Podcasts about rehabilitative services

About the Guest(s):Glenna Wright-Gallo, is most the recent assistant secretary in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the United States Department of Education under the previous administration and a seasoned expert in public education, focusing on special education and policy implementation. With nearly two decades of experience in state educational agencies and a strategic stint at the U.S. Department of Education, Glenna has developed a deep understanding of inclusion and systemic improvement. As a recognized advocate for equitable educational opportunities, she actively works to enhance the quality of education for learners with disabilities. Her insights draw from a rich career in both academia and policy formation, bolstered by her personal advocacy as a parent and professional committed to public education.Episode Summary:In this episode of the Think Inclusive podcast, Glenna Wright-Gallo joins host Tim Villegas to delve into the pressing concerns surrounding public education, particularly in the context of special education. They discuss the threats and misconceptions about dismantling the ED and explore the role and significance of federal oversight in ensuring equitable education for all. Glenna offers her expert perspective on why maintaining the structure of public education is crucial while advocating for continuous reform and improvement.Amidst a backdrop of political shifts and administrative changes, the conversation underscores the vital role the Department of Education plays in supporting diverse and inclusive educational environments. Keywords like "IDEA oversight," "federal funding," and "inclusive practices" punctuate their discussion as they highlight the consequences of weakening federal oversight. Glenna articulates the potential risks, emphasizing the need for a coordinated system that combines federal guidance with state implementation to support learners with disabilities effectively.The discussion is timely and pertinent, especially in light of increased political attention on education. They examine the impact of executive orders on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives, underscoring the critical nature of advocacy and public involvement. Glenna's insight offers listeners a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of public education reform, stressing the importance of informed community engagement and robust advocacy in shaping policy that serves every child equitably.Complete Show Notes + Transcript: https://mcie.org/think-inclusive/saving-ed-why-the-u-s-department-of-education-is-essential-for-students-with-disabilities/Key Takeaways:The ED plays a crucial role in ensuring consistent educational standards across states, particularly for special education.Dismantling the Department could result in fragmented oversight, reducing the effectiveness of IDEA and potentially reversing progress made in inclusive education.Monitoring and public input are vital components of federal and state education oversight, yet both require significant public engagement to be effective.Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives remain essential for fostering inclusive learning environments, despite political opposition.Advocacy and public voice are crucial in protecting and advancing public education policies that support equity and access for all students.Resources:Building and Sustaining Inclusive Educational Practices: https://bit.ly/ED-Inclusive-Practices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2015, the Office of Special Education Programs published a letter stating that school teams were “not prohibited” from using the term “dyslexia”. Unfortunately, this letter left many questions unanswered and is often misinterpreted.Parents seeking out services for their children are still unsure how to advocate for appropriate services in their schools and communities.School teams are still unsure about what they're “permitted” vs. “required” to do.Professionals are unsure who is qualified or responsible for identifying students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities. That's why I invited Tom Parton to episode 178 of De Facto Leaders to discuss legal mandates, ethical obligations, and factors school teams should consider when making decisions about curriculum and assistive technology. Tom Parton is a private Speech Language Pathologist in Normal, Illinois. He retired after 35 years of public-school practice. Tom is President of Everyone Reading Illinois and is a member of ERI's Legislative Committee. Tom has presented on autism and language/literacy topics at local, state, and national conferences. Tom participated in the ISBE Reading Instruction Advisory Group and Teachers of Reading Certification task forces. He is currently a member of the ISBE Dyslexia Handbook revision team. He is past-president of the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association and is ISHA Honors Committee co-chair and a member of ISHA's Leadership Development Committee. Tom is the 2024 chair of the American Speech Language Hearing Association Committee of Ambassadors.This episode is part of the National Literacy Month series of podcasts, presented in partnership between the Be Podcast Network and Reading Is Fundamental (RIF).In this conversation, we discuss:✅What do federal guidelines require when it comes to identifying and serving students with reading/writing disabilities?✅Picking the right battles to fight: Do we focus on the labels or the services and curriculum?✅Who is qualified or responsible for diagnosing dyslexia?✅The ethical problem with giving up on word-decoding in secondary school.✅What skills do students need to effectively use assistive technology for reading, writing, and spelling?Additional resources mentioned in this episode:The Dyslexia Handbook from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) (https://www.isbe.net/Documents/Dyslexia-Handbook.pdf)ISBE Comprehensive Literacy Plan (https://www.isbe.net/literacyplan)The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) (https://dyslexiaida.org)The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) Dyslexia Handbook (https://dyslexiaida.org/ida-dyslexia-handbook/)The Reading League of Illinois (https://il.thereadingleague.org)The Illinois SLD Support Project (https://sldsupports.org)Dyslegia: State Dyslexia Laws (https://www.dyslegia.com/state-dyslexia-laws/)Williams, V. (2023) Letter from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services on the use of “Developmental Language Disorder” for special education eligibility. Office of Special Education Programs. Retrieved from: https://www.asha.org/siteassets/advocacy/comments/OSEP-Response-Letter-to-ASHA-on-DLD-5.30.23.pdfYudin, M. K. (2015). Letter from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services on the use of “Dyslexia” for special education eligibility. Office of Special Education Programs. Retrieved from: https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/policy_speced_guid_idea_memosdcltrs_guidance-on-dyslexia-10-2015.pdfIn this episode, I mention the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers develop a strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place in collaboration with their school teams. You can learn more about that program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadershipIn this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/You can get 25% off either program when you join between September 15-October 15. Just enter coupon code RIF25 on the checkout page to get this special rate. *If you're already a member of either program and you refer a friend, tell them to email me at talktome@drkarenspeech.com if they join and let me know you referred them and I'll send you a $100 referral bonus. Here's what you can do right now to support this campaign and ensure you don't miss any of these amazing interviews/commentary. Go to Apple, Spotify, or any other directory you use for podcasts and subscribe to the De Facto Leaders podcast.Once you listen to an episode or two, leave me a rating and review. This helps get my show into the hands of people who need the information.Do you have a colleague or friend who needs to learn more about the research surrounding language and literacy? Do you want to spread the word about practices and ideas you'd like to see in your school, community, or state? If so, tell them about the De Facto Leaders podcast so they can listen to all the episodes in this special campaign. Reading Is Fundamental is a nonprofit that focuses on connecting educators and families with materials and training aligned with evidence-based literacy instruction. Not only is their model aligned with the science of reading; they also offer unique book ownership solutions for professionals and families to address book equity issues. You can learn more about Reading Is Fundamental here: https://www.r...

Get ready to dive deep into the future of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) with Dr. Joe Ashley and Dr. Bob Schmidt in our latest episode! Joe, the dynamic Project Director of the VR-ROI initiative at George Washington University, teams up with Bob, one of the leading economists and the Project Research Coordinator, to bring you insider knowledge on revamping return on investment models for VR programs. They're on a mission to streamline and elevate how VR agencies operate, helping them become more efficient, effective, and impactful. Their discussion is packed with actionable insights that will empower your agency to sharpen its data collection strategies, ensuring the true value of your services shines through. Plus, learn how to better communicate the VR success story to policymakers and stakeholders! Tune in to discover how you can maximize your VR impact with the latest advancements from the VR-ROI project. Don't miss out!   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   {Music} Joe: We're trying to make sure we have information that the director can use with policymakers, and something for clients and counselors to use to say, yes, this is the kind of services we're looking for.   Bob: The model we develop is based on readily available administrative data.   Joe: It's built on the individual customers and how well they do and what their outcomes are.   Bob: The human capital development, that's what it's all about a lot. Some things just aren't measurable. So when you mentioned financial return on investment, that's what we're talking about.   Joe: If you can't capture it, you're not able to tell the story.   Carol: Yep, if it isn't documented, it didn't happen.   Bob: That's right.   Joe: Yeah.   Intro Voice: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Well, welcome to the manager minute. Joining me in the studio today are Dr. Joe Ashley, the project director for the VR Return on Investment project based at the George Washington University, and Dr. Bob Schmidt, one of the five economists working on the project and the project research coordinator. So, Joe, how are things going for you today?   Joe:  Today they are doing really well. Thanks for asking, Carol.   Carol: Nice to hear it, Joe. and Bob, how are you doing?   Bob: I'm doing well as well, at least, as well as Joe is doing.   Carol: That's awesome. Alright, glad to have it guys. Okay, so for our listeners, Joe is my colleague and we got him out of retirement to serve as the project director for this important initiative. And this project is funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, also known as NIDILRR. Now, this is the federal government's primary disability research organization and is part of the Administration for Community Living. Now, NIDILRR's mission is to generate new knowledge and to promote its effective use to improve the abilities of individuals with disabilities to perform activities of their choice in the community and to expand society's capacity to provide full opportunities and accommodations for its citizens with disabilities. NIDILRR achieves this mission by funding research, demonstration, training, technical assistance, and related activities to maximize the full inclusion and integration into society, employment, independent living, family support, and economic and social self-sufficiency of individuals with disabilities of all ages. They also promote the transfer of, and use and adoption of rehab technology for individuals with disabilities in a timely manner, and also ensure the widespread distribution and usable formats of practical, scientific and technological information. And they do address a wide range of disabilities and impairments across populations of all ages. Now, Joe, I know you have a little disclaimer you wanted to make.   Joe: Yeah, I just want to be sure that people understand that what Bob and I are going to talk about today is our opinion of what return on investment should be, and is not necessarily reflect what NIDILRR is looking at.   Carol: Excellent. Well thanks Joe. Let's dig in. So, Joe, why don't you kick us off and tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey in vocational rehabilitation?   Joe: Carol, I've been in rehabilitation for quite a while. I worked with the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, the general agency in Virginia, for over 25-27 years, most of the time as an assistant commissioner in a variety of roles. I have a master's in rehabilitation counseling from the University of South Carolina. That sort of got me focused on vocational rehabilitation. And then later I had a Doctorate in rehabilitation from SIU at Carbondale that took me on a path of looking at program evaluation and program development. When I got to Virginia, I was working out of the Woodrow Wilson Rehab Center, now called Wilson Rehabilitation Center, and was working in a program that was collaborative across, it was one of the early transition grants, 1985,and it looked at vocational evaluation as a part of a process to help kids learn what they needed to do. And we were working with students from special education and vocational education in the schools, and vocational rehabilitation, and getting these systems to collaborate to help kids find out what they want to do and to be successful in employment and in life. And I got to where I really enjoyed that kind of collaborative work, and I ended up as an assistant commissioner in the agency, looking at developing innovative new programs as a part of my responsibilities and looking at a lot of the ancillary support services like rehabilitation, engineering and other kinds of things. Through a series of circumstances, I ended up as the director of the field services for four years, where I began to get a good sense of what disabilities needed to be in terms of supports to be successful in employment and being able to live successfully in their communities. In addition to that, what counselors and other staff needed to be able to provide those services to them. And then I got into the job that was my favorite, which was something called grants and special programs, where I did a lot of the Social Security stuff, cost reimbursement, work, incentives specialist advocates. We created a new system there to do fee for service for the work incentive services. We did a lot of work with the workforce agencies. I did all the agreements with that, and then I got to do grants and any of the grants that helped people with disabilities be able to live and work and thrive in their communities were things that we were willing to support. And I got to work with a lot of different funding systems and across a lot of different systems, you know, Special Ed workforce systems, behavioral health, a lot of different groups to help people with disabilities have opportunities. So that's what I really enjoyed. And that's where I came across the late doctor David Dean and then Bob Schmidt as a part of that package with Dean. And it was about telling the VR story. And I got real passionate about how do you tell this story in a way that is going to get people like GAO to pay attention, as well as help directors with policymakers and individuals and counselors help make decisions about what's a good choice for them. So that's really how I got to where we are today with this new grant.   Carol: Very cool Joe. I know we all look to your program in Virginia for kind of the cutting edge stuff that was happening, because you all seem to always have just something cooking.   Joe: Yes.   Carol: It didn't matter what. And especially like the disability work incentive stuff that you were talking about and all of that. Oh gosh. I just think you've done a lot of stellar things there.   Joe: Well thank you. It was fun.   Carol: It's awesome. So, Bob, tell us a little bit about yourself.   Bob: Sure. Happy to. Joe mentioned Doctor David Dean. He was a colleague of mine in the Department of Economics at the University of Richmond. He worked on what he called economics of disability, and he started working on that in graduate school at Rutgers with a faculty member there. And he worked on that. So that was in the 1980s. He came to the University of Richmond, and he got me interested in it because he was an outgoing, gregarious, very bright guy and made friends easily. So he got me involved in this probably early 1990s, and we started working with DARS and several other things at the time with Joe, but also Kirsten Roe. I don't know how many people remember her, but she was instrumental in all the work we did. So this is actually our third grant with NIDILRR. The first one was a demonstration grant. So it's a kind of a proof of concept. Second was implementing it. Now this one is refining it and taking it to the next step. That's what we're trying to do with that. So David got me excited about it. Joe keeps me excited and he keeps me honest.   Carol: That is awesome. Well, I know just being around the director ranks for years and folks talking about return on initiative, it's been a, you know, a hot topic. People chat about it, but I don't know that everybody always really understands it. And I think sometimes people think maybe it's something that it isn't and they aren't very good at explaining it, but everybody wants to do it. So you guys are going to unpack all this for us. Joe, why don't you tell us a little bit about the project and what you're trying to accomplish?   Joe: Well, with this current iteration. It's what NIDILRR calls a field initiated project on their development side, and it's got a ridiculously long title. So I'm just going to say it is about updating and simplifying our return on investment model. That's its main purpose, and it's about helping our agencies understand what they can do to be more efficient and more effective, and take a look at the mix of services that they provide, to be sure that they are getting the most out of the resources they have to help people with disabilities obtain, you know, that probability of employment and upon employment, their earnings. And we're trying to make sure we have information that the director can use with policy makers, that agencies can take a look inside their own services to say, maybe I need more of a particular type of service because I'm getting good outcomes, or maybe I need to tweak a service because it's not getting what I want it to do, and then something for clients and counselors to use to say, yes, this is the kind of services we're looking for. We got four goals, and the first one is just really to update the model. Our previous model was prior to WIOA implementation, so what we hope to be able to do is take a look at the data systems and take a look at the performance indicators that WIOA requires. And we can do a correlation, perhaps with the long term employment to see how well they're correlated. Also take a look at Covid impact. The second goal is about intensity. Our other model is you either got a service or you didn't. And if you got the service then how did it affect employment and earnings? Well, the next logical step according to The Economist and we have five on the project as you mentioned earlier, was what is the intensity of the service. Does that make a difference. So that intensity measure could be hours of work. It could be what it costs to do something. It could be units of service. And taking a look at if that is related to the propensity for employment. The other piece that goes with that is how about internals provided services, what we had before in the system, nobody had good measures of the services their own staff provided. So we're hoping with what we're seeing now and we're working with the two agencies in North Carolina, and they've been extremely helpful and collaborative with us on this process is take a look at the internally provided services and see what impact they have on the employment and earnings side of things. And then we've been told many times our third goal is simplify the model. Right now it takes economists to run it. Well that's not always a good idea for some people. So what we're trying to do is see what econometric models could we put in place to simplify this process so that it's more available to rehab agencies. But you want to make sure it's still rigorous enough to give you a reliable estimate of return on investment. So one of the things we're having with that is many of the folks on the who are listening to the podcast may be aware that we did a data analysis and management capacity survey that CSVRA sent out. Our advisory committee supported, and with that, we got 54 agencies to provide us information on what their data capacity is and what this capacity of their staff is. And then what kind of training they might be interested in. We're still looking at the data from that and we'll have some information on that later. But what we find in this may make a big difference on how simplified the model can be, or whether we need to take a different track to help people be able to implement a new model. And then finally, it's about knowledge translation. And part of that is coming to us like we did a consumer and stakeholder forum with the North Carolina State Rehab councils and some other stakeholders to get input on what they'd like to see, what kinds of information and would this information be helpful to them. And then we're going to have another consumer and stakeholder forum probably next spring to say, here's the model as we have it so far. Does this make sense to you and would this be valuable to you? So those are the big overriding goals that we have for the project.   Carol: I really like that you guys are digging into the capacity that agencies have, you know, with that data analysis, because I'm just thinking definitely, as I've been out across the country that you've got to have and the have nots. I mean, there for sure. are folks, I think of our friends in Texas and they have a lovely team there. Just they have like an amazing...   Joe: Oh yeah, they do.   Carol: ...resource team. And then you've got other folks trying to scrape together kind of a half of a position that can maybe do a little smidge of a little something around the 911.   Joe: they may have a resource like a data system, but they don't have anybody that can run it, or they may have staff with the capacity to do the data system, but they don't have the system. I mean, it's a lot of different variables there.   Bob: I'd like to jump in here just on one thing, which was on the simplified VR model. So the model we've developed, thank God it was by economists, is we're trying to address the question here. The goal of the program is to get people into competitive employment or keep them in competitive employment. If they already came into the program with it, maybe build on that. So there are a lot of things that are correlated with how well you do in the labor market, gender, race, Age, education level. All things are correlated, right? And maybe service provision in the VR program. But we'd like to take it from well, it's correlated, but we don't know exactly how or why. In the same way you can say, well, provision of this specific type of service leads to improvement in the labor market, leads to a greater likelihood of obtaining competitive employment. Now that's a different issue. Now the way you normally do that, the gold standard is a randomized clinical trial, right? Where you take people and you randomly select them and it's double blind. So neither the researcher nor the individual involved in the experiment know who's receiving the treatment, or  who isn't. Well, that's clearly impossible in VR. First of all, it's illegal to deny service to someone who is eligible and for whom you have the money. But secondly, it's impossible. So what you have to do is you have to impose statistical controls somehow. You have to do it through some sort of statistical model. And we've developed one which is state of the science. What state of the science inherently means that not everybody can implement it. So even at some universities, they aren't able to implement this particular model. And so we wanted to ask the question, could we come up with a simplified version of this model, a simpler model that can be used possibly in a VR agency or possibly at a local community college or university, something like that. And they could get similar results. So we wanted to see how could we do it? Is that a possible goal? What do you lose when you do it? Does it do a good enough job, or what kind of qualifiers do you have on it?   Joe: Where are the tradeoffs?   Bob: Yeah, what are the tradeoffs? That's a simpler model we're trying to do.   Carol: Should we talk about the model you developed now? Do you want to talk about it?   Bob: That'd be fine. Sure.   Carol: Let's do it.   Bob: Okay. One of the things is that the model we developed is based on readily available administrative data. What that means is you don't have to run a survey. You don't have to go out and do a very expensive sort of research project to find out what's going on. Instead, we use data from agency's own data system, which they collect to report to the Rehabilitation Services Administration, (RSA). they have really, really very good data. The RSA forces them to collect very good data. In fact, for some of our economists, their eyes just lit up when David told them the kind of data that he was able to access it. Whoa. That's great. So there are two levels. One is you get data from the agency itself, and then they will provide data to us that they provide through the quarterly RSA and nine over 11 report to the RSA. And more than that. So we get much greater detail than that if we know how to use it. If we can identify and know how to learn how to use it. And then secondly, all the agencies have given us access, been able to give us access to unemployment insurance sort of data. So quarterly data on that and what the RSA collects upon closure. They're mandated to follow employment and earnings for four quarters after closure, but we don't think that's long enough, especially since WIOA was passed Workforce Innovation Opportunities Act and changed the mandate to work on transition age, transitioning students with disabilities or providing those sorts of services. Well, if you're going to start working with young people who are just entering the workforce, or you're providing college level education or skilled training services to any age. You can't just follow them for four quarters. I mean, if you're just entering the workforce, you're not going to enter it at the highest levels of the workforce, right? So if you want to know what the real impact is, you have to follow them longer. So with the unemployment insurance agencies, we've been able to get quarterly employment and earnings data from 2 to 3 years before they even applied to the program. That's kind of a baseline. But what are the services do to you? How do things change? Well, that's your baseline three years before application. Then we try to follow them for at least five years after application at least. Now the current one starts in 2018. So the earliest applicants we have from 2018, and then we collect all applicants between 2018 and 2021. So already it's a stretch to get five years of data. But we had to start that recent because we all wasn't fully implemented effectively until 2017, 1819. In fact, the fellow North County says preferably 19 or 2021. But then you don't have, you know, this thing ends in 2025 and you don't have enough data, enough tracking. So that's the first thing, is readily administrative tracking earnings over a long period of time, as long as possible. Another thing is generally the way these things are done or have been looked at is you look at the VR program as a whole. You don't look at by discipline, you look at the agency. These are people who apply for services, and these are people who got to the point where they got a plan or plan for employment services. And then how do they do? We look a little differently. We look at by disability type. First of all, we look at for broad based disabilities folks with a cognitive impairment. And that could be an intellectual disability or a learning disability. Folks with a mental illness. And then also we try to find out how severe that mental illness is. Folks who have a physical impairment and folks who are blind or visually impaired or otherwise visually impaired. So we look at and we estimate those all separately because we think services are assigned differently by disability type on average. And also the disability type affects how you will do in the marketplace, for example. What we found out was for folks with physical impairment, unlike folks who have a cognitive impairment, cognitive impairment might be with you since birth, perhaps. And so therefore you kind of have a steady level of earnings at a certain level. But if you have a physical impairment that often comes on very quickly, very acutely, very quickly. So all of a sudden you see their preapplication Application for earnings pretty good. And then boom there's a big plummet, right? And so then you have to do something different with the track that the pre-application earnings. So that's the second thing. The third thing is that this idea that these folks, we look at the folks who received,, who had a plan and therefore received services, we compare those people who didn't have a plan and didn't receive services. So he received service, he didn't. Or, in economics or the social sciences, you call it a treatment group and a comparison or a control group. Well, we thought you could do a little bit better than that. What we look at is we look at anywhere from 7 to 9 to 10 to 11 different types of services things like diagnosis, medical treatments, college education, training, all those sorts of things. We say, first of all, how is the decision made that you're going to receive this type of service? And then secondly, what impact does it have? So what factors influence the decision to We see what type of services and what impact does that service have in the labor market on gaining and keeping competitive employment. So we look at that. So we look at different types of service. So you can see already it's a much richer type of analysis therefore much more complicated types of analysis. And then the last part is that we built sort of a state of the science model. And that's what makes it complicated for many people to try to implement. And by that we mean that this correlation versus causation. So instead of doing a randomized clinical trial you have to take the data as you receive it. So therefore you kind of build control by saying how do you control for different things that might affect this that you don't observe. Now one of these might be motivation, right? So if you have someone who's particularly highly motivated that will might lead them to both apply to a VR program and a plan, follow through and move on, successfully complete the program, and might also quite separately, whether or not they receive services. It helps them in the labor market, right? Because they're motivated to succeed. So how do you distinguish those things? That's tough. You do randomized clinical trial. You can't because both types people end up in both parts motivated and unmotivated. So we have to impose this controls. And that gets a little complicated. So that's basically the model is then once you're done. So then we get impacts by type of service. We also collect cost of providing those services. Cost of the program. We have those impacts. We let them spit out and say what would happen if they kept getting this benefit level for the next five to 10 to 15 years? And then you have to do some what's called discounting in technical and finance and econ. So you do that and then you say, okay, this is the total gain from that service or actually from all the services combined. And this was the cost. And the difference to that is kind of cost versus benefits, right? Hopefully the benefits exceed the costs, right? And that's how much they've gained because of the service per versus both the. That's essentially what you do. And the other thing about that is we can calculate that for each individual in the sample. So we have individual level returns on investment individual level benefits or effectiveness. And you can then aggregate that up and say okay agency wide. This is what it looks like. The agency's return on investment for a particular disability. That's what their return on investment look for males their females. Any group you want to do you can just do it because we have the individual impacts of it. So that's the model. And we want to see whether a simplified model can get us similar sort of information.   Joe: One of the things, Carol, that I find compelling about the model in particular is something Bob just pointed out, and that is it's built on the individual customers and how well they do in this process and what their outcomes are, and it builds up. So it starts at that individual client level. The other thing, when the economists were developing the model and they were looking at the data of people who went through the system, they observed that there's a lot of variability in the types of services that are provided. So they built the model around that variability of services. So that individual service model, that is VR is what makes the variability work for this model. So it's very much tied to the core tenets of the VR program, that individual services model. And that's where the variability comes from. And that's why it can give us some causation. So I think it's really important to note that it is consistent with how we do services and how we provide what we do. The other thing I will say about The Economist is they have been dedicated to understanding how VR works. They often in the early days when we were going out, they would sit down with the agencies and say, does this make sense to you? And then they would look at the model to see what would make it make more sense in terms of telling how VR works or the outcomes of VR. So they've spent a lot of time trying to understand the system and get knowledgeable about how VR works and what the opportunities are, what the process is, so that what they're modeling is consistent with how we do business. So I think that's a key component.   Carol: I think that's really cool that you said that, Joe, about taking it back to the individualized nature of the program because VR, you know, you think about it in an aggregate, we get this big $4 billion in a lump. And, boy, each person's experience within that is so individualized. It is, you know, whether you're getting this or that, you know, are you getting educational sorts of services and access to training and post-secondary and all kinds of different things? Or are you a person on a different trajectory, and maybe you needed some medical rehabilitation type of stuff going on? You needed something completely different. Like, people have so many ways to mix and match and use the things they specifically need to get where they need to go. You probably can't do it unless you get down to that level. So that is very interesting. Now, Joe, I know we've talked about this in our team a little bit even. And I know you said you wrestled with your group, but this whole notion of return on investment or taxpayer return on investment has been a really interesting topic and is fraught with some issues itself. And I remember coming into Minnesota and the general agency director like taxpayer return on investment, and I was brand new in the program. I'm like, I don't even know what you're talking about right now, but a lot of times you tend to hear it discussed that way. But I know, Joe, you've said there's a lot of issues around this. So what are some of those issues?   Joe: It's an interesting little issue. The very first meeting we had, it was at Carver, and we had a number of people from different agencies and state rehab councils come into a meeting, and we were laying out the first model. And one of the directors at that point said, well, are you doing a taxpayer return on investment? And by that he meant returning Taxes, increase in taxes, receipts going back to the Treasury. And that was his definition of it. That was the first one. And then when we were in North Carolina at the consumer forum that we did the stakeholder and consumer forum, we got the question from some advocates and said it doesn't seem to go away. We always get that question, but the issue is what is the appropriate way to determine the return on investment for a particular type of program. And it was interesting. We got this question so often, even from some of our workforce friends that are the economists said about writing a paper to describe why taxpayer return on investment is not appropriate for a VR type of program. And they submitted it to, I think it was three, maybe four different econ journals, and some of them didn't even send it out for review. They said, this is already settled. It's not appropriate for this kind of program. So the issue is another workforce programs or human capital development. And the purpose of a human capital development type of program is to in our case, find people employment and look at that probability of employment. And then conditional on that earnings, if you've got people in your system and they're entry level, a lot of them are not going to be at the level where they pay any kind of taxes at all for several years. So you really don't have a lot to show when you do taxpayer return on investment in terms of that. Also, one of the things that we noticed when one of the studies that was done is that in some cases, and this is with a particular type of one of the particular disabilities, is the only one they looked at this with when we had some Social Security earnings available data available to us for a short while. Not only do we get people off of Social Security benefits, but we also find people that go on to Social Security benefits from being involved with VR, and that often makes them more stable. So then they can then participate in a VR type of program and be successful. But it's a long, long term process to do that. So in the short term, you're not going to show anything but about as many come on as go off. So you're really not showing that. But if you're doing what the authorizing legislation says you're supposed to do, which is get people employed, let's just take it down to a simple level and then the question becomes, are you efficient and effective in that process? And that's what this particular return on investment model is about. And that is what the economists would say is the appropriate way to look at this. Now they would call this a social welfare type of program is the category they put it in. And then human capital development. But there's other kinds of benefits that accrue to the individual. Because this model, this type of approach looks at it benefits to the individual and to the society in general, which is the individual being employed. And in this case, there are other benefits that we can't observe. Self-confidence would be a good example. Quality of life would be a good example. So in our case, what we're able to observe is how they're interacting in the workplace. And that's really the piece that we can measure. And that's where we're going with this. And the others might be important, but very few places have really figured out how to measure that.   Carol: Well, Joe, I actually I was telling Bob before we hopped on, I said, you know, I threw something in ChatGPT because I was like, all right, VR return on investment. Explain it to me. And ChatGPT it spit out. It talked about financial return on investment, you know, with employment earnings, cost savings. But it was talking about social return on investment, improve quality of life, community contributions. You know people experiencing that enhanced self-esteem, independence, all those things. And then personal return on investment with skill development, career advancement, those kind of things. It was just kind of fun to run it through and go, hey, yeah, because I know you guys have wrestled with like, what are you going to call the thing? Did you come up with like the name, The Thing??   Joe: Yes, it's interesting. I think what we came down with is that we think the vocational rehabilitation return on investment is the name we're going to stick with. And then say, you know, what we have is a human capital development project, and that's how we're measuring it or return on investment. But what we're going to have to do this is so ingrained in the culture of VR that you've got to return taxpayer dollars. Well, that's really not what VR says it's supposed to do. And so how do you get people to understand that that's not the appropriate way to look at the VR program. So we're going to have to do some education. I think about what return on investment is. And I may use your ChatGPT story...   Carol: Yeah.   Joe: To ...tell it.   Carol: Bob, I see you have something you want to jump in with.   Bob: Yes, and I think well, I have several things. One is I think the reason it's so ingrained, I think I might be wrong. Joe can correct me is because agency directors have to testify before the state legislature to get the money they want from the state legislature, right? And say the legislature, at least for a while. I don't know if they're still doing it. They're saying, yeah, but what's the return to the taxpayer on this? Why are we funding this if it's a money losing proposition Well, that's the thought process. But the problem with that is the state legislatures are kind of going against the odds. The federal authorizing legislation, you know, VR dates back to again, Joe can correct me. After World War One, when veterans came back from war and they had some severe physical injuries, and the federal government said, well, let's try to get them services to help them vocationally help them get back to work, get a job, and keep it so that they're effective in the workplace. Well, that thing was incredibly successful. So over time they said, well, this works so well. Can we expand it to other disabilities? Maybe states want to get involved in this as well. So what's happened over time is every one of the 50 states has this kind of co-funded arrangement with the federal government. And the Rehabilitation Services Administration oversees it, where they jointly sponsor these things, and it now covers many disabilities. Some states have more than one agency, one for the blind and visually impaired and one for the general. Other disabilities. So it goes back that far. And the authorizing legislation says is specifically provide services to help the individual gain and maintain competitive employment. And we're back down to the individual with that. It doesn't say to pay for itself to the fed, to repay the state or federal government for those services. So that's one thing. It's not what the metric to do it by. A second thing is, I mean, I never did like the social welfare. I'm an economist who would never call this a social welfare program. First of all, welfare has a negative connotation, even if its denotation is not negative. It's social improvement or anything. But it's really less a social more. As I said, the human capital development, that's what it's all about. And he also mentioned the issue that a lot of some things just aren't measurable. So when you mentioned financial return on investment, that's what we're talking about. Is the agency doing its job of getting people back to competitive employment and leading a better life, and maybe freeing up some of their family work to do other things. There might also be a multiplier effect in the sense that they earn more money, they spend the money. Other people, as a result, earn more money. And economists call that a multiplier effect. So that dollar has more on it. But it wouldn't get measured in this taxpayer return on investment at all.   Carol: Okay, cool. So I know you guys have made some interesting observations in reviewing the data and looking at some of the longitudinal data. What kind of things are you guys seeing?   Joe: My observation is that it concerns me that some people we've  learned recently that some of the states aren't capturing data after the fourth quarter after exit in terms of UI data. I know one state that is capturing going for that after the fourth quarter for their Social Security cases, because it helps them obtain more resources through cost reimbursement. But I think that we're underselling the value of VR when you only do the fourth quarter up to four quarters after exit. And I realize that's a lot more than we used to do. But on the other hand, it's probably not the best way to tell the VR story, because you just don't capture everything. And younger population exacerbates this. You just don't capture it with all the impact of VR can be for an individual over time. So I think that's one of the things I have seen. We had a study we did from a long time ago, from the first since I did with David, Dean and Bob, where we had a program, that transition program, and the students that participated in it were focused on post-secondary opportunities, and they were measured against the counterpart group that went in the VR system of youth. And the other kids typically went to work faster than the participants in this program. But at year six, after application, the perk students took off in terms of their employment, and the other kids just they were still employed and they were doing well. But the perk kids took off with this post-secondary approach, which is what we're being asked to do now. And you really wouldn't have told the story if you only went for five years after application. So those are the kinds of things that I'm concerned about with the longitudinal data.   Carol: Joe, so what about this to with it. You know, like especially blind agencies tend to provide a lot of the services themselves. What kind of problems are there with that and not sort of capturing the data?   Joe: We have seen that as an issue with the 2007 data set. We have in the 2012 data set, we had and our colleagues in the blind agencies were very clear that there were services that they were providing that were critical to successful employment and adjustment, but we didn't have any way to capture it. And so you're, again, you're undervaluing the impact of those agency provided services by not capturing them. And I think that's going to be critical. I think there's some requirements now that they have to be reporting some of this information, but it's a question of whether it's getting into that case management system and it becomes readily available administrative data that can be used to help tell the story of the impact of the great work that these counselors and other kinds of specialists are providing to help people become employed and adjust into their settings. Bob, you want to talk a little bit about what you're seeing in the data?   Bob: Well, yes. And now with the new data set, RSA 911, that quarterly report that all agencies have to provide and again for four quarters after closure that thing now they've made some changes and it's now required whereby types by 32 different service types they report. Did you provide purchase services during the quarter. If so how much did you provide it in-house or was it provided through a comparable benefit, some other external agency and that might have a dollar value attached to it? So we're going to use that data and see what we have. Now of course with any data set. Now I'll tell you purchase service data that's pretty reliable because they need to get their money back, right? They need to get reimbursed. They need to pay the bills. And so they track that through their accounting system very well. But the other things are and had entered often by counselors who are harried and busy and have a lot of other things to do, rather than this bureaucratic kind of form filling out, so it's only as good as the data that are put into it, and we won't know how good that is, but we'll see how much we learn. this way, hopefully we'll learn some things we didn't know.   Joe: What we have been told is that the data is not there for us to capture, and that it undervalues the kind of work that's being done. So we're hoping we can find a way to tell that story, because it sounds pretty important. And then from my personal experience in managing some of these services, I know how hard these folks work and how valuable these services are. But if you can't capture it, you're not able to tell the story.   Carol: Yep. If it isn't documented, it didn't happen.   Joe: Yeah.   Bob: That's right.   Carol: So what are the next steps on the grant and how can we get folks involved? Are you needing people to help with anything, any states or anything we've got?   Joe: North Carolina is, we're working very closely with them and they've been really good to work with. We will be once we get the prototype, I don't know what to call it. The economists are putting together the data system information so that they can begin to apply the new model and that'll be happening hopefully within a couple of months. And then once we've run the model a couple of times, we'll be asking some other people to come in sort of a national audience to take a look and hear what the model is, what it offers to get their feedback on. Yes, that would be useful or that doesn't seem to work for me much. Could you do this other thing? And then we'll also be asking them about. We'll be showing them what we've come up with for the simplified model to see if that version is going to work or if we need to be developing maybe a template RFP for them to use with a local institution that they work with, then they would be able to get the data set. So we're going to be looking at that. We may be asking folks to work with us a little bit on the capacity survey, where it talks about the training that states might be wanting to say, who can provide this kind of service, and would this be valuable to do to increase people's ability capacity? Because there's a lot of data needs out there. And I think if it would help our project, it would probably help a lot of other projects as well.   Carol: So, Joe, are you thinking about that for fall, possibly at CSAVR or something?   Joe: That's November. That should be a time when we would have an opportunity to gather some information. Yeah, because we might be ready for it by then. Of course, that might put a little pressure on the economists, but I don't mind doing that.   Carol: Yeah. Bob's looking like, oh well okay.   Bob: You love doing that, Joe. I mean, one of the things my major professor in graduate school always said, I love working on a research project where I learn something and what Joe said is exactly right. So we would take and vet our results to various agents. We may make a trip to the agency before Covid. We go and we sit down. We go through everything, explain what we're trying to do when we sell. And then they would say, that looks a little wonky or something, or did you do this? And you say, no, we didn't do that. Yeah, we could do that. Let's do it. And then we would revise the model or no, unfortunately we don't have enough information to do it. Could you collect it? You know, that kind of thing. So yeah, we keep learning things and that's what these groups are intended. That's what they're for. For our selfish purposes. That's what we like about them.   Carol: That's excellent, you guys.   Joe: So November would be good, Bob.   Bob: So you say.   Carol: Well, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what comes out of all of this. And you were saying that the end of the grant then is in 2025.   Joe: August 31st of 25.   Bob: Right.   Carol: All right. That's coming up quick you guys, really quick.   Joe: Oh it is.   Carol: Well, awesome I appreciate you both being on today. I cannot wait to hear more as this unfolds. So thanks for joining me.   Joe: We really appreciate the opportunity.   Bob: Yes we do.   {Music}   Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!

