alyssa Klein, is a specialist who works in the focus area of school-to-career transition and she’s leading the way on incorporating universal design service delivery principles and practices in support of youth with disabilities and in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system(MnSCU).

Let me begin by sharing that Alyssa and I have been working on a couple of committees together. These committees are examining more effective ways to increase the competitive employment of Minnesotans with disabilities by promoting statewide systems policy changes and fostering the use of universal design principles. For our purposes here, universal design means opening up access to secondary and post-secondary education, workforce, and communities in ways that benefit everyone. For example, this could include contextual, work-based learning and engaging the natural supports of businesses to increase the job skills and employment of individuals with disabilities. Or it could mean incorporating inclusive learning strategies in secondary and post-secondary education to promote the career education of unique learners. The overarching goal of universal design is building the capacities of our communities in ways that benefit and welcome the participation of all.

Well recently, I was at a meeting with Alyssa when she distributed and shared this “Preparing for a Career” document I’ve asked you to look at. This one page chart is a concise, straightforward description of supports being offered by local educators and adult service providers to increase the competitive employment of youth and young adults with disabilities. These career supports are on the radar in a geographic area where my organization operates its employment services for job seekers and businesses.

Well, my “whack on the side of the head” came without warning. And it clarified my thinking a great deal. You know, we tend to make things complicated and convoluted in the community rehabilitation field. As I looked at the Preparing for Careers chart, I was struck by the simplicity of its presentation. First of all, Alyssa used ordinary, everyday language. If you noticed, there’s no mention about disabilities or any notion about needing “rehabilitation.” No references are made to “disability silos” or promoting vocational evaluation, work adjustment training, extended (sheltered) employment, or non-work day habilitation services customarily marketed to transition-age youth with disabilities and their families.

Instead Alyssa intentionally used everyday language and graphics with clearly defined steps that can be applied to the transition and career planning needs of any youth. If you examined the document carefully, you may have noticed it does not map out a “model of program services” but rather offers a blueprint for thinking about career possibilities. The chart walks youth through a few simple, logical steps so they can thoughtfully consider and weigh their future career options. Finally, the communication piece nudges youth to consider a full range of possibilities for moving forward with their careers and taking actionable steps with guided support from family members, educators, workforce representatives, and other community support systems.

You know, I thought Alyssa’s chart was a refreshing way to connect youth with career exploration and planning opportunities and to do so in a far less invasive manner than traditional approaches. The truth is this—when given a choice, most youth with disabilities and their families prefer accessing community and business-based supports over enrollment in rehabilitation programs. Many are just plain tired of being assessed, evaluated, work adjusted, and behavior-managed in programs designed for people with disabilities. As transition-age youth begin to take those initial steps into adulthood, they are searching for ideal employment conditions and the job supports they need to develop and use their talents in the workforce. Therefore, in my view, this is a healthier way to be thinking and communicating about the supports many youth will need to map out their career planning goals and advance their post-secondary education and/or employability plans.

In the past year, Alyssa Klein convened a Community Action Team (CAT) in Anoka County to increase focus on improving school-to-career transition services in our community. She is challenging a diverse group of educators and adult service professionals to consider investing resources in new ways and implementing innovations to reshape the delivery of career discovery and workforce development strategies for youth and young adults with disabilities. Our CAT is responding with creative ideas and building multiple pathways into the workforce in support of transition-age youth.

For example, the team has supported the running of Camps to Careers to expose youth to high growth employment opportunities in the workforce. And new discussions are underway to rebuild career discovery and exploration experiences for youth living in these communities through additional career camps and access to trial work experiences, on-the-job evaluations, informational interviews, business and college tours, business mentoring, job shadowing experiences, and other strategies.

Anoka County’s CAT is working to build additional career development opportunities through supported education concepts and customized training strategies in partnership with local colleges. Also, the CAT is working to build bridges with local business leaders by engaging contextualized, work-based learning, on-the-job training programs featuring stackable skills credentialing, and job skills apprenticeships and internships with employers taking the job training lead.

Finally, Anoka County’s CAT is working to expand youth access to customized employment assistance. Traditional job placement practices tend to focus energies on matching job seekers to vacancies in the workforce based on individual job qualifications such as education, training experiences, and past work history. For this reason, traditional job placement methods tend to be successful with only 30-35% of youth and adults with disabilities. National employment data documents these practices are not particularly effective in obtaining jobs for individuals with the most significant disabilities.

Customized employment, however, offers greater promise because it focuses on developing, negotiating, and if necessary, creating jobs to fit the interests, skills, and strengths of job seekers. Customized employment is a completely voluntary, non-comparative job development process where tasks are negotiated and crafted in ways to fit the skills of an individual worker. In other words, customized employment changes the playing field by emphasizing new policies and using practices and strategies that focus on individual strengths.

To illustrate, customized employment practices might include the carving of job tasks to fit the interests and skills of a job seeker. It could include job creation promoting value added services and economies to a company’s services or manufacturing operations. Also, it could include the launch of self-employment initiatives or microenterprises allowing for increased flexibility and customization of tasks or supports needed by the worker. In addition, it could include: (1) individual resource ownership (purchasing equipment or new resources that open job opportunities and add economic value to a company’s bottom line); or (2) incorporating a business within a business economic development strategy.

I am certain about this--the future is looking brighter for youth living in Anoka County. And I'm excited to be a member of the local CAT that is working hard to make fundamental changes in our school-to-career strategies. This local partnership is giving true meaning to Minnesota’s adopted value proposition “We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper.”

Thanks Alyssa for all you do!

Wow! Thanks.

2009-08-29T11:24:00.010-05:00

When I started A New Vision more than three years ago, I had a simple goal. I wanted to encourage, educate, and support various constituents. I wanted for people to consider the full range of possibilities as well as importance of connecting people with significant disabilities to integrated employment so they can use their talents and contribute to their self-reliance. Recently reported statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor indicate only 24% of adults with disabilities are active in the workforce. So the challenges are indeed formidible. Yet the goal is unquestionably attainable.

Maintaining this blog has required a commitment of time but it has been rewarding. I've had communication from people all across the world who agree with me about a fundamental premise: “We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper.” And I am pleased to say I hear directly from many people with disabilities as well as family members who want to share their stories with me about their personal journeys and struggles to secure competitive employment.

I tend to hear a lot from family members of loved ones who are navigating around the barriers of low expectations and prejudice along with their loved ones. And it's quite common to hear from parents who are frustrated by out of date public policies and unreponsive service systems that either ignore or compromise on the promise of full workforce integration and participation. I try to listen and be helpful to the extent that I can.

This past week, I was honored and humbled to hear that A New Vision was selected as one of the Best 100 Blogs for Homeschooling Moms. My blog was selected under the area of “Tips and Advice for Homeschooling Kids with Special Needs.” Very cool.

I appreciate this honor and my thanks to the folks behind Online Education.Net for the selection. You’ve encouraged me to continue my writing and and encouraging families who struggle daily with workforce barriers of their loved ones.

Once again, my sincere thanks.

MNTAT: Tackling Minnesota's T&TA Needs

2009-08-24T20:50:00.009-05:00

Back in November of 2007, the Minnesota Employment First Coalition 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.

The summit in 2007 resulted in the writing of a consensus report also known as the Minnesota Employment First Manifesto. 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.

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. Minnesota's Scorecard can be downloaded for review at this link.

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.

The State of Minnesota’s Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG) called Pathways to Employment (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 Griffin-Hammis Associates, 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.

In April of 2009, the Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Center (MNTAT) was officially launched and Griffin-Hammis hired my colleague Bob Niemiec 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.

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.

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.

In addition, MNTAT’s workplan will feature the development and support of five local Community Action Teams (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.

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...MNTAT

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—‘We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper.” 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…one person at a time.

Establishing a National Employment First Agenda

2009-07-26T09:26:00.028-05:00

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: Establishing a National Employment First Agenda.

The Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative

2009-07-18T14:21:00.007-05:00

What is your next bold move?

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.

I am a board member of Minnesota APSE 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 Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative (MEPI or referred to hereinafter as The Initiative).

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: “We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper.” 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.

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 Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Center (MNTAT) to maximize the impact of employment policy and practice across Minnesota.

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:

Develop a joint website in conjunction with MNTAT
Develop a policy component for an annual employment conference planned and run with MNTAT
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)
Support four mini-summits hosted by business leaders to champion increased integrated employment opportunities in the workforce
Develop and update a scorecard highlighting progress in advancing employment policies and practices in Minnesota
Make recommendations toward the development of a uniform definition of employment and uniform data management practices across state agencies
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
Strengthen and build new alliances to enlarge the circle of employment champions
Integrate systems change policy initiatives across federal, state and local agencies.

The following people will serve as the leadership team for MEPI:

Carol Rydell 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.

Contact information: Carol Rydell, Kaposia, Inc., 380 E. Lafayette Freeway South, St. Paul, MN 55107, 651-789-2815, crydell@kaposia.com.

Jon Alexander 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.

Contact information: Jon Alexander, Kaposia, Inc., 380 E. Lafayette Freeway South, St. Paul, MN 55107, 651-789-2817, jalexander@kaposia.com.

Don Lavin 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.

Contact information: Don Lavin, Rise, Inc., 8406 Sunset Road Northeast, Spring Lake Park, MN 55432, 763-783-2815, dlavin@rise.org.

Laura Owens 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.

Contact Information: Laura Owens, APSE, 451 Hungerford Drive, #700, Rockville, MD 20850, 414-581-3032, lowens@apse.org.

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.

Minnesota's Employment First Scorecard

2009-06-27T15:28:00.007-05:00

On May 18, 2009, the Minnesota Employment First Coalition released its second summit report at the Minnesota APSE State Conference. This report entitled The Scorecard: A Progress Report Card on Employment First Performance in Minnesota is a summary of proceedings and new recommendations flowing from the 2nd Employment First Summit held in Saint Paul, Minnesota on November 14, 2008.

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 The Scorecard right here.

Transforming Attitudes and Skills of Organizational Employees

2009-06-06T10:52:00.011-05:00

Recently, I was asked to share my thoughts and experiences about the preparation of staff working within a community rehabilitation agency’s center-based production or non-work service programs during a period of organizational change.

How does a service provider prepare its staff facing a fundamental rebalancing of its services from center-based programs or organizational employment models to integrated employment approaches?
How does an organization motivate and secure “buy-in” from its staff whose time is dedicated primarily to non-work rehabilitation or habilitation programs?
What management strategies have been successful in guiding a transformation of an organization’s staffing roles, duties, and functions to individualized employment approaches?

All great questions! And yes, no easy answers but certainly attainable goals with effective organizational leadership.

Since the core attitudes and skills preparation of an agency’s employees is so critical to fundamental and sustainable change, I want to share my observations and experiences about this topic with my readers. Here are 17 strategies I’ve observed to be effective in supporting organizational employees and staff in making a successful transition. When these strategies are blended into a powerful marketing campaign and multi-dimensional workplan, it can generate excitement and motivate an agency’s employees to work together toward a common purpose of organizational excellence.

1. Clarify. Engage leadership! The single most important quality of organizational leadership is communication and clarity. Be abundantly clear about your organizational strategic plan, goals, and activities.

2. Persuade! The organization’s management team needs to work hard and efficiently to secure staff “buy-in” regarding its organizational change objectives.

3. Include. Teach organizational employment and center-based program staff why and how they are critical to the goals of organizational change. Make sure all staff is included in organizational change planning & rebalancing activities.

4. Reward. Right from the beginning--insure all staff shares in the excitement and rewards when your agency’s participants obtain integrated employment outcomes in the workforce.

5. Measure. What gets measured, gets done! Develop a scorecard and share your agency’s progress at every possible opportunity with the organization’s board, staff, business leaders, and community.

6. Communicate. If your agency holds independent meetings with its organizational employment and center-based program staff, communicate outcome performance progress in these meeting structures as well.

7. Visualize. Make and regularly update a simple visual performance chart to communicate your progress in meeting organizational rebalancing goals. Place your integrated employment outcome performance chart in a highly visible location so staff sees it daily.

8. Document. Share information and evidence with staff concerning supporting research studies to increase awareness about the measurable outcome benefits to be realized by your agency’s participants who advance into the workforce. These outcome benefits (i.e., personal, social, and economic) are clearly weighted in the direction of integrated employment! Why wouldn’t your organization make these outcomes available to as many people as possible?

9. Educate. Teach about the effectiveness of supported employment and customized employment (SE/CE) practices (i.e., share journal articles, develop access to training webinars and technical assistance websites, use expert trainers, etc.).

10. Challenge. Gently challenge your doubters and attack myths, stereotypes, and half-truths about the employability of individuals with significant disabilities in the workforce. Replace these stereotypes with facts.

11. Showcase. Share success stories (your own as well as others) about individuals with significant disabilities leaving organizational employment or center-based programs and obtaining integrated employment. Success stories are powerful and illustrate how the theory is transformed to actual practice.

12. Replace. In real organizational change, new policies and practices must be introduced to increase integrated employment outcomes. Also, some existing policies and practices must be replaced or reduced significantly to rebalance to integrated employment outcome performance (i.e., closing the "front door" and introducing new service policies and practices to divert new agency referrals directly into the workforce).

13. Connect. There is comfort in understanding you are a part of a larger shift in thinking and organizational practices. Send your organizational employment and center-based program staff to SE/CE conferences (i.e., APSE) to generate excitement and increase their awareness about promising practices and possibilities for integrated employment.

14. Mentor. Use staff shadowing and mentoring strategies with organizational employment and center-based program staff to introduce them to supported employment principles and to give them "first-hand" experiences.

15. Prepare. Build momentum by investing in organizational employment and center-based program staff who are natural leaders in the team. Expand their roles and transform their duties to SE/CE practices incrementally as more individuals from your organization are placed into the workforce. This is a necessary rebalancing of organizational time and resources into the area of desired change.

16. Encourage. Encourage staff buy-in by motivating organizational employment and center-based program staff to become part of the solution. Give these staff autonomy and a role in brainstorming solutions and developing creative ideas to address employment barriers (i.e., organizational, situational, and individual participant).

17. Celebrate. Make sure organizational employment and center-based staff share in the celebration of all achievements made by the organization. Acknowledge and reward their participation and roles in obtaining integrated employment outcomes.

Finally, let me say that organizational change is a challenging proposition for many professionals who are highly vested in traditional rehabilitation and habilitation programs. And honestly, not all organizational employees and staff will make a successful transition to more progressive, employment first approaches. Simply said, some individuals will be hard to win over and others will refuse to modify their stance that integrated employment is a viable or suitable possibility.

Some staff may be worried about job security and feel they are being abandoned by the organization without a clear strategy for engagement in the planning and implementation of the agency’s strategic plan. Regardless of strategy, others will be unable or unwilling to acknowledge this new vision of an integrated workforce where individuals with disabilities, including those with complex lives, have a rightful place working alongside others in our economy. Further, a small minority may actually work against the agency’s plan for change without an articulated plan for hands-on management.

Despite obvious challenges, the leadership of the organization can make significant changes by engaging the right strategies and involving all of its employees in the plan. When these organizations are successful in generating universal excitement and securing openness to the possibilities, many of its employees will effectively translate their value to the organization’s future and work to secure the competencies they need to become a fundamental part of the change.

Editor’s Note: Several years ago, I wrote about a phenomenon I call The Axis of Inertia and this article may also be of some help in understanding a leader’s role in organizational change. In The Axis of Inertia I identified five overlapping factors that tend to paralyze agency leaders, managers, and staff from taking the necessary steps of organizational change. These five enemies of organizational change are fear, apathy, arrogance, ignorance, and tokenism. For more information about The Axis of Inertia and leadership strategies in addressing these barriers, you can link to this article here.

The Guiding Hand of a Mom

2009-05-10T09:51:00.012-05:00

On April 19, 2009, my organization held its annual gathering called Celebrate Rise! This event gives Rise a wonderful opportunity to pause and celebrate notable achievements and accomplishments of many business leaders, landlords, staff, and program participants who exemplify the spirit of our corporate mission. Celebrate Rise! has become an annual event and is a reminder to everyone associated with our organization about this important work we do in connecting people to jobs, housing, and integrated community involvements. When we connect people to their dreams, it’s these rich human and social experiences that truly transform lives.

Celebrate Rise! is always a highlight of the year for me. I enjoy listening to recipients of this recognition articulate in their own words what it means to work together toward a common purpose. And this event always reinforces a simple truth that people with disabilities and other barriers are just like the rest of us trying to navigate their way to the good life through personal, social, and economic goals.

Among several individuals recognized at this year’s event was a young entrepreneur with a significant disability who was supported by Rise in launching his own business. It was a blast reconnecting with him and his family. I remembered receiving an email from this young man’s Mom with the header “Self-Employment for my Son” back in April of 2005. The email identified her son’s long time interest in starting a business involving pets because of his strong love for animals. The email continued on about how running a small business would make a lot of sense given this individual’s unique employability needs and self-reliance goals.

Sadly, despite his strong interest in self-employment, the young man was receiving very little encouragement at the time. There was very little interest in giving his self-employment dream some badly needed traction including financial investment in his enterprise. Simply said, most professionals working with him did not trust that self-employment was a realistic or attainable goal given his complex disabilities.

Despite setbacks, the young man still had “Mom” in his corner and she did not give up hope. In the email, she shared with me she had attended a training seminar about self-employment featuring Cary Griffin, who is a colleague of mine and a national expert on this subject matter. Mom was so impressed with Griffin’s presentation she began researching local resources in the Twin Cities that could offer more encouragement and assistance with her son’s entrepreneurial goals. On the advice of representatives from PACER Center, a family education and advocacy organization hosting the Griffin seminar, the young man’s Mom contacted me to see if Rise could be of some help.

I arranged a visit for the young man and his Mom to meet with me and Joan Distler. Joan is a customized employment manager at Rise experienced in self-employment planning and the launch of small business microenterprises. I remember the initial visit like it happened yesterday. The young man was very shy and he did not demonstrate much self-confidence during our initial encounter. However, his mood and focus changed noticeably when he shared information with us about his own pets and passion in caring for animals. He even brought along a number of photos of his numerous pets, including animals of the exotic variety, to share with us.

The aspiring entrepreneur spoke with Joan and me about his past volunteer experiences at the Como Zoo in St. Paul and local Animal Humane Society. He talked about his job experiences as a kennel attendant at a veterinary clinic and most recent employment as a pet sitter for a local company in the Twin Cities. Also, he shared with us about his goal to enroll in a local business school to complete a course as a certified veterinary technician. He understood how increasing his skills in basic animal first aid would foster trust in his competencies to manage and care for pets with health conditions.

The young man’s Mom was clearly an attentive parent. She was highly optimistic about her son’s self-employment potential but clearly frustrated by the lack of support he had been receiving. It was a challenge to gain the support of people who were doubtful about his potential to run a business even with support. It was apparent the young man was “hitting the wall” in getting any support to develop a business plan. And his Mom was still searching without success for a viable resource to guide him and the family.

Joan and I were not only impressed with this young man’s possibilities but believed strongly in his chances for success. Frankly, we were puzzled why others could not see the passion and abilities in him that were so obvious to us.

Joan began meeting with him regularly (and occasionally with his Mom) to complete the business plan process. The procedure was slower than usual in approach because this young man is very methodical by his nature. For this reason, Joan paced and customized the business planning process to match his preferences and preparedness to take the next steps. The young man enrolled in school and worked hard to complete the veterinary technician course. They used helpful resources available at a business development center sponsored by the Small Business Administration (SBA). And together, they wrote a business plan that took in all critical aspects of running a sound business (i.e., financing, bonding, and insurance). Finally, together they challenged other involved professionals to approve the business plan and invest the necessary financial resources to assist with the launch.

Like most start-up businesses, there were a number of twists and turns. The young man had to work a couple of part-time jobs while establishing his client base. And planning around the young man’s disabilities was fundamental to making it work. All said, it took a couple of years to bring his dream fully to fruition. Through solid business planning and hard work, the young man successfully launched his own enterprise. And it has been growing steadily—principally by word of mouth.