Dave Kiyvyra Director of Development, Lindamood-Bell for Schools Honorable Robert Pasternack Former Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the U.S. Department of Education As a teacher, New Mexico State Special Education Director, and, ultimately, as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) at the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Robert Parternack has spent his career focused on improving student outcomes. In these specially curated excerpts from his past Lindamood-Bell Leaders in Literacy webinars, Dr. Pasternack discusses the role of tiered intervention in preventing unnecessary referrals, teacher preparation and professional development, and the necessary components for thorough literacy implementation. Lindamood-Bell provides interactive, in-depth professional development courses for educators, in-person or online. Lindamood-Bell has pioneered programs to develop the imagery-language foundation that underlies reading, spelling, language comprehension, math, memory, and critical thinking. Connect with LINDAMOOD-BELL: Download a Free Information Pack: https://lindamoodbell.com/for-schools?info-pack Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/lindamoodbell1 Follow us on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/LindamoodBell Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lindamoodbell Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindamoodbellofficial/ Follow us on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@lindamoodbellofficial

Teacher preparation programs should equip reading teachers with the knowledge they need to provide explicit intervention for students who have dyslexia or other disabilities. But what if they don't? Unfortunately, this situation is quite common. That's why I invited Mary Saghafi and Shannon Betts from the Reading Teachers' Lounge Podcast to episode 165 of the De Facto Leaders podcast to talk about how reading specialists and other service providers can emerge as literacy leaders; whether it be in their current job or within a career transition. The Reading Teachers' Lounge is a podcast where listeners can eavesdrop on professional conversations between elementary reading teachers. Shannon and Mary are passionate about literacy and strive to find strategies to reach all learners. Shannon and Mary are neighbors who realized they were “literacy soul sisters” at a dinner in their Atlanta Neighborhood. Once they started chatting about reading, they haven't really stopped. Shannon is currently teaching part time as a reading resource teacher while she continues to create teaching materials on Teachers Pay Teachers and Boom Learning. Mary is a private tutor and dyslexia advocate. They began our podcast in 2018 and are currently finishing their sixth season.In this conversation, we share:✅How a litigious situation turned into a reading reform initiative and inspired Mary to make a career pivot.✅When there's conflict between schools and parents; should you be a united front with your school team, even if you resonate more with the parent's point of view? ✅The parent advocacy perspective: How parents can advocate for their kids AND the school staff at the same time. ✅Should schools be using the “dyslexia” label (and what do the laws require vs. allow)? ✅Will voicing your opinion have a negative impact on your career (plus Shannon's experience with being the squeaky wheel on her team)? You can find Shannon's Teachers Pay Teachers store here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Rdng, and her Boom Learning resources here: https://wow.boomlearning.com/author/rdng?collection=Decks&sort=publishDate&order=-1Connect with Shannon and Mary on their Patreon community for literacy professionals here: https://www.patreon.com/readingteachersloungeFollow the Reading Teacher's Lounge Podcast on Instagram @readingteacherslounge https://www.instagram.com/readingteacherslounge/, on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/readingteacherslounge, or on their podcast website here: https://www.readingteacherslounge.com/podcast-homeListen to the Reading Teacher's Lounge Season 6, Episode 13 (Link here: https://www.readingteacherslounge.com/season-6-episodes/s6-e-13-the-intersection-of-speech-reading-and-language)  where I was a guest, and we discussed the partnership between speech-language pathologists and reading teachers here.I mentioned the following resources in this episode:EP 141: No, kids do not learn to read and write naturally with (with Melanie Brethour) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-141-no-kids-do-not-learn-to-read-and-write-naturally-with-melanie-brethour/EP 159: Co-morbidities and Differential Diagnosis (ADHD, DLD, Dyslexia) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-159-comorbidities-and-differential-diagnosis-adhd-dld-dyslexia/Williams, V. (2023) Letter from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services on the use of “Developmental Language Disorder” for special education eligibility. Office of Special Education Programs. Retrieved from: https://www.asha.org/siteassets/advocacy/comments/OSEP-Response-Letter-to-ASHA-on-DLD-5.30.23.pdfYudin, M. K. (2015). Letter from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services on the use of “Dyslexia” for special education eligibility. Office of Special Education Programs. Retrieved from: https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/policy_speced_guid_idea_memosdcltrs_guidance-on-dyslexia-10-2015.pdfIn this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

When kids need support with language, reading/writing, and executive functioning, they often have multiple diagnoses.This makes both treatment planning, diagnosis, and determining eligibility for educational programming complicated; especially when it comes to legal guidelines as well as state and local policies. That's why in episode 159 of De Facto Leaders, I'm sharing a Q & A session I did about comorbidities in my Language Therapy Advance Foundations member's group. In this episode I talk about the simple view of reading and how it aligns with the essential 5 framework.I also talk about common comorbidities, including: ✅Developmental language disorder + dyslexia✅ADHD + dyslexia✅Dyslexia + ADHDI wrap up by discussing clarification from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services on the use of terms like “dyslexia” and “developmental language disorder” and the difference between schools being PERMITTED to use a term vs. being REQUIRED to provide services aligned with FAPE. In this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here (https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/).The following are evaluation tools that can help guide you in evaluating and treating individuals with ADHD, dyslexia, DLD, and other diagnoses that impact reading, writing, language, and executive functioning. I cover a complete framework for executive functioning intervention in the School of Clinical Leadership, my program for related service providers who want to emerge as the executive functioning lead on their school teams. You can learn more about that program here (https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership). Keep in mind when you view this list that formal evaluation tools should be used in conjunction with other non-standardized tools. It's best practice to utilize a portfolio process when doing an evaluation which can consist of a combination of observations, stakeholder interviews, work samples, data from non-standardized protocols, and formal assessments. You can read the full list of assessments in this article here (https://drkarenspeech.com/co-morbidities-and-differential-diagnosis-adhd-dld-dyslexia/). We're thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL's comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers' timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments

Welcome to the daily304 – your window into Wonderful, Almost Heaven, West Virginia.   Today is Tuesday, April 23, 2024. The Division of Rehabilitation Services has a new website to help connect its services to those seeking a path to work and live independently … click in the show notes and learn more about how DRS helps people achieve their goals … AND … today, we connect you with tools to help those with disabilities start planning for the future with Pathways to the Future resources… (I'll tell ya -- those folks at DRS are doing so much good and helping so many people - I really like sharing all they do) … And now - for the rest of the story on today's daily304 …  #1 – From WV DRS – The West Virginia Division of Rehabilitative Services provides vocational services to help individuals with disabilities prepare for, obtain, retain or advance in employment. Vocational rehabilitation counselors help consumers assess interests and abilities, explore career options and develop plans to reach their unique employment goals. Learn more: https://wvdrs.org/   #2 – From WV COMMERCE – Since middle school, Ashley Higginbotham's dream had been working with and caring for children. Now, she is a care teacher at Sacred Heart Early Learning Center in Charleston. Ashley connected with the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) for assistance in preparing for employment while in high school.  Ashley Higginbotham was selected as an Ability Works Award Winner in 2022.  Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNatylhHObs   #3 – From PATHWAYS WV –  Your future begins now -- and at pathwayswv.org -- you'll find resources, tools and connections to people to help students with disabilities, through the journey from youth to adulthood.  Learn more: https://www.pathwayswv.org/   Find these stories and more at wv.gov/daily304. The daily304 curated news and information is brought to you by the West Virginia Department of Commerce: Sharing the wealth, beauty and opportunity in West Virginia with the world. Follow the daily304 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @daily304. Or find us online at wv.gov and just click the daily304 logo.  That's all for now. Take care. Be safe. Get outside and enjoy all the opportunity West Virginia has to offer.  

In the studio today is David Leon, Director of Workforce Programs at the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS), and Kate Kaegi, Project Manager for the DIF. In recognition of Disability Awareness Month, the second podcast of our DIF series includes David and Kate explaining how Virginia's DIF grant was initiated, implemented, and adjusted to best reach their initiatives of placing 750 individuals with disabilities in STEM and healthcare careers, registered apprenticeships, and State, County, and City jobs. Learn about the challenges they navigated and what they recommend when applying for a DIF grant.   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   {Music} David: Don't be afraid to apply for a diff grant. It is an amazing opportunity to infuse energy and enthusiasm into your workforce. It is a chance to stretch, learn new skills, try new programs. You get to see staff flourish and more importantly, get some really cool outcomes for the clients we serve.   Kate: I was a little intimidated with the idea of RSA, but what I have found is this RSA is there to help us. They want us to succeed.   David: You can accomplish some great things.   Speaker1: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Well, welcome to the Manager Minute. Joining me in the studio today is David Leon, director for workforce programs at the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, or DARS, and Kate Kaegi, project manager for the DEP. So David, how are things going at DARS?   David: They are great. We are plugging along, working on our grant. A colleague has a SWITZI grant, so it's been neat to really try a bunch of new things here in Virginia.   Carol: Very cool. So how are you Kate?   Kate: I am doing spectacular. Thank you for having me here today.   Carol: You bet. So, David, you and I had a chance to visit in a podcast on work incentives counseling in April of 22. And just so you know, you were one of my top five downloads. And when I think of Virginia, I always think of you and all the amazing things that have been cooking all the time. You guys always have something in the hopper and this is no different. So I started a series of podcasts focused on the diff grants and career advancement, and you are the second in my series and happened to fall in October with a nod to Disability Employment Awareness Month. So I want to just give our listeners a little snippet again about the diff grant. And so this particular round, the grant activities are geared to support innovative activities aimed at improving the outcomes of individuals with disabilities. And the Career Advancement Initiative model. Demonstrations were funded in federal fiscal year 2021. They were intended to identify and demonstrate practices supported by evidence to assist eligible individuals with disabilities, including previous served participants in employment who reenter the program to do the following. They were looking at advancing in high demand, high quality careers like science, technology, engineering and math, or those Stem careers to enter career pathways in industry driven sectors through pre apprenticeships, registered apprenticeships and industry recognized apprenticeship programs to improve and maximize competitive integrated employment outcomes, economic self-sufficiency, independence and inclusion in society, and to reduce reliance on public benefits like SSI, SSDI, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and State or local benefits. Now, I remember reading in the announcement some of that sort of I thought it was disturbing data that provided the base for why RSA picked this particular area and chose to fund it. And they based it on the program year 2019, RSA 911 data. And some of the things that they said were participants that were exiting the program in competitive integrated employment reported a median wage of 12 bucks an hour and working like 30 hours a week. And the top ten most common occupations were reported. They were like stock clerks and they were order fillers, customer service reps, janitors, cleaners. I call it the whole Food, Filth and Flowers. So I know through this initiative they were trying to do more. So let's dig into what you guys have cooking in Virginia. David, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself. How did you get to VR?   David: Thanks, Carol. Started as a job coach years ago. We won't say when. It'll make me feel old, and I worked for a private nonprofit. I then assisted in Virginia, working with individuals, exiting a training center and moving towards community living. From there, I came back to the Richmond area to work for a community service board and again was a job coach and then worked within a sheltered work and day services program before coming to DARS, where I started with the Ticket to Work program and now have that the work incentives and a few grants and the workforce programs.   Carol: You and I have very similar backgrounds. I too was a job coach. I did work in a sheltered workshop for a while as well and all of that. It's always interesting how people find their way to VR. Kate, how about you? Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and how you got to VR?   Kate: I kind of fell into this. A lot of times, similar to other people. Unexpectedly, I found out about East Carolina's rehab program and that they had a scholarship for people who wanted to get their master's. And I'm like, Oh, free money. So I jumped into that. Absolutely loved it. I did my internship at the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitative Center. It was called something or a different title when I started back in the day. As I tell my kids, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I was there, started off there as an evaluator and then kind of moved across the state, became a rehab counselor in the field, have done transition counseling, substance abuse counseling, went back to Boca Vale for a little bit, even dipped my toes into the world of job coaching and worked with David for a period of time at the CSV, came back to DARS, worked with the Department for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and also, as an aside, also had joined the military during that timeframe on the reserve side. So I'm out of that at this point. So I have quite an eclectic background. As a supervisor once said that I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do, but it was all overall 24 years of work working with individuals with disabilities in a variety of areas. So it really kind of dovetailed well for me to work in the first dif grant that we received prior to this grant where I was a VMA or Virginia Manufacturing Association liaison for our grant. And when we were working on this Phase two grant, it was just pulling from what we've learned previously and growing from there. And so here I am.   Carol: I love it, it positions you really well for the work under this new grant. Very cool. Thanks for sharing that. So, David, why don't you paint us a picture of Virginia DARS How many staff do you have? About how many people are you all serving?   David: Okay, DARS comprises the Division of Rehabilitative Services, the Disability Determination Services, Aging Services. We have roughly 28 to 30 offices around the state and are currently serving just around 18,000 clients. If you include Pre-ETS in those totals.   Carol: that's a bunch., holy cow. I didn't realize you guys were that big.   David: Yeah, and that doesn't include however many cases DDS is handling or our aging or the other units. But that's a little bit about DARS, and I like to say we stretch from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to almost as far west as Detroit. If you go down to Bristol, Virginia, which is technically a little further than Detroit. So lots of types of environments and communities and very unique challenges in different areas.   Carol: Yeah, so you're definitely facing different geographical issues and I'm sure probably even economic differences. You know, if you're talking the coast versus maybe more of a rural area. So I'm sure there's probably some challenges there with even getting providers or how you're providing services.   David: It's interesting. One of the things we've been able to see in, for instance, Southwest Virginia, there is an economic center that's only 16 miles away from an office. But to get there, you go over three mountains and it could take two hours. So are those jobs really accessible to someone without a vehicle? On paper from Richmond, it might look like, why aren't we placing folks in this community out of that office? Well, it's a two hour drive each way, and that's the only way to do it. You mentioned at the beginning those top ten job areas. And one of the things we're really trying to challenge ourselves with now is giving people the information to make an informed decision about a career choice. But if they choose a career that might not look as great, what is the best potential version of that job? What is the job within that sector that actually could become a career? So at the beginning when we were starting to work on this, our agency had been in order of selection for years with categories closed and with the pandemic. That all changed. But the clients we were seeing didn't change and their goals didn't change. I think that's going to be a longer term conversation. But if we can do things to promote the best version of a position. And so I'll just give you one example. And our commissioner, other folks would probably say, why do we have so many folks who want jobs in food service or in this? Because typically they're low paying. Typically there's a lot of turnover. It's hard to become stable. One of the first projects we worked on in this grant was a partnership with a school nutrition program, and we've been able to help a few individuals enter into work in a kitchen at a school where they have the same hours. Monday through Friday. They have the opportunity for benefits. In one case, we couldn't find transportation. That school system was allowing the individual to take the school bus for that person. That's a really stable job and it's somewhere they can grow and thrive for years. So I do want to just say we have to think a little bit differently about what Kate or I or others might think of as a career. How do we find that best option for someone where there is room for growth, but equally important room for that time for stability to get to mastery, to then look at other skills and hopefully down the road they'd come back, not because they lost that job and need it again, but because they've learned so much that they want to go on to the next thing of their own accord.   Carol: Yeah, I like that you said that because I remember that when we visited before talking about that best version of that job. So not to mean that no one can work in kind of food, filth and flowers. I know I say that and it sounds sort of condescending and it's not meant to be. But we typically relied on kind of those occupations, really entry level. But I like that you're taking a spin on that and really looking deeper because we need folks to work in those occupations too. And there's people that love doing that work. But how like you say, can you do the best version of that? So you have benefits and you're looking at those long term like working in a school district, you can get retirement and all these different really awesome things that go with that. So, Kate, I'm going to switch to you. So big picture, break it down for us on your grant proposal and what you're hoping to accomplish with I know you had said you have three core components. Talk a little bit about that.   Kate: Sure. I do want to make a caveat that I love about this grant is it is a demonstration grant, meaning we have the opportunity to try out innovative products and projects across the state. I just want to put a caveat on that to keep that in your mind as I'm going forward here. So our main goal is to place 750 individuals with disabilities in federal, state, county, city jobs and or registered apprenticeships or also Stem and health careers. So we have those three main components on that. And when we looked at this grant and David worked on the development and the proposal for this, we really wanted to touch individuals that had been kind of missed in the first grant. And this I think, is something as we're doing a grant, you're learning all the time. And we wanted to make sure that we were hitting those unserved and underserved across the state. So individuals that aren't as plentiful in different areas. So say like Winchester has a large Hispanic population, does that reflect the number served in the actual DARS office? How do we get Spanish speaking individuals more involved in DARS? How do we get women who may only recognize those areas that you talked about that flower filth? And because that's what they're aware of, that's the work they've done in the past. So I just need another job in that area. How can we open up some possibilities? Have you thought about the IT field? Have you thought about advanced manufacturing and can you see yourself doing that? So providing those opportunities, it's a way for us to look at those unserved and underserved across the state. And we're defining that as we're going and we're looking at the census data, we're looking at who we're serving within each state. And then we're also looking at our plans, the plans that the rehab counselors are creating. What are those plans? What is the main goal? Overall we see a lot of customer service because it's kind of a catch all. What does that mean? Is that customer service as a helpdesk technician as opposed to just somebody as a receptionist? So we're really helping both the VRC, the counselor, and the candidate explore possibilities like that.   Carol: I like that. I just love what you guys are doing and really fundamentally getting down, digging in and really focusing on those folks that have been underserved or unserved and just taking that twist on the occupation because there's a wide range like within customer service, you have the job from here to here.   Kate: Exactly.   Carol: Yeah, that is very cool. Now, I know you all had some really weird hiccups in the beginning when you were starting out with this particular grant. So what were some of those kind of hiccups and how did you overcome that? And Kate, I'll probably shoot to you first on this.   Kate: So part of the thing that I didn't mention was is that the roles that our team players have. So we have a liaison with Department of Labor and Industry, specifically the registered apprenticeship side. So they have their foot in the DOLI world and the foot in the DARS world. We also have a team member who has their foot in the Department of Human Resource Management Liaison, and then also her toes are also dipping in the DARS. So we've had some different team members on that. We also have a quick response, counselor, somebody who can go in and respond to immediate needs of employers, of an individual that might be working with them, that has a disability, that might need some help, whether that's in a registered apprenticeship or on that particular job. During the first year we hired and we had everybody up and running and we had two team members, one had a medical emergency and had to move away from the position because there was some driving involved. And then unfortunately, we had Lisa Hanky, who passed away unexpectedly on us. So, you know, you get all getting that hiring going and then all of a sudden we lost two individuals, so we had to restart that process.   David: But Kate, if I can add to that, and I believe this is true for everyone in our round of this DIF funding, I believe we were told two days before the beginning of the project, it was about a day after that that, you know, many agencies coming out of the pandemic have had challenges with staffing and we had those challenges in our procurement division. So getting contracts signed, getting those staff replaced. But the other thing that has been a challenge and we're finally coming out of. We created three positions that this agency has never had, and it had meant that we had to learn how to provide quality support to two other state agencies in the context of working with DARS and similarly with our quick response counselors. So we created these positions that we had an idea of how they could work. But once someone got into those roles and was learning the other agency, we've had to be flexible in understanding how they can actually benefit our clients and our agency. And that has been a learning process.   Carol: You guys bring up a really good point because I think sometimes when folks are applying for the DIF grant, you're not recognizing off the get-go That first year can be a struggle because like you said, you found out two days before and then you get the money. And then as we know with any state government, it takes time to hire and like to get through all those processes. And so RSA may be on one hand going like spend the money and you're like, we're trying, but we've got to get through all our HR processes and all this crazy stuff. So it takes a little bit to get rolling in that first year. And I know we often on the TA world are talking with people as they're applying for grants going just know as you're going into it that first year, you're probably not going to spend the amount of funds you projected originally because there's just is a time factor and getting through all of that.   Kate: Absolutely. That was the one thought that David and I, if you know, we apply for another one down the road, maybe making that first year a little bit less intensive and spreading it out from year 2 to 5 because that's where the major work will be done.   Carol: Yeah, that's smart. Very smart. So I know you guys were talking about some challenges. What are some other particular challenges that you're experiencing right now?   Kate: Well, I'll get started on that piece. One of the things we have found similar to the staffing, the challenge that we had when we first started of hiring individuals, we're finding a turnover in staff in DARS. And so we are having a lot of younger counselors that have, in some cases don't have a rehab background. They might have a social work background. So we have a lot of training that we're doing and then redoing on that. We're having a training coming up in October for the VOC rehab counselors and we're getting kind of back to basics. What makes a good referral for our Pathways Grant, looking at those possibilities of not just that receptionist job, let's look at helpdesk. What are the opportunities that are out there? And so that has been kind of a challenge, is just retraining. And I think this is kind of normal across the board. But these rehab counselors are busy. They have a lot more documentation they have to put in Aware. There's a lot more individuals coming through their door because we have the rapid engagements, so they are overwhelmed. And how can we dovetail our services to best support them, how to make the referral process as easy as possible for them, what supports make the most sense for them? So that's been one of the interesting challenges.   Carol: So, Kate, have you guys done anything around just the way in which your staff or the support of those counselors, do you have like other staff that are kind of wrapped around them, whether you call them maybe a rehab tech or some sort of a case aide or whatever it might be that can help the counselors with sort of all the documentation requirements and that kind of thing. Have you done some work in that?   Kate: Actually, here in Virginia, we do have support. We have vocational evaluators, placement counselors and what they call employment service specialists that run the job club and things like that. And they can help support with some of the paperwork. But similar to other states that actually have like a rehab tech that would do some of the counseling or the that kind of thing, not as much. And each office is run a little bit different. That's part of the appeal. And what I mean by that is, is some of the offices might not have a vocational evaluator, some might have a placement counselor that might be covering more than one office so that there is enough differences on that piece. But yeah, that has been a struggle for keeping all of that work and getting it done for them.   Carol: Yeah, You're definitely joined by your colleagues across the country on that. I keep hearing that over and over. David did you have anything else you wanted to add to that about any of the particular challenges?   David: Yeah, I think we wrote this knowing we needed to do some things better and serve certain populations differently to get to where people had the same outcome regardless of gender, race, ethnicity. And that is still a challenge. We are learning that we have a long way to go to effectively serve those folks who have English as a second language. And when we started the project, we started with like a counselor advisory board to help not only create buy in, but inform us what the counselors needed. We have now shifted to an advisory board geared towards helping us do better with the Hispanic Latino population, and that English is a second language. So we're hoping over this next year, working with members of our state who are representative of those groups will actually help us figure out what services are going to be most likely to bring people in for help. What supports we will need to think about providing for those individuals to be successful. And again, it goes back to how do we help people see for themselves greater opportunities and careers than they might have.   Carol: So are you linked in then with your like your WIOA partners on your adult basic ed side? Like under that, you know, the English as a second language, Like they're more expert than us in working with that group?   Kate: Absolutely. One of our key partners is the Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center, who teach the adult ed, they help support them across the state when we get further along I'll talk about some of the projects that we're working with with them.   Carol: Yeah, that's excellent. I love that. So I know you guys are seeing some exciting results. What kind of exciting results are percolating up?   Kate: So one of the things that we found as we're moving forward is we actually had working with adult Ed, we had a program that we were doing Intro to IT, where we're starting a basic starting platform for accounting fundamentals, and we were ready to go. We had seven individuals in this first cohort, and one of the things we found was the individuals that we met, even though we just came through Covid with all of the tech training, we had individuals they knew enough to get on to Zoom and to do some items, but we really needed to step back and do some basic tech training. So, they had enough gaps in their knowledge that they couldn't move forward without some major help. So what happened on this is, is we stepped back and started to do some digital literacy training and they moved forward with that. And each of those individuals are now moving forward with the accounting fundamentals this summer. So stepping back, we're actually looking at what we're calling digital work skills training, which is really exciting opportunity for individuals to get started with North Star digital literacy. We're working on goal setting some soft skill development just to get them started on that end. So we have individuals that would typically not be able to go to a virtual training actually get started there. And what we're finding with that end is, is that we have some individuals, you know, those customer service people who just want to do clerical, they're getting introduced to IT. And so we've had a few individuals that have moved on to our next training, which we call the Max Career Lab. And Max Potential is an employer here in Virginia. And I think they go into other states as well, several other states. And what they are, they're a temp agency for IT employment. So they hire individuals to work with Dominion, to work with, you know, with all these employers doing various IT. But they have a unique hiring model. They actually have an opportunity where individuals come in and they go through a career lab five day, three hours a day, 15 hours of a career lab. Then they do an interview. During those five days, they do an overview of data analytics, networking, all these different career areas. So they'll do an hour and a half of overview of the career, and then they do an actual interactive activity that they break out in groups for. So it's a great way to explore the IT field. So we've hired them to actually run career labs for us. They do the 15 hours, then they get homework and then they have an interview assessment. So the interview is just like a typical interview that they run, but they follow up with what activities that they're interested in. So this has been a wonderful way for us to explore different IT areas and to help individuals determine what area of IT they want to do. Here in Virginia, we're blessed. We've got Nova, we've got a lot of IT careers, but counselors and vocal evaluators don't always know how to direct somebody into the right avenue because technology is always changing. You know, cybersecurity, cybersecurity, that's always a great one, right? Because we're right here in Nova. However, not everybody wants to do cyber. Have you thought of data analytics? Have you thought of the different networking positions? Have you thought of machine learning? You know what, all is out there? And so it's an opportunity for us to do a hands on career exploration and next steps with an actual employer running the sessions for us.   Carol: That's cool. Yeah, I hadn't heard about a career lab before like that. That is very intriguing because so many people learn much better, you know, by actually experiencing seeing what that's about because it can sound cool. You read about something like the cybersecurity was the big deal, but then you get into it and you're like, Oh, I don't really want to do that, you know? So giving them that opportunity, I think that's fabulous.   Kate: Yes, and we have had our first cohort. We had 25 people sign up. We had 22 complete the whole piece. That includes the interview.  Of that group we had six individuals. So they compare the group together, but they also compare them to the other public groups that they have across the board. So of those individuals, six are encouraged to look at direct work experience. The rest have been encouraged to do a few other activities, like maybe develop more professional skills or develop more tech training, possibly, you know, accounting fundamentals. We had one that decided they did not want to do IT training. And I'm thinking, what a great opportunity you now know what you don't want to do. And for us, that can be great, right? So we're looking at some other options for that young man. It has been a wonderful opportunity. We're now in our second cohort and our hope is, is to keep continuing this as we're going through this grant and to see how we can set this up once the grant is over.   Carol: Very cool. Have you had any surprises kind of as you've started this. I know you're in year two. Are there any surprises?   David: I think there are always surprises. This is right. Staff and surprises some of the opportunities that have come up. I don't think we anticipated. So we've shifted to take advantage. One of the big pieces of this grant is our focus on state hiring and the individual we hired for that aspect worked diligently during the first six months with them on an alternative hiring process through the legislation, had a go live date, whether we were ready or not. And what we didn't understand is during the first year, this process, it wasn't available to current state employees who may be disabled. That created a lot of issues for folks who were upset that they couldn't access this to move up within state government. We weren't able to change that ourselves, but it was changed in legislation. And starting in July of this year, we were allowed to offer a certificate of disability to someone who was currently employed and that has seen an increase. We've had roughly 1500 people request certificates of disabilities. I think part of what was surprising is what a great opportunity that has become as a referral source for DAR's. Roughly 300 individuals have chosen to get more information and receive VR services, and we are seeing that as a really nice piece of the process. Additionally, I think we finally had our first individual who went from what we call part time wage employment to full time classified, which was one of the intents of the process we developed. So it's nice to begin to see that work. But for Kate and I, we have to remind ourselves some of this might take two, three, four years before we really actually see these things that could be possible in action. And I think the other big surprise there is just how great of a partner our Department of Human Resource Management has been. They recently allowed us to present to 120 hiring managers and we will be a regular part of their monthly recruitment network action meetings. They've bought into our use of windmills training. They advertise it every month and we are co-sponsoring a job accommodation network training in October for them that they will heavily market to state hiring managers. So I think that's been really great. And then the other surprise, it turns out that our division of registered apprenticeship within the Department of Labor and Industry is moving to a new state agency. So we will see what that does. You know, you think things are pretty stable and static in certain ways, but they can change. That's been a surprise. But it's not a good or bad. It just, you know, might be a chance to actually work with more of our partners more directly.   Kate: And David, another surprise that we had was the use of data. We have been doing some trainings with the field and they you know, when you bring numbers involved, people get a little, oh, I don't know if I want to touch this, but what we found was the counselors, the evaluators, the placement, they enjoyed looking at this data. They ate it up. So the use of data as a tool to look at who we're serving, how are we serving them, has been an eye opener. At least it was a surprise for me. Now I'm a vocational evaluator, so I love data and I thought I was, you know, unique. But I'm not you know, everybody is, you know, surprisingly likes that data.   Carol: Yeah.. Well, and definitely how you present it to the field, you know, if you're just like blah, blah, blah, whatever, they really are interested because it's the culmination of their work, you know, so they see what's happening. It really helps to paint that picture and then they can react and respond and do things in a different way in response to that data. So I think that's smart that you guys are doing that. Now. I know you both had talked about shifting the conversation around employment and shifting that whole narrative on barriers to advancement and employment. Talk a little bit about that.   Kate: So one of the things that the counselors are really good at is, is when somebody comes in the door and they say, hey, you know, I need help finding work. But when we look at the definition of what we do, it's getting and but it's also keeping or advancing in your career. So what is that advancement look like? So if you have somebody coming in who I need a job right away, maybe this is where somebody is going to go for a stock clerk. But what about the idea of doing a quick training so that they can get a credential in the Certified logistics associate and then moving from there, maybe when they do that interview, now that they have that credential, maybe they can ask for a little bit of a raise. And what is the next step on that piece? So we've definitely looked at that. How do we make, as David said, the most of the career that you're looking at or the other areas that we've already talked about? Let's look at other areas.   David: One of the things that actually came from one of our offices that they wanted was we've heard more and more about attrition and attrition from application to plan, but also attrition from plan before employment or before successful closure. And we have created a group called Work Wise, which is designed for individuals who have just become employed to meet once a week in the evening, talk about their jobs, have an opportunity with a staff person to talk through issues, challenges. It's been really a powerful group, and I've been pleasantly surprised at how the individuals who choose to participate in a couple of cases did not want to stop going when their case was closed because of how valuable it was to in close to real time talk through things that were happening at work with someone with a VR counseling background. And that has been a really powerful group because it's also given folks to learn from each other and get to that stability and confidence to maybe also look for future opportunities. I know we're getting ready to also hold a salary negotiation training for folks. So again, let's help people think through and have those skills now that they may use now or they may use later when an opportunity to move up comes around. And similarly, we've started a group that we're calling money wise where we've partnered with a local credit union with that hope of how can we help make sure folks maximize their the benefits they choose to take advantage of from an employer. How do we help someone make sure that if there's a 401 match and it's X amount, that they do that much at the very least, Right. Those things that everyone is told, Well, if there's free money from an employer, you take it or if there's tuition assistance or some other thing, maybe there are things to plant some seeds. So someone would continue to move forward.   Carol: I can see how so much of this work that you are doing is so foundational and will be of benefit to, you know, your other colleagues across the country with the things you've uncovered and the things that you are working on, these different classes and groups and all of that. I'm sure other people are going, Gosh, I want to do that too. I think this will be amazing to help plant the seeds across the country. Now, David, I know you were concerned about implementing something that could withstand the test of time. And I know DIF grants are meant it's a demonstration grant. You're trying something out, but you want to also be able to carry forward these ideas into the future. So how are you guys structuring this to make that happen?   David: We really are thinking about sustainability and to Commissioner Hayfield's credit, that's been one of the things that she and Dale Batten have really stressed to us. It's great to do great work in a period of time, but how can we make sure that the things that have the potential to be value add or transformative continue and don't just end the day the funding stops? And we've really thought through many of the activities that we are creating, we are working on from at the beginning. What would this look like when there's no funding? How will we continue these? It's part of our partnership with Valray. We're working to get some of these pieces put into Canvas and set up through that learning management system. But within some of the positions, you know, one of our hopes is that the DHRM VR liaison could become its own full time non restricted position at the end. Similarly, we would hope that for the others, or at least those activities become a part of multiple staff strategically throughout the state. And that's one way we're looking at it.   Kate: And yeah, we're looking at the train, the trainers, also the tools that we're using. One of the pieces for vocational evaluators would be English language acquisition and knowledge. So there are assessments that are out there that can test somebody's English language, which is important for us to know if we're working with individuals and we're trying to place them on the job. So how do we get the tools necessary into the hands of the individuals and trained up for that so that that can be moving forward? So we're being proactive for these individuals that we hope to come into our doors a little bit more often.   Carol: That's excellent. So what do you guys see as your next steps? Where are you going from here? The point you're at right now, what are the next steps?   Kate: So a lot of our programming that we're doing right now is in partnership with adult ed. We see a great marriage between DARS and Adult Ed because Adult Ed works with a lot of individuals with disabilities already. They're adult educators. They can provide a little bit more support for our learners for credential training. They've got different things that are across the state. I'm working with our rehab center, Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation to really figure out how can we marry these? Right now I'm coordinating all these trainings. Is there a way that the center can provide this? And this gives the center an opportunity to look at a virtual environment? What does this look like? We're not sure what it looks like, but we're giving a try to see for that next piece so that max potential with the employer, can that be run through Wilson so that it is open and able to run after the grant is over.   Carol: So for our listeners that would want to apply for a grant, but they've been afraid to do so. What advice would you give to other people?   David: Don't be afraid to apply for a grant. It is an amazing opportunity to infuse energy and enthusiasm into your workforce. It is a chance to stretch, learn new skills, try new programs and get some great outcomes. If there are things you've wanted to try and you don't necessarily have the budget to do or don't seem to fit a demonstration grant is a phenomenal opportunity, and when I came into this agency under grants and special programs, usually we had to worry about things like a match component. And if you have the chance to apply for a grant where there isn't a match and you are willing to be patient with that work, you can accomplish some great things. You get to know your partners better. You get to see staff flourish and stretch and more importantly, get some really cool outcomes for the clients we serve.   Carol: Love that infuse that energy and enthusiasm. I wrote that down. That was a great. You're like giving a commercial for the RSA DIF Grants, that's awesome.   Kate: One thing I would add on this too is when I first came in eight years ago on the other grant, I was pretty much kind of a newbie in the grant world, and I was a little intimidated with the idea of RSA. But what I have found is, is RSA is there to help us. They want us to succeed. And if you have a solid grant application and know what you want to do, they will help you give you some ideas. They invited other states to meet with you to kind of talk about different things. So they have been very good about sharing knowledge and they want to see us succeed.   Carol: That sounds so great. Well, I am going to definitely tell our listeners like they should reach out to you too, if they've got some questions to reach out to David and Kate, because you all have a lot of very cool stuff cooking, and I'm sure you're willing to talk to others about what you've been doing as they're thinking about maybe applying some of this, even though they may not have a DIF grant, but applying some of the things that you're learning into their own work in their states?   Kate: Absolutely. We're here.   Carol: Excellent. Well, I appreciate you both. Thanks for spending time with us. And I look forward to circling back with you a little bit in a couple more years as time flies on this grant and see where you're coming in at and those good results. So have a great day.   David: Thank you very much.   Kate: Thank you.   {Music} Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!  

In this episode, Dr. Cole welcomes renowned physical therapist Bob Mangine to the podcast. With more than three decades of experience in sports medicine, Bob has served as Director of Rehabilitative Services at the University of Cincinnati since 2002. He supervises a program at the University that addresses the health and well-being of the Bearcats football team and has also served as the head athletic trainer for the aquatic teams at the 1996 Olympics. Bob currently serves as National Director of Sports Physical Therapy Clinical Residency for NovaCare, and is President of MBM Consultants, which provides educational management services for physical therapy and occupational therapy professionals. Bob is also involved extensively in the Matthew Mangine, Jr. “One Shot” Foundation, which raises awareness about the prevention of cardiac episodes in young athletes. His family started the Foundation following the tragic death of his grandson on the soccer field. Tune in to learn more about Bob, the Foundation, and what is being done to make AEDs and cardiac training more available to help young athletes survive Sudden Cardiac Arrest. One-Shot Foundation website: https://www.matthewmanginejrfoundation.org/

Scott Dennis, Assistant Superintendent of the Maryland Division of Rehabilitative Services (DORS), joins Carol Pankow in the VRTAC-QM Studio and tells us about how Maryland DORS increased recruitment and decreased resignations by raising salaries to compete in the regional job market. Learn how they opened the door and proved the case.   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   Music} Speaker1: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Well, welcome to the Manager Minute. Scott Dennis, assistant superintendent of the Maryland Division of Rehabilitative Services or DORS, is joining me in the studio today. So thanks for joining me. How are things going in Maryland, Scott.   Scott: Things are going well, Carol. I appreciate the opportunity to join today's podcast. Excellent.   Carol: So a little background for our listeners. I did have some familiarity with Maryland DORS. I had worked with Sue Page. She was the former director and a national level. We were on the executive committee together and Sue and I also did a couple panel presentations and that was super fun. And I was so disappointed, you know, when she had retired in '18, I had just worked with her. And then like the next week she goes, I'm retiring. She had sent me a note and I knew you had been her deputy and I think you were named right in 2019 to replace her, was that right?   Scott: Yeah. I came into this position an acting role in 2018. Sue left in June of 2018 and I was named, the Acting. Was permanently placed into the position in January of 2019.   Carol: Gotcha.   Scott: Almost five years now.   Carol: Nice. Well, it was really fun because early in '19 you and I, we were working on that RSA workgroup around Rethinking Performance. So I liked getting to know you and realizing, Oh, you're the fiscal guy too. You were the fiscal guy for the agency. So it's been fun to have that kind of a little lens into your agency. So I know you've had some unique challenges that we're going to get into later. And I understand that there had been some previous runs at trying to get employee wages increased, which, you know, had failed. So this was all prior to you being at the helm. And the state of the recruitment and retention issue nationally has been front and center for every VR agency, I think. And you were able to more recently secure a rather significant employee pay increase. So I am sure our listeners are on the edge of their seats and are anxious to hear, How did you make that happen? So let's dig in. So Scott, can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, like how long you've been with DORS and how have you got to the position you hold today? What's kind of the path you took?   Scott: Well, sure. I kind of happened into VR. I was working in a private sector in retail and was looking to do something different than that. And as anybody who's ever worked in retail, there's a lot of long hours that are very odd and so forth. So I was looking to do something different and happened to come across an advertisement in the paper for a director for this program called the Business Enterprise Program for the Blind.   Carol: Oh, wow.   Scott: It kind of struck me. And so I said, Well, I've got a retail background, I've got a business background, let me get my shot at it. And so I put in my application and went through the interview process. And about four months later in 1990, I became the director of the Maryland Business Enterprise Program for the Blind, which was kind of unique because my background was not in the area of either VR or in blindness, but I did bring that business background, which is what the agency at the time was looking for. It was a great experience. The business enterprise programs for the blind bring their own unique challenges and so forth, and trying to operate a business environment inside of a state government. And you've got some real challenges in trying to do stuff fast and an organization is trying to slow you down. But it was a great experience. I was the director for BEP for six years and then our state director, who was Bob Burns at the time, said, I need some help over at DDS. And I went, What's a DDS? Because my focus had been strictly on BEP. And so he sent me over to the Disability Determination Services as the assistant director over there, and I oversaw sort of the administrative side of the DDS and did a number of activities over there. We moved into a much larger facility. We also at that time moved off a state legacy system onto *Levi. And for any of those who have been around a long time and have a program, you understand how far back that went. After about five years of DDS, moved over, back over here to the side of the shop and became the director of business services, which included all the administrative functions of the agency and sort of the financial piece of it. And so I was that until 2018 when I became the assistant state superintendent.   Carol: Very cool. I had no clue. Your days started with BEP. That is amazing. Good for you. You have a definitely a great broad history there. Paint a picture for our listeners about DORS and what agency you live under. What's your designated state agency and how many staff do you have in VR? And you already said you had DDS, but is that service under your purview as well?   Scott: Yeah, we're  housed within the Maryland State Department of Education. We're probably one of the first big divisions of the Maryland State Department of. We were created in 1929 and we at that time the division had two employees and a budget of $15,000. And the only reason I know any of this is because we've got the enacting legislation sitting out in the hall. We had two employees and $15,000 worth of state appropriation at the time. And of the two employees, one was the director of the agency and the other one was his secretary. He was also the counselor at the time as well. So obviously but we've been here ever since. The Division of Rehabilitation Services is comprised of two main programs that we operate are the VR program, obviously, as well as the program. In total, we've got 648 employees in total, of which 416 of them reside in the VR program and the remaining 232 reside in the DDS program. Within that VR program operates an Office of Field Services, which is very much operated the way the general agencies operate and then we have an Office of Blindness and Vision Services, which operate very much as a blind agency. And so we have a director of each one of those offices. They have their own budget and own staff and so forth. Then we also operate our Workforce and Technology center, which does a lot of our training and so forth, as well as a number of community based services out in the field and so forth. So yeah.   Carol: Yeah, you have a large operation. Holy cow. I didn't realize all of that. That's a bunch.   Carol: So let's talk about your unique position as far as the state. You border other states, as does every state. You know, people probably think duh, but there's something special about where your state is positioned in this country, because I always hear people say that you're the training ground for people that move to RSA. Can you talk about like what that geographical situation has played for you as far as your staff?   Scott: Yeah, and appreciate that. It does provide a unique situation for us. We border Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia as well as D.C. We do have some challenges, especially when we're competing with the federal government. And so because of the federal agencies that are housed here, it has become a real challenge because obviously the states don't pay as much as the federal government does, in particular around the Washington, D.C. area. The salaries are much higher than what we as an agency was able to offer. I mean, in some cases we'd have staff leave and they would nearly double their salaries as a result of that. In some cases, you just can't blame them. It has been a challenge having some of that federal government around, you know, as especially the presence of it, you know, large presence and so forth.   Carol: So we all know about this great resignation, you know, that's been talked about in the news. VRs experienced that itself. So how has that impacted what was happening in your agency? What were you facing for vacancy?   Scott: We were facing a high level of resignation. It was almost I hate coming in in the morning and turning on my computer and opening my email to see how many people resigned that particular day or week. And so we got hit pretty hard. We had about 40 counselors and supervisors, so it was about 30% of our workforce. We had vacancies in and that's on the VR side, on the side. You know, for those agencies that operate that, we had 59 vacancies and our examiners, which was about 45% of that. And, you know, the big culprit was they were going elsewhere, both private and public, to organizations that were paying them substantially more money than what we could afford, at least at the time. It hit us bad.   Carol: Well, I know your number's up there. I'd heard from some other directors talking about you like a 60% turnover in counselors and all these crazy numbers. It's hard to imagine how the work is able to get done. So obviously, you've got this geographic situation, you've got the great resignation going on, and you decided to embark on a journey where you wanted to get these wages increased. Can you tell us more about what went into that?   Scott: It was more than just me. I mean, it was a total agency effort. And I'm talking about from the top. In 2021, we got a new state superintendent who was from Texas. And so he was obviously very new, very young and high energy. And so being one of the large divisions and he wanted to have a one on one with me. And so we sat down and we talked. And what he wanted to know what DORS was to begin with and what VR was because he'd always been in education and so forth. And so we, you know, we talked and his first question, you know, real serious question was, what's your biggest challenge? I said, I can't hire, I can't retain because our salaries are so low. And I gave him an example. I said, we've had a recruitment out for three weeks now and we've got one person who is applying and they don't even meet the qualifications down in Montgomery County and Prince George's County, which are two largest counties in the state as far as population, but they're also the two counties that encircle Washington, D.C. And so the obviously the wages down there are extremely high because of the federal government. And so getting any staff at the wages that we were paying was next to impossible. We couldn't recruit, period. That was just the part of the problem. And so, you know, after I told him what the wages were, he even coming from the south out of Texas, even by his standards, the wages were low. So he put together, you know, he tasked the senior management, not only of the Maryland State Department of Education, but also of DORS to start working on a salary adjustment. Obviously, with something like this, it takes all hands on deck because it's just not one person who's doing all the work and guiding this. And so he tasked us and so my staff started doing feelers out to other states to find out what they're going for. We looked at the federal government and some of the positions that they were hiring for that had sort of equal entry level requirements. We looked at our counties. Some of our counties were paying way more than what we were. And so we took all that into consideration in looking at what is it that we wanted our salaries to look like. The other piece of this that was probably sort of the saving grace for us. Our counselors are in a classification series in this state that's only unique to DORS. It doesn't cross other state agencies or anything. And because of that, our Department of Budget and Management allowed us to do what they call an off cycle adjustment. Typically when they take a look at their salary adjustments and so forth and see whether they need to rescale them, they're looking across all the state agencies. They've got to balance who's got money and who doesn't, money when they start to raise salaries for, you know, let's say, an office secretary. Well, every agency has an office secretary. So they've got to have to balance this all out. When they say, okay, we're going to raise the office secretary's levels, well, they only had to look at us. They didn't have to compare us to anybody else, which made it a lot easier. And because a lot of our salaries, the way the state funds us, they put most of our state match dollars into our case services budgets. And so we've got just a small amount that actually goes towards salary. And so when we kind of pulled this together and say, okay, where can we go with this? We said, Hey, for a little bit of investment from the state side, we've got more than enough appropriation and federal funding over here. We can support this without any problem. So the meeting started in September. We kind of got going in earnest just after the Christmas holidays. We spent basically from October through December polling just gathering information. And then in from about January on, we started writing this up, getting everything put together. And then by late April we had the package ready together and we presented it to our Office of Budget and Management and Director of State personnel, and we suggested a threshold that we thought we could go to. They didn't quite agree with that. So there was some negotiating with the Department of Budget and Management, but we landed on a on a figure that was acceptable that they could live with that wasn't so far off that they were going to have problems with other state agencies as well, once they learned about what we had done. Our superintendent really wanted to push our salaries. He wanted it to be the highest in the nation.   Carol: Wow!   Scott: And he was pushing very hard to get us there. Didn't land there.   Carol: So how far did you get? How high did you get to go?   Scott: We got a substantial pay increase for them. We got, depending upon where they started, it was well over 20% pay increase for our counselors and examiners, which really stabilized it. I mean, it kind of gives you an idea, our salaries, starting salaries for what we call our VR counselor ones, which are individuals who come in with just a bachelor's degree, no experience. So we kind of have to build them up. We were starting at like 41,000 between 41 and 42. Our VR 2-counselors are individuals who have come in with a master's degree, no experience or some experience. And they were starting around 44,000 at the time and we were able to get them up. I mean, today our starting salary for counselor one is 57,000 and a couple of months with the new fiscal year will go to 58. Our twos were starting them at 60,000 and they'll go up to 62 in July. And then we have a technical specialist series and these are for individuals who again, have master's degrees, have been here a couple of years. They're starting in the upper 60s and low 70s now.   Carol: Yeah, good for you. That's pretty amazing. So were there other positions included? So it's not like your examiners or counselors. Were there any other types of positions in the agency include?   Scott: Well, we had to go back and do a readjustment because it affected both our counselors and our supervisors because it's a series of counselors, one, twos, technical specialists and supervisors. Then we have our regional supervisors and our regional directors. Well, because of it went up by grades and steps. Basically our regional supervisors were making the same thing as our office supervisors now. And so we had to raise them. When we raised the regional supervisors, they were making the same thing as the regional directors. So we had to raise the regional directors, but it had to happen over the course of time. The first push was the counselor series and so forth, and then we had to come back about a month later and do the rest of the others and so forth. So yeah, it's been sort of a work in progress and we still have some other classifications to take a look at as we kind of move down this path.   Carol: I wondered about that. If you had some work left to do.   Scott: Yeah, yeah, we do. We have to kind of go back. I mean, our support staff, we've got to go back and we've already started that work already to start looking at that group as well, because again, those classifications go across all state agencies, so we have no authority to raise those salaries. So we have to go back and do what we call a reclass them, which means we have to take a look at their classifications, see whether or not it still fits the job duties and so forth. So that's the only way I can raise that series, those individuals up. I just can't do what we did with the counselors. And in some cases, those salaries and all that are all controlled by the union.   Carol: Yes.   Scott: And so you've got to kind of have to work through all that stuff. So those positions take a little bit longer to kind of get through.   Carol: That makes good sense. So how long did that take you for this?   Scott: The first like I said, we started in 20. We started in September when I first met and we started in September. Late October.   Carol: Was that 2021?   Scott: Right.   Carol: Okay.   Scott: And then the pay raise went into effect on July 1st of 2022. So it took us nine months to kind of get it all put together and work through all the processes and doing the negotiation and so forth. So yeah.   Carol: And it's interesting because you are a union state as well. I came from a union state too, so there's extra things that go into play because I know some other folks have been successful across the country, but they didn't have that added complexity to it. So it was good to see you were able to do this in that environment.   Scott: Yeah, well, I mean, one of the things is even though we're part of a union, because the series is strictly DORS, we brought the union in once we had kind of got everything kind of worked through and said, okay, here's what we've done. They could have said, Yeah, no, we don't want you getting a pay raise. We worked at it that way just because and we had to cross even within our parent agency, if our parent agency, the Department of Education had a classification series and some of the stuff that they did, this would have never happened.   Carol: right.   Scott: Because of that uniqueness, we were able to get it done.   Carol: Yeah, the stars were aligned for you, for sure. So how have these increases impacted your staff recruitment and retention?   Scott: Oh, yeah. Big. I mean, it's like I mentioned earlier, we couldn't find staff or if we did, our supervisors and directors were making the decision of, I got to have a body, and so in some cases you're just getting a warm body. This has nothing to do with the person or anything like that. But they were probably individuals that this may not have been the best fit. But because you're sitting there as a supervisor and you've got 3 or 4 empty caseloads sitting on your desk, at least if I can get them in and get them do some work that's less work that I've got to do and so forth. So we were making some decisions on trying to sort of balance whether this was the right fit for people, but also looking at the number of people that are actually applying for the job was extremely low. I mean, we might come up with 4 or 5 individuals that make like really good candidates. And then when you made salary offer to them, they went, Uh, no thanks. In some cases we actually had made salary offers to individuals who had interned with us and wanted to work for us. And then we made the salary offer and they went, no thanks.   Carol: They're like, I can go work at Target instead.   Scott: You're exactly right. Because the salary, especially down in Prince George's and it is extremely high. Maryland has the highest median income in the country. You know, it's driven by about 3 to 4 counties in this state that drive that. And so that kind of shows you how tough it is in some other jurisdictions to find people and retain people is extremely difficult. Like I said, you know, one of those recruitments was just before we put out the salary change where we had gotten one individual. We got the permission to start publishing the new salary and we went from 1 to 40 in about two weeks.   Carol: Wow. Good for you.   Scott: For example, we had a recruitment out for this for about a month and maybe have gotten 25 to 30 applications. We re-advertised and got 170 in 3 weeks. So we went from 30 people to well over 200. So it obviously had a tremendous impact. In fact, I just had a regional director in talking with me earlier this week, talking about the quality of individuals that we're now seeing, because I haven't seen this high level of quality of people that we've gotten in years. So yeah, the impact has been immediate.   Carol: That's terrific. Have you had any staff want to come back? Maybe that left?   Scott: Well, actually, funny you asked that. We went back out to we had several staff. members who left 3 or 4 months earlier, and these were good staff. Sometimes you have staff leave and you go, thank God. Other times, you know, you see staff go out the door and you go, What a loss. And so we had about a half a dozen staff that had recently left that were sort of, oh, man, I hate to lose them. And so we reached back out to them and we were able to get four out of those six back. We almost got five back. But when they went to talk to their new employer, they went, Oh, we'll give you a pay raise. So she ended up getting a pay raise out of it because we told her what we were going to give her and they went higher. That's the benefit of a private sector situation versus, you know, state government type of situation. So we were able to get some seasoned staff back really quick. I mean, literally within weeks after the new pay plan went into effect. So yeah, it's stabilized. I'm seeing right now what I would consider sort of normal turnover. Now you're back down to 5 to 6% turnover rate versus 25 to 30% turnover rate. It's really made a made a difference in the world. It's stabilized the agency. We have a wait list. We had to basically shut it down because we had so many vacancies. I mean, we have had one and we were bringing people off the wait list. We just had to literally just shut it down. We couldn't handle. The individuals that were coming in the door that met the criteria for Category one. We were struggling with that along with our pre-employment. We just couldn't handle. We couldn't do it. So we shut it down.  Once we got stable. Our regional directors and director of Office Field services came to me and said, We can handle bringing people off the waitlist now. And so we've been able to start bringing people back off the waitlist now.   Carol: Good for you. That is terrific news is a big win all the way around. I just wondered if you had any advice for other directors and leaders across the country as there may be interested in doing something like this in their state. What advice would you give them?   Scott: The biggest advice is you've got to get buy in from your senior secretary, superintendent, whoever is your most senior, most person in the agency, because at the end of the day, they're the ones that are really going to have to go to bat and particularly when you start dealing with the counterparts over at your budget office who are always going, Oh, that's going to cost us a dollar. No, I don't think so. That's where you really need to have sort of that political clout to kind of push some of this stuff through, because it's not, it's not easy. And again depending upon the environment, to some degree, we benefited from the environment itself because obviously we weren't the only state agency losing people. And so the state, I think, recognized that they had to do something. Because even other state agencies around us couldn't hire people because of the state wage. And so I think we kind of hit it right at the right time, so we were able to do it. So I think the combination of two. One, we had a superintendent who had no problem to go banging on the secretary of budget management's door and say, I need this in order for this program to function and opening the door and then letting the rest. of the team go to work and prove the case.   Carol: I Like that you said that, prove the case. So if folks wanted to reach out to you. What would be the best way for them to contact you? Because a lot of times our listeners will say, I want to talk to Scott Dennis about what he just said.   Scott: Yeah, I mean, anybody can reach out to me. My email address is Scott Dot Dennis (D e n n i s) @maryland.gov.   Carol: Excellent. I really appreciate you joining me today and congratulations on the win. I just wish you continued success as you're working through your other positions. This is very cool. Thanks, thanks much.   Scott: Not a problem. Thank you, Carol.   {Music} Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!

Our conversation today with Sam Greenfield & Kim Martin from Virginia's Division of Rehabilitative Service was very insightful. Sam is a job placement counselor. She explained what that is and gave us an overview of the services her agency offers. The Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services provides and advocates for the highest quality of services to help older Virginians and those with disabilities maximize and secure their employment, independence, and full inclusion into society and guides the Commonwealth in preparing for an aging population. Kim is an employment specialist with the agency. She told us about their coverage area and talked about their work with high schoolers. The pair gave us details about the different services they offer to job seekers with disabilities, the types of skills their clients possess, and the kinds of jobs they're looking for. Sam explained the vocational rehabilitation services and told us about the different training options they offer. Most of their services are offered at no fee to the individual. We also discussed their work with various employers in our area. They told us about hiring incentives (financial and otherwise) and the work DARS does to "pre-vet" potential employees. Sam explained the disability awareness/sensitivity training they offer - at no charge - to businesses of all sizes. She said they are always looking for businesses to open their doors for situational assessments and summer work experiences.  Get more information about their services from their website: https://www.dars.virginia.gov/. You can also call them at their Winchester office: (540) 722-3453 or send an email: Samantha Greenfield: Samantha.Greenfield@dars.virginia.gov  Kim Martin: Kimberly.Martin@dars.virginia.gov 

Scoot talks to Todd Dannos, Senior Director of Rehabilitative Services at Children's Hospital about his work and his patients

20220707 ACB Banquet Originally Aired July 7, 2022, on ACB Media   Keynote speaker: Judy Heumann    Judy has been involved in the Disability Rights movement since the early 1970's. She was instrumental in establishing the independent living movement and was a key player in fighting for the passage of the landmark Rehabilitation Act of 1973. She is considered the mother of disability rights, and because of her ongoing and tireless efforts, she is an internationally recognized disability advocate. Judy served as the highest official for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the Department of Education under President Bill Clinton and served under Barack Obama as the senior official for International Disability Rights at the State Department. In 2020, she published her memoir "Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist." As a true advocate and civil rights activist, she is well familiar with the needs of people with all disabilities, including those who are blind and low vision. Judy Heumann is making a difference for all of us in the 21st century.