His pet sitting business offers a wide range of services to individuals and families needing quality care for their family pets. This includes standard visits for companionship and feeding, walking pets for exercise, general pet care to assist families during vacations and leaves of absences. Also, the young man’s training allows for some limited medical care to pets during his home visitations.

Is he any good at it? As I understand it, he has a brand new problem to contend with. His enterprise has now grown to a point where he is considering adding on an employee to help manage his business’ growth in customers. This is quite a feat for a young man who was once considered incapable of running his own business by the "experts."

And so, here I am four years later reconnecting with the young man and his family at our corporate annual event. I must tell you the truth. He didn’t look at all like the same shy young man who walked into a conference room to meet with us a few years back. Now he walked and talked with an air of confidence and maturity that was lacking just a few years back. In accepting his “Rise-ing Star” recognition, the young man shared his appreciation with an audience of close to 500 people at the Earl Brown Center in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. As a successful business entrepreneur, he was contributing skills and talents needed by our community. Further, he was earning a living doing something he clearly loves to do.

At Rise, we are very excited about this young man’s accomplishments and were proud to showcase his small business success story at our annual event. However, there is another important story here within this larger story.

No one can take away anything away from this young man. His accomplishments and determination to pursue his career goals were a credit of his own making. Also, we’re very proud of Joan Distler for her investment of time and expertise in guiding this program participant each small step of the way. To be sure, a number of people played a pivotal role in shaping this business success story. The hidden story, however, is the encouragement and strength of a Mom who did all she could to keep his dream alive.

I received this email the day after our event and want to share it publically. It read:

Don,

Thank you so much for opening the doors for ______. Your belief in him started this whole process - and we are very grateful!

Celebrate Rise was such an awesome event for us. ____ has been walking tall all day long!

My whole family felt inspired last evening. Thank you for "creating opportunities!"

I appreciated her email. But make no mistake about this—it was the unyielding love of a Mom and her steadfast belief in a son that set the table for success. Simply said, she set forth expectations about what was possible and was persistent in guiding her son until he found the right measure of support he needed to realize his dream.

Never underestimate the impact that family members have in promoting expectations and increasing the possibilities of competitive employment for their loved ones. On this evening, I had the chance to reconnect with one special Mom about her son’s business exploits. She was very appreciative for the support her son had received from us. And she was visibly moved by the special recognition her son had earned on this particular evening.

Yes, it was a son’s special day and here he stood on center stage. At the same time, it was a special day for a proud Mom sitting in the audience who had who had worked tirelessly to shine a bright spotlight on her son's entrepreneurial spirit and strengths.

Today is Mother’s Day. I would like to salute every Mom who works unselfishly to insure her youth or adult children have equal access and opportunities to live, learn, work, and recreate in our communities. Trust me about this one thing—your expectations and helpful engagement is fundamental to their success.

Living with a Disability in India

2009-04-12T19:43:00.014-05:00

This past December 2008, my family took a trip of a lifetime to India to attend the wedding of my daughter Kelly to my new son-in-law Sahil Merchant. It was a special and memorable family vacation for obvious reasons. Also, it was a memorable trip because of our exposure to many learning experiences with respect to Indian culture. I’ve always been fascinated by the study of other cultures and this trip offered our family a glimpse of its rich values, traditions, and mores.

I share a common career interest with Kelly about the role competitive employment plays in the lives of people with disabilities from other cultures. My daughter works as an employment consultant for Kaposia, Inc., a progressive employment provider serving businesses in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. In addition to Kelly’s role as an employment consultant, she is also Editor for One Step Ahead, Kaposia’s corporate newspaper. Kelly wrote the article below for the newspaper about an Indian woman with a disability who had attended her wedding. Shanoor Forbes is a close friend of the Merchant family and this article details her personal journey in managing a significant disability and regaining her independence after an injury by contributing her talents to India’s workforce.

Living in India with a Disability

By Kelly Merchant

Editor’s note: Last December, I met a very inspiring woman while visiting my in-laws in Mumbai, India. This woman uses a wheelchair and I immediately wondered how she got around the chaotic city of Mumbai. Seeing as how I work with people with disabilities, I had noticed the uneven terrain and total lack of wheelchair-accessibility in public and private buildings. As she shared with me the details of living with a disability in her society, I came to realize that disability is a challenge no matter where you are in the world. Her story reminds us that a successful social and working life can be achieved no matter where you live, if you have confidence, motivation and a positive attitude.

Shanoor Forbes lived a life much like many others in Mumbai, India, until one morning in the winter of 1988. Like many other days, she was riding her horse, Romanique, at the Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai. That morning, however, Romanique took an unexpected fall and Forbes was thrown to the ground, leaving her paralyzed in all four limbs. At that time, there were no properly trained ambulance personnel in India, and the driver of the ambulance pulled her onto a stretcher without protecting her neck or head. The ride in the ambulance was very rough, as the roads in Mumbai are full of pot holes and the traffic moves at a snail’s pace.

Hospitals in Mumbai were not equipped, at that time, to treat someone in her condition and without a specialized unit for spinal injuries, Forbes underwent improperly performed operations. She suffered horrific nightmares where she heard the noises and felt the sensations of her body being ripped into two. She had many moments of despair where she questioned whether this new life of dependence and lack of movement was worth living. “It was like being a new-born infant – utterly helpless and at the mercy of others,” Forbes explained. The only thing that kept her going through these dark hours of shock, fear and horror was the tremendous amount of love and support she received from friends and family.

During this transitional period, most of Forbes’ loved ones said that one day she would be riding again. It was her Uncle Rubzeh who decided to do the straight talk and explain that her walking days were over and that she would never again regain her continence. He also told her she had to “face up to living in a wheelchair with the same grace and courage that she had shown in her life up until this accident.” Forbes said it was his blunt honesty that helped her finally accept her new reality.

Despite this acceptance, Forbes continued to struggle with suicidal thoughts as the reality of her paralysis and helplessness became more apparent through the everyday workings of life. She dealt with innumerable surgeries, choking fits, pressure sores, blood clots, and the humiliation of bowel and urinary accidents.

Forbes did eventually receive the rehabilitation she needed at the Humana hospital in London, and with this intense therapy she slowly gathered strength and found her old courageous self, ready to fight back for her independent life. "So what if I have no power in my body below the level of the chest? I have the brain, strong shoulders, a fiery tongue, sound eye sight, excellent hearing, knowledge, intelligence, character and culture,” Forbes said confidently.

Slowly, Forbes began adding community-based outings to her routine. With the help of physiotherapists, she began swimming again and attended picnics arranged by the hospital. She began taking trips to the countryside with her husband, going to the movies and after immense practice with using specialized equipment to feed herself, she was able to eat out at friends’ homes and restaurants, too.

Upon returning home to India, Forbes was fortunate to find that her employer, Gulf Air, was interested in working with her talents and developed accommodations for a part-time position in the reservations department. Having worked in the airline industry for the last twenty years, there was nothing she wanted to do more. “I love going to work five days per week,” says Forbes. With the help of typing gadgets attached to her hands, she is able to handle telephone sales, flight bookings and discuss flight details with clients. “I feel it is vital for people with disabilities to have employment so they can be a part of the mainstream of life’s activities and be constructive individuals in society. This enhances ones self-value and gains respect from others.”

Since the accident, Forbes has found a love for writing and spends a good deal of time corresponding with friends and relatives all over the world. “I have to lead an active social life,” she explains. “Being in touch with people is important for someone like me who is wheel-chair bound. We can so easily get isolated from communicating with others and from human touch.”

For many years following the riding accident, Forbes dreamt of herself in her old body - running and walking and standing. It wasn’t until nine years after her paralysis that her dreams began to include herself in a wheelchair. To me, this is a sign that she has come to accept her condition and has begun to feel comfortable with her new body and new life she is leading. “I do not think that the frustrations felt can ever be abated completely,” explains Forbes, “but once you can come to accept and embrace your disability, that is when life can be lived to its fullest”.

Reprinted with permission. For more information, you can contact Kelly Merchant at kmerchant@kaposia.com. For more information about Kaposia and its newspaper One Step Ahead, you can link to their website here.

Minnesota's Employment First Movement in Mental Health

2009-03-27T18:09:00.005-05:00

Editorial Note: 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.

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.

One of the most exciting trends identified in this 2008 report is Minnesota’s gradual transformation to evidence-based practice, supported employment (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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

What have we learned? The principles underlying EBP-SE are different from conventional supported employment services in a number of ways:

Zero Exclusion Policy. 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.

Mental health treatment and supported employment services are fully integrated. 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.

Competitive employment is the goal. All participants supported by an EBP-SE program work in regular, individualized jobs at competitive wages and benefits in the community’s labor force.

Rapid engagement and job search. 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.

Job placement outcomes are driven by preferences and interests of the individual. 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.

Job follow-along supports are continuous. Participants of an EBP-SE program have access to job support on a time-unlimited basis. 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.

Benefits Planning. 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.

Minnesota APSE—The Network on Employment and Minnesota’s Employment First Coalition (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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Customized Employment: Redefining Employment Strengths

2009-03-15T08:36:00.012-05:00

For the past three years, I have been writing here about the importance of integrated employment and using strengths-based strategies such as customized and supported employment to promote the employability of youth and adults with disabilities. I appreciate limitations of the written word as a means for communicating and educating the public about these principles. As the old Chinese proverb goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Well, about a week ago, I received an email from a colleague of mine that communicates about strengths-based employment practices in ways I could never accomplish with my keyboard. It's a short video about two artists who are outstanding ballet dancers. The dance movements of this couple are strikingly beautiful and powerful. And the amazing part of this presentation is that both of the individuals have visible disabilities that would appear on the surface to be illogical to achieving artistic and career success as dancers. I love this piece because it redefines how strengths are sometimes counterintuitive to conventional thinking when it comes to choosing a career and managing a “disability” in the workforce.