We recorded part of today's conversation on Thursday, September 22, 2022, with Ellie Williams Tahmaseb, Marketing and Public Relations Manager at NW Works, and Mark Wafer, a disability advocate and former owner of 14 Tim Horton restaurants. Mark was slated to be the keynote speaker for a disability employment conference on Monday, October 17, 2022, hosted by NW Works. The conference was canceled on Tuesday, September 27, 2022. The conversation we originally had is full of great information, so we decided to keep as much of it as we could. Today's show is a combination of that conversation as well as an additional chat that took place with Ellie on Wednesday, October 5, 2022. In addition, I've included the entire transcript of our conversation below as well. Reach out to NW Works via their website: https://nwworks.com/ and follow them on Facebook. janet: Hello and welcome to the Valley today. I am your host, Janet Michael, before we jump into the weeds with our conversation today, I wanna give everyone who's listening a little bit of background, so we recorded part of today's conversation a couple of weeks ago. I'm on the screen for a second time because she's so gracious to give me more of her time. Ellie Williams Tahmaseb is here with me. She's the marketing and public relations manager at NW Works. We talked a couple of weeks ago, Ellie, you joined me on the screen along with Mark Wafer. And Mark is a disability advocate and one of my favorite things, former owner of 14 Tim Horton restaurants, which makes him very near and dear to my heart. We were talking because he was going to be coming to town for a conference, a disability employment conference that NW Works was putting together that was supposed to happen in a couple of weeks. That has changed, but I felt like this information was still valid, good information that we needed to get out to employers and to the community. So thank you for coming and talking about it. Outside of conference terms, I appreciate your time. ellie: Very happy to be here, Janet. Thanks for being flexible as we kind of figure out this, new path forward. janet: and you were telling me before we just started recording that October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. So of course we had to make sure we were able to use this conversation in some way shape or form.   ellie: very timely. That's what we strive for. janet: you're not having the conference now, but that doesn't really change anything from the perspective of the services that you offer and the need for employees that are available through NW works through a whole host of other types of organizations that offer employment opportunities for people with disabilities? ellie: Definitely. Even with the conference being canceled, we still see a huge need in our community, both on the employer side, so many people are hiring right now, and on the adults with disabilities side, we have, One in four Americans practically has a disability of some sort. In Virginia that's a little bit lower in West Virginia, that's a little bit higher. but really, so many of us know adults with disabilities, children with disabilities, adolescents with disabilities, and the services that we offer at NW works really focus around employment, community engagement, and ensuring that adults with disabilities have an opportunity to build a meaningful community-based life, whether that's through employment and working for local businesses, or that's through community engagement, volunteering with local nonprofits and things like that. But really just making sure that folks are integrated and have as many opportunities as they want because. Just like anyone else, adults with disabilities deserve to have as many opportunities as possible. janet: It was a really good conversation that we had with Mark, and that's gonna be interspersed throughout the conversation that we're having now. But there were a lot of things that he said that I knew, but coming from him. It made so much more sense. It really was an eye-opening conversation that we had with him. ellie: Absolutely. I think there are a lot of myths around disability employment, right? People think that adults with disabilities might not be as productive, attendance will be an issue, transportation, and also just people are sometimes uncomfortable around disability. They don't know how to talk to folks with disabilities. They might feel afraid, they might feel shameful about the fact that they feel uncomfortable. And so these were all things that we were going to be addressing in our conference. And we still want to make that available to folks. So we're sort of figuring out a path forward in terms of getting that information out to folks. But, our agency does this year-round, We don't just do it in October. Although we would love for more folks to get involved in National Disability Employment Awareness Month, there is such a need in our community. And like I said, these services are available year round. We offer information for employers. We offer information for families. We offer information for individuals with disabilities. We offer job coaching, which is a no-cost solution for employers who perhaps don't know how to interact with folks with disabilities or for individuals who need a little bit of extra support on the job. And so that's something that we offer, and again, it's no cost to the employers. So really there's nothing but benefits when they choose to hire folks through our agency or agencies like ours. janet: Mark, we won't keep you, I promise you can get back to your conference. mark: Oh no. I'd rather stay here. Trust me. I love your background there with all the coffee. janet: Thank you. I thought with your background at Tim Horton's, you of all people would appreciate my coffee background. mark: Actually, coffee has been a topic of discussion all day today because in the morning break, the hotel forgot to put coffee out. So we got 450 delegates, who really did need caffeinating and, no coffee, so that didn't go over too well. So it has been a topic all day. janet: I catch a fair amount of grief from people for the amount of coffee I drink, and when I go to things that are all day, they get a little annoyed with me that I have to leave to go get more coffee if they don't provide it throughout the day. So Ellie, let's start with NW Works. For someone who isn't familiar with the organization here in Winchester, tell me a little bit about NW Works and the services that you provide. ellie: NW Works as a nonprofit organization here in Winchester. We've been around since 1970 and our goal all along has been to help adults with disabilities to gain and maintain meaningful employment. That has shifted over the years from in-house work here at our location to now most of the folks that we serve actually work in the community at what we call competitive integrated employment, which is a fancy term for just employment that anybody else would hold. Working in the community alongside disabled and non-disabled individuals with no barriers, no stigma, and being paid fairly just like everybody. So that's really our focus and we've been doing that, like I said, since 1970 all over Winchester, but also more broadly through Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. janet: And you serve a wide range of people with disabilities, Male, female, young, old, it runs the gamut. ellie: We serve folks predominantly with intellectual and developmental disabilities, but we also work with individuals who have physical disabilities. Folks who may be blind or vision impaired, folks who may have spinal injuries. If you have a disability, we wanna find a way to help you. janet: Tell me why this conference, the disability employment making the business case, was something you felt like NW Works needed to bring to the public. ellie: We've been doing this since 1970, we really have seen the whole range of responses from society about disability, employment, and really disability inclusion in our society. We know that about one in four Americans has a disability and really we're sort of all on the path to, at some point in time, having a disability of some form, as we age, accidents happen, things like that. So this is a huge portion of the population that's being left out of the workforce, whether that's intentionally or unintentionally. And a lot of these folks want to work just like anybody else. So we really recognize that there is a huge barrier and part of that barrier is that employers may feel uncomfortable or may not know how to interact with individuals with disabilities. They may be nervous about interviewing a candidate. They don't know how to act, they don't know how to talk about disability. and we really want them to understand that those fears, concerns, can be alleviated. We also want them to know that there are so many different incentives to hire individuals with disabilities, from tax incentives, from the government to, job coaching and free vocational rehabilitation services. Again, through the government, through agencies like NW Works. So there are plenty of ways that folks can actually make those hires and include folks with disabilities and they don't have to be huge, costly endeavor. janet: Mark, when you participate in conferences and meetings like this, what are some of the big misconceptions that people ask you about over and over again that you wish you could just address and they wouldn't keep coming back up again? mark: That's a great question because we do see the same concerns come up, the same questions, based on fear. It's all based on fear. So Ellie, very eloquently, spoke about the fears that business owners have. It's real. 25% of the population, globally is disabled. And you look at the unemployment rates it's as high as 70%. Most countries have statistics around 50% but that doesn't include anybody who has not had marketplace attachment. So if you've never worked, if you've never paid taxes, you can't be counted in unemployment numbers. So that number anecdotally is probably closer to 70%. You put that into perspective, the highest that the unemployment rate went through North America was 1933 during a Great Depression, and it was 24. So here we are, people with disabilities. One in every four people in North America living a perpetual depression because they can't find work. And that comes down to stereotypes, the myths and misperceptions that business owners largely believe in wholesale. People with disabilities, they are gonna be slower, take more time off, they're gonna be sick more often. Expensive accommodations. Businesses believe that it costs 15 to $20,000 to accommodate somebody with disability. No, it doesn't. Most people with disabilities don't even require an accommodation, and the average cost is somewhere between four and 500 if they actually need it. What we need to teach employers is that you're already accommodating everybody. Everybody, every person who worked for you, accommodating them in some way. So its not this big mystery, but what we have to do is we have to change the approach. Up until recently, the approach, especially for people with intellectual disabilities has been one of charity. You approach an employer, you target their heart strings and they find a job for person. That's not a sustainable plan. In some jurisdictions, like where I live here in Ontario, we have an accessibility act. And so sometimes we look at policy and say to employees, Oh, by law you have to hire people with disabilities, that doesn't work. But if we can appeal to employers into something that they understand, which is profitability, which is bottom line, if we can appeal to them on that, then you've got a chance of opening the door. And what I mean by that is appealing to the cost cutting. Ellie mentioned incentives. There are some incentives, but those are American centric. You won't see that elsewhere in the world. But use the statistics from my business, statistics from companies in the United States like Pepsi, DuPont the paint maker, who have built capacity of people with disabilities. And so they have these statistics now. For example, absenteeism rates are much lower if you have workers with disabilities, they're sick less often. They take less time off. They're late less often. The reason for that is because it takes so long for them to get a job. The job is now precious and they'll do everything they can to make sure that the boss doesn't think I'm coming in late every day. mark: The safety rating increases. If you take a person like me, deaf, I've been deaf since birth. I'm more aware of my surroundings. Of course in the workplace, that means I'm a safer worker. So when you build capacity, safety ratings, get better. And of course there's a cost associated with that. Innovation factor. You got an innovation factor. People with disabilities like myself, I do things differently every day. You probably wouldn't even notice it, but there's certain nuances of what I do that's different and it's different problem solving skills that creates innovation, not just hiring smart people. People who have different problem solving skills. mark: So if you built capacity in your business with that, then you have a more innovative workforce. And then for some employers, especially retail, who want to get a big savings is employee turnover. If you built capacity with people with disabilities, you typically have a much lower turnover than somebody in the same business who hasn't. For us, it was a difference. So 100% in a typical, coffee shop to 40% in our coffee shops, and you can imagine, $4,000 to replace one entry level person and how much money I saved by having an inclusive workforce. And it's infectious too because, I've employed 250 workers with disabilities in 25 years, but at any given time, about 50 of my 250 workers had a disability. The 200 who didn't have a disability, they're turnover rate was 55%. So still half the norm because people, even people who are not disabled, wanna be included. They wanna be working in an inclusive environment, so it has a huge overall, improvement all around. So when we speak to employers like that, we say to them, Hey, you wanna make some more money today. Have you made enough money this week? Of course they're gonna say, tell me more. That's how you get them interested in, inclusivity. janet: I've had several conversations in the last few months with many of the economic development directors in and around our area talking about workforce development, talking about labor shortages, and a lot of things that they're hearing from employees and employers is not always about the paycheck, but it's some of the things that you're talking about here. Inclusivity. They wanna work for an employer that they feel like includes everyone. This checks so many boxes that could eliminate other problems down the road. mark: We also have to eliminate the myths and misperceptions in the stereotypes. one of the things we did about 10 years ago is that – this is before everybody got a smartphone - we sent out a survey to 40 CEOs, and we asked them a series of questions. One of the questions was how large is the disability community in Canada? The real answer is 23.4%, the average number that came back from those 40 CEOs, the average number that came back was 1%. Here are people who set the tone and set the intent within a corporation who believe that only one in a hundred people in the community has a disability. So we've gotta knock down those misperceptions. It's the same with the one I told you about with accommodation. $15,000 when the reality is about 400 bucks if they actually need that. Touching on the labor shortage, most developed nations in the world have a very serious labor shortage. Some countries more than others. mark: In Canada, we were heading for this for the last 15 years, so the pandemic has just made it worse, but it was inevitable. We've got an aging population. We have a small population. Population of Canada is about the same as the population of California, for example. We have a vast country. We don't have very many people in it. The infrastructure to bring people from other countries – immigration - we can't go beyond 275,000 people year yet we have almost a million and half jobs that can't be filled. So we've got an untapped labor force. We've got 5.6 million Canadians who are disabled. At least 70 to 75% of them can work, but they're not working only because they have a disability. So we've gotta change those attitudes. janet: Ellie, I think here in our area, it would really kind of have a snowball effect. When you have three or four businesses like Trex for example, that brings in a group of disabled workers and talk about it. I think that's where we sometimes fall down. They're doing it, but they're not telling anybody about it and how easy it was and busting some of those misconceptions. You need more people to do it, and then more people to talk about how seamless it was. ellie: Absolutely Janet, Trex is already doing this work and are able to talk about this. Because we know that our business leaders, our hiring managers, our HR professionals, they wanna hear from their peers. Mark is one of their peers. He is a former business owner. He gets it. He understands the turnover rates and the needs and the cost of hiring and things like that. His case is gonna always carry a little bit more than ours as a nonprofit will. And I totally understand that. And Janet, one thing I do wanna add is that when Mark and I talk about disability in this context, we're talking about it in the Americans with Disabilities Act framework as opposed to the Social Security framework. So these are not necessarily folks that are receiving disability benefits from the government, but who have a documented disability by a medical professional. So that's just a little clarification. janet: I think that's one of the confusing parts as well when you're talking to employers is they're not even sure what the actual definition of a disability is and who they can and cannot hire if they were willing to do so. mark: Employers learn. Employers learn. You learn by making mistakes and that's okay. In Canada, you're not allowed to ask if they have a disability. It's against the law. If you're doing an interview and a person has not self-identified as having a disability, by law, you can't ask them. But what we used do, we used to say in the first interview, we used to say, “You are going to be working with a large group of disabled workers. How do you feel about that?” So the response, typically, the response typically is, “Oh, that's great. my brother's in a wheelchair, my aunt's blind, my sister, my, my cousins …” And so you really get a sense of whether that person is gonna fit, be part of the family in the restaurant. We do the same again when we're promoting because we normally promote from within. And most of my managers started off as entry level positions, “You are going to be managing people with a disability. How do you feel about that?” And it's so rare that we would have a negative response. We did, but it was very rare that somebody would give you a negative response. That's the tone and that's the intent. I'm setting it. I'm the owner of the business. I'm setting that tone of intent so everybody in that management team knows this is how we operate. To your point about a snowball effect, we had a tremendous amount of success even by the late nineties. We had a tremendous amount of success and we were getting quite a bit of media attention for what we were doing. And I received a phone call from a gentleman who owned an independent grocery store in a small town, about an hour away from me, and he says, “Mark, I saw what you're doing. I can't get staff. The town he lives in is sort of a resort town, and so people only came in the summer or Christmas, and so he couldn't find workers for this store. He says, “How do I go about hiring somebody with disabilities?” So I put him in touch with a local agency similar to what Ellie and her people do. mark: He hired one person. After a couple months, that person was his best employee. He started hiring more people with disabilities. It became so important to him that he started talking about it. He's a golfer and every time he played golf with local business people, he would say, “You need to do this.” So the hardware store, the liquor store … so that's what happens. The other point that's important, and Ellie touched on this, my voice carries more than Ellie's does on this subject at the business level because businesses speak to each other. They speak the same language, peer to peer. I'm just a small business owner, but I could sit in a room with the CEO of General Motors, for example, and we could have a conversation that would make sense where with the social service sector, that's really not gonna happen. Businesses like mine are scared of people like Ellie. Not really Ellie. But yes, we're scared of people like you. Cause we don't know. We don't understand. We don't know what makes you tick. And when you come to meet with us and you've got these ideas - which are brilliant – we're just thinking what's this gonna cost me? I don't trust this person. But when it comes from me, oh, this makes sense. Mark's talking about making more money. Wow. I really have to listen to this. So that's why it's so important that when Ellie put this conference together, that she's bringing in someone like myself or others who have done this and talk about it from a business point of view. janet: And this isn't something that is only meant for large companies and large industries. I know Trex was going to be someone who spoke on one of the panels that you were intending to have, but it's not just companies the size of Trex. There are a wide range of businesses in our community right now that are employing people with disabilities. ellie: Absolutely. We have everything from Acorn Behavioral Health has our folks there. We have folks with Martins. They have been a great partner for us. Monoflo Melnor, Oak Stone Pizzeria has a young gentleman working there. Pho Bistro in Creekside, which actually used to be Firefly, so it's a perfect pairing; they've had a gentleman who worked at Firefly working at their location since they opened practically, so really it's not just the big names, but everything from small mom and pop shops to large organizations can benefit from employees with disabilities. janet: Do you find, Mark, that you have to talk to your smaller businesses in a different way than you would some of your larger businesses and industries like Trex? If you are talking to a mom and pop place that maybe only has 10 employees or even five or six, do you have to come at that from a different angle or with different information? mark: Not really. The conversation is the same. The conversation about the value that a person with a disability brings to the workplace is the same. But the changes they can make much quicker in a mom and pop. For example, I can have a meeting with my manager and say “You know what? Monday morning we're gonna start this. This is what we're gonna do Monday morning.” And on Monday morning it happens. When the General Motors CEO says “We're gonna start this Monday morning.” That's not gonna happen, right? So the conversation doesn't necessarily change, but the speed in which you can see change. What we're looking for here is a culture shift, looking for a culture shift within the workplace. And we're seeing it already. mark: When you go back 20 years, 30 years to when I first started my business, and I hired the first person with a disability - someone with Down Syndrome - I was a franchise business. The franchise, my area manager, they said “What are you doing? What are you doing? The customers are gonna, the customers are not gonna like this. This is crazy. And you hire somebody with Down Syndrome, how could he possibly sweep the floor and do it right?” and I said “Watch. Watch. Think about who you're talking to. Cause I'm disabled.” But they hadn't thought about that. And that young man that I hired, Clint Spurling, the first one was the first day I was in business. He was by far my best employee by far. He came to work early, he wouldn't take a break and we couldn't get him to go home. He always had his uniform on on the bus so that everybody knew he worked at Tim Horton. Those are very valuable stories. But then when I tell people that, when I tell employers, “Hey, I made more money too.” Wow. Okay, now we've got an audience. janet: And Mark brings up a good point. Ellie, when you talk about the public facing part of this. For several years, NW Works, operated the Firefly Cafe, in Creekside. I can't ever remember in all of the times that I was there for breakfast or lunch or to grab a coffee, anybody ever being uncomfortable with the staff that you had there. I think that's a misconception that is way blown out of proportion on the public side to an employer side. ellie: Absolutely. I think that the Firefly Cafe is a perfect example, Janet. We had folks there with all manner of disabilities, visible and invisible. And the folks that were coming, our customers, they knew that about us. So they were sort of, in a sense, self-selecting, right? They were comfortable. They supported the work we were doing. But my favorite time was when people who had absolutely no idea who we were would stop in. Probably because they were looking for something to eat, they'd just gotten off of Interstate 81, and they just happened to walk into the restaurant. Those were the folks that really would contact us, leave reviews saying, I'm so grateful you're doing this. I had no idea. but I think that gives us a really good indicator that the public is comfortable with this or is more comfortable than employers perhaps think that they are. They want to support businesses that are diverse and inclusive. I think there's a huge cultural shift going on right now with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging - these buzzwords that are going around so many major companies - and disability is diversity and it's not something we always think of. But it really is, I think a societal attitude. There are certain facets of disability that we have societally deemed acceptable, right? You're wearing glasses, Mark is wearing glasses. I'm wearing contacts. I can't really see without my contacts - that impacts my daily living. That could be in the grand scheme of things, a disability, but we socially don't consider it. We've made it acceptable to wear glasses, even people who don't need glasses wear glasses. So really it just takes that cultural shift and I think that what companies will see is more consumers are happy to hear about these things. They're happy to know that the companies they support are inclusive and are giving back to the community and are giving people an opportunity who absolutely deserve it. janet: Mark, you were talking about bottom line and decreased cost. Marketing is a huge piece of some businesses' bottom line. And when you are making a shift like this and people want to see it, and they're behind you a hundred percent, you're gonna get more customers, you're gonna get more sales, you're gonna have more people frequent your business if it's retail or food service because you are doing something they believe in. So it's a whole ‘nother dollar sign when you're looking at that pros and cons list. mark: Absolutely. Marketing and merchandising is huge. When I'm speaking, in my presentation to business owners in that room, they would say, Well, you know what, my, my restaurant, I don't see disabled people. I don't think I need to spend the time with this.” Even though it's one in five, heading to one in four, you still have those business owners and I see them reaching for their phone before I'm finished and all that. And I hit them with this statistic. If you take the 23% of Americans, that have a disability, and you add in a direct family member, so mom, dad, brother, sister, a son, daughter, you're at 68% of the American population. 68% of Americans either have a disability or they have a loved one at home with a disability, and that's a number that no business can ignore. You see them in the room pick up their phone. I'm just finishing up and they go, “Hey, wait, what? Wait, hold on. Ok. This changes everything,” because they realize when it comes to sales and transactions that seven out of 10 people coming into my store are either disabled or to have a loved one at home that's disabled, this is impactful, maybe I really should have a ramp into my restaurant. I make more money. yeah, it's important. janet: And that statistic doesn't even include people who have friends who went to high school with somebody. All of the ancillary connections that we have that are not in our immediate family, you're probably pushing that statistic closer to maybe 80 or 90%. mark: probably a hundred. Yeah, probably a hundred. I mean, who, who amongst us doesn't know somebody unless you've been living in a cave for the last 25 years, we all know somebody. Even famous people, you know somebody on TV who has a disability. Everybody knows somebody. janet: Ellie, in a perfect world, give me a list. You don't have to call out specific business names, but tell me who you would love to fill a room. ellie: Anybody who's making a hiring decision, whether that is a hiring manager or somebody in HR. Because if you are in HR and you are screening individuals, if you're not reaching candidates who have disabilities. If you're not intentionally saying that in your job applications - that you are a company that values diversity and includes and invites individuals with disabilities to apply - you're missing a huge portion of the population. So really anyone who's involved in hiring we want to give you the training. We wanna give you the tools to be successful ultimately. We're just one agency. There are competitors of ours that serve other folks in our area. I don't care. I want you to come to us or go to Blue Ridge Opportunities or to go to Echo or First Choice or any of these other agencies in the Commonwealth because the ultimate goal here is to get more meaningful employment for folks with disabilities. janet: Mark thank you for taking some time out of your day to have this conversation with me. I do appreciate it. mark: My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, Janet. Take care Ellie. janet: So for someone who's listening and is thinking that a lot of what they've heard today makes a lot of sense. What is the next step? How do they start the process? ellie: If they are in the Winchester area, they can contact us and we would be happy to talk to them about what their needs are as a business and who we might have available to partner with them. If they're not in our area - you've got listeners further down in the valley - there are other organizations similar to us. So really what you want to look for is an employment service organization. You can also search for things like disability, employment organizations. Those terms will really help you find an agency. ellie: If you still can't find anything, you can always reach out to the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services, DARS, because they are one of the agencies that we work very closely with. They're all over Virginia, so no matter where you are, they can help you out. janet: it's an easy process. I don't think we can say enough how simple it is. It's probably more simple than it is to actually hire someone that doesn't have a disability. ellie: Absolutely. You think about how much money you spend in the hiring process, between interviews, the amount of time it takes to get that position filled, how much you spend when the position isn't filled. And then how much it costs when you make a bad hire and you have to do it all over again. The benefit of working with an organization like NW Works is that we know the skill level of the individual. We do assessments ahead of time to make sure that they are able to do the work that you need them to do. And then again, we provide that job coach. So if you as a hiring manager are saying, I need this person to have skill A, B, and C. One, we can make sure that they have those skills. And two, we can make sure that they are doing the job the way you want it to be done. And we can make those adjustments in real time instead of saying, okay, I've got this employee now that I'm stuck with that doesn't know how to do this, doesn't have training. And we can even give training to companies to make sure that their hiring managers, their employees understand how to work with these individuals. Because really this is a relationship that we wanna build with our partners. It's not just that we're gonna drop in somebody and you're gonna be stuck with an employee that doesn't know what they're doing. They're gonna get training and we're gonna give you training as well. janet: I think the other part of that training is invaluable because like you mentioned earlier, so many times we all have our own preconceived notions or we are uncomfortable. I've talked to several guests when they've come from Blue Ridge Hospice. For me, it's talking about death. I don't know how to do it. I don't know if I'm being disrespectful. It just ties me up in knots when I used to have to talk to somebody from Blue Ridge Hospice and I have managed to get over that now, but they had to help me figure out how to talk and what to talk about and put those fears aside. It is exactly the same thing and the fact that you're willing to do that on the other end I think is just incredible. ellie: Absolutely. And we know that this is a barrier in place for people. And I think, when we talk about disability inclusion, it's not that different than any other form of diversity, equity, and inclusion work, in the same vein that you might need education and training about how to talk about and with members of the L G B T Q I A population, it's the same thing. Do I say this person is disabled? Do I say they have a disability? Do I say they're living with a disability? There's all these different kinds of interesting terms. And like any community, the disability community is incredibly diverse. Different parts of the community are gonna have different preferences around person first language, identity, first language, things like that. So really the training from our end is making sure that you as the employer know and feel comfortable in those situations - what information might be needed, what kind of accommodations might be needed. And so really that's what we want is that education for folks, because whether you hire through us or you hire a different person with a disability that doesn't go through an agency like NW Works, it's a win. That's success either way. There's a need for inclusive, competitive employment. ellie: That's the goal. So whether you go through us, you go through a competitor, I'm happy because now somebody is getting an opportunity for real work, real wages. janet: How do they get in touch with you? How do they reach out to NW Works? ellie: So Janet, if somebody wants to reach out to us, they can reach out via our website, which is NWWorks.com. They can send us an email through that or reach out to us on social media to get involved. That's gonna be the best way to contact us. janet: Thank you for meeting up with me a second time to fill in the blanks for what, hopefully now is a completed radio show! ellie: Absolutely. Thanks so much for your patience, Janet. I know it's been a, an interesting trip with us. janet: And it's a good opportunity for me to also remind everyone who's listening now that what you hear on the radio isn't always all of the conversation. So a lot of times, I have to edit because the radio has a limited amount of time that I am allowed to have on the air. The podcast doesn't have that limitation, so sometimes I don't always remember to mention because when I'm recording, I don't always know at the end of it whether I'm gonna run short on time. So this is a great opportunity to be able to remind people the entire conversation is on the podcast at thevalleytodaypodcast.com. You could go there and hear all kinds of things. There's probably stuff this past last week that didn't make it on air that you'll be giggling about because I thought, ah, maybe I shouldn't say that on the radio. That happens a lot, a lot more than people might think. I will be back, tomorrow. It is Tourism Tuesday, Old Town Winchester edition. So Alex Flanigan is gonna join me and give me a rundown on all of the really cool things that are happening in downtown Winchester. So meet me back here for that, just a few minutes after noon.  

This episode of VHHA's Patients Come First podcast features an interview with Macon Sizemore, VCU Health Director of Rehabilitative Services, for a conversation about his work and his decades long practice of donating blood, which makes him one of the most prolific blood donors on record. Send questions, comments, or feedback to pcfpodcast@vhha.com or contact us on Twitter or Instagram using the #PatientsComeFirst hashtag.

Our conversation today was all about celebrations. It's part of our community health partnership with Valley Health where we talk each month with administrators, physicians, and other Valley Health staff about health topics, events, and the community. This month we talked with Jennifer Coello: Vice President, Operations and Administrator for Warren Memorial Hospital and Mary Presley: Director of Rehabilitative Services for Warren Memorial Hospital. The pair gave all the details for two events that will celebrate the one year anniversary of the new Warren Memorial Hospital campus on June 25, 2021. The day will kick off at 7am with the 5k Hills to Wellness run with all proceeds to benefit the Warren Memorial Hospital Foundation. These funds will help offset costs for those in need of physical therapy equipment or access to care for disabilities. Mary explained that this is a timed race and will be managed by Shenandoah Valley Runners. There will be medals for the top 3 finishers in each 10-year age group. All runners will receive race t-shirts and gift bags. The registration fee is $30 with a discount to Shenandoah Valley Runners. Course details & registration can be done here:  valleyhealthlink.com/WMH5K. Registration will also be available the morning of the race. It will start at the new campus located at 351 Valley Health Way in Front Royal. Jennifer filled us in on all the activities that will be available from 11am - 2pm during their one-year anniversary celebration. There will be booths and stations setup to learn more about the services offered at your community hospital, check in on your own health and wellness and enjoy some family fun for everyone! It will feature: • Bouncy house • Photo booth • Explore fire and rescue vehicles • Teddy bear clinic • Magic show • Face painting • Balloon animals • Enjoy a walk on the Andreae Family Wellness & Recreation Trail • Blood pressure checks • Oxygen saturation • Fitness challenge • Hands only CPR PLUS games, prizes and complimentary food, drinks and ice cream while supplies last! For more information, visit: valleyhealthlink.com/wmh1year. To hear other conversations in our Community Health series, click here.