The title of this dance presentation is “Hand in Hand.” The dancers are Ma Li and Zai Xiaowei and the ballet choreography is by Zhao Limin. If you would like to watch this five minute presentation, click on the start arrow below. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

The One Thing You Need to Know

2009-02-15T10:40:00.023-06:00

The One Thing You Need to Know... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success is the title of a book written by one of my favorite authors Marcus Buckingham. This book is an excellent read for managers in private industry and the nonprofit sector alike. The One Thing You Need to Know is provocative and challenges traditional thinking about the primary roles of effective managers and leaders.

A number of key management strategies and leadership principles are advanced in this book. And most of them are of high value for managers of disability employment programs. I really enjoyed the chapters on sustained individual success including playing to one’s signature strengths to achieve lasting career growth and success. All of this material was very helpful to organizing my thoughts about management and leadership strategies. However, one particular passage continues to resonate with me since I finished the last chapter and closed the book.

In a discussion on leadership, Buckingham writes about the universal needs of a company’s employees and what they crave most from their leaders. In his words: "the most powerful universal need is for clarity." If a leader wants to influence and motivate her colleagues, she needs to "transform their fear of the unknown into a confidence in the future."

Buckingham offers four critical points he says are instrumental to driving clarity, transforming behavior, and keeping a company’s employees focused, challenged, confident, and engaged. These four points include clear answers to the following questions:

Who do we serve?
What is our core strength?
What is our core score?
What actions can we take today?

Each of these issues is critical to an effective leadership and communication strategy. And each is a cornerstone to defining an organization’s purpose and fundamental goals. Of course, we could spend a lot of time discussing each one of them. However, I would like to take up his first point of clarity in this post– Who do we serve?

Hey, that’s the easy one, right? Everybody knows who our principle customer is!

Well, I don’t think there is as much clarity on this point as one is often led to believe. Of course, it’s quite common to hear "people with disabilities" are the primary customers of community rehabilitation programs (CRPs) because they are target recipients of our services. Another conventional viewpoint is that "government or funding agencies" are the principal customers of CRPs because they refer people and purchase our services. Most CRP managers would identify "community businesses" as core customers since they offer the jobs critical to our participants’ employment outcome success. And finally, we hear other viewpoints that "family members, community agency partners, internal customers, or the taxpaying public" are valued customers of CRPs. I have offered seven possibilities here and this is by no means an exhaustive list.

To carry this discussion further, it’s very common for CRPs to conceptualize their business as serving multiple customers. For example, I often hear agency managers say– "We are unique because serve three sets of customers: people with disabilities, government funding agencies, and employers."

I have a few related questions here. How do agency staff effectively serve three, four, or five customers each and every day? How can we prioritize staff functions and time allocations so each of these customers are served efficiently and effectively? How can we craft policies and practices to simplify, integrate, and clarify the focus and energies of staff? How (where) do we invest our limited funding resources to maximize impact on our many customers? How can we rally staff around a common vision and set of principles to maximize teamwork and create synergy with so many customers to please? In the end, what does performance excellence look like for the organization and its professional staff?

In his discussion on leadership, Buckingham reveals that many private corporations tend to struggle with the same types of questions. He shares somewhat whimsically that most companies tend to believe in this notion– "We serve many masters." However, serving many masters obscures the clarity we are seeking and divides available energies and resources into numerous parts. So the core question is– How can we reconcile this issue?

Research on organizational excellence indicates the most successful corporate leaders work hard to simplify this question by focusing on "one master." In other words, the best run, most successful companies clarify by focusing their attention and energies on serving one primary customer. And by tapping power of the ripple effect, the most successful corporations end up serving all of its customers effectively.

For example, mega-corporations such as Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and Best Buy have taken quantum leaps in their respective markets by providing a high degree of clarity for their employees. In these corporations, there is no confusion about who the primary customer is. To illustrate this fact, Buckingham points to the corporate strategy of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has chosen to focus its full energies and resources in serving people who live "paycheck to paycheck." Of course, this doesn’t mean shoppers with greater means are unwelcome to shop there. It simply means Wal-Mart’s entire corporate strategy is passionately focused on welcoming and attracting the loyalty of shoppers who live on the lower end of budget spectrum.

Controversial and political issues aside, it’s hard to argue with this point–Wal-Mart has successfully branded its product. This retailer has done a remarkable job identifying its primary customer base and its employees have a high degree of clarity concerning the question "Who do we serve?" All of Wal-Mart’s corporate resources and energies are directed at doing this job better than anyone else.

Let me take this discussion closer to home. There is little question most CRPs and similar adult disability service organizations engage a number of stakeholders on a day-to-day basis. And it’s really not my point here to say one set of customers is more important or valuable than another. Rather, at the heart of this discussion is the fact most CRPs are very complex organizations and lack a high degree of clarity on the fundamental question– Who do we serve?

Who does your agency serve? Actually, it’s a pretty easy question to answer after spending a little time examining your organization’s business fundamentals. Show me your mission statement and strategic plan. Show me your annual corporate goals. Tell me how your agency’s fiscal resources are invested. Show me your organizational chart and staffing structure. Share with me what your staff do and how they spend a majority of their time. Tell me where they spend their time. Show me what your staff development training looks like. Tell me which policies and practices are driving the daily activities of your staff. Finally, show me your annual report and outcome data. As we sift through this information objectively, we should have a clear idea of who your primary customer really is.

I've weighed Buckingham's thesis and it's strengthened my view most CRPs (and similar disability service organizations) have it all wrong. In my view, the primary customer of a typical CRP ought to be private industry. This may sound counterintuitive to the priorities of many organizations but this focus makes great sense. If integrated employment at competitive wages and benefits is truly our preferred and desired outcome, then we have to change the way we do our business. We need to restructure policies and practices to breakdown the ‘silos’ we have erected that segregate people with disabilities. We need to work toward a new vision of universal design where people with disabilities are supported in valued community roles not programs. We need to increase the demand for our "product" in the marketplace by making the business case for hiring people with disabilities. We need more "foot soldiers" directly engaging employers on a day-to-day basis. In sum, we need to invest more time, money, and energies in ways that engage business leaders to play primary not secondary roles.

I will offer an educated guess here– despite claims to the contrary, business and workforce development is not really the principle focus of most CRPs and a disproportionate percentage of time, expertise, and resources are directed to other customers. OK, certain programs (e.g., housing) are not designed with employment outcomes as their principle goal. I get this. However, this tends to be a minority of programs in most CRPs. And yet many others could embrace employment-first strategies and practices but choose not to.

Be sure of this– attaining the full inclusion of people with disabilities will remain a distant dream, until CRPs turn their human services and rehabilitation emphasis on its ear. To this end, we need employers driving the proverbial bus. Business and workforce development needs to be the principal focus and CRPs should be dedicating a much higher share of their time, resources, and energies to building dynamic partnerships with business leaders.

When you think about it– naming private industry as our principle customer would completely change the future landscape. It would fundamentally change the way CRPs and their employees think about and do their work. It would change the very core of who we are as organizations. It would mean transforming our operations from human services or rehabilitation providers to business partners. Of course, it would also mean restructuring staff roles and duties to cater first to the service and support needs of private industry. In this emerging role, CRPs would concern themselves with what businesses need to hire, train, employ, and support their employees with disabilities. And we would work passionately and with higher clarity to deliver it.

When we engage business partnerships and support people in the competitive labor force, we will also witness the "power of the ripple effect" Buckingham refers to. In other words, the "other" customers served by CRPs will be equally pleased and well-served by this fundamental change in focus. People with disabilities will go to work in greater numbers, earn more money, and achieve integration within the community’s workforce. Family members will be excited about the inclusion and success of their loved ones. Government funding agencies will be pleased with the CRP’s performance in securing integrated jobs at higher wages and benefits. And taxpayers will get more bang for their buck.

And here’s the one thing you need to know–everyone wins!

Minnesota's Value Proposition

2009-02-01T19:21:00.027-06:00

During this past year, I was invited to participate in a State Leaders Innovation Institute (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.

The SLII is a project initiative of the National Technical Assistance & Research (NTAR) Leadership Center and John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The project objectives for NTAR are sponsored by the Department of Labor’s Office on Disability Employment Policy (ODEP).

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.

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.

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 Regional Planning & Prosperity Group, 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.

Our second work team, the Workforce & Economic Development Integration Group, 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.

Our third work team, the Value Proposition Group, 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.

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.

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.

Minnesota’s Value Proposition-

"We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper."

Summary

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.

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:

Economies (or communities) in which businesses thrive and employees succeed.
Workplace flexibility (or customization) that maximizes productivity.
Work that transforms lives and economic performance.
Work experiences and evolving attitudes that change the workforce.
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).

These policies would bring new workers into the workplace rather than erecting barriers that keep them out.

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.

But the workforce development system should not simply sit on the sideline and wait for this to happen eventually. We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper.

This is the organizing principle of our work.

Minnesota’s Value Proposition Work Team includes:

Jeff Bangsberg, Member - Minnesota’s State Rehabilitation Council
Steve Ditschler, Chief Executive Officer, ProAct, Inc.
John Fisher, MN Department of Employment & Economic Development
MaryAlice Mowry, MN Department of Human Services, Director, Pathways to Employment
Don Lavin, Vice President, Rise, Inc. & Minnesota’s Employment First Coalition

Happy New Year, Happy New You!

2009-01-24T16:46:00.046-06:00

After finishing my run at the local YMCA, I walked over to the matted area to stretch. Stretching has become an important post-run activity for a guy who is getting as old as I am. I need to do this to keep the old muscles and joints flexible and ward off potential injuries. Anyway, as I was engaged in a series of stretching routines my attention was distracted by a bulletin board hanging on the wall in front of me. The bulletin board displayed an important message for the Y’s customers. It read–

2009 Happy New Year, Happy New You!

Forget the Resolutions.
Make the Change!
Your body will change when it is challenged to change.

You know, I'm always amused at how crowded it gets at the YMCA during the first week of January each year. The facility gets over-populated with all of these well-intentioned people who made New Year’s Resolutions to get their bodies back into shape. And slowly but inevitably, the Y’s daily census goes down visibly with each passing week. By the time the end of February rolls around, we seem to have the same old crowd working out and the Y's facilities return to normal levels of activity.