Welcome to the 15th episode of the Manager Minute. Joining Carol Pankow in the studio today is Cheryl Fuller, VR Division Director with the Texas Workforce Commission and also incoming CSAVR President. Today we will talk about Social Security's VR Cost Reimbursement program, which was authorized in 1981. The purpose of that program is to make State VR services more readily available to SSA beneficiaries with disabilities and to generate savings for the Social Security Trust Fund for SSDI beneficiaries and the General Revenue Fund for SSI recipients.   Learn how the Texas Workforce Commission uses technology and staff to maximize and track Social Security Reimbursements to help support their programs.   Listen Here You can find out more about VRTAC-QM on the web at: https://www.vrtac-qm.org/    Full Transcript   VRTAC-QM Manager Minute: Everything is Bigger in Texas- Learn How Texas Leverages SSA Reimbursement   {Music}   Speaker: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management. Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host, Carol Pankow.   Carol: Welcome to the manager minute. I am so fortunate to have Cheryl Fuller, V.R. Division Director with the Texas Workforce Commission and also incoming CSAVR president, joining me in the studio today. And Cheryl, there certainly have been some very tragic things happening in your state and most recently the Uvalde School shooting. And my thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected. I know VR is typically filled with people with a lot of heart. We're kind of people people. So in light of all that's happening, how are you and your staff holding up?   Cheryl: First of all, thank you for thinking about us. This is something very much at the forefront of our minds and it's really on our hearts. And we have a field office in Uvalde about a block and a half from the school. And so it's a small community. Our staff knows everyone. I grew up in a small town myself, and I know just how wonderful it is to grow up in a small town with the support and the relationships, and that will be important for them going forward. And our agency, along with other agencies, immediately looked at what we can do, how can we help our community? Because it is our community. And we're looking at a couple of things. We're looking at some group skills training later this summer to help some of our students get ready to go back to school. And how can we do that? How can we help them think about going back to school and process that and think about some positive things that they look forward to about why they're in school, their career and growing up and getting ready to transition. And of course, we know adults also may need us. So we're redoubling our efforts to make sure that our community knows that our services are there to help them. If a few months from now they begin to have conditions that are preventing them from keeping their job. We're here to help, and we know that if we all do what we can, we will help our community work through this.   Carol: Well, I'm really glad you're at the helm because you bring that heart to it. That has just broken my heart. I'm thinking about you all. I'm praying for you guys every day. And I'm glad you're in that leadership role there to bring that to your staff and to your customers and that thought and thinking ahead for the next school year. That is so smart, so wise.   Cheryl: Well, that's our staff on the ground and it's our agency executive director. We're so fortunate to have an executive director that cares very much about our division, our programs, our customers and our staff, and was on the ground meeting with our staff and immediately asking what we can do and helping us be creative in thinking how can we help? We can do more. And so we're really fortunate to have.   Carol: I love that. That is so great to hear. Cheryl, I've known you since you started at the agency. And in fact, I don't think you probably remember this, but I was actually sitting behind you at your first CSAVR conference, and I remember thinking, Who is that lady? You were so sharp and you would ask questions like, I'm like, This gal is super intelligent. Like, Where's she come from? Because you were new to VR and you came out of the other side of the world. But I loved it because you participated right away and you've accomplished so much in your tenure. I've really always looked up to you and your leadership, not only in your agency but in the VR field as a whole. And so congrats on that new position as the incoming president of CSAVR. I know you're going to be spectacular at that job.   Cheryl: Thank you, Carol. You know, I've always looked up to you. In fact, we were following you around, as I recall, when you were president, as you tried to lead our association and lead our partnership with our federal agency to get more flexibility, which we so needed to serve students with disabilities. So I was in the group behind you going, Yeah, what Carol says.   Carol: So you are hilarious. Well, I never got to be CSAVR President, I was the NCSAB president. CSAVR Executive Committee.   Cheryl: Yeah, that's right.   Carol: I did a lot of that work through NCSAB, but you know, I was on both groups and so wow, definitely promoting those flexibilities and I'm glad they finally came through.   Cheryl: Well, thank goodness for your leadership there and your leadership with administrative changes like prior approval, I thought how has Carol already figured all of this out? And we're still trying to spell prior approval, so.   Carol: Oh, you are very sweet. Yeah, well, I'm still working on it to this day in my new role. Yes. But today we're going to talk about Social Security's VR cost reimbursement program, which was really authorized back in 1981. Right. And the purpose of that program is to make State VR services more readily available to SSI beneficiaries with disabilities and to generate savings for the Social Security Trust Fund for SSDI beneficiaries and the General Revenue Fund for SSI recipients. And so under that cost reimbursement program, the Social Security Administration will pay state VR agencies compensation in the form of reimbursement when beneficiaries served by State VR agencies enter the workforce and achieve nine continuous months of earnings. And those earnings must be at or above substantial gainful activity, and usually it's just referred to as SGA. I know for me that program income was really a game changer when I was at Minnesota Blind. I mean, it actually gave us some breathing room and we were able to do some really creative things and invest in. Our older individuals who are blind program. And so what I was thinking about who to talk to for this I of course I called Courtney. She was my person. I'm like, Courtney, what are the states out there that are doing really well with this? And you were at the top of the list. So when you look at those reimbursement levels, I know your state is out in the lead and being really efficient in getting every possible dollar. So let's dig into this. Can you give us a little picture about VR in Texas? Like what's your annual grant amount? Kind of how many staff do you have? How many customers do you serve? Paint a little picture for our listeners.   Cheryl: Sure. Our annual grant amount has been growing every year rather significantly. It's grown 23% since 2017. Wow. So our annual grant allotment is at about 300 million now. We're second to our sister state in California. Of course, California is bigger. And so we have certainly, as we've seen our grant grow, we are seeing it grow in significant part because of our population growth in Texas. We are expected to, if we haven't already surpassed the 30 million person point in Texas population, we were 27.4 in 2016 and we are now well into 30 million. In fact, I think we were leading the country in numeric growth from 2010 to 2020. Wow. Our state is growing in terms of population. Our economy is remaining strong and our grant is growing. I'll tell you our annual budget. So our grants are of course for two years, but our annual budget this year is about $276 million at the DSU level. And so when it comes to the number of folks that we're serving, if we just think about participants, which is how we now consider a number of customers serve in the most specific sense. So somebody with an IP who is also receiving services, last year it was about 65.5 thousand, so 65,514. To be specific, it's running 65 to 70000 a year is how many customers we're serving. We're doing that with a division that has about 744 positions. The vast majority of those are in the field. About 1663 of those positions are in the field. Almost 700 of them are counselors or transition VR counselors who work with students and youth, about 350 rehabilitation assistants to support them. And then we have other direct service delivery staff like our VR teachers, for example. We also have a residential training facility for individuals who are legally blind. Mark Driscoll Rehabilitation Center is in that direct service delivery group. And then of course we have regional and management unit staff also providing support oversight to our staff delivering services. So that's a picture of our system.   Carol: That's a bunch. I was doing the quick math, so I was looking at your 700 counselors divided by those 65,000 people. So you're sitting around 93 customers on average on a caseload.   Cheryl: On average.   Carol: Absolutely. I just have to ask, have you seen any changes as a result of the pandemic with individuals coming in starting to experience the long COVID or anything like that?   Cheryl: You know, we've seen just a handful. We have seen some. It's not big numbers. And I think as individuals experiencing long COVID work through what that is, what it means to them, whether it represents an impediment to their ability to keep a job or get a job or advance in their job. I think we may see more of that. And right now, it still seems like it's quite a new field of study. And these folks are trying to figure out where their resources are and how they're going to work through these symptoms that stay with them for a long time.   Carol: Yeah, absolutely. I'm just thinking that might end up coming your way given all that huge growth in population, for sure. That definitely is. People were all moving to Texas. I see it on Facebook all the time. I've had several friends moved down to Texas, so I get it.   Cheryl: Well, it's hot here right now, so they might be questioning that decision. It's supposed to be I think we're supposed to get to 107 over the weekend, so.   Carol: ]Yeah, I saw that on the news. It's looking blistering, definitely. So tell me about what resources you've been able to put into your SSA reimbursement like both people and technology?   Cheryl: Well, we have had, I would say on the technology side, a game changer over ten years ago, and that is using the Morrow Ticket Tracker system. This system significantly improved not only our efficiency, but the number of claims we were able to successfully process. And for those of you who don't know, it's called the Vocational Rehabilitation Ticket to Work Reimbursement Tracker Program or Tracker. What it does is it tracks and processes traditional reimbursements and ticket to work payments. What the system does. For us as it collects data from our agency case management system. It connects that with external data, which is still internal to us in our agency, which is unemployment insurance, wage records, state verification and exchange information, other types of information. And what it does is it identifies cases that may be ready to be submitted as a claim, may be ready to be submitted as a claim is really important because that's where the other resource we have comes in that is so incredibly valuable to us. We have two dedicated staff in our finance division at the DSA level, and this is all these two staff. Do they use the systems that we have, including Ticket Tracker? They identify claims that may be eligible for us to submit for reimbursement and then they go over those claims with a fine tooth comb because they know the top reasons why a claim may be denied. And, so just because it pops up in that system doesn't mean you just send it in. You go over it with a fine tooth comb, and then they submit it for reimbursement, and then they follow through and then they double check payments when we receive them. And if they think we received a low payment and we can make a case for more of a reimbursement, they submit that for consideration, the level of rigor that these two staff apply to this process is why we have such a low denial rate and why we're able to be so successful. So I call them our secret sauce. They are fantastic. They also coach our counselors in how to help a customer with a ticket assignment. And so what to do with the ticket assignment? Our counselors can reach out to them for help. They're sleuths. They'll look at possible match and say, Wait a minute, I think this date of birth or season, we might need to make a correction here. And so they'll identify that and work with our staff, if necessary, to make data corrections. They are just incredible. And the combination of those two things has helped us be quite successful in submitting claims and receiving those reimbursements.   Carol: I'm really glad you mentioned both of those because I remember going to a conference, I think it was like in 2013 and there were poster sessions up and they had the moral ticket tracker and I'm going, What is this? Because we were doing this old pencil paper, we were getting maybe 400,000 a year or something. And once we got the tracker in, it was not a huge investment. I was super surprised it was a low dollar amount. We never went under $1,000,000 after that. We were a small agency. I'm like, What is happening was amazing, but I think you're right. Having a secret source like you had your two women that were your secret source. So I had Courtney. She was our secret. She was amazing at that. You know, I think you have to dedicate some resource. And I know there are definitely some agencies struggling right now, and I know there are a number of folks that are not actually submitting for reimbursement right now. They just haven't been able to land and figure that out. But those are two important pieces to the equation.   Cheryl: Very important and sharing. And I would tell you that because I asked them in preparing for this podcast, I talked to them and I said, Sherri and Annie, what would you recommend? And they said, Well, first ticket tracker.   Carol: Yeah.   Cheryl: And second, check every claim go through every detail of the fine tooth comb.   Carol: Got it. Good advice. That is good. Yes. So I know you've had some recent struggles with your SSA reimbursement and I understood some of the rules changed. You had some things that well, the rules change and it's impacted the amount of the recovery that you've been able to get. So can you talk a little more about that?   Cheryl: I can talk a little bit about it, and then I will make sure not to get out of my depth, because I did talk to Sherri and Annie about this extensively and it reminded me all over again why they're experts and why I'm doing what I'm doing. And so what I would say, kind of overall, as with any program rules, over time, SSA makes adjustments to submission, how we submit what is accepted. And so it's very important that we as well as all the other agencies that are participating in this program, stay on top of those changes and understand that our sister agencies at the federal level will also be making adjustments, and some of those may take some time for them and us. And in the meanwhile, that affects the rate at which you may be getting your claims paid. It may affect whether you're getting your claims paid. And one of the things that specifically has changed over time is what is accepted is proof of employment, particularly when somebody is working in another state. Right. So what used to be accepted is verification of that is no longer. And so we used to be able to show the information collected in our case management system as a valid submission for reimbursement. Now we need something more rigorous. And so we're working through how we connect with our Swiss data, because otherwise we would continue to lose valuable reimbursements for people working in other states, like a pharmacist in California. They could see it, but we needed that proof so that that claim could be paid. And. So it's really being and VR professionals are fantastic at this, but it's being on top of changes and being flexible to deal with them and really trying to work in partnership with our federal agencies to make sure we're all understanding what is required and doing our best to achieve that.   Carol: You might have to drive out to California and take a picture of that pharmacist, if that would be allowed.   Cheryl: I know, I know. I thought, man, what a fantastic outcome for VR, though, right?   Carol: Absolutely. That is incredible. Oh, gosh. I knew those changes had happened, but it was after I left, so I wasn't sure the nuances. So that makes some sense to me. Definitely. So I know you also had something really unique happen with your legislature and your SSA reimbursement, so tell us a little about that.   Cheryl: Well, in 2016, September 1st of 2016, our legacy agency, the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, was abolished, and the programs in our legacy agency were transferred by the legislature, either to the Texas Workforce Commission, which is where VR, older, blind, our Randolph Sheppard program, for example, all went. And then the other programs went to the Health and Human Services Commission that included our blind children's program. Our program for those that have traumatic brain or spinal cord injury, are deaf and hard of hearing services that we had, as well as independent living. So independent living part B, part C that went to Health and Human Services and they became the designated state entity for those programs. What we had done historically, though, at our legacy agency is that we had used our program income to expand and enhance our independent living services programs, including older lines. It was just an incredible value to us at our legacy agency that those dollars, because you can use your program income to support other programs funded by the Rehabilitation Act, that those dollars could really strengthen important programs in independent living. And so when we transferred to TWC from DAAS, the Legislature appropriated some of our program income back to the Health and Human Services Commission for continued support for those independent living services programs. That's really important because as we have changes in agency structure, we want to maintain the quality of service that we're providing to our customers, whether they're VR, old or blind, independent living, whatever the case may be. And this is not something that VR agencies may be accustomed to. We know you cannot appropriate vocational rehabilitation grant funds outside of the agency. Right. The VR agency. But with program income, the statute says the state. And so the legislature may appropriate that outside of the agency and did so, $8.5 million per year is appropriated in our appropriations bill pattern to the Health and Human Services Commission to provide continued support to those independent living services programs.   Carol: So how does that relate then to how much you get in program income? Wow.   Cheryl: We collect about $20 Million a year in program income. We have had years where it was higher significantly. So I think our highest year was 33 million. Wow. Sometimes that has to do with when claims are paid versus when you submit the claim. But we can look at about $20 Million a year. So it represents a significant part of our program income and it's also the largest method of finance for those independent living programs back at our sister agency.   Carol: That's pretty incredible. It's kind of it's a little scary to think that they designated a dollar amount versus saying we're going to take 20% or we're going to take a percentage, which would make it a little easier. As there's fluctuations, you're not held to that particular threshold.   Cheryl: Certainly that's something we keep our eye on. And I'm sure that our policymakers and appropriators were concerned about keeping the programs whole. So I understand why they would have been concerned to make sure our independent living programs remain strong and healthy. But we certainly do watch that pretty carefully.   Carol: Oh, I'm sure, absolutely. So I know you're also looking at doing some good stuff moving forward and expanding your older individuals who are blind program with the SSA dollars. So what are you thinking about with that?   Cheryl: Well, I have a lot of favorites. The older blind program is one of my favorites. It is such a gem of a program when we think about I think the number is one in six adults age 65 and over will experience some type of age related macular degeneration. And you think about the growing population in our state and the fact that that grant is a really small grant that stayed small for a long time. We and our stakeholders just want very much to serve more. We want to serve more. Seniors who are learning to live with less vision, experiencing that vision loss, and we want to provide more services for them. And one of the ways we can do that is looking at our program income, say, can we invest some of this program income in expanding this program? And we took a little step to do that last year to see how it's going. We added a few staff and we were able to increase our client services a little bit. And now we want to really move in the direction to maximizing that program income to expand that program, not only to add staff. Because in the state this size, our OIC grants was a little over 2 million, maybe 2.2 million a year and by the time we add our match funds, we're at about 2.5 million. That's very small for the population that could really benefit from these services. And so we would like to add more staff across the state so that we're present in more communities and there's not so much windshield time for our staff. But also we'd like to really enhance some of the services that we provide, including offering a one week residential program similar to what we might see in our Chris Cole Rehabilitation Center that's focused on VR. How could we have a one week residential program where a seniors could come and really get support and encouragement from other seniors experiencing vision loss and learn some of those skills where they can just focus on learning those skills in a group and in a supportive cohort and making friends and kind of working through some of the fear associated with vision loss and really gaining their confidence. We also want to do that on a daily basis. So if somebody doesn't want to go away for a week, they could go into a center in a day program. So we want to start working toward those kind of activities to really enhance the services as well as serving more people.   Carol: I love that. Well, the OIB program is near and dear to my heart, Too.   Cheryl: I just love that.   Carol: That was one of my places when stuff was all kind of going crazy. I'd go down and talk with the staff from there. I loved it and the stories they'd have, and I'd get these little sweet letters from some of the individuals that we helped to assist. It was lovely. I just think the work done there has been so important for quality of life for people in your later years. You know, yeah, I'm thinking about you with your $2 million. And I mean, my grant was like a half a million dollars. And we're in little, tiny Minnesota with 6 million people. And you've got 30 million people. Yeah, proportionately, it doesn't seem like a lot, but I think you're on the right track with that. We had a lot of success in doing group training with the seniors and like you say, developing that cohort and people to support each other. It really does work well. So I hope you have great success with that.   Cheryl: I hope so. It's such a fantastic program. My granddaddy was legally blind from a very young age and his sight got worse as he got older. And I just think about all the things if he had had access to a program like this, that could have made it easier for him.   Carol: Yep. I had a grandma. I had a grandma too. She lived in 98 with macular degeneration. I remember visiting her one day, went to her house and knocking on doors. She lived over in North Dakota. She's about 10 hours away, but she didn't know who I was, you know, because she couldn't see me. And so I'm talking to her for a long time that it took her while she's like, oh, you know, before she let me in the door, because, like, what's this strange lady doing at my door? Yes, but it would have been so great if I would have had one of our staff could have gone out and helped her and her house and all the bump dots and getting things situated for it would have made it so much easier. I completely understand. Absolutely.   Cheryl: That's what I think about.   Carol: Well, that's the beauty with that program income where you're able to help invest in a program like that. It really is important. Now, I know some other of your agencies are really struggling. They're not submitting their claims for reimbursement. They're not really putting this on the priority list. So what kind of what advice would you give to our listeners about SSA reimbursement if they're sitting back kind of going, wow, we haven't paid this much attention right now and we're doing other things. What advice would you give to them?   Cheryl: Well, first, I have all the sympathy in the world for our sister agencies. I don't know of one agency that doesn't have a full to overflowing plate. And we're all trying to figure out how we can improve our services, how we can be continuously improving, how we can adapt to the environment around us, which is changing so significantly just due to COVID. So, boy, I know we all have a lot on our plates, but this source of income for us is allowing us to expand a program that is really underfunded for the size of a state. We have just the incredible difference it can make in the lives of people who may have had their sight for years and years. And now they're losing it and they're scared to death and we can be there to help. And that's just one way we can think about using our program in. So I would encourage agencies that may not have tackled this yet or may have struggled with it in the past to just think through it, think through what the opportunity is, how much you might be leaving on the table, what you could do with those dollars. And there's help out there to figure out what you're doing if you need some systems. There are systems out there. The ticket tracker is a great system. There are people out there that can provide support and help you as you develop dedicated staff. But I would make sure if you want to jump in and I encourage you to get the system you need and get the people who make it a priority because it is what they do and you will benefit and you will be able to do with those programming dollars some innovative things to support your programs, whether it's VR or older, blind or independent living.   Carol: Well said. And I believe VR still has a cost reimbursement group. So they always had a little a group that got together and they do some specific training. I remember sending Courtney and other people out to that training and they developed quite a cohort themselves of folks to rely on. I remember her calling Virginia people, you know, different folks that she got to meet through the training. And so definitely that can be a resource as well.   Cheryl: That's the great thing about the VR world. I've learned so much from other states, from you, from some of my colleagues in other states. We are there for each other. CSAVR and NASAB are great avenues to pursue to make sure your staff are connected to other people who do that work and can support them.   Carol: Yeah, I love that. I love that. So I cannot leave this episode though, without asking you about your upcoming presidency on July 1st. It's CSA VR. So I just wondered, what are you hoping to accomplish next year? Do you have any things that you want to tackle?   Cheryl: Well, first of all, it's a big job and there have been some fantastic people in this role over the years. And so my goal would really be to continue the conversation that we began at CSA VR a couple of years ago and that we're having with each other as VR agencies at the association level offline and also with our federal partner. And that is how can we understanding the trends that are affecting the VR program nationally? And by that I mean fewer people applying, fewer people being determined eligible, fewer people achieving employment outcomes. How can we work together to understand what's driving those trends and to be innovative and collaborative as a system, as a national program about how we can address those trends. And I'm excited about the opportunity we have as an association to add value to the member agencies, because we're all working on some of these things. We're all working on recruiting and retaining staff because if you don't recruit and retain staff, you don't have people to serve your customers and making sure they're prepared and trained well so that you can serve your customers with the level of expertise that we all want to have at the table for the benefit of our customers. We're all looking at what we need to do to improve our processes. Our processes need to evolve just as all processes in businesses around the country. So how is the VR process evolving to meet the needs and expectations of the customers in 2022? And we're all working how we can be visible to our communities, be available, make sure they know we're here. How can we be doing outreach and communicating about the difference our program makes? These are things we can all work on together, and I think that CSA VR in partnership with CSA B and collaborating across states can really add some value to that conversation and support all of us out here in the States who are working hard to make our programs the best that they can be.   Carol: I love that. I look forward to following you this next year. It's going to be super fun, super fun to watch. So thanks for joining me, Cheryl. I know you're super busy and I really appreciate your time. I hope you have a great day.   Cheryl: Thank you, Carol. Thanks so much for having me.   {Music} Speaker: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening.

In the Manager Minute Studio today is David Leon, Director of Workforce Programs at the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) along with host of the Manager Minute podcast, Carol Pankow. Find out how the projects David has led are shaping the approach that Virginia is taking in relation to work incentives counseling (benefits planning). What is the overall structure? Why did DARS see it as imperative to develop the capacity for work incentives counseling in Virginia beyond what is provided by the WIPA(Work Incentives Planning and Assistance)? Find out what resources and tools David is recommending and what advice he has for you.   Listen Here   Full Transcript   Important Links Cities for Financial Empowerment https://cfefund.org/projects/   Consumer Financial Protection Bureau "Your Money Your Goals" and Focus on Disability - materials are free and may be        co branded https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/educator-tools/your-money-your-goals/   National Disability Institute https://www.nationaldisabilityinstitute.org/downloads/   FDIC Money Smart  https://www.fdic.gov/resources/consumers/money-smart/index.html   ·       Next Gen Personal Finance https://www.ngpf.org/   You can find out more about VRTAC-QM on the web at: https://www.vrtac-qm.org/   Full Transcript   Work Incentives Counseling---Finding the incentive to engage in work incentives counseling with Virginia DARS!   {Music} Speaker1: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management. Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host, Carol Pankow.   Carol: Well, welcome to the Manager Minute. I am so fortunate to have David Leon with me in the studio today. David's the director of workforce programs at the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, or, as you all endearingly refer to it as DarS. So, David, how are things going at DarS?   David: Excellent. Thank you for having me and thank you for asking.   Carol: Well, I was doing a little LinkedIn research about you, and I see you have been with the agency for over 11 years, and you're really known as a powerhouse in the VR community with some super creative work, especially as it relates to the agency's goal of helping those populations that experience both disability and poverty. And I learned that Virginia Diaries was awarded one of the announced Disability Innovation Fund grants, and I would definitely like to hear more about that at a later date. So, I'm gathering that the projects you've led and continue to lead on behalf of DARS with support from your commissioner, Cathy Hayfield, have really helped shape the approach that Virginia is taking in relation to benefits planning. And on a side note, I saw you're also a recent graduate from George Washington University with your master's in VR counseling. I always have to give a plug. My employer, I really admire you for going back to school and accomplishing that.   David: Thank you.   Carol: So today we're going to tackle the topic of benefits planning and learn more about the success of Virginia DARS has experienced. Now, when I asked around about VR best practices, your name kept coming up over and over again. And I know many agencies do kind of a one and done with benefits planning. They get something on the plan, they kind of move on. And my understanding is that your agency has gone far beyond that. So, let's dig in. What is the overall benefits planning structure in your agency?   David: Thank you, Carol. And let me start by saying anything we have been successful at here in Virginia is really based on our commissioner commitment to this work. The agencies buy into the value of this work in a systemic way, along with what we find as best practices from other agencies. I'm very proud of the work we do here in Virginia, and there are many other states with different approaches who we have borrowed pieces of over the years. Basic approach to benefits counseling is around what that looks like as a culture within the agency. To that end, we've done several things that I want to touch on first, and those include an expectation that all counselors go through VCU's intro to benefits course. That is something that all of our placement staff and our VR counselors are expected to go through. Every client who is potentially on benefits is expected to have within their IEP work incentive services. So, from an agency cultural perspective, there are a couple of things that are important there. We want our counselors to know at least a little bit about the subject and hence the reason that they go through the introduction to disability benefits. That's the course offered every month or two through the WIPPA program. That is the very basic six-part session on Intro to SSI, Intro to SSDI benefits. We also want all of our clients to get these services. The other piece that's important in Virginia is we don't refer to this as benefits counseling. We refer to it as work incentive counseling and work incentive services. The reason being we don't want to focus on benefits. We want to focus on work. You get what you focus on, and we want to focus on maximum employment and maximum earned income for our clients. So, another piece that's a little bit unique to Virginia, I think, is that every individual who goes through work incentives, counseling will be shown one example of what their life might look like if they are completely off cash benefits. Whether it's possible or not, we want every one of our clients to think it could be possible one day, and we want to create a document that kind of has a shelf life so that maybe you're not ready today, but maybe next year you get that opportunity after your case closed and you're going to have a report in front of you that might show you, Oh, now that I'm earning this much, it says I should look for these work incentives. So that's a little bit about the structure for within the agency. From a counselor perspective. Within our structure, we also have work incentives, specialist advocates. Those are people trained either through Cornell University or VCU, to provide work incentive services or benefits counseling as the rest of the country knows of it. And those individuals often work for employment networks and have partnership plus relationships. They don't always. But that is a best practice for our agency. And that's so that if somebody does choose to work their way off cash benefits, there's a natural link to an employment network and to continue to receive those services after post closure from the same people who provided them during the case. We also within our structure have a work incentive specialist whose sole job is to provide training for our counselors and those work incentive specialists each month we do state. Specific trainings on our state Medicaid system. Other things related to Virginia, how to use reports for counseling and guidance, and those hours count usually for their continuing education. So that's a really nice thing. It's a way to help make sure the people we have trained to provide services stay current. The other thing our work incentive specialists does is provides quality control. When a newly credentialed practitioner wants to provide services in Virginia, they have to share their first several reports with our work incentive specialists who double checks them, make sure they're correct and they are not allowed to provide the services independently without sending them until the person who works for me says You are good to go and that does something else. Know you think of rapid engagement. It creates a relationship between newly trained benefits practitioners and our staff in charge of quality control, so that when something wonky comes up, they know who to ask and they feel comfortable asking. That's a really key part of our system. The last thing that's unique to Virginia, we have state specific software that all of our work incentive specialists use when they're working, a case where you put in the scenarios earning X amount of dollars and it will do the math for you, along with provide an output of what potential work incentives might apply. And what we require are a couple of things. For a report to be completed and shared with the client and counselor, there has to be a copy of that individual's benefit planning query known as the BPI. The rationale for making sure that's a piece of it is sometimes we learn things that will really be important to the counseling and guidance process. For instance, if someone has a rep payee or an authorized rep, that's an additional conversation with the VR counselor about who might need to be at the table when it comes to talking about work goals. If someone has an overpayment on their benefit planning query, that might be an indication that we need to really hit home on the importance of wage reporting or budgeting, or other aspects related to what that overpayment has done to a case. So those are some reasons for that document. Another thing that's a little bit different about how we do our work world summary and analysis, which is the Virginia version of a benefit summary and analysis. We require the actual use of that individual's IP goal. And again, it's another opportunity to utilize Virginia specific labor market information around what the wages look like at 20 hours a week or full time for the types of jobs they're looking at. Again, everywhere through this process, we are reinforcing that value and goal of employment. The other nice thing about that is by the time someone gets to that work incentive specialist to go through the Work World Report, the individual might suddenly say, well, they want to do something different than is the goal in their plan. It's another point where we can ensure consistency with the client and their counselor. So, all of those are parts of what this first product looks like. The work world summary and analysis. We have a bunch of different services available. All of them are a la carte after that Work World Report and they are designed to be based as needed and outcome based. So, whereas you can go to the WIPA project, and you might be given advice, you might not necessarily be given things in writing, or if you're in the hierarchy at a place where you're going to get a benefit summary and analysis. If you say, I want to know what happens if I go to work 20 hours a week, you're going to get a report that shows that our clients come into a work world report and say, I want to know what happens if I'm going to work 20 hours a week. We say we're going to show you that, but we're going to also show you what it's like to work 25 hours a week using these two work incentives. And we're going to show you what it might look like working 40 hours a week, totally off benefits, because if someone hasn't imagined it, we don't want to artificially limit their potential for work. Some of the other services we offer through our work incentive services assistance with for achieving self support that's paid in two parts, one for submitting it and a second payment. If approved, we can help with impairment related work expenses. Blind work expenses. Student Earned Income Exclusions Subsidies. Medicaid Works. Our state's Medicaid buy in Virginia is a 209 B state, so we pay to help people get 1619 B protection. We will pay to help someone with an overpayment. We will pay to help someone set up an individual development account and able now account. We will pay to help someone get section 301 protection. And then under financial empowerment, we will pay for financial health assessments. We created a pre service called Maximizing Employment Potential through career pathways, we call it Max. And that's really kind of a choose your own adventure about career and money. We're really excited about that. It's still got some kinks to work out, but some of our providers have really created some cool tools there. And then we have a. Couple of services around budgeting skills, using financial empowerment tools. So that's all the different services we have currently. And again, each one, the individual only gets paid when they have proof, they've provided the service or in many of those work incentives, when that work incentive has been applied to the individual's case within Social Security or sometimes within our state social services system.   Carol: Well, I like what you said about you get what you focus on. So obviously starting out by focusing as an agency, you've made it important for your counselor. So that came through really loud and clear by everyone having that exposure to at least that introductory level training through VCU. So that I thought was really cool. And then also ensuring you're incorporating that into the plan that they must do that. I do have a question, though. I wondered about that state specific software, kind of that technology piece, like what did it take to get that all cooking?   David: That was something that existed before I got here. It was developed by folks at VCU and was developed as a policy tool for Social Security Administration. Things moved on. We had the opportunity to move it to be specific to Virginia and move it to the Web. So, we've taken ownership of that and continue to update it each year. And now it is just a Virginia specific tool with our kind of rules and thresholds built in. But it started well before I got here as a policy tool that then was converted to be used in Virginia. There is something similar that is called DB 101. I shouldn't say similar. It's very different because if another state wanted the tool we had, we would just give it to them and say, Hey, maybe help cover part of the development costs for any changes and another state would have to pay to get their specifics put in. But what I really appreciated about it is two or three different work incentive specialists could put the exact same information in in different parts of the state, and the math would be the same. That's cool, and that's really important because that stuff is not always right. And the other thing that's nice about it, I haven't looked at DB 101 in a long time, but last I checked, that tool was more designed as a self-service tool, and a lot of our clients don't know if they get SSI or SSDI. They don't always have a full picture, and I would never want to trust such a complex system to someone who hasn't really been trained to look for potential discrepancies and errors, especially. I guess the other thing oh, I heard from a friend of a friend who said, don't ever work more than this many hours because this thing happened. Right? We all hear the stories, and every situation is different, and you can never know that other situation to really compare it to your own. The other thing I just wanted to add about our approach with our counselors, because we've had some staff also trained to do more than just that basic level. One of the things we are fortunate to have here in Virginia is Wilson Workforce Rehabilitation Center. I believe eight states have comprehensive centers, much like WWRC, we have a staff at WWRC who is trained to provide all of the work incentive services. And that individual is one of the few internal staff who regularly provides these services in a comprehensive way. So, if someone goes to the center for other things, they might get some of these other services there. But we've also at times trained some other staff in these at a higher level, not with the expectation that they actively practice. We wanted people around the state to be able to triage or to know if somebody needed a referral. So strategically, we had trained our autism subject matter expert. We had trained the person who was in charge of PreETSs We had trained the person who was in charge of small business, set up self-employment. So, we had trained some other folks and a few counselors here and there. Again, not with the expectation that they provide services, but those folks who might be in a room with a broad audience and get asked a question and be able to say, Oh, you need this person and understand that based on that question, they needed some extra help. And so, some of those staff and the positions I mentioned have come and gone. But we continue to when the opportunities come up, try to add other internal staff just again to have more people at that next level understanding. And I think right now we have maybe three different VR office managers who are credentialed through Cornell and maybe one who's credentialed through VCU. And we have a district director who has their benefits practitioner credentials.   Carol: That's super strategic. Like you've been super strategic about that. When I think about the PreETS or the small business, all those different areas that has been smart to spread that out commonly. I just think back to my own agency. You have like one person, you know, there's that one person that knows it. They're the keeper, you know, the keeper of the knowledge and the other people. Have a little smuedge. I like what I'm hearing. You know, when you talked about that another state could take the what you've got developed, you know, that software basically they'd have to pay to get it developed with their data and such for their state. So, you guys are open to that?   David: Absolutely. Yeah. We worked on a grant and then get what happened. We were going to do a grant with another state where the grant would have covered it for them. I don't remember what happened, to be honest with that potential project. Maybe in the end we found out we got something else at that time in our ability to do both was and I'm learning with the RSA diff one new grant at a time is plenty.   Carol: Yeah, right. Good advice. So, I'm going to take you back a little minute because obviously you didn't just dive into the middle of this. This came from somewhere. So why did DARS see it as imperative to develop this capacity? And so, I'm not going to use my benefits planning for this work incentive counseling in Virginia, you know, beyond what's provided by the work incentive planning and assistance, those weapons, what's kind of that bigger picture?   David: You know, first, the WIPA projects fantastic. It's a great resource. It's important to remember they've gone from 113 to 107 to 93 to 87. The number of projects continues to go down, meaning the number of individuals that need to be served or could be served by each has gone up at the same level. Funding from when with a began funding has not changed. It's important to know. So, in a state like Virginia, where we have over 300,000 people potentially eligible for services, what we were finding is the clients of our agency were not always getting the services they needed just in time based on where they were at. And sometimes you have clients who are doing self-directed job searches, you have all sorts of folks. Some people could wait, but sometimes people couldn't, and that was creating issues. The other issue in Virginia, we are one of a lucky few states that's called a 209b state, which means Medicaid protection is not automatic. We were helping people get great jobs and some of them were losing their Medicaid prior to the Medicaid expansion and prior to the buy in through no fault of their own. But because they didn't know they had to apply and had a very tiny window to apply to keep their Medicaid. So, when our state had the Medicaid infrastructure grant in the early 2000, developing this program was a piece of it. And originally the folks who went through it were called Work Incentive Specialist Advocates, and they were called Work Incentive Specialist Advocates because of the advocacy piece around making sure those protections would be in place from Department of Social Services and DMS and Medicaid. That's really where this program began. Truth be told, my start was in this field through a local community service board. I started as a job coach and then I went to manage a sheltered work program, and when I was there early 2000, I was really surprised that some of the folks who were in my program that in my mind could be working and, in each case, something had happened related to their benefits that I didn't understand. But when this program was started, I was a provider, and I was in the first cohort to be trained as a work incentive specialist advocate. That was in 2005. The program didn't really do much in terms of what DARS had hoped in those early years. I was using it and I was thrilled that I had access to the person at the time who was the work incentive specialist, and we were able to work through those cases within the sheltered work program I was in where they were. At the very least, I was able to help folks move to enclaves and hourly pay from sub minimum. So that was a really nice thing to watch. So, you're talking to someone who believes in this from every level of how work incentives can help.   Carol: Which is why your name keeps coming up. You're kind of the pioneer. You've been doing it for a while.   David: I just got lucky. I got very lucky to understand how it could help people I cared about that were underemployed. I came to the state. We had this program. It wasn't really going anywhere. And the way we had done the training the first time, the training I had was fantastic. It was through a specific organization that wasn't providing it anymore. We had to restart and my former boss, Dr. Joe Ashley, who's a brilliant guy, was like, David, what should we do? How can we restart this? And I was working on the Ticket to Work program, and my thought was, what if we invite people who have been through this or who are willing to go through this that are willing to become employment networks because having those services at the employment network would be a reason for someone to choose to keep their ticket after case closure. And it might provide reasons for them to get other cases that might not come to DARS, he agreed. We used innovation and expansion dollars and partnered with Cornell University at the time to offer several rounds of training. When I got here, we had roughly 40 people who had maintained their credentials and said they were interested. Now we have 110 people today that are active and are currently fully credentialed. That doesn't include the internal staff. And by pairing this with the rest of the Ticket to Work program, I think it helped some of those agencies see the potential, and it definitely slowly helped those that chose to become employment networks create another stream of revenue because we as a VR can think something is important all day long. But if we don't provide tangible benefits for our partners in the community, well, they might support someone going through the training, but are they going to support giving them the time to do the work? Right. So, when I got here, we didn't really spend any money on those services. And now each year we spend between 400 and 500,000 a year in case service dollars on different work incentives. And what I'd say is our cost reimbursement has gone up. Now, I'm not a researcher. I can't say that it's a direct causation that spending this amount has led to this increase in our program income through cost reimbursement. But we have seen a nice increase in that area that looks like it trends along the same lines of our growth in the work incentives. And I will say that when you look at our numbers in terms of our rehab rate, which isn't as important these days with other changes, but it was significantly higher for those individuals that had work incentives services earlier in the process when we were able to hear the people who didn't get it, here are the people that did. It was about a 25-percentage point higher rehab rate for those that had work incentives and that remained constant as we continued to grow it. We don't track that anymore because again, it's not how we're measured these days, but it was a pretty cogent argument for the continued increase and development of these services.   Carol: So, I want to circle back on the money for a minute. So, you talked about using innovation expansion funds to start and then you made investments with your program income to help fund. Have you used any other kind of funds? Is that all been sort of VR money or has there been any other kind of funding that's helped you to kind of scale this up?   David: Interesting you ask again; we are always looking to improve. Right. And there were those promise grants a few years ago. One of the things that came out of that, and I think California did this work, California worked with Cornell University on a course related to youth benefits counseling. We are using pre dollars right now and we are offering the Cornell youth training to all of our current wishes for free. So, something they're not spending $650 on. Right. We're offering them the chance to get this second credential. And we're also offering it to our staff who have completed the introduction to Social Security disability class through VCU. They can't get the certification because they aren't fully credentialed. But again, we are trying to infuse this next level how to talk to families about money for their sons and daughters. So, we are doing that right now. I think people are a little zoomed out. I thought for sure each of these sessions would be 100% full. We're averaging 25 to 30 instead of the 40 I'd hoped. But again, we keep trying things and we keep trying things that incorporate our work incentive specialists around the state, our field staff. What things can we do that will help further align these goals? And then another thing we've tried, but again, on a very small scale, we have a Nadler grant around financial empowerment and able accounts, and it involves some financial coaching. And through that project, I've been able to pay for about five staff to become certified in financial social work again. And we pick people who are with us. Why? Because we're trying to really figure out how the financial empowerment piece fits, because the more I've seen, the more I'm convinced that they go hand in hand.   Carol: I agree. So, what do you hear from your staff? Like you guys have made this an incredible investment in staff. There's all these different levels and I'm sure some folks really like that. More specialization in this area. What does staff think of all this? And be honest.   David: I wonder if they tell me the truth. I mean, Drew, here comes Dave. He's going to talk about Social Security benefits or financial empowerment again. No, I think when people get it, they start to get it more and more. And what excites me is when you hear more nuanced questions like I've heard everything from why isn't this a requirement in your master's in rehab counseling? Like, I've heard all sorts of things about it. And I think what's nice is we now provide at least a one hour training every month. That's specifically for counselors. It's not mandatory, but we get 40 to 50 every month that sign up. We also are willing to go to different offices so regularly we will go to an office and do an hour to an hour and a half presentation and then my staff will stay to do one on one staffing. So, in terms of strategy of building the capacity, I think the way you provide information to the field, even now when we do it virtually, we're about to have a training later this month for a specific office. We're going to set the training from 10 to 1130, and then one of three people from my team will be available for the next two and a half hours. Half hour increments for any of the staff to staff some cases. Right. You just heard it. How do we engage you right now with your caseload to make sure we're answering your questions that might not have been as appropriate for that group discussion?   Carol: You're high energy. So, I'm sure as you bring it across, it's not like, oh, well, we're going to do this work incentives stuff. And here's another thing to do, because then they can see the value to them and in the end to the customer. I mean, that's the ultimate goal. It's getting people where they want to be and having the information so they can make an informed decision about what they're doing.   David: Absolutely. I love it. The other thing we do a lot and I have to do this less and less, which is great. But when we were building it, any time there was a good success story that included benefits counseling, I would write it up and I would turn it in so that our commissioner saw. So, I was trying to support and encourage almost like that growth mindset, form of communication. How can I write about someone's behaviors as a counselor that were doing what I needed them around benefits, counseling as a big positive? We did a lot of that early on. Like if a counselor got to see their name in a weekly report that they didn't write up, it added to their social capital. Right. It was a positive reinforcement.   Carol: And you guys are good at social media, like your commissioner is fabulous. So, I follow Cathy on social media too in Virginia.   David: DARS Cathy is amazing at that. In fact, she has taught me more about that than I believe it. I now I think about that stuff, and I never would have ten years ago.   Carol: So, what resources would you recommend for agencies who would like to expand their capacity to discuss a client's financial situation? I know there's probably some really great tools or something out there that you could help out with.   David: Now we're on to more of the financial empowerment, right? I think there are a few things. And first is, how do you get counselors to feel comfortable talking about finances? Right. We've gone to grad school for this master's and rehab counseling, but maybe we have credit card debt, maybe we've had a bankruptcy, maybe we've had a bill we couldn't pay on time. How do you get counselors to feel okay about that? That's the first thing. And we offer some trainings we've developed here in Virginia around like working with people in poverty as a form of cultural competency that I'm really proud of that work. And again, some of it we took from some great work from Kentucky. We added and grew it through our targeted communities' projects and some other projects and really try to help with a kind of behavioral economics framework for why clients may make some of the decisions they do. But the tools I love the most and that we support the most are twofold. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Your Money, Your Goals Toolkit is phenomenal. All of their materials are free to use. They allow for co-branding. So, for our partners, if they want to use their materials, they can put their own logo on them. So, it adds again, it adds to the perceived value you can go through and pick specifically the tools you need for any given situation. FDIC is money smart. They have money smart for youth, for adults, for various ages. And the money smart curriculum is in line with the standards of learning, at least for the state of Virginia and most states that have a financial education, financial literacy requirement in school. One of the things that makes this work easier, frankly, in Virginia is that a are commissioner gets it or commissioner full on believes in the importance of financial literacy and financial empowerment. In fact, when we talk about the folks who are working their way off cash benefits, we don't necessarily talk about the money. We talk about how many people we helped work their way out of poverty. Right. And that's how she likes to frame it. So, you take your cues from your leader. Commissioner Hayfield firmly supports this work. But the other tools that we really like here in Virginia and have been fortunate to be able to use, we use some tools from next gen personal finance. That is one of the most incredible nonprofits I've ever had the pleasure of getting to work with or meet any of their folks. All of their tools are really geared towards that K through 12 teacher who might be working within the financial literacy or financial education space, maybe those economics teachers in high school, personal finance, but they have developed some amazing tools and we use some of them regularly. And I would be remiss if I didn't also mention the National Disability Institute. We use a lot of their tools, and our financial health assessment actually was developed during our career Pathways for Individuals with Disabilities Grant with the help of the National Disability Institute. So, I think they're still there. But when we were developing this tool, I had lots of experts to run ideas off of, and when we had staff go through the financial social work program, we took that opportunity to revisit our financial health assessment and see if what we learned would change. And sure enough, we rewarded almost all of the questions to be more matter of fact so no one would feel bad about themselves. The way the question was worded, we made them all much more neutral, really. And I think all of those tools have been fantastic. To me, it's what is someone going to feel comfortable using and how is someone going to speak to this work in an authentic voice where they feel comfortable and proficient and there's 20 other tools out there. Most major banks have financial literacy programs you can get from their websites. We are just starting to partner with the State of Virginia Credit Union and we're going to try some other things with them. And then at our center, see, we are about to try a program called Cares for Youth that was established and created by a federal bankruptcy judge. Again, I guess he ran into people declaring bankruptcy more than once and thought that there should be some other help for folks. But we didn't have training in that when I went to high school. Now in Virginia, you don't graduate without a class in personal finance. It would have been very helpful because I can tell you firsthand, I have probably five shirts that have Visa, American Express logos on them with my college mascot. And I definitely had some debt because I thought the shirts were cool and they seemed free at the time.   Carol: I think the free is the is the key word there seemed. Yes. So, yeah. So, you have brought up like a ton of tools. And for our listeners out there, what advice would you give them if they're sitting in an agency where maybe they haven't spent a lot of thought about this? And we know that has happened across the country. People have just had different focuses. There's been different things going on. But for somebody that wants to get started because you guys are well down the road, like, what advice would you get for even kind of getting focused in this area?   David: Someone who works for a VR agency, there are several areas I am particularly interested in effecting change related to this work, so I can talk about those very easily. How many individuals that we successfully place have their jobs potentially put at risk when something that should be a known recurring expense comes back up? But it's more than 20 or $30. Example, someone needs hearing aids. They're hearing aids are not working as well. Their job performance comes down while they go on our waitlist to get new hearing aids. Why isn't the discussion at closure around this is going to be an ongoing medical expense that you might need down the road? How are you going to budget for this now? That's a loaded thing for me to say because everybody's situation is different. But if we don't at least have the conversation, that assumes everybody must always come back for this service over and over and over. And I'm not saying that nobody should ever come back, but we owe it to all of our clients to have the conversations. Another example, there was a study in 2013. It may have changed, but 47% of job applicants included a credit check. How do we help people understand how their financial behaviors affect job propositions and employability? It's a key part in this ever-changing world. We have clients who may need to move for a job. The amount they might pay for a vehicle or rent could change based on that credit report. These are real world things. It's not something I'm just saying these things actually happen. The rate you get for various loans is dependent on those credit scores. You might be taken out of an interview pool because of your credit report, especially for certain industries. So, from being in a place where our job is to get people jobs, financial empowerment can reduce the barriers to employment. I believe that 100%. And if we're not looking at how to make sure we're doing that, we're missing part of the picture. So that's the other example I would make is it's not just durable medical equipment. We have done a lot in the last ten years using technology. We have helped people program into an iPad, videos of their job or scenarios of what to do when certain things come up in a job. That's not a huge expense. But why wouldn't we make sure that that person is in a position to purchase a new one when it can no longer be updated? Because those things do happen and it's a shame to see somebody have to even worry about will they be able to keep their job while going through that paperwork? Not to mention, time is a commodity, and we keep people tethered to the system unnecessarily, which to me robs people of their agency. I think that's really the areas that that's why that's so important to me personally. That doesn't mean we don't help when we can and we shouldn't jump in when we can, but we help more if we prepare someone and avoid those ebbs and flows. There have also been lots of studies related to lost productivity at work when people are worried about their finances.   Carol: Well, you're very profound, David. I have to say, I like that. Keeping people tethered to the system, making that. Comment that really resonates with me very much. So, if folks are listening and they want to get more information about what Virginia is doing, I mean, is there a good way I don't know if there's any information on your website or what's the best way if somebody is going, oh, my gosh, he just blew my mind and he said a million things. What's their best way to maybe get a little more information about what you are doing?   David: I'd be happy to talk to anyone who is interested in this stuff or send them to the people on my team doing the different pieces. One other thing with financial empowerment and what agencies can do. We as an agency are a member of our state's Jumpstart Coalition. It's Jumpstart, but that SE is like a dollar sign. It's a national organization around K through 12 financial education. Be a great way to get some partnerships going for that print space. But another thing that we're really fortunate to have at least one fully functional version. There's a group called the Cities for Financial Empowerment in Roanoke, Virginia, where they provide free financial coaching and help with credit, establishing bank accounts and savings. And we don't have to be the experts. We just have to ask enough questions to know that someone could benefit and help get them connected. So the other thing that's important with all this is much like with the work incentive services, I would never expect all of our staff to become experts in this work, but I would expect them to understand that if you're working with someone who receives supplemental security income or Social Security disability insurance, that you know enough to make sure you're getting them to the person if they're not asking the questions. And those same things exist in many parts of our states and other states where there are free services, quality services for more detailed, in-depth financial coaching and assistance. And the city's program is a wonderful one. I want to say there's 30 or 40 sites around the country. We've also helped a community start a program through getting ahead and the getting by world. And it's through the bridges out of poverty system. And again, really, we just continue to look for programs that might exist. Is there a way to partner and get some of our clients involved?   Carol: Well, David, I appreciate every single thing you said today. I think it was very exciting. I think it will be fun for our listeners to get their minds around this as well and see what we can do to make a dent in really advancing our work in this area across the country. And I appreciate what you're doing there in Virginia, so thanks so much for joining me today. I appreciate it. I hope you have a great day.   David: Thank you very much. I love this stuff. I really appreciate being a part of it.   {Music} Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening.  

Join us today for my COVID Brain Fog discussion with Dr. Ben Abramoff who is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Director of the Post-COVID Assessment and Recovery Clinic at the Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Abramoff received his BS in Life Science Communication from Cornell University, his MS in Health and Rehabilitation- Specialization in Health Education from Ohio State University School of Health and Rehabilitative Services, and his Medical Degree from Ohio State University College of Medicine. Feeling “spacy” or confused, feeling fatigued, thinking more slowly than usual, and needing more time to complete simple tasks...does this sound like a brain injury? Yes, and it is brain fog too. Dr. Abramoff shares with us this new Post -COVID medical concentration and what the Penn Clinic does to help these patients. https://www.pennmedicine.org/for-health-care-professionals/for-physicians/covid-information/post-covid19-assessment-and-recovery-clinic-at-penn https://www.pennmedicine.org/providers/profile/benjamin-abramoff

In this episode of On Record PR, Caitlan McCafferty goes on record with lifelong disability rights advocate Judith (Judy) Heumann to discuss how business leaders can best approach creating truly inclusive work environments, including for people with disabilities. Learn More Judith (Judy) Heumann is a lifelong advocate for the rights of disabled people. She contracted polio in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York and began to use a wheelchair for her mobility. She was denied the right to attend school because she was considered a "fire hazard" at the age of five. Her parents played a strong role in fighting for her rights as a child, but Judy soon determined that she, working in collaboration with other disabled people, had to play an advocacy role due to continuous discrimination. She is now an internationally recognized leader in the disability rights community. Her memoir, authored with Kristen Joiner, of Being Heumann “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist,” published by Beacon Press and audio recorded by Ali Stroker, who is the first wheelchair actor to perform on Broadway. Judy was featured on the Trevor Noah show.  Judy is featured in Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution is a 2020 American award-winning documentary film, directed by James LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham, produced by the Obama Higher Ground Production and is available on Netflix. She also produces a podcast called The Heumann Perspective, which features a variety of members from the disability community. She has been featured in numerous documentaries including on the history of the disability rights movement, including Lives Worth Living and the Power of 504 and delivered a TED talk in the fall of 2016, “Our Fight for Disability Rights- and Why We're Not Done Yet”. Her story was also told on Comedy Central's Drunk History in early 2018, in which she was portrayed by Ali Stroker,. As Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation (2017-2019), she wrote “Road Map for Inclusion: Changing the Face of Disability in Media”. She also currently serves on a number of non-profit boards, including the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Humanity and Inclusion, as well as the Human Rights Watch board. Judy was a founding member of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living which was the first grassroots center in the United States and helped to launch the Independent Living Movement both nationally and globally. In 1983, Judy co-founded the World Institute on Disability (WID) with Ed Roberts and Joan Leon, as one of the first global disability rights organizations founded and continually led by people with disabilities that works to fully integrate people with disabilities into the communities around them via research, policy, and consulting efforts. From 1993 to 2001, Judy served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education. Judy then served as the World Bank's first Adviser on Disability and Development from 2002 to 2006. In this position, she led the World Bank's disability work to expand its knowledge and capability to work with governments and civil society on including disability in the global conversation. During his presidency, President Obama appointed Judy as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State, where she served from 2010-2017.  Mayor Fenty of D.C. appointed her as the first Director for the Department on Disability Services, where she was responsible for the Developmental Disability Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration. She has been instrumental in the development and implementation of legislation, such as Section 504, the Individuals with Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which have been advancing the inclusion of disabled people in the US and around the world and fighting to end discrimination against all those with disabilities. Judy graduated from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY in 1969 and received her Master's in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. She has received numerous awards including being the first recipient of the Henry B. Betts Award in recognition of efforts to significantly improve the quality of life for people with disabilities and the Max Starkloff Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council on Independent Living. She has been awarded numerous honorary doctorates.

Living with lymphedema is challenging. Without proper management, the condition progresses, limiting motion, strength, and stability. Because lymphedema is usually caused by bodily trauma such as lymph node removal, surgery, radiation, pr infection, patients may not be in the best of health when they first start treatment. They need hands on physical therapy, support, and encouragement to keep the condition under control.Jennifer Fernandez and Michelle Haas are both certified lymphedema therapists at MarinHealth. In this podcast, they cover the difference between primary and secondary lymphedema, the types of therapies they provide, and the importance of personalizing treatment to the individual.

Jennifer Bell, M.HKR, CAT(C)  CONNECTIONS MATTER MOSTJennifer has been a Certified Athletic Therapist for the past 16 years and also sits on several committees both Provincially and Nationally.She is the Head Athletic Therapist and Director of Rehabilitative Services at The Hill Academy in Caledon, ON. Prior to starting at The Hill Academy, Jennifer was the Head Athletic Therapist at Humber College for 14 years. She has also had the honour of working with our National U-19 Lacrosse programs, including winning the World Championship in 2015, and our National Artistic Swimming program. Away from work, Jennifer is a busy Mom to three young children who enjoy participating in sports and activities themselves.We Grow. Together. 

On this episode of Mentor Moments, we are welcomed by two professionals in the podcasting and rehabilitation world, Richard Sizemore and Betsy Civilette. Richard and Betsy are the Media Specialist and Communication Manager at the Virginia Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services, respectfully. In addition, Richard and Betsy are the co-hosts of the VR Workforce Studio Podcast. It is our pleasure to have Richard & Betsy with us on Mentor Moments! VR Workforce Studio Podcast Ep. 83 - https://vrworkforcestudio.com/episode-83-vrs-national-anthem-and-judy-heumann-on-crip-camp-as-well-as-steve-woodersons-csavr-message-on-4-20-20-for-vision-2020/ Missouri Rehabilitation Association Eastern Chapter Maryville University Rehabilitation Counseling Maryville University Rehabilitation Counseling Youtube MRA Eastern Chapter Blog

It’s the first day of the second week of 2022. Has anything significant happened yet? How have you fared in these initial days of a year that has 357 of them left after today? Are you hopeful for a reset after a tricky start to the year? All very good questions but not necessarily the topic of this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a program that seeks to celebrate National Trivia Day on all of them while ensuring you’re more informed than you were before. I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to Charlottesville Community Engagement.On today’s program:Governor-elect Youngkin will join other states led by Republican Governors in opposing President Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal employees The Omicron surge continues with one-day records set in Albemarle and Charlottesville With the General Assembly meeting in four days, more legislation is filed Clean-up continues after the winter storm of January 3First Patreon-fueled shout-out:With winter weather here, now is the time to think about keeping your family warm through the cold Virginia months. Make sure you are getting the most out of your home with help from your local energy nonprofit, LEAP. LEAP wants you and yours to keep comfortable all year round, and offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If you’re age 60 or older, or have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!Approaching the pandemic’s third yearThe pandemic continues but the next administration in Richmond will likely take a different approach to the current one. Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin on Friday announced that he and Attorney General Elect Jason Miyares plan to challenge the Biden administration’s imposition of mandates on federal employees. “After the January 15th inauguration, the Commonwealth of Virginia will quickly move to protect Virginians’ freedoms and challenge President Biden’s unlawful CMS, OSHA, and Head Start vaccine mandates,” reads the press release. “While we believe that the vaccine is a critical tool in the fight against COVID-19, we strongly believe that the Federal government cannot impose its will and restrict the freedoms of Americans.”Biden and his Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becarra, want to implement the mandate to increase the percentage of Americans who are fully vaccinated. The action has not gone into effect yet pending existing legal challenges. The form Youngkin’s legal challenge won’t be known for at least eight days, but the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday spent over three hours yesterday in argument on the same topic in two consolidated cases. See below for links. In the meantime, on January 7, the heaviest surge of COVID cases so far continues to test the health care system with trends towards hospitalization levels not seen since this time last year Dr. Reid Adams is the chief medical officer at the University of Virginia. “It is true we are feeling the same thing everywhere else in the state is feeling which is record number of COVID admissions,” Adams said. “We have been able to open additional COVID units to accommodate those patients.”Adams said so far, UVA has not had to implement any emergency procedures but operational teams are meeting every day. “We have had occasions where we’ve had to alter our elective surgical schedule,” Adams said. “Fortunately that’s been fairly modest and we’ve not had to close elective procedures to date.” As of yesterday, the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reported 3,103 patients in hospital with COVID, The record had been 3,201 on January 13, 2021 but today the VHHA set a new record with 3,478 patients currently hospitalized. Of those current hospitalizations, 558 were in intensive care units and 302 people were on ventilators.On Friday, the Virginia Department of Health updated their dashboard on COVID cases by vaccination status. Through December 25, “unvaccinated people developed COVID-19 at a rate 3.8 times that of fully vaccinated people, and 2.2 times that of partially vaccinated people.” At UVA Health, Adams estimates the number of unvaccinated patients who are hospitalized is between 75 to 80 percent. “Because we care for immunosuppressed patients, we are seeing those patients,” Adams said. “Organ transplants is a good example that are having COVID-related disease and requiring hospitalization but the vast, vast majority are still unvaccinated.” Dr. Bill Petri is an infectious disease expert at the University of Virginia. He said while there are more cases of people getting COVID who are vaccinated and boosted, the vaccine is still offering protection. “Protection from hospitalization is much better with the vaccines with or without the boosters, really,” Petri said. “What we’ve seen is that is being vaccinated in itself reduces your risk from being hospitalized or dying from COVID about ten-fold.”Both Dr. Adams and Dr. Petri gave examples of how the omicron variant seems to be less deadly and destructive as the delta variant. Here’s one of them from Dr. Petri. “One of the good pieces of news is that the omicron variant is less likely to infect the lungs and so we’re seeing less pneumonia than we were with the delta, so that’s one good piece of news,” Dr. Petri said. There won’t be any new data on the number of COVID-cases until Monday, as the Virginia Department of Health stopped reporting it seven days a week when the state of emergency ended. On Friday, VDH recorded 18,309 cases and the percent positivity increased further to 34.6 percent. The Blue Ridge Health District made up 410 of those cases. Albemarle County set its one day record on Thursday with 156 cases followed by 131 cases on Friday. Charlottesville set its record Friday with 140 cases. Other localities have also recently set one-day records. These numbers are likely undercounts as at-home kits are not reported to the Virginia Department of Health, and because of the effects of this week’s winter storm. This week, Governor Ralph Northam announced $5 million will be spent to create nine testing centers throughout Virginia, with the first opening at the Richmond International Raceway today in Caroline County. According to the release, one of these will be in Charlottesville at the existing facilities used by the Blue Ridge Health District. Governor-elect Youngkin will also appoint a new Commissioner of Health, choosing not to retain Dr. Norm Oliver in the position as the pandemic approaches its third year. Wendy Horton, UVA Health’s Chief Executive Officer, said she hopes for consistency. “I think it’s really important to really remain aligned as a Commonwealth and to really have public health and us all just really working together is my recommendation,” Horton said. “I think we do that well but I think it’s increasingly a team sport right now and I think all of us really have to be working together to really care for everyone across the state.” Youngkin will become the next Governor of Virginia a week from today. Resources:  Transcript of National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (audio)Transcript of Biden v. Missouri (audio)Storm clean-up continuesFriday’s winter storm didn’t pose much of a threat, at least as measured by whether the city trash trucks operated. They did. But many continue to be without power throughout the area with temperatures below freezing. Dominion Energy’s outage map now tracks individual projects versus wide swaths of land. The Central Virginia Electric Cooperative reports 3,339 customers without power from a total number of 38,307 customers. Albemarle County continues to offer warming centers today and tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The locations are Baker-Butler Elementary, Monticello High School, Greenwood Community Center, and Scottsville Community Center. Water, electricity, and wifi are available at all four, but showers are only available at the schools. Drinking water is also available at the fire departments in both Earlysville. Call 434-297-8415 or visit communityemergency.org for more information. If you’re reading this and you live in Charlottesville, you better have shoveled your public sidewalk by now. The official end of this week’s snowstorm has passed and city ordinance requires pathways in the public right of way to be clear as of 8 a.m. this morning.Two more Patreon-fueled shout-outsLet’s continue today with two more Patreon-fueled shout-outs. The first comes a long-time supporter who wants you to know:"Today is a great day to spread good cheer: reach out to an old friend, compliment a stranger, or pause for a moment of gratitude to savor a delight."The second comes from a more recent supporter who wants you to go out and read a local news story written by a local journalist. Whether it be the Daily Progress, Charlottesville Tomorrow, C-Ville Weekly, NBC29, CBS19, WINA, or some other place I’ve not mentioned - the community depends on a network of people writing about the community. Go learn about this place today! More General Assembly billsAs the General Assembly session looms, it will become much harder to list all of the pieces of legislation that are introduced. Until then, I hope to continue to bring you some of the highlights as I figure out what my strategy will be for covering the session while also keeping you up to date on local matters. Until then:Senator David Marsden (D-37) introduced a bill to terminate the Major Employment and Investment Project Site Planning Grant program in favor of the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program fund. (SB28)Marsden has another bill encouraging wellness programs to encourage customers get a COVID-19 vaccine. (SB42)Senator Barbara Favola (D-31) filed a bill extending the amount of time a locality’s Planning Commission has to make a recommendation on a Comprehensive Plan Amendment from 60 days to 100 days. (SB35)Favola has another bill that would allow localities to take action to enforce provisions of the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant act (SB43)In a related bill, landlords would not be able to ban tenants from using their space to provide child-care. (SB69)The definition of “critically missing adult” would no longer have a requirement that abduction is involved under other legislation from Favola. (SB49)Senator Chap Petersen (D-34) would prohibit people from spending more than $20,000 on one candidate in a statewide or legislative race. (SB44)Senator Joe Morrissey has a similar bill that would increase that limit to $25,000. (SB111)Petersen has another bill that would prevent public utilities from donating to candidates or their political action committees. (SB45)People in quarantine would be able to petition for delays in legal proceedings related to that status, if another bill from Petersen makes it through. (SB46)Senator Mamie Locke (D-2) filed a bill to increase the limit on the amount of housing opportunity tax credits from $15 million to $150 million, and would end a projected 2026 sunset date for their use. (SB47)Senator Amanda Chase (R-11) filed a bill to require health care providers to dispense hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, two treatments for COVID that have not been proven to have any effect. (SB73)Chase has another bill that would prevent localities from regulating firearms in public places. (SB74)Chase would also repeal the ban on firearms and explosive devices in Capitol Square or within the Capitol of Virginia. (SB75)Senator Thomas Norment (R-3) has a bill that would prohibit the Virginia governor from appointing members of their family to a Secretarial position or chief of staff. (SB95)Norment has another bill related to the state marijuana tax that would redirect funds that are intended now to go to the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund. (SB107)Delegate Lee Ware (R-65) has filed a bill to create the Virginia Pandemic Response and Preparedness Council (HB87)Delegate Wendell Walker (R-23) filed a bill removing a clause that elementary and secondary school students can not be charged with disorderly conduct. (HB89)Delegate Joseph McNamara (R-8) filed legislation to exempt food and personal hygiene products from sales tax (HB90)He has another bill to require the Secretary of Commerce and Trade to study the effects of Daylight Savings Times. (HJ6)Delegate Christopher Head (R-17) filed a bill to create a central registry for complaints about elder abuse and neglect in the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services. (HB98)Head has another bill that would allow a $2,000 tax credit for individuals or married persons for a stillborn child. (HB100)Incoming Delegate Karen Greenhalgh has another bill that would allow for health care providers to make prescriptions for “off-label” uses. (HB102)Greenhalgh has another bill that would allow educators to have a $500 tax credit, a provision that would also apply to parents or guardians who home-school. (HB103)Senator Emmett Hanger (R-24) has a bill that replace the charter for the Town of Grottoes. (SB99)Senator Joseph Morrissey (D-16) filed a bill eliminating mandatory minimum sentences. (SB104)In SB105, Morrissey has another bill that would make retroactive provisions adopted in the summer of 2020 that prevent police officers from pulling over motorists for certain offenses. In SB108, Morrissey would end the use of isolated confinement in Virginia’s correctional facilities. SB109 would allow parole for people imprisoned for crimes committed before they were 21, and have served least twenty years of their sentence.  SB110 is similar as is SB111.SB115 in update of the six-year capital plan for Virginia which includes new figures for projects at colleges and universities, including a Center for the Arts at the University of Virginia. More bills in Monday’s installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Neva has over 20 years of professional experience in the field of vision loss and a lifetime of experience living with low vision. She was diagnosed at an early age with Cone Rod Degeneration, a rare genetic eye condition. Neva is a vital part of AFB's Aging Initiative team, which involves the research and public policy needs of people experiencing vision loss later in life. She currently oversees the Blind Leaders Development Program. Prior to joining AFB, Neva was a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor and Employment Assistance Specialist with the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, and a Vocational Evaluator with the Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind. She serves in numerous leadership roles, ranging from international to local in scope, with organizations such as the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired and the National Rehabilitation Association. In this episode, Neva discusses employment, leadership, and favorite books, among other topics. Episode Transcript

Join us today for a delightful interview with Dale Batton, Deputy Director at DARS. DARS is the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services and they provide services to improve employment, quality of life, security, and independence of older adults and Virginians with disabilities and their families. Dale shares with us how to access DARS services, who is eligible, and how dLCV and DARS work together! You can find out more about DARS by visiting their website here. As always, this episode has a full transcript available at www.dlcv.org. You can find us on Twitter and also on Facebook. If you like this podcast please subscribe and leave us a review!

Join us today as our guest, Regina Chaney, joins us from Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME). Regina is the Community Engagement Specialist at HOME and shares with us all about the work HOME is doing to ensure people with disabilities have access to accessible housing options. HOME tackles systemically divisive housing practices through fair housing enforcement, research, advocacy, and statewide policy work. We also aid first-time homebuyers and those under the threat of foreclosure. Find out more at https://homeofva.org/ if you or a loved one is facing any housing discrimination. You can also contact them at 804.354.0641. dLCV is holding a Client Assistance Program clinic on June 10th from 9-4. There are only five spots available and sign-ups are first come first serve. If you are needing to know how to access services from the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services, Department for Blind and Vision Impaired, or your local Center for Independent Living, or currently receiving services and have questions this clinic is for you. Find out more at https://dlcv.salsalabs.org/cap-clinic/index.html to register today. Full episode transcription available is available on our website and find us on Twitter @DisabilityLawVA or on Facebook.

Intergenerational Disability Advocacy with Judy Heumann hosted by Carden Wyckoff Transcript https://rb.gy/o4jc6o Who is Judy Heumann? Judith (Judy) Heumann contracted polio in 1949 in Brooklyn, NY and began to experience discrimination at five years old when she was denied the right to attend school because she was a "fire hazard." Her parents played a strong role in fighting for her rights as a child. Heumann determined that she, working in collaboration with other disabled people, had to play an increasing advocacy role as she and others experienced continuous discrimination because of their disabilities. She is now an internationally recognized leader in the disability rights community and a lifelong civil rights advocate. As a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation, she is currently working to help advance the inclusion of disability in the Foundation’s work and is leading a project to advance the inclusion of disabled people in the media. President Obama appointed Heumann as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the US Department of State, where she served from 2010-2017. Prior to this position, she served as the Director for the Department on Disability Services for the District of Columbia, where she was responsible for the Developmental Disability Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration. From June 2002- 2006, Heumann served as the World Bank's first Adviser on Disability and Development. In this position, she led the World Bank's disability work to expand the Bank’s knowledge and capability to work with governments and civil society on including disability in the global conversation. From 1993 to 2001, Heumann served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education. She was also responsible for the implementation of legislation at the national level for programs in special education, disability research, vocational rehabilitation and independent living, serving more than 8 million youth and adults with disabilities. Heumann graduated from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY in 1969 and received her Master’s in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. Her goal in life is to continue to advance the rights and empowerment of ALL disabled people around the world. She is also currently building an online presence through The Heumann Perspective which can found on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Resources https://www.ted.com/talks/judith_heumann_our_fight_for_disability_rights_and_why_we_re_not_done_yet?language=en https://www.amazon.com/Being-Heumann-Unrepentant-Disability-Activist/dp/0807019291 https://twitter.com/judithheumann https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7pemkbDQYezB6PeDFXTvg https://www.facebook.com/TheHeumannPerspective/ Follow Carden on Instagram @freewheelinwithcardenFind Carden everywhere Special thanks to my producer Jonathan Raz on Fiverr.com Use referral code 'Carden' when downloading iAccessLife mobile ap

Virginia families who care for a loved one with disabilities or chronic conditions can apply for up to 0 reimbursement for respite costs under a limited voucher program offered by the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services. Respite is short-term, temporary relief for those who care for family members, which can help reduce the strain on caregivers so they can continue to provide for their loved ones. Those who qualify and are approved may receive up to a 0 reimbursement for costs related to respite. Respite services for which families can apply for reimbursement include: • an in-home program, through...Article LinkSupport the show (http://henricocitizen.com/contribute)