It’s just not easy to make a real change such as fitting regular exercise into your schedule unless you're fully committed. And so I thought this message displayed by the Y’s staff contained pearls of wisdom for these newcomers! Changing old habits is easy prey to good intentions. But making real changes means adopting a new way of thinking and behaving. The Nike Shoe folks put it simply and succinctly– Just do it!

I got to thinking about how this wisdom also applies to the work we do in this business of disability and employment. There's sure a lot of talk about placing more youth and adults with significant disabilities into the workforce. And there's a lot of posturing and going through the motions by the management of schools and disability organizations about rebalancing programs and increasing the percentage of participants who obtain integrated jobs at competitive wages and benefits.

With every passing year, we hear more annual resolutions from organizations about the need to expand choices, identify signature skills sets, individualize service plans, and increase competitive employment and wages. Yet somehow these annual resolutions and long range plans seem to fade slowly to far and distant dreams. And most organizations never really change all that much in their structure or capacities to deliver on the promise.

Most disability organizations run into inevitable obstacles trying to transform their vision into workable daily practices. And many who express an interest to move toward substantial organizational changes often fail because they bow to internal and external pressures of "backfilling." That is, they remain open to policies and practices of replacing individual workers who leave their facilities with new candidates. This "slot" or "capacity" mentality is not congruent with person-centered values and service practices.

Backfilling practices are also common in secondary education programs serving youth and young adults with disabilities. For example, many schools have adopted the strategy of developing jobs in the workforce that are set aside as transferable or reusable "training slots." This strategy may offer time-limited work experiences for some youth but assuredly this strategy does not lead to individualized, strengths-based employment outcomes.

Each time a backfilling transaction occurs, it resets the organization's systems change schedule. Further, such practices are self-defeating because they fail to close the gap in rebalancing a school's or organization's progress in obtaining real jobs at competitive wages and benefits for all.

Achieving real organizational change requires vision, leadership, and a clear plan of action. However, rebalancing the direction of a school or organization also requires a steadfast discipline to stay the course. This means resisting inevitable temptations to yield to quick fix solutions. It also means managing real challenges associated with developing competitive jobs in a poor economic climate. Be sure of this–lack of discipline will result in loss of focus, redirection of fiscal resources, misdirection of staff energies, and a weakened sense of urgency in moving toward systems change goals.

For these reasons, adopting "employment-first" values and service strategies can help to keep an organization on the right track. Employment-first strategies are crafted to reset service expectations and redesign policies and practices to break this cycle of inertia. Organizations truly committed to an employment-first vision will break through shallow resolutions and adopt new strategies in service delivery design, policies, and practices.

In sum, realizing significant changes in organizational behavior requires a new vision and blueprint for change that is rooted in firm discipline. Practically speaking, this means redesigning service policies so new applicants such as transition-aged youth are guided directly to options in the community's workforce. This also means engaging new program practices to challenge the status quo and permanently reduce the numbers of individuals who are supported in center-based employment and non-work options. Finally, this means increasing job placement initiatives and incrementally reducing the census of center-based programs by creating new policies and not backfilling positions.

As we enter calendar year 2009, I would like to offer a New Year’s message to my readers:

Forget the Resolutions.
Make the Change!
Your organization’s service outcomes will change when they are challenged to change!
And your outcomes will be challenged to change when your vision, mission, objectives, policies, budgets, staff roles, partnerships, and practices are realigned to support the development and creation of integrated jobs in the workforce.

Happy New Year, Happy New You!

Employment First: Enlarging the Circle of Partners

2008-12-13T09:04:00.010-06:00

While doing some Internet research recently, I came upon a poem written by American Poet, Edwin Markham. This poem is very short but packs a powerful message. It struck me how fitting this message is for agents of change in the disability and employment-first movement. Markham’s poem is called Outwitted and I have included the text below.

He drew a circle that shut me out–
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win,
We drew a circle that took him in.

Who is he (she)?

In our employment-first cause, it’s the people who need gentle and not-so-gentle persuasion. It could be a legislator, government policymaker, vocational rehabilitation counselor, social worker, or a parent or family member. It might be a community rehabilitation agency executive, program director, or direct service staff. It could be an educator, residential provider, psychologist, or mental health professional. It might be a business owner, company executive, human resources director, operations manager, or employment supervisor. And yes, it could be an individual with a disability who does not believe in his or her own employment potential and perhaps fears getting a job in the competitive workforce.

The real work of employment-first advocates is enlarging this circle of supporters and creating effective partnerships. And it is going to take a variety of strategies to achieve better results. This includes, but is not limited to, new or enhanced policies, public education, rebalancing of public resources, retooling job roles for disability support professionals, staff development training, transforming organizations and their administrative infrastructures, business marketing and development, and infusion of promising practices such as customized and supported employment.

All said, we need to work together to enlarge our circle of supporters. And when we run into the well anticipated obstacles, we need to remember to draw a "bigger circle" to take the challenger in!

Happy holidays to all of my readers!

Don Lavin

Yes we can!

2008-11-09T21:25:00.022-06:00

Photo by Getty Images

On November 4th 2008, Barack Obama made history by becoming the first African American to be elected President of the United States. I can still see the wild elation and pride in the faces of his diverse supporters as he strolled out on stage to acknowledge his election victory. Obama spoke eloquently to the crowd about his amazing journey to the presidency and reaffirmed how tried and true American values are still very much alive today. This improbable election of a black man in a predominantly white America is a socio-political barometer of just how far this country has come in its race relations and goals of inclusion.

Obama’s stunning victory aside, there is still a lot of work left to do.

This blog is dedicated principally to a discussion about employment and disability related issues. And I have intentionally avoided political discourse here because I believe the employment and self-sufficiency goals of Americans with disabilities is a non-partisan issue. The truth is I don’t believe either major party, Democratic or Republican, has delivered on the promise of a more inclusive life for Americans with disabilities. For decades, there’s been a lot of rhetoric on both sides of the aisle about this issue. However, neither party has adequately dealt with the unemployment gap of Americans with disabilities no matter which party is in control of the Presidency or Congress. Today, in the year 2008, the unemployment rate of Americans with disabilities remains a national disgrace.

Is the election of Barack Obama a political breakthrough? Well, I am not so easily impressed but I am willing to give the new President-Elect the benefit of the doubt. It will take more than political sound bites, however, to bring about "change we can believe in." This country needs to take measured steps to remove systemic barriers that are contributing to the high unemployment of adults with disabilities to bring about real social and economic change.

Mr. Obama has not asked for my advice (hey, I am not a plumber!), but I’ve logged more than 35 years in this business of disability and employment services. And I’m more than willing to share my two cents with the new Obama administration. So here are 11 ideas to significantly and substantially improve the competitive employment of Americans with disabilities.

1. Make the competitive employment of Americans with disabilities a national priority. I am serious about this. The costs of lifelong unemployment are simply staggering in human and financial terms. We can no longer afford to have Americans with disabilities idle and outside the labor force. Recently, an employment leadership team in Minnesota crafted a value proposition for our State that says it best–"We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper."

We are dealing with several converging factors here. Despite the present economic crisis, the emerging workforce in America is going to experience serious labor shortages and a depletion of talent in the next decade as baby boomers exit for retirement. How will American business handle this labor shortage given our demographic realities? Well, unemployed people with disabilities have important qualities and talents to contribute and they can work successfully with the right measure of job support. Also, lifelong dependency on Social Security disability benefits is not only an expensive proposition but a waste of human potential.

As the old expression goes– "Success happens when preparation meets with opportunity." And make no mistake about this– opportunity is knocking.

2. Embrace a national "employment first" vision. Simply stated, we need a new vision of what it means to live with a disability in America so everyone is included and contributes up to his or her potential. Minnesota’s Employment First Coalition has defined employment first as expecting, encouraging, providing, creating, and rewarding integrated employment in the workforce as the first and preferred option of youth and adults with disabilities. Our country needs an employment first vision to help shape public policy across numerous disability service systems including secondary and post-secondary education and adult human services.

A nationwide vision for change should be crafted by a Presidential Committee and adopted by all appropriate federal agencies such as the Department of Labor, Department of Education, Social Security Administration, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, and others. Such a coordinated policy would better serve the collective interests of Americans with disabilities. An articulated national vision will also encourage the states to adopt similar policy initiatives to widen opportunities and employment outcomes.

3. Refine public policies and rebalance resources to support an employment first vision. A nationwide vision for change needs to be reflected in all appropriate federal public policies impacting education as well as adult health and human services for Americans with disabilities. These policies need to be unmistakably clear about expectations for competitive employment as well as flexible to encourage and reward an employment first approach. Our country already spends millions of dollars on secondary education, adult community services, Social Security disability benefits, transportation, and comprehensive health care of Americans with disabilities. Many of these resources, however, are not used to encourage job placement in the workforce. Resolving our national unemployment problem will require a "rebalancing" of many existing resources to encourage and increase competitive employment and self-sufficiency outcomes.

4. Establish a national goal to systemically reduce the unemployment of youth and adults with disabilities. There is an old adage– What gets measured, gets done. There have been a number of national studies documenting the high unemployment rate of adults with disabilities. We need to identify an accepted baseline of unemployment and then establish a national goal to focus the public’s attention on new policies and funding priorities to eradicate this persistent problem. Our national goal should be bold and increase the employment rate by a substantial percentage over an identified period of time. And we should implement a national "scorecard" to measure our performance in narrowing the high unemployment gap between Americans with disabilities and the general public.

Of course, establishing a measurable national goal means crafting a uniform definition of employment so everyone is working from the same set of assumptions. At a minimum, these standards should include the following:

regular or customized (negotiated) jobs in the workforce
arrangements where employees with disabilities are included on the payroll of the employing company or industry (unless self-employed)
employment tasks that offer at least minimum or prevailing wages and benefits
jobs that offer ordinary opportunities for integration and interaction with co-workers without disabilities, with customers, and/or the general public
arrangements where employees with disabilities are supervised and supported by company managers and supervisors to the fullest extent possible.