Ep. 81Dozier school for boysOn our train ride today we are heading to sunny Florida. This is much more than a "Florida man" story. This is a crazy story of one of the worst boys schools ever to exist. There were many of these return schools around the country but this place has a reputation as one of the worst. It's been known by several names over the years but most people know it as the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys . We're gonna talk about the history and atrocities that happened at this school that opened January 1, 1900 and just closed on June 30, 2011. A 111 year reign of terror! Here we go! The school was located in Marianna Florida and covered 1400 acres. A second campus was opened in the town of Okeechobee in 1955.  The school was first organized under an 1897 act of the legislature and began operations on the Marianna campus on January 1, 1900, as the Florida State Reform School. It was overseen by five commissioners appointed by the governor William Dunnington Bloxham, who were to operate the school and make biennial reports to the legislature. Some time thereafter, the commissioners were replaced by the governor and cabinet of Florida, acting as the Board of Commissioners of State Institutions. In 1914, the name was changed to the Florida Industrial School for Boys and in 1957 to the Florida School for Boys. In 1955, the Okeechobee campus opened. In 1967, the name of the Marianna campus was changed to the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, in honor of a former superintendent of the school.The Marianna site was originally divided into north and south sides. South side was known as "Number 1" and was for white students only, while the North side was"number 2" and for black students only. The school remained segregated until 1966. Boot Hill cemetery was located on the north side. In 1929, an 11-room concrete block detention building, also containing two cells (one for white, and one for black students), was constructed to house incorrigible or violent students, the site at the time not being fenced. Students called it "The White House".  In the 1950s and 1960s, it was the site of most beatings of students. After corporal punishment at the school was abolished in 1967, the building was used for storage. Shortly before the facility was closed, Dozier was a fenced, 159-acre "high-risk" residential facility for 104 boys aged 13 to 21 who had been committed there by a court; their average length of stay at Dozier was nine to twelve months. They lived in several cottages, with each boy having an unlocked room. In 1903 an inspection uncovered that children at the school were commonly kept in leg irons. After this the school was investigated 6 times in its first 13 years. In 1914 there was a fire in one of the dorms. The fire killed six students and two staff members.  During the spanish flu epidemic in 1918 it was recorded that eleven students died but they were not named and documented in the recorded burials of the Boot Hill Cemetery. A 13 year old boy was sent there in 1934 and died 38 days later. There's no record of what caused his death. In 1968, Florida Governor Claude Kirk said, after a visit to the school where he found overcrowding and poor conditions, that "somebody should have blown the whistle a long time ago." At this time, the school housed 564 boys, some for offenses as minor as school truancy, running away from home, or "incorrigibility", including cigarette smoking. They ranged in age from ten to sixteen years old. The White House was closed in 1967. Officially, corporal punishment at the school was banned in August 1968. In 1969, as part of a governmental reorganization, the school came under the management of the Division of Youth Services of the newly created Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. There were 81 school-related deaths of students from 1911 to 1973. Thirty-one of these boys were said to be buried on the school grounds, with other bodies "shipped home to families or buried in unknown locations." There are 31 simple crosses as grave markers at the cemetery, installed in the 1960s and 1990s, but they have been found not to correspond to specific burials. An inspection done in 1982 revealed that boys were hogtied and kept in isolation for weeks at a time! A lawsuit was filed by the ACLU over this issue and several other issues at this facility and three other juvenile facilities in Florida. At this point the school was housing 105 students aged 13-21. In 1985, the media reported that young ex-students of the school, sentenced to jail terms for crimes committed at Dozier, had subsequently been the victims of torture by guards at the Jackson County jail. The teens were usually hanged but handcuffs to the bars of their cells usually for an hour at a time. The guards said that this practice was approved by their superiors. In 1994, the school was placed under the management of the newly created Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, which operated the school until its closure in 2011. By this time, the school had facilities to house 135 inmates. Many of the boys sent there had been convicted of rape or of committing "lewd acts on other children". On September 16, 1998, a resident of the school lost his right arm in a washing machine. A lawsuit was filed against the institution and the plaintiff was awarded an undisclosed amount in 2003. In April 2007, the acting superintendent of the school and one other employee were fired following allegations of abuse of inmates.[24] The state officially acknowledged that abuses had taken place there; the White House Boys, a growing group of adult survivors who had been held there in the 1950s and 1960s, were speaking out to the press. In October 2008, several of them attended a ceremony to install a historic plaque at the White House that acknowledged that past. The news was carried nationwide.[14] In late 2009, the school failed its annual inspection. Among other problems, the inspection found that the school failed to deal properly with the numerous complaints by the boys held there, including allegations of continued mistreatment by the guards. State Representative Darryl Rouson said the system was struggling to move on from a longstanding "culture of violence and abuse".[16] The U.S. Department of Justice conducted a survey of 195 US facilities, including the Florida School For Boys. According to its 2010 report, 11.3% of boys surveyed at the school reported that they had been subject to sexual abuse by staff using force in the last twelve months, and 10.3% reported that they had been subject to it without the use of force. 2.2% reported sexual victimization by another inmate. DOJ said these percentages meant the home was deemed to have neither "high" nor "low" rates of sexual victimization compared with the other institutions assessed in the survey.[25] In July 2010, the state announced its plan to merge Dozier with JJOC, creating a single new facility, the North Florida Youth Development Center, with an open campus and a closed campus. However, the following year, claiming "budgetary limitations," the state decided to close both facilities on June 30, 2011. Remaining students were sent to other juvenile justice facilities around the state.[4] After Hurricane Michael, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office was given the property, now known as ‘Endeavor’, to relocate from their damaged offices. So there you have a condensed history of the school and the site. Now we're going to get into the crazy shit that went on there. First we have the story of Willy Haynes and his experience with the school and the infamous Whitehouse. The story comes from an incredible article from the Tampa Bay Times. In the late 1950s, a 13-year-old kid who slicked back his long hair like Elvis stood in front of a judge in Tampa. A car had been stolen from the neighborhood. Someone said they saw Willy Haynes driving it. Willy didn't know how to drive, but the judge didn't know that. Here was a boy who grew up in a little house off Columbus Avenue, in Six Mile Creek, a scrappy neighborhood on Tampa's eastern edge, where a poor kid learned early how to protect himself. When the judge warned the boy to behave or he'd be sent to reform school in Marianna, Willy surprised the court. Why can't I go now? He had heard the Florida School for Boys had a band and a football team and maybe even Boy Scouts, and it didn't cost a penny to participate. He kissed his mother goodbye at the courthouse and left Tampa in the back of a state cruiser. Big, beautiful, oblivious Florida blurred by outside the window. Willy wasn't scared as the state car pulled onto the gravel road that led to the state's only boys' juvenile reformatory, the Florida School for Boys. No fences. Manicured lawns. Tall pines and stately buildings. It looked like college. It had to be better than home. Inside, he signed a ledger. William Haynes Jr. April 11, 1958. A boy escorted Willy Haynes to Tyler Cottage and told him to keep his belongings in Locker No. 252. He was given a toothbrush and pajamas and his own military bunk. The poor kid from Tampa felt like he was finally home. He was there barely a week when it happened. Some bullies caught him outside the showers, and the next thing he knew he was in the middle of a tangle of feet and fists. Willy knew how to fight, and he was choking one of his attackers in a headlock when a cottage father busted in. The school's disciplinarian, R.W. Hatton, asked Willy who he had been fighting, but the boy would not give up the names. Better to be punished than be branded a puke. You're going down, Hatton told him. They dragged him across that manicured campus, toward the squat concrete building called the White House. They dragged him through the door. Willy Haynes, who had asked the judge to send him here, who had wanted to throw a football under the pines. Over 18 months, the men dragged Willy into the White House again and again. Lay down. Hold the rail. Don't make a sound. He could hear the strap coming. It started with the pivot, the shuffle of boots on concrete. The strap hit the wall, then the ceiling, then thighs and buttocks and back, and it felt like an explosion. When he got back to the cottage, Willy stood in the shower and let the cold water wash bits of underwear from his lacerations, as his blood ran toward the drain.   Many others suffered the same horrors as Willy. As the boys grew up the memories stayed with them as they became men. Many sporting both physical and mental scars. Some of these men gathered at the Florida School for Boys on Oct. 21, 2008. Again from the Tampa Bay Times article:        "The last time they had stepped on this sprawling campus, they were fresh-faced punks with the world before them. Now their hair was gray and their faces sagged. Their backs ached from a night in motel beds. They carried pictures of children and grandchildren in their wallets. Dick Colon had flown in from Baltimore, where he owns an electrical contracting company. The 65-year-old was tormented by the memory of seeing a boy being stuffed into an industrial dryer. Next to him stood Michael O'McCarthy, a writer and political activist from Costa Rica, who was beaten so badly he was treated at the school infirmary. To his left was Roger Kiser, a Chicken Soup for the Soul contributor who had driven down from Brunswick, Ga., bent on retribution. On the end was a quiet man named Robert Straley, who sells glow lights and carnival novelties. He drove up from Clearwater. He had been having recurring nightmares of a man sitting on his bed. Then there was Willy Haynes. He was 65 and went by Bill now. A tall, broad man, Haynes had worked for 30 years for the Alabama Department of Corrections. Haynes didn't feel good. There were plenty of places he'd rather be. But he knew he had to do this." The men now called themselves the White House Boys.  According to the article The men remember the same things:          "blood on the walls, bits of lip or tongue on the pillow, the smell of urine and whiskey, the way the bed springs sang with each blow. The way they cried out for Jesus or mama. The grinding of the old fan that muffled their cries. The one-armed man who swung the strap. They remember walking into the dark little building on the campus of the Florida School for Boys, in bare feet and white pajamas, afraid they'd never walk out." According the the men boys were dragged to the White House in ones and twos and threes, and sometimes there was a line outside, and sometimes a white dog kept watch." The white house boys are former students who had been held at the school in the 1950s and 1960s began to share accounts of abuses that they had suffered or observed against students.  By the early 2000s, there were about 400 members, survivors of this school from the 1950s and 1960s. Since the early 2000s, members of the group began to speak publicly about their experiences to the media, and to challenge the state to investigate practices and personnel at the school. More than 300 men have publicly recounted abuse and torture at the school. The survivors have had some internal struggles and set up more than one website.  In 2009, the Florida School for Boys was the subject of an extensive special report. Allegations focusing on the 1960s included claims that one room was used for whipping white boys and another for black boys. The whippings were carried out by guards using a 3-foot-long belt made of leather and metal and were so severe that the victim's underwear could become embedded in his skin. One former student said that he had seen a boy trapped in a running laundry dryer at the school and suspected the boy was killed. One former student stated he was punished in the White House eleven times, receiving a total of more than 250 lashes. Others alleged they were whipped until they lost consciousness and that the punishments were made harsher for boys who cried. Some alumni also stated there was a "rape room" at the school, where boys were sexually abused by guards. The complainants said some of the victims were as young as nine years old. In February 2010, the White House Boys filed a class action suit for damages against the state government, but it was dismissed by a judge in Leon County, Florida, because the statute of limitations had run out for such a suit. A bill introduced in the 2012 session of the Florida Legislature to provide compensation to victims of abuse at the school failed to pass. There have been many positions throughout the years but no real investigations until 2008. On December 9, 2008, Florida Governor Charlie Crist directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to investigate the allegations of abuse, torture, and murder recounted by the White House Boys and their law firm. It took two years for the findings to be released.  The FDLE conducted more than one hundred interviews of former students, family members of former students, and former staff members of the school during the 15-month investigation, but no concrete evidence was found linking any of the student deaths to the actions of school staff, or that there had been attempts by staff to conceal deaths. None of the graves were opened during the investigation.(The investigation determined that the thirty-one graves at the facility had been dug between 1914 and 1952.) A forensic examination of the "White House" was conducted. No trace evidence of blood on the walls was found. Some former Dozier students told investigators that they felt they had "needed the discipline." Troy Tidwell, who was a staff member at the school during that period, said that punishments in the White House were not excessive. He said staff used the leather strap because they were concerned that spankings with wooden paddles, as had previously taken place, might injure the boys. Department of Justice, 2011 In its December 2011 report of its investigation at the Dozier School, the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice made the following findings about staff at the school, who were cited for use of excessive force, inappropriate isolation, and extension of confinement: The youth confined at Dozier and at JJOC were subjected to conditions that placed them at serious risk of avoidable harm in violation of their rights protected by the Constitution of the United States. During our investigation, we received credible reports of misconduct by staff members to youth within their custody. The allegations revealed systemic, egregious, and dangerous practices exacerbated by a lack of accountability and controls. . . . These systemic deficiencies exist because State policies and generally accepted juvenile justice procedures were not being followed. We found that . . . staff did not receive minimally adequate training. We also found that proper supervision and accountablity measures were limited and did not suffice to prevent undue restraints and punishments. Staff failed to report allegations of abuse to the State, supervisors, and administrators. Staff members often failed to accurately describe use of force incidents and properly record use of mechanical restraints.  The University of South Florida 2012-2014: Dr. Erin Kimmerle is a forensic anthropologist and University of South Florida Associate Professor who had led a USF team of anthropologists, biologists, and archaeologists exploring the Marianna campus in a project authorized by the state. The stories of the White House Boys piqued her interest, as she had worked with international groups to identify remains and burials in areas of warfare. She thought the specialists at her university could aid the state in identifying undocumented areas of burial by using current technology and scientific techniques. She was especially curious why there are no records of the locations of the burials, as is customary at state prisons, hospitals and similar institutions.In 2012, the team used ground-penetrating radar and some excavation to identify where bodies are buried. However, in order to determine if the cause of death was from injury, illness, or murder, the bodies must be exhumed. Given the long history of reported violence at the school, many people believe that some students died because of abuse. Under existing law, exhumations can be done only at the request of a family member. But many of the burials are of students who were here in the early 20th century, and records make it difficult to identify their families. By December 2012, the researchers indicated that they had located 55 graves on the grounds. Given that they had documented nearly 100 deaths at the school, the team believed that a second cemetery was likely to exist. Thomas Varnadoe was sent to the Florida School for Boys in 1934 and died there a month later. His nephew, Glen Varnadoe, came forward in 2012 saying that he wanted to have his uncle's remains exhumed for reinterment at his family's cemetery near Lakeland. He had visited Dozier School in the 1990s, and a staff member showed him where his uncle might be buried. That location was not the same as the area where the most recent burials were found. The state originally limited the USF team to searching the existing, delineated cemetery grounds, saying they did not have the authority to order exhumation of graves. Researchers discuss work revealed that using the remains they did find on site, they made seven DNA identifications and 14 other presumptive matches. Many of the unmarked burial sites studied are thought to be of black students, who were segregated at the school. The team found that three times as many black students died and were buried at Dozier than white students, and that some of those boys were incarcerated for non-criminal charges like running away and incorrigibility. Black boys were less likely to be named in historical records, as well, reflecting the grim realities of reform school life in the segregated South. They eventually uncovered a students family had actually been sent a coffin filled with planks of wood after a boy named Thomas Curry died there under "Suspicious Circumstances while escaping". The ledger entry at the Dozier school said he was “killed on RR Bridge Chattahoochee, Fla.” Another document at Old Cathedral Cemetery in Philadelphia says he was “killed by train.” No one from Dozier ever reported his death to the state. He was returned in a casket to his family, who, in turn, buried him in Philadelphia. Or so the family thought. It wasn’t until a state investigation beginning in 2008 that Curry’s death certificate was found at Dozier. It said he died of a crushed skull from an “unknown cause.”  And it wasn’t until 2014, when University of South Florida anthropologists who have been working to unearth and identify remains on the former campus visited Philadelphia with Pennsylvania authorities, that the family learned Curry wasn’t in the casket – no bones, no clothing, no sign of him at all. “Wood. Layers of pieces of wood,” said anthropologist Erin Kimmerle, explaining what she and her team found in the casket. “It was completely filled with wooden planks.” At first, the team thought they had the wrong grave, but then they found Curry’s great-grandparents beneath the wood-filled casket… Definitely some weird shit going on here. In January 2016, the USF team issued their final report. They had made a total of seven DNA matches and 14 presumptive identifications from the 51 remains found at the site. A total of 55 burials were identified, but only 13 were made within the cemetery grounds, and "the rest of the graves were outside... in the woods, including under a roadway, brush, and a large mulberry tree." While they had documented 98 deaths at the site, they were unable to identify any more burials on the grounds. Some bodies may have been sent home to students' families. The USF team will continue to work with other organizations and families on DNA and other means of identification of the remains that were found. They created computer facial approximations from remains to help with identification. A number of families, including the Glen Varnadoe family, have filed requests to have the remains of their children or relatives repatriated. In March 2014, Governor Rick Scott signed a bill authorizing up to $7500 per burial for those families who wanted to reinter the remains of relatives identified in unmarked graves at the Florida School for Boys. This followed the University of South Florida's report in January, which said they had been able to make matches of 21 sets of remains to known families. In addition, the bill proposes creating a task force to establish a memorial, "as well as deciding how to handle the remains of bodies that have yet to be identified or claimed by families.  The white house boys also fought to have the bodies of orphans and those that were unidentified to be reinterred far away from the ground at Dozier. In as late as 2019 they are still finding what could possibly be unmarked graves. Dr. Erin Kimmerle again began an investigation of 27 "anomalies" discovered by an engineering firm hired by the state's Department of Environmental Protection to help clean-up following Hurricane Michael, according to Florida's Department of State. Though the 27 anomalies discovered by radar are "consistent with possible graves," according to Governor Ron DeSantis, only fieldwork will determine whether human remains are present at the site. The 27 "anomalies" are located less than 200 yards from a section on the Dozier school property known as Boot Hill Cemetery, where, previously, USF researchers found 55 graves. Unfortunately in an update we found it turns out Kimmerle's team said those anomalies were mostly roots from pine trees moved from the area years ago. Survivor Charlie Fudge and friend Rachel McCoy pleaded to be allowed on the property during future surveys. Fudge said he remembers a graveyard being on the east side of a set of buildings on the property, near Old Air Base Road.  "I could sit on my cottage bench and see that cemetery," Fudge said. "My mind at 12 years old remembers that cemetery." Kimmerle said her team did not find anything abnormal in that area, but nearby there is an established, fenced-in historic cemetery.  McCoy, who attended the presentation with Fudge, said letting the men on the property to assist is "what they need." Fudge said he hopes the White House does not get bulldozed over when the property is cleaned up in the future. "That's very meaningful to me and the other men," he said. "I'm just an old guy, who went there 60 years ago, and went through hell." John Bell, who spent eight months at the school, also spoke and said the school was managed by "corrupt officials of the state of Florida" and "it's been going on for way too long." In 2017, the state formally apologized to the survivors and families for the abuses and deaths that happened at Dozier. More than 500 former Dozier students have come forward over the years to report physical, sexual and mental abuse at the hands of those who worked there.On June 29th 2020, Neil Davis, the oldest member of The White house boys passed away in a nursing home. He never told most of his family, including his children, that he had been at Dozier and what he'd gone through.  The white house boys vow to keep fighting for the rights of the victims.      "There are still 180 people not accounted for," she said. "We could lay it to rest. They're not just public, they were there. Let them walk the property." Fudge said "We the White House boys; we know what has happened in that school," he said. "It's not going to be over until we say it's over." There are some really great news articles used for this episode. There was a really great series of articles from The St Pete Times that were reprinted by the Tampa Bay Times that we recommend checking out. Also NPR has a ton of good info as well.  Imdb list of 15 horror movies about school https://m.imdb.com/list/ls022490849/  The Midnight Train Podcast is sponsored by VOUDOUX VODKA.www.voudoux.com Ace’s Depothttp://www.aces-depot.com BECOME A PRODUCER!http://www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast Find The Midnight Train Podcast:www.themidnighttrainpodcast.comwww.facebook.com/themidnighttrainpodcastwww.twitter.com/themidnighttrainpcwww.instagram.com/themidnighttrainpodcastwww.discord.com/themidnighttrainpodcastwww.tiktok.com/themidnighttrainp And wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to our official YouTube channel:OUR YOUTUBE

Rick Sizemore, Media Specialist at the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, and former Director of the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, joins the program to discuss the mission and impact of the VR Workforce Studio Podcast. Rick reveals what it's like to host and produce the podcast, and the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had both on the delivery of services to persons with disabilities, as well as messaging. 

Manuel "Manny Espitia is originally from Santa Ana CA. The son of Mexican immigrants, Manny was taught the value of hard work early on. He was given a scholarship through the A Better Chance program, and attended Midland School in Los Olivos CA. He went on to attend Princeton University and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in History and a concentration on African American Studies in 2011. In 2012, Manny moved from Santa Ana, CA to Albuquerque, NM to work as an organizer for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. Knowing that his passion was to help organize in Latino communities, he continued to do this work in California, Illinois, Texas, and finally New Hampshire. Manny moved to New Hampshire in 2015 to work as an organizer in Nashua for Hillary Clinton's primary campaign. Following that campaign, Manny fell in love with the community and chose to work for Mayor Jim Donchess as an Assistant to the Mayor. During that time, Manny mostly handled constituent work and helped connect residents to city services. In 2017, Manny moved to Senator Maggie Hassan's office to work on Constituent Services Coordinator and mostly worked on immigration cases. In 2018, Manny decided to make the leap into public service himself and ran for office successfully. He is only 1 of 2 Latino representatives in New Hampshire and he serves on the Labor, Industrial, and Rehabilitative Services committee. In 2019, he served as the State Director for Secretary Julian Castro's presidential campaign. He now works as the Northern Regional Director for Run for Something, an organization that helps 18-40 yr old Democrats run for local and state office. He loves Nashua, and him and his fiance, Adriana, are committed to helping improve the community.        

The current Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration and the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Mark Schultz, joins NDRN to discuss the tremendous potential of people with disabilities to successfully obtain jobs in the community.

Welcome to this special episode, where we interview Anne McDonnell, the Executive Director of the Brain Injury Association of Virginia (BIAV). dLCV is a huge supporter of BIAV and the work they do across the state for people who have experience brain injuries. The mission of the BIAV is to advance education, awareness, support, treatment and research to improve the quality of life for all people affected by brain injury. They provide outreach and support, education, public awareness, legislative advocacy, and also run Camp Bruce McCoy, a recreational camp in the Chesapeake Bay area. Anne is a wealth of knowledge on brain injuries and we learned so much in this episode. Anne references the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, DARS, and you can learn more about them at www.virginia.gov/agencies/department-for-aging-and-rehabilitative-services/ You can find out more about BIAV at www.biav.net. View the full transcription of this episode or all past episodes at www.dlcv.org/podcast. You can follow us on Twitter @DisabilityLawVA and find us on Facebook!

You're listening to PT MEAL: Physical Therapy podcast. This is Episode 35. This is a special episode for you guys today. I had a conversation with Lily Ann Bautista, PT, DPT, PTRP, COMT, CCVT, the President of the Philippine Association of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists and the Director of the Institute of Rehabilitative Services at Siliman University, Dumaguete. She completed her Doctorate degree in Physical Therapy from A.T. Still University and his Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy. She also earned his Clinical Competency Certification in Vestibular Rehabilitation from Emory University, Atlanta, GA, and is a Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist from the Ola Grimsby Institute. We talked about what an Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapist do and discussed what PAOMPT is about, and lastly, she gave described to us the Physical therapy program in Siliman University. But before that, Here's a chance for you to attend the International Virtual Conference of Philippine Association of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists entitled "Discover Beyond the Borders" for FREE! PT MEAL: Physical Therapy Podcast has teamed up with FUTURE Foundation in sponsoring physical therapists residing in the Philippines for the virtual conference happening on October 17 & 24, 2020. All you need to do is submit an essay (max. 300 words) or a 60-sec video introducing yourself, your practice location, setting and experience, and how attending the conference will help you serve your patients, the profession, and your colleagues. PTMEAL has sponsored two (2) slots - one, for a UST alumnus (to give back to my alma mater), and another one, Open to all (to give back to the community). FUTURE Foundation has three (3) more location-based slots to give out. Application started last September 14, 2020 and will last until September 28, 2020 (Philippine Time). Here's the link to apply: https://forms.gle/gz1bqUwob97PCmbZ7 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ptmealpodcast/support

0:00:00 - Opening Announcements 12:02 - Bill Engeler (D.C. Orientation and Mobility) 18:37 - Candice Jordan (D.C. Rehabilitative Services Administration) 22:27 - Tandra Hunter-Payne (Maryland Department of Rehabilitative Services) 28:10 - Megan O'Toole (Virginia Department of the Blind and Visually Impaired) 34:20 - Topic Q&A 51:00 - Dr. Alibhai - Telemedicine, 1:01:00 - General Q&A

This week we are honored to have disability rights activist Judith Heumann on the show. Ms Heumann is the author of “Being Heumann” (together with Kristen Joiner) and stars in the new Netflix documentary “Crip Camp”, exec produced by Michelle and Barack Obama. She talks to us about how her experiences; like contracting polio in 1949, being denied the right to attend school at age five, facing discrimination in life and work, have shaped her activism and civil rights work. Judith Heumann is an internationally recognized leader in the disability rights community. She served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and she was appointed by President Obama as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights. “Being Heumann” is on Amazon now and “Crip Camp” premieres on Netflix March 25th