5. Rebrand the existing system of "rehabilitation" to one of strengths-based practices. The present system of rehabilitation is invested in an array of services designed to correct problems associated with the presence of disabilities. Even the lexicon associated with delivery of special education and adult disability services communicates the wrong message. There is an unintended perception in the public that people with disabilities are "damaged" in some way and need to be "rehabilitated" so they can join the workforce like the rest of us. This is an archaic way of thinking and communicating about our work.

I propose a rebranding of this important work we do. Our country needs to move toward an educational and workforce system that identifies, markets, and employs individual assets and strengths. Emerging practices in customized and supported employment offer exciting possibilities to change the present system of rehabilitation services. Many people with disabilities, especially those with complex and significant disabilities, do not need rehabilitation but rather customized job supports to choose, get, and keep competitive employment.

6. Educate and invest in private-public partnerships to engage business leaders. There is a growing body of evidence that hiring Americans with disabilities is just good business. Studies have demonstrated that workers with disabilities are loyal employees who bring necessary talents and skills into the workforce. Despite stereotypes about disability, there is no evidence that employees with disabilities are unsafe or less effective on the job than employees who do not have disabilities. Further, the American public has expressed a strong support of businesses that choose to hire job seekers with disabilities. In fact, one national study indicated 87% of the American public would prefer to give their business to companies who do so (Gallop Poll, University of Massachusetts, and America’s Strength Foundation, 2006).

With this said, we need more business leaders to champion this important cause and carry our message forward. On the demand-side, there are many thousands of satisfied employers who have practical experiences as well as expertise in the hiring and integration of workers with disabilities. And many can speak about their employees with disabilities with direct authority and knowledge about their business contributions. In America, we don’t need a charitable marketing campaign but rather a national business dialogue about the economic values in hiring employees with disabilities. This not only means hiring qualified job applicants but also hiring quality workers who can perform essential job tasks customized to fit their identified strengths.

America needs large and small businesses to step up and educate their peers about their company’s experiences. In Minnesota, we are working to invest in the public education of business leaders to allay fears about hiring workers with disabilities and teach companies how to access this largely untapped labor resource.

Finally, we need to simplify the process of accessing technical support (i.e., job customization, job coaching, etc.) from the public and private, non-profit sectors so businesses can learn how to build internal expertise to supervise and support their employees with disabilities.

7. Invest in the development of new technologies and training in customized employment practices to increase competitive employment outcomes. If competitive employment and self-sufficiency are important national goals, then we must work to identify service practices, technologies, resources, and expertise that will lead to better return on investment (ROI). There is ample national research to document specific practices that are most effective in producing competitive employment and wage outcomes for youth and adults with disabilities.

If there is a public "buy in" that integrated employment and competitive wages ought to be a national priorities then we need to invest ample resources in wide-scale staff development and training initiatives so educators and adult service professionals are prepared to assume new roles. For many this proposed change in philosophy and practices will be viewed as a threat. Regardless of the resistance, these changes must be pursued. If we intend to promote a new direction away from caretaking to business consultation roles, these professionals will need to be equipped with new skill sets. With these new competencies, professionals can support companies in recruiting, hiring, training, supervising, and integrating employees with disabilities in the competitive labor force.

8. Increase the demand for competitive employment through more effective marketing and public education of self-advocates and family members. The real engine of social change is not money but rather expectations. Of course, we need adequate public resources to obtain high quality education and adult service outcomes. However, without high expectations, people with disabilities and their families will often settle for program services and outcomes that do not encourage them to participate fully in the mainstream of community life. This is reinforced by the fact that a majority of adults with significant disabilities are supported today in programs that offer segregation and long-term dependency regardless of the cost.

Sadly, many youth and adults with disabilities and their families give up on the American Dream because they believe competitive employment is beyond their reach. For example, it is common to hear family members share their apprehension or disbelief about the prospects for competitive employment of a loved one because educators or adult service professionals have discouraged them from setting their goals too high. It is also quite common for youth with disabilities (and their families) to be lacking current information about opportunities available or where to access innovative services that may lead to competitive jobs.

A colleague of mine, Shauna McDonald, is a family advocate and she framed it correctly. Shauna said this– "We will get better outcomes from schools and adult service providers when families demand it." She is right. If people with significant disabilities and their families are willing to settle for a life of dependency, very few people are likely to challenge this choice.

How can America increase its demand for integrated employment? We can accomplish this objective through better public education and advocacy. We need to make people with disabilities and their families more aware of the exciting possibilities available and open to them. It is particularly instructive to share employment success stories to create hope, stimulate imagination, and increase their expectations. When people with disabilities and their families recognize the clear benefits, expectations will change and they will choose work.

9. Invest in the enhancement of public transportation and other community support systems to promote employability. One shallow criticism of the employment first movement is this notion of engaging a one-dimensional employment strategy to the exclusion of others. Most proponents of an employment first vision recognize the importance of holistic planning and integrating critical collateral services to support the job placement and self-sufficiency goals of youth and adults with disabilities.

To illustrate, the best laid employment plans will never be successfully launched for some individuals without reliable access to public or privately supported transportation. Similarly, many adults with serious mental illnesses will not succeed in competitive employment without access to effective, responsive mental health treatment. Many job seekers who are deaf or hard of hearing cannot function successfully in their job search without access to American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters or Occupational Communication Specialists. In addition, many adults with intellectual disabilities living in community residential services will require flexible, responsive staff support to accommodate their work schedules. Finally, young adults in secondary education programs often need access to a wide array of services within school as well as from the adult service system to successfully transition from school-to-careers.

To say it simply, job placement success is the product of identifying multiple, complex systems barriers and removing them effectively. This means considering the whole person and providing a critical array of community supports to make integrated employment a viable option.

10. Support systems change policies thoughtfully and methodically to substantially reduce programs that segregate people and compete with an employment first vision. Our country needs to move more aggressively toward policies to encourage and reward integrated employment as the first option. Most community rehabilitation and center-based programs tout their use of "individualized" and "person-centered" services. Yet the majority of these programs in the United States engage in direct service practices that do not lead to competitive employment. Low expectations coupled with these ineffective practices lead to predictable, long-term outcomes in sheltered workshops and center-based programs for a vast majority of Americans with significant disabilities.

Programs that deploy an employment first philosophy and engage customized and supported employment practices are far more effective in producing integrated employment and competitive wages across many diverse service populations (i.e., youth in transition, adults with intellectual disabilities, adults with serious mental illnesses, adults with hearing loss, etc.) As stated earlier, one of the key problems is in rebalancing resources away from traditional practices that are too costly in the long run and less effective in producing competitive employment results. We need new policies to limit and discourage enrollment in these programs if we want more people to secure competitive jobs in the workforce.

11. Work to eliminate sub-minimum wages. No other minority population in the United States would tolerate payment of sub-minimum wages as sanctioned by this country’s labor policies for adults with disabilities. I acknowledge many individuals with significant disabilities struggle to meet competitive job productivity standards. Of course, this issue is exacerbated because most individuals working in center-based and sheltered employment programs have so few work options to choose from. Oftentimes, job assignments are not a very good match to their interests or innate talents and skills. The end result is low productivity reinforcing a self-fulfilling prophecy that people with disabilities need jobs in workshops and center-based settings at sub-minimum wages. When adult service providers operate from such a narrow base of jobs to choose from, there will be inevitable mismatches that do not bring out the best in employees with disabilities.

Over the years, I’ve observed many people leaving workshop settings for jobs that are a better match to their skills. And guess what? When placed in jobs that are a positive match, these folks almost always secure employment earning the federal minimum wage or higher.

This is why it is critical for our country to invest in a customized employment approach. America needs to do a better job of finding, negotiating, and if necessary, creating jobs in the workforce to widen opportunities and better match the signature skills of job seekers with disabilities. This is only common sense.

To be sure, President-Elect Obama will have a full plate when he takes office on January 20, 2009. He will be distracted by an economic crisis fueled by a worldwide credit tsunami and an unpopular war that is draining precious federal resources. Still, I believe Obama understands the historic, unprecedented opportunity associated with his election to the nation’s highest office. And he has a duty to extend to America’s largest minority population the same privileges he enjoyed as a minority member in his own climb to national prominence.

Of course, what I am talking about here has nothing to do with "spreading wealth around" as Obama’s critics have assailed. Rather, it has to do with "spreading opportunity around" and investing in people so they a chance to contribute to the best of their ability.

Is America up to this challenge? Can we transform a sluggish, institutionalized system of federal, State, and local services so it encourages and rewards people with disabilities to move in a new direction? Well, I am taking a page from Obama’s play book–

Yes we can!

Minnesota's 2nd Annual Employment First Summit

2008-10-15T22:10:00.013-05:00

On November 14th, 2008, Minnesota’s Employment First Coalition will host its 2nd Annual Employment First Summit 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.

The outstanding success of Minnesota’s Employment First Summit 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.

Minnesota’s Manifesto 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Minnesota APSE– The Network on Employment 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.

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!

Top 10 Reasons Why People with Disabilities Should Work

2008-09-20T20:43:00.016-05:00

Poster by Michael O'Harro

Recently, I accepted an invitation to speak at a Statewide video conference entitled: The Meaning and Value of Employment of People with Disabilities in Minnesota. This video conference is being planned and sponsored by Pathways to Employment (PTE), Minnesota’s Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG). The mission of PTE is to increase the competitive employment of people with disabilities and meet Minnesota's workforce needs by bringing together people with disabilities, employers, businesses, government, and providers. This upcoming conference is dedicated to a discussion on real values of employment, beyond wages, from the perspective of workers with disabilities. The target audience for the video conference is people with disabilities and family members, County staff, providers of disability-related services, and advocates from all around the State of Minnesota. Appropriately, the event will include perspectives and views of people with disabilities as well as advocates working to promote competitive employment for working age adults with disabilities.

I will share my viewpoint and conclusions with the audience based on 32 years of management experience with employment and workforce development programs. And I intend to keep the discussion light and fun so I’ve decided to use a "David Letterman Top Ten" approach as I present the main reasons why youth and adults with disabilities should choose work as their first option. Here they are–

10. Work makes you feel good.

American author and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, said it best- "What exercise is to the body, work is to the mind." Thoreau’s observation is not only correct but supported by employment related research. In the area of mental health, for example, supported employment has been identified as an evidenced-based practice (EBP) in recovery from a serious mental illness. New research tells us that people shouldn’t wait until they recover before they go to work. Rather, the opposite is apparently true– people tend to recover BECAUSE they go to work! There is little question that having an occupation is fundamental to human wellness and for so many reasons.

9. The workforce needs you.

Numerous workforce studies forecast labor shortages in the next decade including warnings about how impending baby boomer retirements will deplete the American workforce of critical talents. Also, studies document the challenges business are having finding skilled and unskilled labor across a spectrum of economic sectors. To illustrate, a recent study by Manpower, Inc. revealed 41% of American companies surveyed were having trouble filling jobs. Clearly, changing workforce demographics and dynamic economies in America are creating new opportunities for partnerships with private businesses. Now is the time to engage the employability of all interested and available workers with a wide range of skills and abilities.

I am a member of an employment leadership team in Minnesota that recently crafted a value proposition to communicate the importance of including everyone in our local workforce. Minnesota’s value proposition says this– "We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper."

And including everyone means tapping every available citizen who wants to work.

8. Work is a part of your identity.

Whenever we meet new people, a ritual of getting to know one another commonly ensues. Generally speaking, people are initially interested in asking us questions about who we are and where we live. And the third most likely inquiry is this– "What do you do?"

Indeed, having an occupation is highly valued in our American culture. A job becomes a central part of the fabric of who we are and contributes to how others see and relate to us. Kate Stepkin, a U.S. baker, put it this way– "Work is an essential part of being alive. Your work is your identity. It tells you who you are."

"What do you do?" And how should chronically unemployed individuals answer this question? Further, how does their answer shape self-esteem or contribute to valued roles in their community?

7. Work gives you a chance to meet new people.

Many national studies validate that people with disabilities experience high and chronic unemployment separating them from the social and economic fabric of their communities. To illustrate, the National Organization on Disability (NOD)/ Louis Harris Poll conducted a study in 2004 and found people with disabilities were more likely to experience high unemployment (65%) and discrimination. Conversely, they were less likely to socialize, eat out, or attend religious services than their counterparts who don’t have disabilities. In addition, this study found people with disabilities were less likely to report overall satisfaction with their lives with only 34% saying they were highly satisfied verses 61% of their counterparts.

To say it simply, social similarities attract and differences repel. A working life gives people with disabilities an opportunity to meet and connect with others in their community. And this experience of friendship and collegial team work educates the public about the competence of people with disabilities to work and live in the mainstream of community life. Social integration is critical to widening opportunities, battling stereotypes, galvanizing human rights, and ensuring the American public’s support of universal design policies so no one is left behind and everyone is included.

6. Work provides life structures.

Work gives a fundamental purpose and meaning to our lives. It offers life structures and regular routines such as:

how we spend our time
what we spend our time doing
where we spend our time
who we spend our time with
why spend our time in the way we do.

Work offers consistency in our schedule and fills structured time with challenges, social relationships, and activities that nurture personal growth.

5. Work allows you to invest your skills and talents for pay.

Contrary to stereotypes, myths, and half-truths, people with disabilities are real economic assets. And work enables people with disabilities to invest their time, skills, and talents to the economic gain of employers and themselves. As it is for all people, the real challenge is identifying, unlocking, marketing, and employing innate talents or acquired job skills.

Like the unique color of our eyes, texture of our hair, or other physical attributes, we are all born with individual gifts and talents to contribute. Sadly, potential contributions of individuals living with significant disabilities are often overlooked, dismissed, or underestimated. Individual talents, however, can be examined through creative processes such as "discovery" or "person-centered career planning."

Discovery and career planning are designed to study and assess potential economic contributions of youth or adults with significant disabilities. These procedures are not assessment tools for screening the appropriateness or suitability of working. Rather they are strategies for identifying and determining how talents, assets, and potential contributions can be marketed to private industry. Once these possibilities are identified, they can be marketed to prospective employers through traditional job placement approaches. Or, customized employment practices can be used to build job opportunities around the unique interests and skills of individuals receiving the employment assistance.

In my view, it seems like such a waste of talent when no clear effort is made to employ the skills or innate potential that virtually everyone holds. Why not exchange these talents for real pay?

4. Work contributes to greater independence and self-support.

Unless people work or happen to be independently wealthy, most rely on someone else or the government for their keep. For chronically unemployed individuals, gaining a measure of economic power in their lives increases autonomy and choices about many personal matters. Earning a competitive wage and other employment benefits contributes to one’s self-support and provides discretionary income empowering people to set short-term and long-term goals.

3. Work contributes to higher productivity and achievement.

Competitive employment enables people to use their strengths and practice their skills. This leads to higher levels of individual competency and achievement. In addition, work enables people to pool their talents with others to achieve something greater than themselves. When people reach tangible personal goals they've set for themselves, it fuels higher self-esteem and personal competence. And when people with disabilities contribute to attainment of a company’s business accomplishments, it educates and breaks down social and economic barriers to success.

2. Poverty sucks!

I remember a politically incorrect poster many years ago by Micheal O'Harro. The poster portrayed a rich man standing in front of his Rolls Royce sipping on a cocktail. Inscribed above the photo was a sarcastic message– "Poverty Sucks!" Well, it sure does. Money may not buy happiness but it sure helps people pay the bills and live a minimum standard of life that brings comforts and pleasures.

A colleague and friend of mine, Joe Maronne, said it best– "If you think working is stressful, try a lifetime of unemployment and poverty." Right on, Joe!

1. Why work? Because you CAN!!

If you live with a disability, there is no better time in history than now to consider work. Almost anyone can work if he or she chooses to, has a good plan, finds an interested employer, and has access to essential work and community supports. Today, we have improved work incentives and public policies, amazing technologies to increase accessibility and functionality, better public and private transportation systems, and more effective employment practices to customize jobs and deliver the job supports people need to contribute in the workforce.

Is "going to work" really that easy for most people with disabilities? Of course not. If it were, there would be more people working. There are still significant barriers to employment for many Americans with disabilities because of low expectations and lack of access to responsive services many people need to meet presenting challenges or overcome individual circumstances.

If you really want to work and you’re getting the run around, I highly recommend seeking out educational and adult service providers who observe an "employment first" philosophy and believe in your abilities to work. These are the providers who are most likely to deliver on your potential. And yes, it may take some time to find the right employer or develop a job that is good match to your abilities, but it will be well worth the wait.

There is a place in the American workforce for anyone who chooses to work. We need to find it, develop it, or if necessary, create it.

For all of these reasons, I say-Choose work!

Jeffrey Nurick has a job!

2008-08-28T18:12:00.005-05:00

Last week, I downloaded my email and watched as the headers dropped one by one into queue. One message in particular caught my eye–

“Jeffrey Nurick has a job!”

I skipped all of my other unopened mail and went quickly to read the communication from Jeffrey Nurick. The news of Jeffrey’s hire was a welcome end to a long, frustrating job search journey for this colleague and friend of mine. With Jeffrey’s permission, I wanted to share his email in his own words. Here it is...

Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues,

No, your eyes did not deceive you. After much networking, interviews, letter writing campaigns, etcetera, I have finally found a part-time job. The job is working at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis campus) 14 hours per week.

I will be working for the Institute on Community Integration. If you click on this link, you will get an overview of what they do. http://ici.umn.edu/

More specifically, I will be working on a program within the Institute on Community Integration. The program, the College of Direct Support, is a training program designed for Direct Service Professionals (DSP's). DSP'S are similar to Personal Care Attendants (PCA'S). The difference between the two is that the DSP gets more involved in the client's lives. Some examples might be: being in charge of a client's finances and assisting in making everyday decisions with clients; the PCA's simply follow directions given by the client. Click on this link to get an overview of the College of Direct Support. http://info.collegeofdirectsupport.com/

My job will be to write a course for DSP's. I think the course will be on physical disabilities (they are not sure yet). If this is the case, it will be right up my ally!!! This is a new job, which they created for me. Other people multi-task and I will just be writing.

Why would somebody create a job just for me? I networked with a variety of the people that work there, and they fell in love with me!!! I was at a dinner meeting, when somebody pulled up a chair next to me and the conversation went something like this: "Jeffrey, I have reviewed your resume and see you here month after month. How would you like to work for us? I do not know what you would do, but let's schedule a meeting with the team, and we could brainstorm." I said "thank you, but I do not need another, volunteer job." The man replied, "Jeffrey, you are too talented not to get paid." I looked around the room, thinking he had to be talking to somebody else. I was wrong. The rest is history, as they say!!!

Finally, I want to thank everybody, and I do mean everybody, who has supported me over the years. I could not have done it alone!!!!!

Jeffrey

I met Jeffrey a couple of years ago when he enrolled in my organization to do national service as a member of our AmeriCorps team. Jeffrey, along with a couple of his colleagues, helped to design a customized employment service for adults with disabilities who are lacking access to services due to issues of ineligibility or access to funding. Jeffrey spent two years helping to shape the concept of the “AmeriCorps I-Team,” a completely voluntary program offering job placement and customized employment assistance for unemployed and underemployed Minnesotans with disabilities and other barriers to employment. The program was a huge success opening doors to opportunity for many without access to workforce services. And in 2006, Jeffrey fulfilled a two year national service commitment. Now, it was his time to move on and find a job in the workforce.

A little more background might be helpful here. Jeffrey was born with cerebral palsy, a condition that affects some of his physical capacities and speech. He uses a motorized wheelchair and is supported by a personal care attendant (PCA) with some skills of independent living. Jeffrey is a very bright individual who completed college with excellent grades and did an internship at the White House in Washington D.C. during the Clinton Administration. He joined the Corps ready to contribute his talents to public service.

Jeffrey has the education, experience, drive and motivation to perform a meaningful job. During his job search, he continued volunteering and networking. He volunteers regularly at the Courage Center and United Cerebral Palsy. He also is on the Minnesota Governor’s Board on Disability Issues, Minnesota APSE’s Board of Directors, the University of Minnesota's Institute on Community Integration’s (ICI) Advisory Board, and Transportation Council at CCD. He has addressed the Minnesota State Legislature on Disability, has met many elected officials, made new connections and regularly attends open forums and meetings. He developed a vast network, but still had been rejected by the private sector, not-for-profits, and government agencies. We know what he can accomplish and what his capabilities are, but employment recruiters could not seem to get past his wheelchair and speech challenges.

Sure, we anticipated Jeffrey would experience some challenges finding a competitive job after leaving the Corps. None of us, however, expected his job search to go on for two years!

During this long arduous job search, he endured the humiliation of low expectations, discrimination, and a general lack of confidence in his abilities to do a competitive job. He struggled finding an open door. Through all of this, Jeffrey maintained a positive, can do attitude and never lost sight of his goal. However, no one seemed willing to give Jeffrey a chance to show what he can do. No one, that is, until this past week.

You see, one of the benefits of serving in our AmeriCorps program was Jeffrey’s firsthand exposure to core principles of customizing employment. And Jeffrey’s new job holds many elements of these proven, cutting edge techniques.

For example, Jeffrey found his job through individual networking. As a member of the Institute on Community Integration (ICI’s) Advisory Council, he met a representative at ICI. This contact happens to work closely in the area of curriculum development at the College of Direct Supports. This contact also proved to be invaluable in creating his job opportunity and giving Jeffrey the chance he needed to prove himself in the workforce.

Next, Jeffrey’s job tasks were negotiated with his employer, the University of Minnesota. He will be doing curriculum writing for a new program being prepared for Direct Service Professionals (DSPs) through the College of Direct Supports. His position is highly customized around a fund of content knowledge, interests, and talents Jeffrey already has. In sum, Jeffrey’s job is well matched to his abilities and he is definitely qualified to fulfill the requirements customized around his work skills and capacities.

The job also meets a critical need of his employer. Jeffrey has used PCAs for a large part of his life. Therefore, he understands firsthand the critical skill sets and competencies needed to achieve success in this career field. He will do research and work with others to organize a comprehensive educational curriculum for aspiring DSPs. The University of Minnesota has hired a quality employee with ample firsthand experience and content knowledge to guide the development of this new program.

Jeffrey will only be working 14 hours a week. However, with a “foot in the door,” he will have ample opportunity to demonstrate his value to U of M colleagues and perhaps add more tasks to his position over time. If this is not possible, he will be building excellent job references to move forward with his career.

In addition to his job tasks, Jeffrey has planned and negotiated the supports he will need to achieve employment success. Some of these supports include the personal transportation he needs to get back and forth from the job. It also includes intrinsic supports such as effective communication strategies so Jeffrey is able to connect with his supervisor and colleagues at the U of M.

Jeffrey Nurick’s long journey to obtaining a competitive job has finally ended. And I am proud of him for hanging in there, putting the principles of customization into play, and creating a job for himself. Well done my friend!!

There is no question about it--customized employment is changing what it means to be “qualified” in the workforce one person at a time.

Sound Bites from the 2008 National APSE Conference

2008-07-21T18:14:00.014-05:00

I attended the 19th Annual National APSE Conference held in Louisville, Kentucky on July 9-11 with this year’s annual theme being The Winner’s Circle: Everybody Works! Everybody Wins!

I was pleased to share information about the emerging Employment First Movement along with my colleagues, Bob Niemiec from Minnesota APSE–The Network on Employment and Susan Rinne, a leader from Indiana’s Employment First Planning Coalition. Our joint presentation was entitled A Shift in the Force–Employment First. Bob, Susan, and I also facilitated a follow-up workshop on the second day entitled Employment First Everywhere–An Interactive Session on Building Employment First States. Both presentations were well received and it was energizing for the three of us to speak with so many colleagues from around the country who are launching similar initiatives and grappling with the same issues in promoting systems change in their own states.

Bob and I shared with the audience how Indiana’s Employment First Summit was a key stimulus and model for planning our own initiative in the State of Minnesota. And Susan shared how the success of Minnesota’s Employment First Summit had reignited new efforts in her own State of Indiana. Many members in our audience spoke eloquently about similar initiatives in their own states to make employment the first choice of working age adults. There is clearly an emerging national interest in employment first initiatives and their impact in bringing about policy changes and promoting promising practices in the United States.

In addition to my own sessions, I had the opportunity to attend a number of outstanding presentations related to the employment of youth and adults with disabilities. Although time and space doesn’t permit a detailed discussion of all them here, I thought I would cover a few sound bites from keynote presentations that captured my attention.

Dale DiLeo, a nationally recognized trainer, consultant, and author of the book Raymond’s Room: Ending the Segregation of Adults with Disabilities delivered a powerful keynote presentation to open the conference. Here are a couple of sound bites from his presentation:

""Why is it that supported employment programs always need to defend the position that its practices work and outcomes are successful? I think workshops need to explain to the public why their programs are so ineffective in creating integrated employment and wage outcomes."

DiLeo was basing his argument on repeated evidence-based research studies and service demonstrations that measure and contrast the unique capacities of workshops and supported employment programs to generate integrated employment at competitive wages and benefits for their respective participants. In truth, there really is no comparison. Supported employment programs are far superior and more efficient in developing integrated employment outcomes at competitive wages and benefits.

Quoting Martin Luther King, DiLeo said this: "A times comes when silence is betrayal."

DiLeo was emphasizing a point about the ethics of segregating adults with disabilities given the advancement of pioneering service policies, practices, and technologies. The "Disability Industrial Complex" as DiLeo calls it, is far more concerned about goals of perpetuating itself than it is in addressing the unique job placement goals of individuals. Despite overwhelming evidence that supported employment practices reduce the need for segregated services, a majority of workshops and center based programs have been unable to reconcile their own self-interests with those of expanding integrated employment outcomes for a majority of people they support.

National data on disability and employment clearly support DiLeo’s position. He shared his view about the critical need for leadership to drive essential social and economic changes thereby making integrated employment an expected, informed, and accessible choice for all Americans living with disabilities.

Dr. Shirley Davis, Director of Diversity Initiatives for the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), delivered the second day’s keynote address. Her talk was entitled Diversity in the Workplace. Here was my take away from Dr. Davis’ presentation:

"We are going to see unprecedented opportunities for people who want to work as our baby boomer generation begins to leave the workforce for retirement in the next decade ."

Dr. Davis introduced statistical evidence from her field of practice about the anticipated turnover rate in the workforce due to the aging of America’s baby boomer population. Also, she shared a survey conducted with baby boomers revealing a high percentage (more than 80%) are expressing their intent to either leave the workforce entirely or reduce their working life to a part-time schedule.

Dr. Davis articulated a position that changing demographic indicators in America mean significant changes are in store for our economy. Business leaders are already rethinking strategies to recruit and retain talent within their respective sectors of the economy. Since people with disabilities remain a largely untapped labor pool, this means employment service providers will have leverage in negotiating opportunities. However, we need marketing strategies to engage business leaders with new ideas so we can realize shared goals as business partners.

The closing keynote speaker at the conference was my friend and colleague Joe Marrone. Marrone is a Senior Program Manager for Public Policy and Director of Training and Technical Assistance at the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts. His keynote address was entitled: If everyone is doing it, then why doesn’t it ever get done?

Marrone’s most salient points were his remarks about people with disabilities having a "choice" when it comes to working:

"I don’t understand this idea that people with disabilities should have a choice about working. What ever happened to personal responsibility?"

Marrone shared his view that professionals working in the field of disability and employment could learn a lot by examining the service changes and progress made in the allied field of welfare reform and employment. Joe wasn’t implying the welfare system has solved all of its problems in supporting people to go to work. Rather he was merely pointing out that competitive employment and contributing to self-support is now an expectation driving welfare’s service delivery system. And more people are working today because competitive employment is a clearly defined expectation and goal for all. And only core services that support this goal are planned, funded, and delivered.

Marrone’s admonition reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the late Austrian psychiatrist and Halocoust survivor, Dr. Viktor E. Frankl. Frankl once said:

"Freedom is only part of the story and half the truth. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplanted by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast."

Here is another sound bite from Marrone’s presentation concerning emerging activities with the Employment First movement.

"I guess I just don’t understand all of this talk about employment first, summits, manifestos, and so forth. If employment is what comes first, then what comes second?"

Aha! Well Joe, I think I can answer this one for you. If employment comes first, then earned paychecks with competitive wages and benefits comes second! And when employment becomes the fundamental expectation of all working age Americans, there will be no further need for employment first because secondary choices will be needed by a minority of individuals who choose not to work for whatever the reason.

At the awards dinner, Patrick Henry Hughes, a virtuoso pianist, vocalist, and trumpet player, spoke with the APSE audience about his life experiences and growing up with significant disabilities. Born without sight and the ability to walk, Hughes is currently enrolled at the University of Louisville and is a straight A student majoring in Spanish. He attracted national media attention recently when he became a member of the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Marching Band. Hughes is a trumpet player and uses a wheelchair. As the story goes, his Dad (Patrick John Hughes) became a member of the "Hughes Team" by assisting his son’s field movements in the wheelchair at scheduled sporting and special events. The Hughes story has attracted national media attention and both Patrick Henry and the elder Hughes have received numerous invitations to speak at public venues to share their unique parent and child perspectives on living with a significant disability.

At the close of his presentation, Patrick Henry said this to our audience:

"I am still not sure where my education and career opportunities will lead me. I know there are many things that I cannot do. However, there are a number of things that I can do well and I intend to use and take advantage of these skills I have."

I don’t think Hughes left an iota of doubt in anyone’s mind about this fact.

Finally, APSE’s State Chapters delivered a fond and heartfelt farewell to Celane McWhorter, who will be retiring as National APSE’s Executive Director in the near future. As the chief executive for National APSE, McWhorter has been a tireless advocate and made many contributions to advance the employment of adults with disabilities in the United States. Celane will be greatly missed and APSE’s National Board is presently working to recruit a new Executive Director. The newly hired Executive Director will have big shoes to fill.

In closing, I would like to salute the Kentucky APSE Chapter for planning and running an outstanding and stimulating conference. They were excellent hosts and the event was a highly successful gathering of America’s champions of supported and customized employment.

I am already looking forward to next year’s 20th Annual Meeting which will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.