For All Abilities – The Podcast Episode Eight - Ron Kerns -    In this episode, I interview Ron  - Autism and Neurodiversity Advocate and Graphic Designer. On the podcast, Ron talks about his autism diagnosis later in life. We discuss how Ron uses his Neurodiversity in his career and how he found a career and a position that allowed him to work to his strengths.  To connect with Ron, please follow him  on LinkedIn (Ron Kerns) or email him at ron@StudioKerns.com.  Check out his work at www.studiokerns.com    Go to our website www.forallabilities.com for information on our software that enables employers to support their employees with ADHD, Dyslexia, Learning Differences and Autism. Thanks for listening!  Betsy     Thanks for listening to For All Abilities today!    Share the podcast with your friends, they’ll thank you for it!   Get our newsletter and stay up to date! The newsletter link is on our website www.forallabilities.com   Follow me   Twitter: @betsyfurler   Instagram: @forallabilities   Facebook: @forallabilites   LinkedIn: @BetsyFurler   Website: www.forallabilities.com     Full Transcription from otter.ai   Betsy Furler  0:00    Hi, everybody. Welcome to for all abilities the podcast. Today I have a special guest. And this is Ron Kearns. He is going to introduce himself to us talk about his diagnosis, which was later in life. And what that diagnosis means for him now in his life, and what it might have been like if he was diagnosed as a child, and how he uses his brain to be a highly successful person. So Ron, welcome to for all abilities, the podcast.   Ron Kerns  0:44   Thanks for having me.   Betsy Furler  0:45   Yes, thank you so much. Why don't you introduce yourself to my audience, tell us a little bit about where you're from what you do now. Anything else you'd like to tell us about yourself?   Ron Kerns  0:59   Okay.   See Where am I from? I grew up. I grew up in Detroit, in Michigan, and then four and then after college and all that for many years we lived in for 20 years. We lived in Dallas. And then 2016 we decided it was time for change and we moved to rural northern Arkansas. And that's where we are now.   Betsy Furler  1:32   Yeah, I saw that and one of the articles I read about you that you now live in Arkansas and you do have some fishing.   Ron Kerns  1:40   Yes, I'm that we live just a few miles away from the White River which has some of the best rainbow trout fishing in the country. It's absolutely fabulous.   Betsy Furler  1:49   That is great. I love fishing.   Ron Kerns  1:53   I am a professional graphic designer.   I have done work. in pretty much any environment, you can come up with over my almost 30 years career in house corporate, working in ad agencies on my own as a freelancer, and I could, and I currently work for a university. There is a small campus for Missouri State University. And that's a short drive away. Just across the border over into Missouri. That's how far north we live in Arkansas. Wow. So that's since I guess, so that's so that's I've been there at the university for it'll be it'll be two years in May. And so and that that particular job has just been going fabulous, best job I've ever had.   Betsy Furler  3:00   That's nice to hear. And you were diagnosed with autism as an adult, correct? Yes, I was 46. So tell us a little bit about what you were like when you were a little boy   Ron Kerns  3:15   there.   The one overpower the one overlying theme from when I was a kid was when I was in school. I can remember pretty much walking into kindergarten for the very first day, all of a sudden feeling like I did. And the bullying started pretty much right away and continued K through 12. So I stayed within the same school system trait the entire time. I was in school and it just so that was a huge part of being a kid when I was a kid.   I did find some   some   relief from that I   would say   refuge from that I when I was about seven or eight my parents got our family a piano. And so piano playing became my, my, my blanket. security blanket. I played and played and played forever. There. Oh, here here's an idea to give you an idea how That became such a huge thing. I can remember being in fifth grade and I would take a pledge black magic marker and draw all the keys on my desk. And so that way I can sit there and play the piano in my mind playing Wow. Wow. I'm   Betsy Furler  5:23   so you could kind of escape to that that would be right now   Ron Kerns  5:28   that was my that was my escape. I'm teachers in the janitors didn't care for so much. All right. I didn't have a quick didn't know I didn't have a reasoning for it. Um, there was one particular date with the entire class was heading to a field trip. So the class entire class was just abuzz with activity and just kind of overall madness is everybody was excited about going on this field trip.   I just kind of   hunkered down and was gotten to just zoning everything out, playing my panel on my desk. Then, at some points, the teacher put her head, her hand on my shoulder. And it kind of got me out of that. And I realized that everybody had left and they all got on the bus. And I was and I had no idea. And the teacher was like, it's time to go now. Kind of a thing.   Betsy Furler  6:40   And you really were able to hyper focus on that.   Ron Kerns  6:45   Yeah, um, so piano playing turned into once I got into junior high and was able to get in the band. I went into that played a couple of different instruments in band That led to later on within leader in junior high in high school, attending a performing arts camp in the summer, and then through that, I toured Europe with an orchestra for a summer when I was 17. Wow. So all of that kind of all started from   all started back from know the piano thing.   Betsy Furler  7:30   Did you were you a good student academically or did you struggle in school?   Ron Kerns  7:35   I struggled terribly. Um, a lot of it had to do with the, a lot of it had to do with bullying. Just self esteem, self confidence, all that kind of stuff. Just going into survival mode, I guess is the way to put it   and then   There was so much that I just couldn't comprehend. But like everything else, there was no set attribution to why I couldn't. So all through school. It was, well, he just needs to focus more. He needs to find himself. He needs to just work harder. You know, he has the potential to do this and   Betsy Furler  8:34   write some but they were seeing you as a smart kid, but they couldn't figure out what avenue to reach you.   Ron Kerns  8:42   Right? Because nobody knew anything about any of this sector. Right, right. So I just   kind of muddle through and   past I guess   And so   there was a, I remember, yeah, so Um, so yeah, so that was basically school for me.   Betsy Furler  9:12   And did you go to college after high school?   Ron Kerns  9:16   After high school I did. I didn't go to college, I had a very difficult time trying to figure out exactly what it is I wanted to do.   And then   I didn't even really pick even art classes when I was in high school, or anything like that. My older sister in the meantime, we had been going to this small business school in northern Michigan.   And   it was kind of my   mindset that a,   I knew in the back of my mind that going to a much smaller school. Were probably be better for me which it was   and then   going to school where my sister was already   wouldn't hurt either.   So I kind of focused it on Northwood University, which is a school in Midland, Michigan. And I looked at their offerings, and I saw the advertising marketing program. And I thought, Boy, that sounds like something that could be interested in. So and I realized that they were going to have a day for potential students in that program. So we went up there in and   then I was so   it was just seemed like to be a really good fit for what I wanted to do. And So I went there and did find it was   from there by the chairman of the apartment   was a huge factor in me doing what I do today. He hit his background, because that played a big part of his background was in the 50s 60s and into early 70s. Working with being working when advertising for Ford and Lincoln mercury.   He was a major.   He was the he was the creative director for when the Ford Mustang first was introduced. Oh, wow. And other other monumental advertising campaigns and such over the years through that time period. So When he would come to class, he would bring in all of these old big boards and storyboards of all of these campaigns that he worked on when he was in the business. And using that as an illustration for what he was teaching that day or whatever. And so one day, he sat me down and he said, Have you ever thought about going to art school? No, I've never had an art class in my life. And he goes in and he showed me all the stuff that I had done as projects in his classes and said, you really should think about it. So um, I did and, and after getting my advertising marketing degree there, I went to art school in Cincinnati, and did very well there. And then it's through that I earned an internship with Cambodia. Well, Detroit. They were the Advertising Agency at the time for Chevrolet. And so, especially with that with once I earned the internship there. I just did that really solidified that, wow, I'm, I'm where I want to be.   Betsy Furler  13:19   That's amazing. And it kind of shows that there can be one person in our life that we run across that can have such a large impact. You know, obviously he saw that talent in you and was able to communicate it to you know, you Yeah, really? That that was she was so pivotal in your life and sounds like Yeah, definitely. Um, so how did you finally get diagnosed? what led up to the diagnosis?   Ron Kerns  13:52   That's it. That's quite an interesting story. I've been interviewed about that before because it's such an odd story. Before I began to suspect that I was that I was autistic, I would have never have guessed. Um, anyway, so it was around 2011 when I was watching the show parenthood on NBC, huh? And we watched from know when Elizabeth recently aired from the very first episode. I was familiar with a movie that had come out us before, so I thought it'd be a good something nice to watch. So, um, as the episodes went on long, and there was that kid max who eventually got diagnosed on the show. I was just sitting there watching and watching and going, man.   He was   thinking, he is a lot like I was when I was a kid. Uh huh. And parent teacher conferences his parents would have won over that whole Same thing with not having Well, he's got so much potential for he just used to focus on the road. And then having all that same conversations, it was just like no.   mean it was like me being on the show.   And so one just just one night. I was like, Okay, that's it. So I was just sitting on the, on the couch, I grabbed my laptop and I was sitting there watching show I started Googling, like, undiagnosed autism, adult saroo, something like that. And as soon as I hit return, it just, that's just when the light bulb went off. And I started seeing what was out there about this and starting to reading the list of You just might be artistic F and then you have the list of different characteristics or traits. And it was like, Oh, my goodness.   And   I'm,   Betsy Furler  16:24   well, that's really interesting.   Ron Kerns  16:27   So while doing the googling, I came across a title of a book.   The book is,   which I recommend everybody by the way, it's a book called pretending to be normal, written by Leann holiday Willie, and she was also diagnosed later in life and like in her mid 30s. Mm hmm. And, but when I saw that when I saw just the name of the book, pretending to be normal. was like, that's me. Cuz especially in the workplace, it just always feeling out of place, like an intruder, and all that stuff. I always just, and I never really could put my finger on it. But when I stopped pretending to be normal, I was like, that's it.   And, and so I just felt like that's what you've been   Betsy Furler  17:27   doing your whole life.   Ron Kerns  17:29   Exactly. And so, so and so with that.   I just dug in and got more and more and then in 2014 a couple years later, it came to a point to where I was pretty much self diagnosed at the time. And I just knew that in order to get any kind of support services, that kind of thing, you know, I needed an official diagnosis   because at the time I was   without a job.   I has   my throughout my career while I've done some pretty cool stuff and have worked with some great clients and done some great projects. My career has also been huge difficulties landing a job when I needed to get one. The past decade 2010 to 2020 I was unemployed without a full time job for seven of those 10 years. Wow. I'm thankfully doing what I do, I can I was able to kind of scrape by doing freelance work. And   so   it says that   was getting them from a diagnosis got me in This with this nonprofit that was in Dallas that helps people with autism and other similar things, you know, help provide some assistance with no landing shops or work. So   Betsy Furler  19:15   yeah, that's a great point. I, I, I'm really passionate about workplace accommodations and understanding in the workplace about diversity. But it's a really great point because I often say to parents, yes, you need to get this diagnosis for your child, if nothing else, but for the services. But I, you know, we don't think about that as an adult, that there are still services out there that you can access but only if you have   Ron Kerns  19:42   the diagnosis. Yeah. And unfortunately, for adults, they're very, very hard to find because everything is geared towards children. I even I even had a hard time finding a provider that would do an assessment or evaluation for me Because I was an adult   Betsy Furler  20:03   Yeah, and not about that area and that was probably expensive as well.   Ron Kerns  20:09   Um, I got lucky on that, um, during this entire time of struggling to find a job and knowing that was self diagnosed,   I got a   wreck. I get somebody I know through one of my facebook group artistic Facebook groups messaged me one day and she said, Here this, this place might be able to help you out with the whole job thing. And it was a agency for the state of Texas called Texas Department of the system and Rehabilitative Services and our health, those with disabilities and such to find appropriate work. So I said oh, well that could they could possibly help. So I made it, I made a appointment with the person there at the office, which wasn't too terribly far away from home. And I went there, and and then she started asking me about my diagnosis as well I don't have one yet. And then she proceeded, explain that you're having a diagnosis is necessary because to be eligible, so you can determine eligibility for services. And then she said, because you came to us seeking services, will give you a list of providers, and we will provide you with that assessment to determine whether or not you're eligible, which means getting the diagnosis, right. So um,   I just got lucky with that and I'm   in so I Just the assessment and it was all taken care of by that state agency.   Betsy Furler  22:07   And now for people who are listening and might be in the state of Texas, it's now called the Texas Workforce Commission. They change their name a few years ago. So   Ron Kerns  22:16   yeah, I remember when they did that. Yeah, they kind of melded together with the Workforce Commission. Yes.   Betsy Furler  22:21   Yeah. Yeah. So well, that's the I hadn't even thought about that as an option for people that thank you for bringing that up. That is helpful. So once you got the diagnosis, how did that change your life?   Ron Kerns  22:36   Everything all of a sudden made sense.   Yeah, it was just it was just so much. It's almost like overwhelming for a while. Even looking back at, you know, being autistic, one of the things one trait is being able to vividly remember Member finnstrom had many many, many, many years ago, to me, our youngest age and and just thinking back at all these little different   situations.   And then now I know why or how I did that or this or whatever. And now it just like just makes so much more sense. It's it's almost indescribable   Betsy Furler  23:34   and I think one thing that's so remarkable is that a lot of people think that people who are autistic don't have much self insight. And you diagnosed yourself on by by being able to look inside yourself and see your traits and other people. I think it's a I you know, I think it kind of breaks the surface. Yeah, type of what it's like to be autistic.   Ron Kerns  24:03   Actually, it's work. It's quite common really for people for autistic people to be introspective, because   Betsy Furler  24:10   i i agree. I think they I think it is. But I think it's a stereotype that Yeah, you're not that people with autism are not introspective. from working with lots of people who are autistic over the years, I have found it to be totally the opposite, like, so it makes sense to me that you would be able to do that.   Ron Kerns  24:33   Right? Because right now, amen. It's quite, it's becoming more and more common for like adults like me to finally get that diagnosis. And probably one of the more common ways that adults are realizing that Ooh, maybe I should go get assessed or evaluated is they first have a child who is diagnosed Once or child gets diagnosed, they're like, Man, that child's always been just like me. I wonder you know if they have the same traits and difficulties or problems and and so once the kids diagnosed it's not easy stuff to, to say a person No. More and more. It's becoming more widely believed that autism itself is genetic. I for instance, I can I even know my father passed away in 2011 before I was diagnosed, I can almost guarantee you that if he would have gotten us assessed somewhere along the way, he would have been diagnosed. Right? Right. Just knowing how that all happened and all of that kind of stuff.   Betsy Furler  25:56   How do you think that your autism allows you to be successful in what you're doing   Ron Kerns  26:06   can sometimes be a tough one because especially with all my job in career difficulties with having a job and retaining the job, it's can be very hard to find that what's positive about a Geass? so often I see the negative.   Betsy Furler  26:34   Right, right.   Ron Kerns  26:36   And then a few years after I was diagnosed, I saw the movie   saw the movie.   Thinking in pictures.   The story about Temple Grandin. Yes. And that just blew my mind. It was like that's a that's another So, I've always done that, but never realized how or why. And so   that ties in   perfectly with me being a graphic designer, I think in pictures,   Betsy Furler  27:16   right. So that makes that job, your career, the perfect career free for your brain. And you kind of accidentally happened upon it. The   Ron Kerns  27:30   the difficulty lies in   being in the marketing, corporate communications field. So much of it is   personality driven,   Betsy Furler  27:49   right, relationship and all of that's   Ron Kerns  27:54   Miss so that's what's really been the hindrance more than anything. great example of that is, you know how I was, before I got this job at the university. I was without a full time job for five years. And so last my last full time job in 2013 1313. And then   anyway, so it was during that time when I was   out and I was constantly getting interviewed, it wasn't like I had a terrible habit, bad resume and I was constantly getting new people said that it was in the interviewing process.   It was the interview and that would always be the barrier.   And,   but   I was also from the freelancing. I did the I did an annual report for an organization in Baltimore called abilities network in 2014 2015 From like that, and I did an annual report for the Arctic, North Texas, and about the same time, maybe a little bit after. So here I was, I was designing and creating these annual reports for these large organizations. And these are projects that it would typically be done by a large team of designers with the nice, top design firms. And I was doing them all on my own. highly acclaimed, I was winning awards, you name it. And yet I was still having difficulty in finding a job.   And that was the frustrating part of it.   I knew I could do the work, but it was just getting past it in the whole interviewing thing was a massive hurdle. So in 2004, so 2016 comes around, I had a couple of interviews that were really should have been a slam dunk.   My one of my previous jobs was with   one of my previous jobs was with a   multinational veterinary pharmaceutical company.   I was the art director and graphic designer for the entire consumer brands division, I was a sole designer. So all of the packaging, point of purchase displays, advertising marketing, you name it was all done by me. And so all of my work was seen and put within Petco and PetSmart all over the country. And, um, and so then that job ended in 2009. But then, when I was in sometime in early 2016,   I was able to interview for a job with a   local chain in Dallas, a chain of veterinary clinics, who also had their own private label branded products that they would sell within their clinics. So it would be marketing the clinics and and the packaging and all of this all of the stuff for the products they had. And I was like, How can I not get this?   Right now that's just what you've been doing basically.   And I didn't get it. And I got some very good sets the flimsiest flimsiest excuses to why they chose somebody else. And that's what pretty much and so I was unemployed for almost five years at the time. We were getting close to getting foreclosed on our house. And in addition to that, my My wife's dad who was living who had lived in northern Arkansas for many years. At that time. His wife had passed away. And so he was up here all by himself. We were several, we were 810 hour drive away. And so she was certainly like, oh, wouldn't it be nice if we could up there be up near my dad, all that kind of stuff. And we'd always love the area. And I thought, well, maybe once I retire, we can move up here because there's really no jobs for somebody like me around here. Uh huh. But once those job opportunities just kind of continued coming and going away and I, we came to the conclusion, especially with the foreclosure house. It was like, let's just get out of here. I'm like, I'm done. got going. So I'm We sold the house. Thankfully, we avoid foreclosure and the market Dallas was just going crazy. So we we did quite well on the house in the long run. And so I did be opposite of what you would think instead of staying in an area where there's countless jobs, I came to an area where there's a mere handful of jobs. And so I was doing the tons of freelancing at the time so I figured hey, I could get by a few minutes and we could while just working from here at the office phone and, and doing what I do. So for two for two years, that's what I did. I just worked from home, doing my work for my clients from wherever in the world they were. And that worked just fine. And and then I saw on an on host one day for the job. at Missouri State, it was so perfect. That was perfect job. So my whole mindset was what   I knew would eventually happen was   how many other people could their candidates could they have possibly been have had my background experience applying for this job. We live in this extremely remote and rural area. Right, right. And   so I go to the interview   and it's a panel interview about six or seven people. And one of the people read this statement about how the university values, diversity, inclusion, and, and all of that kind of stuff. So I thought, Okay, that sounds great. And then came to the point where I showed him my portfolio and they were raving about my portfolio and the stuff I was showing enough work I've done in the past. And so then then it came to strengths and weaknesses, asked me about my strengths and weaknesses. And so that's what I had a pretty good idea that they would be perfectly fine with it. So I said, well, the weaknesses that goes along with   me learning I was autistic just a few years ago. And   it kind of went into my strengths and weaknesses, as far as you know, being a graphic designer, that sort of thing. So that was one of the few times I know. That's always a big conundrum for people who are on the spectrum, when the right is   Betsy Furler  35:57   whether you disclose your Yeah, quote unquote disability or not just   Ron Kerns  36:03   the disposer you to try to fake it.   Betsy Furler  36:05   right all right.   Ron Kerns  36:07   It was at that point to where I felt comfortable enough. I knew that of course, I knew from the get go like this is a major university they almost certainly are going to be understanding and even somewhat appreciate the fact that I've accomplished what I what I've done and being artistic. Mm hmm. And and so then that's what happened and, and I got the job.   Betsy Furler  36:38   That's amazing. I think that I think disclosing your condition was absolutely the right thing to do. proud that probably got you the job because then they realized   Ron Kerns  36:51   that   Betsy Furler  36:52   you know, the things about the interview that maybe you're the things that you do or say during an interview that maybe wouldn't get you the job in the past. They're like, Ah, that's why his brain works in this way. And he gave us the interview, clearly and then and then ended up with a job that is a great fit for you.   Ron Kerns  37:17   Yeah. And a lot of it was just having that feel for the people that were there. No. Had a good feeling that Okay, there. It's going to be okay to mention it. And, you know, it just, it's, it's no, so whenever somebody brings it up is like, it just depends. Yeah, because I can think of other times in the other jobs I've had to where I would mention it. So I'm on my first. So after I got the notification that just you have the job. I contacted my caseworker with the agency in Dallas who is a, it's a organization called lunch ability. And they're in Dallas. And they're now merged with another organization called my possibilities. And they help people just like me find appropriate jobs and work. And so I called my caseworker. And of course, she was excited and very thrilled that I finally landed the job. And so we talked through the one thing that we've always wanted to talk through was, okay, I have the job now. And, you know, making sure that no one can I had everything, all my ducks in a row for that first day, week, month, because how important it is to kind of get it off to a good start. And so we were able to talk through all of that. And so then on my first day or so, I'm kind of set my manager down and Well, as you know, I'm autistic. And I said I and I explained to her that I really didn't need any really accommodations really a whole lot. But I gave her a list of things to keep in mind. For thankfully, I do have my own office with the door. So I said no, quite often, I'll have the door closed, depending on what's going on elsewhere in the area there. I try to keep it open. My lights, my fluorescent lights are always off all the time. She even bought me on this small little desk area. Because I will I think for the huge I have a huge massive window on one side of the office. That's plenty of daylight and most times, but I'm really I'm really cloudy days. I have a little desperate that you got me help with light. That's not nearly as bright as those big fluorescent things. Right? Right. I'm just told her my difficulties with the whole executive functioning thing with, you know, organizing, organizing and prioritizing projects and work. And that can sometimes have   20 projects in varying degrees   of   in the queue   20 years old projects and varying degrees of completion or, and that sort of thing. And so she's always been very helpful with never   hesitated to   help in any way when I've come to her and say, again, we talked about this from insert, make sure you know that. I'm working on the right projects at the right time for this because I have a lot going on at the moment, or whatever. And so just share her being very, extremely Understanding and patient with me is just been, it's been a huge   Betsy Furler  41:06   well, and that sounds like you have there, you have some accommodations at work, but they're not expensive or big deal type of accommodations. They're things that make your life so much easier and allow you to do your best work. But it also wasn't super expensive for the university to put into place. And it probably actually that kind of back and forth on deadlines and, you know, possibly, you know, asking her to break down tasks or, you know, kind of getting her feedback on that. That's great communication for anybody.   Ron Kerns  41:47   Right. And so, then some of it goes back to learning. Things are learning difficulties now that I know I'm watching Stick. For instance, before I was artistic, I never would have never thought to get your plugs for when I'm in a crowded restaurant, I just grin and bear that. And then and then been an artistic adult Facebook group. People mentioned here places. And I was like, wow, that could actually be a really cool idea. Now I have several sets that I carry with me. So I'm never without a pair. Because I've never know when and where I'm going to be. And and it's like, well, why haven't I thought of this before?   Betsy Furler  42:38   inexpensive things that you can do and easy to do and make the world a difference. Right. Right. Right. And so   Ron Kerns  42:45   then with the accommodations, I'm a lot of I've read a lot lately about standup desks,   dusted can put on your desk and then raise up to where you can stand in kind of Move around a bit more and all that. And so that's what I have. So I talked with my manager about that. And so what is being ordered for me right now?   That's awesome.   To get one of those, so that would that is I think that will be helpful.   Betsy Furler  43:19   Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. I'm so glad you found that job and you made that leap of faith to move from Dallas to rural Arkansas and it sounds like that was just the best move you could have made.   Ron Kerns  43:35   One thing I just thought of about the move to Arkansas was after I got diagnosed   sometime or along the way I started   having meltdowns and panic attacks like while driving and traffic. Safety imagine the freeways and highways and roads in Dallas are Always very congested. just crazy as crazy as can be.   Yeah, and   the meltdowns and all of that we're amplifying. And that was something that was an eye. I gave up driving for the last couple years we were there as much as I could think he lived fairly close to the train station where I could take the train into downtown or wherever I needed to go. And that was another factor in the moving here was she I wonder how it would be if we moved out of this sensory overload of the city and out there to where it's calmer and the traffic is almost non existent. Right little thing. And so I'm just with In a few months, my wife and I had the conversations like the changes almost instant.   I'm just the change of environment.   It was just amazing.   Betsy Furler  45:13   That Yeah, that's a good point. I was actually thinking about that for myself the other day cuz I live in Houston, Texas, and traffic is terrible. And it's like, you know, I, I wonder, you know what it would be like, if we didn't have to have this traffic, we didn't have to be on traffic all the time. And I think we will eventually move out someplace that is not as bad because I think we're all of our brains. It's not good. You know? So that's, yeah, that but that is if if sensory overload is a problem for you, traffic is and just the big city bustle. That's a lot of that's a lot of sensory information you're having to process Maybe not for any good reason.   Ron Kerns  46:03   Yeah, again, that's just something that has.   Because there's a there's a thing called it's autism fatigue, I think is a word for it. And so that was something that started popping up. And so basically the idea that I was handling all of that for years,   fairly well.   But having the mask and camouflaging Bailey all the time constantly, constantly becomes the point when you come to a certain age when you just the mask starts slipping and you just can't have it on as much all the time. Uh huh. And, and so that is what I really think kind of was happening. Just started losing the ability to tolerate a That all the time because it just can't keep the mask on all the time as much because it's because as you get older, it becomes more exhausting more effort to do that day in and day out.   Betsy Furler  47:13   Right and then you're taking your energy that you could be using at work and with your family and all of that. You're having to use that energy to try to to put the keep that mask on for the with the sensory stimulation. Well that I'm I am so glad you moved to Arkansas. I think that was such a great I think that was such a great thing. And I I loved hearing your story and your your later in life life diagnosis. I think this interview is going to help so many people that are listening to my show, and how can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about you.   Ron Kerns  47:58   I'm pretty much everywhere. In Social media. Ron turns Kieran s on Facebook. They can go to my website, studio Kearns that. I'm, I'm very active on LinkedIn. You can find me there round Ronald.   Ronald Kearns. Um   or just send me an email at Ron at Studio Kearns calm.   Betsy Furler  48:31   Awesome. I will put all of that in my show notes and the book suggestion because I think that I'm going to I haven't ever read that book either. I'm gonna I'm gonna read it. I'll probably listen to it on Audible, but I   Ron Kerns  48:44   pretended to be normal. Yeah, definitely. Another book that's also along the same premise that I found it. really helpful was john elder Robison, his book   Look me in the eye.   Betsy Furler  49:03   Yes, yes, that's a good one.   Ron Kerns  49:07   Both of those help was so helpful to me because, you know, both were on the same premise about this is how my life was. And then I found that later in life I was like   Betsy Furler  49:18   I will say, well, I'll put both of those in the show notes. And thank you so much for joining me today. You were a wonderful interview and great information for my for my audience.   Ron Kerns  49:34   Thanks for having me.   Betsy Furler  49:35   Yes, have a great day. You too and audience Thank you for listening and please subscribe to the show. You can also follow me on social media at Betsy Furler f you are le er or for all abilities.  

Welcome to another bonus episode featuring Journey to Esquire: An Oral History. In this episode, we pass the mic to Donald R. Odom. Bornin 1950, in Saint Petersburg, Florida, Donald R. Odom always knew he would be a lawyer. He spent his formative years in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, during which he became an admirer of Judge Thurgood Marshall. He recalls reading about Judge Marshall’s accomplishments during the 1950s and 60s, including his nomination to the United States Supreme Court in 1967. Interestingly, Mr. Odom did not meet a lawyer until he attended Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he met African American pioneers I. W. Williams, Fred Minnis and James Sanderlin. Following graduation from Gibbs High School, Mr. Odom enrolled at the University of South Florida in 1968. He majored in political science, was active in campus politics, and served as President of the Black Student Union. Mr. Odom graduated in 1972 with a B.A. degree in Political Science. Thereafter, he was admitted to the University of Florida Law School in 1974, when the school operated on the quarter system, which allowed him to complete his studies in two years and one quarter. The Honorable Stephen Mickle was one of Mr. Odom’s Professors at Florida and Mr. Odom also clerked part-time at Judge Mickle’s law firm. Mr. Odom graduated from law school in June 1976 and was admitted to practice law on November 18, 1977. From 1985 to his retirement, Mr. Odom has worked at the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office in Tampa, Florida, first as an Assistant County Attorney, then as a Chief Assistant County Attorney, and since 2005 as the Deputy County Attorney. His areas of practice have primarily been utilities law and local government law. Prior to his tenure with the County Attorney’s Office, Mr. Odom worked in the firm of Williams and Milton in St. Petersburg and the firm of Tindall, Trybus & Odom in Tampa. Mr. Odom served as the first African American Assistant City Attorney with the Saint Petersburg’s City Attorney’s Office, and the first African American Assistant District Counsel with the District V office of the Florida Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services. Mr. Odom has participated in numerous proceedings that have had a significant public impact, including his successful defense of the City of St. Petersburg’s Human Rights Ordinance. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/journey-to-esquire/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/journey-to-esquire/support

School services end when adult services begin, but there is opportunity for overlap during the teen years to increase chances of a smooth transition via interagency collaboration. How can this opportunity be maximized? About the Guest: Kelli Crane, Ph.D. is an Assistant Research Professor at the Center for Transition and Career Innovation, University of Maryland, College Park. She bring extensive experience serving in significant leadership roles on research and model demonstration projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, the Social Security Administration and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. Dr. Crane’s research interests include examining programs and practices to improve post-school outcomes for transition age youth with disabilities. Currently, she is co-principal investigator for Maryland PROMISE and co-director on Way2Work Maryland. Both projects, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, are randomized control research trials examining interventions to improve the education and employment outcomes of transition-aged youth with disabilities. She has direct experience working as a transition specialist in an urban school district, a vocational rehabilitation counselor, and job coach. **This episode is part of a 12 episode series  focusing on the Transition Plan in the IEP **Follow Kim's journey with her daughter on Instagram at journey2lomah  

Noticing patterns in the areas of tutoring and substance use programs.

We have a new email! Please send your feedback and stories to: tgowpodcast@gmail.com. You really want to hear from YOU, our listeners! The world-renowned disability rights activist, Judy Heumann graced us with her presence on the Traipsin' Global on Wheels podcast series. She is a lifelong advocate for the rights of disabled people. Like me, she contracted polio at an young age. Judy began to experience discrimination at 5 years old when she was denied the right to attend school because she was a "fire hazard." Judy determined that she, working in collaboration with other disabled people, had to play an increasing advocacy role as she and others experienced continuous discrimination because of their disabilities. She is now an internationally recognized leader in the disability rights community and a lifelong civil rights advocate. From June 2002- 2006, Judy served as the World Bank's first Adviser on Disability and Development. In this position, she led the World Bank's disability work to expand the Bank’s knowledge and capability to work with governments and civil society on including disability in the global conversation. From 1993 to 2001, Judy served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education. President Obama appointed Judy as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State, where she served from 2010-2017. Today, Judy is a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation. She is currently working to help advance the inclusion of disability in the Foundation’s work and is leading a project to advance the inclusion of disabled people in the media. Quick note: This interview was originally recorded and published in October, right before the November mid-terms. Special thanks to all of you who voted in this election! Traipsin’ Global on Wheels is focused on sharing resources and insights into disability advocacy, fitness and health, and accessible travel. Our mission is to build a community of healthy, worldly, and informed advocates. end credit music: 'Protest Song' by Derek Clegg (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Dr. Pasternack describes how literacy gaps can often be mistaken for learning disabilities and why he "questions how 'special' special education is" for students. View Dr. Pasternack's webinar as a part of Lindamood-Bell's Leaders in Literacy series here.  

I will be speaking with Dr. Peggy McLeod who currently is the Vice President of Education and Workforce Development at Unidos US a bi-partisan nonprofit organization that works with Latino communities across the United States. Dr. McLeod is currently in the Texas regional office of Unidos US. She has specialized in the field of special education for her entire career and this led her to become a political appointee in the Clinton administration where she worked at the Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services from 1995-2001. We discuss her career and her experiences working in a cabinet level department.

006 - Dan Weinstein, M.S., CCC-SLP, BCS-S - Palliative Care in the Acute and SNF Settings, Feeding Tubes, Thickened Liquids, and Esophageal Dysphagia Today’s Swallow Your Pride guest is Dan Weinstein! Dan is a board certified specialist in swallowing and is an incredibly intelligent and very well spoken SLP from the Philadelphia area. And Actually at the time of this recording he was the Speech Pathology Supervisor at the Dept of Rehabilitative Services at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco, but he’s since moved back to the east coast, because he wanted to live closer to me, and will be starting his new position soon as the Chief of Speech and Audiology Services at the Philly VA Medical Center. Dan has served as a clinical supervisor for several years and in his experience he has developed a way of explaining very difficult topics for both SLPs and our patients in a very simple, and eloquent manner. If I could go back and do my externships or CF again I would pick Dan in a heartbeat since he cares so much about educating SLPs and helping them to learn the medical reasoning and research behind everything we do. In this episode, we discuss palliative care in both the acute care and SNF settings. We dispel some myths about feedings tubes, thickened liquids, and how best to treat our end of life patients with dysphagia. Dan also touches on esophageal dysphagia and some things we should and shouldn't do with treating that. To learn more about the Medical SLP Collective, an exclusive community for Medical SLPs with new peer-reviewed resources, handouts, and videos distributed weekly, monthly ASHA CEU webinars, and a private forum on Facebook, or on the website to get answers to all of your burning clinical questions, check out MedSLPCollective.com Download Ep. 006 Show Notes Download Ep. 006 Transcript This Month’s Featured Affiliates: If you like our work, support us on Patreon for as little as a dollar a month! Previous Next Previous Next

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), falls are the leading cause of injuries in people age 65 and older. Common injuries due to falls include shoulder and forearm fractures, spine fractures, pelvic fractures, hip fractures, and head injuries. Falls can happen anytime, anywhere, at any age. However seniors fall more easily and more often. What's worse, the severity of fall-related injuries also increases with age because osteoporosis, which is common in older people, makes bones more brittle and prone to fractures.Dina Griffith, Director of the Rehabilitation & Inpatient Physical Therapy at MarinHealth Medical Center, discusses the role of fall prevention in helping seniors to maintain their independence as long as possible. Whether you are caring for an aging loved one or concerned about your own risk of falling, learn what steps you can take to help prevent falls.

We had a full house in the studio today with Samantha Greenfield, Placement Counselor for the Virginia Division of Rehabilitative Services, Colin Miller, Transitions Coordinator for Warren County Public Schools' Special Education Program, Ingrid Thompson, Employment Support Specialist with ShenPaco Industries and Dena Lee, Supervisor of Special Services for Warren County Public Schools. The group gave us details about the Warren County Resource Fair happening on Thursday, April 6th from 4pm - 6pm at the Warren County Community Center. The event is open to the public and will provide a wealth of information and resources for those in our community with disabilities. Community partners will be available to share information on: Employment Options Transitioning to post-secondary life & independent living Medicaid Waiver Resources Mental Health and Counseling Services Educational Resources Early Intervention  

A story of how a local Captain at the Montgomery County Sheriff's jail made a difference in the lives of those less advantaged and motivated other agencies and charities to participate. Here's the transcript. Interview with Captain Kim Haug Hugh: This is Hugh Ballou, and my guest for this session is Captain Kim Haug. I am at the Montgomery County Sheriff's department. I met Kim the other day, and I was quite impressed with the work she has done outside of her regular job, demonstrating how leaders can make a difference. Let's start with talking about what your job title is here. Kim: I am captain, but my job title is the Chief Correctional Officer of the Montgomery County Jail. Hugh: That's your work-work. But we are going to talk about what you have done outside your work. Do you have a title or description for that program we are going to talk about? Kim: The program that we have started is called Effort. It stands for Enabling Friends for Our Response Teams. Hugh: Enabling Friends for Our Response Teams. Clever. What was the situation that came up that was the inspiration to start this? Kim: We have a lady who works for the sheriff's office. She has a son who is autistic. She requested that we do something for the special needs community. She didn't give us a whole lot other than that. she just wanted us to do something with the special needs community, so that started some thoughts going and some programs. We started thinking of some things. We got together with a lot of people in the community and came up with the EFFORT program. Hugh: Whoa. So she came and talked to you about it. What was the problem you were addressing? Kim: She had had a couple bad experiences with her son. He is a teenager, and they live in a town. There had been a couple incidents with law enforcement. They were pretty scary for her. At one point, her son was not responding to a command, not because he didn't understand it, but because he was afraid. He had something in his hand that was like a comfort item, and the command was to put it down. He refused to do it. The situation started to escalate pretty quickly. She was concerned that maybe in the future, ash e got older, that situation could have gone really bad. She just wanted us to do something for the special needs community, including individuals with intellectual disabilities because she saw the need. Hugh: We read about things when they go bad with law enforcement. We want to balance it out with things that we do to prevent those situations. This is really important. what was next? How did you start this initiative? Kim: First, I approached the sheriff with the idea of having a fun day at the sheriff's department. I the nquickly realized that I was out of my element with the special needs community, that I needed some help and some guidance, as I didn't want to do anything wrong. I knew that I would have one chance at this. You mess this up, and that could be really bad. I invited a lo of people from the special needs community, from schools, the Special Olympics, DARS and IDA and some other agencies in our area that work with special needs, along with law enforcement and first responders. We had a big brainstorming session. I told them some ideas, what I would like to do. They were really excited about it. We went forward with it, but always with the guidance of the people in the special needs community already to make sure we did everything that was going to be helpful and right, and that we wouldn't do anything silly that would make the situation worse. Hugh: Our audience are people who are leaders in various types of organizations like those that you reached out to. What is DARS and IDA? Kim: DARS is the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services. What they do is they work with a lot of individuals who have special needs on assisting them and getting them employment. IDA is Individuals with Disabilities Association, and they do a lot of really neat programs for individuals with disabilities. Special Olympics, everyone knows what that is. We invited those people to come and guide us along. Hugh: One of the things that we highlight in our work is that leaders are first and foremost people with influence. You did not have any official relationship that you could say, “Do this.” You just influenced them because of your clarity of vision for this. Speak to that. They voluntarily stepped up, is what I am hearing. Kim: They did. When we met, I first shared with them what I wanted ot do and the purpose of what I wanted to do. I wanted to bridge that gap. I wanted to reach out to the special needs community because as I started this research, I found out that there wasn't a lot of trust between the individuals and the families of the individuals with special needs and law enforcement due to those bad experiences. I was just afraid that we wouldn't know how to handle it. I am not just talking about law enforcement, but fire and rescue as well. Those can be really scary situations for anyone, but you throw in the special needs aspect. Even a parent getting pulled over for a parcking ticket could be traumatic for somebody with autism. When you pull over behind that car with the lights and the siren. Car accidents. A fire in the home. We bring in an element that is unfamiliar and scary. What I wanted to do was on this day, make sure there were fire trucks and abumalcnes and police cars and officers in uniform and everybody was in uniform. The firemen were in uniform, the rescue people were in what they wear, and law enforcement was in uniform. They got to ineract with us on a fun level, and they got to learn about the jobs that we do. They did the obstacle course that the law enforcement officers do when we go to the academy. They got to use the fire hose. It was just incredible what the fire department did. They got to go into the back of an ambulance and see it. They had a photo with the cops, where they got their picture taken and got to take it home with them when they left the site. They got certificates and medals and awards for doing all the obstacle courses. What I wanted to do was like I said bridget that gap and show them that we are not scary, that we are not there to make a situation worse, but rather, make it better. Hugh: This is an activity, or is it housed under the sheriff's department or connected to any official entity? Kim: It's a program that the sheriff's office does. It's something that we do in partnership with all first responders in the county. Hugh: It's your baby? Kim: It's my baby. Hugh: We're talking in 2017 early in the year. How long has it been going? Kim: Last year was our pilot program. We did it in jUly of last year. We start meeting next week to start planning this year's EFFORT event. Hugh: What will you do to create sustainability and enable transitions as you bring on more programs nad need other leaders to take other parts? What will you do to introduce that sustainability with the transitions? People aren't goin to do it forever, so how do you bring on fresh people and have a rotation system? Kim: One of the things that we do throughout the year is we do training for the new officers who come in. one of the things we will definitely do is it's open to volunteers. Anyone can come and continue to go in the fire departments and rescue departments and provide training. Ongoing training bout the need that we have in our community that we need to be better trained to handle individuals with disabilities. We want those families to trust us on that level. What we will definitely be doing is the continuing training, which will be the key part of keeping this going. Hugh: Good. I see you going over and above the training because you have created and built on relationships. Kim: The other organizations that we have developed relationships with have been phenomenal. I have actually been relaly surprised at how important those connections with the DARS agency and the IDA and Special Olympics have been. We partner with them in some things, but it has been small. The partnership with them has been huge. We have used them for training purposes, and they have used us for training purposes on their side. But the partnership that the sheriff's office has wit hthese agencies now is phenomenal. I see that continuing to grow as well. Different programs will change throughout because we already have this established partnership. That will make transitions easier for programs in the future. Hugh: Good. One of the strong leadership principles I'm seeing is that you don't have to be the expert in everything. You are the visionary, and you brought in people with particular expertise to fill in those gaps. Kim: Yes. It was the smartest thing that I have learned to do. If you want to do something, you find the people who are really good at it and partner with them. Hugh: That's a key statement right there. Leaders are catalysts for some of the things to happen. What I am hearing is you were very clear on what the need was and what we can do about it. But you let other people play into the content and the methodologies and the process piece wit hexpertise. Part of what I wanted to highlight in this interview is we sometimes get in a vacuum with our churches, our charities, thinking, whether it's government or other, that we have to do it all. The key message I want to highlight here is this is a collaborative community effort. Kim: Correct. Hugh: Collaboration really enables us all to do a whole lot more. What are some of the results that you have seen so far? Kim: We extended our program to a degree by doing a GTO program, called Growth through Opportunity, which was really positive for the sheriff's office, and also for three individuals. Through the DARS relationships, we had three cadets come through a program through the sheriff's office called Grow Through Opportunity. We took in three cadets, all three with intellectual disabilities, and we spent four month with them where they came in and learned job skills and social skills through job coaches. The job coaches were the deputies. They would spend several hours a day with us, Monday through Thursday, and they graduated the program. The whole purpose of that was to get them job-ready. We went to different agencies throughout the county, other police agencies and the fire departments, and they would have work for them to do. Under the supervision of the job coach, they did jobs. These three individuals are actually out there interviewing for jobs now, aso they learned everything from eye contact to shaking hands to how to fill out applications to interacting with strangers and how to talk to business leaders when they go into the county. That was a pretty neat program. That is a huge thing that has come out of the EFFORT program and the training we have done. I have also seen the positive impact on the deputies who work here and the experiences they have had with individuals in the community. When they have had to go on calls and they have encountered someone with autism or another disability and their confidence on being able ot handle that better and knowing how, I have been trained on how to interact with somebody who is autistic, and they feel comfortable in doing that. Hugh: Something most of us don't even think about. As you are talking about the skills about eye contact and all of that, we could all use that, but that is giving people a leg up who might not have been taught that. Kim: Or it's more difficult for them due to their disability. It's harder for them to reach out and hsake someone's hand. They may know they are supposed to, but it's the reminder that they should be doing this. Hugh:That's huge. We want to reach out and do something for other people. What you said also is there is a change internally with people who are working with these people. Have you ahd any stories from any of your officers? Kim: I do. I had one deputy who called me after an interaction. The call was a teenager who was out of control. You never eally know, when you are going on those calls, what you are going to encounter. Are they just acting up, or are they really out of control? When he got there, he found out the young lady was autistic. He remembered his training, and you feel more confident knowing you know how to handle the situation the way it should be handled. He left the situation, and it was positive for the mother, the daughter, and the deputy. They have an ongoing relationship. We now know that if we are called to this house, that his young lady has autism, and we know some of her triggers, some of the things we can do or say to calm her down, and it is a positive all the way around. The flip side of it is we are better trained to handle these situations. The parents see us as somebody who is coming in to help and not make a situation worse. Hugh: What is your vision for the future? How do you see this going in the future? Do you see it growing or impacting different segments? Do you see it impacting more people without growing? What do you see? Kim: I definitely see it growing and impacting more people. I would love for this to grow into other counties. I would love to see other counties either come here for the training or open up their departments for the training, for the GTO program, or for something similar to EFFORT. I did have a lady from South Carolina call me and ask me how to do it because she wanted to do it there for her department. That was very encouraging, and that is what I would like to see continue. I would like to see all departments realize there is a whole segment of our community that we don't normally deal with unless it is an accident or something like that. it's not necessarily the criminal side of it, but there is a whole segment of our community that really desires to have a relationship with us and that we need to have that trust. They need to be able to trust us to handle that situation well. Hugh: There is a natural barrier between law enforcement and citizen. When you are on the street and see a police car, you slow down. We are always thinking about ourselves. What am I doing wrong? We are in a different mindset. What I am hearing you saying is you are bridging some of those gaps. Kim: Fighting crime is a huge part of what law enforcement does. We do enforce the laws of the land, the speed limits. We do have to interact in that way. That is not all that we do. We are here to serve the community. With Sheriff Pardon's vision for where he wants to take this department is definitely in that direction: being there for the community. We do have that one part of what we do, but it's only a part of what we do. It's not all of what we do. We serve the community, and there was a need in our community to connect with the special needs individuals. We are trying to bridge that gap and fulfill that need. Hugh: A person in your organization brought that need to your attention, and you paid attention. Why you? Why did you say, “I want to do this?” What was inside you that was the voice that said, “Kim, do this”? Kim: She came to me a few times. She was pretty persistent. Then I started to think about it. We had had a meeting at the beginning of the year with the sheriff, and he laid out his vision for the sheriff's office. It was definitely community-driven. That was at the forefront of my mind, that we were going in a different direction. But she came to me a few times. I know her son on a personal level. I have met him. I guess it just struck achord that we do need to do this. Why not me? Hugh: You don't know this, but I talk about leadership, and I summarize it in three things. Leaders get things done. Leaders figure out how things get done. That is the illusive part. Leaders influence others. I see all those traits. You didn't just say, “Oh, there's an idea.” You took action. So if there are people ou there that are hearing this story, what advice would you give people if they have got an idea? What is the leadership piece that you would enourage people to embrace to move on the idea? Kim: It's really hard to say because I feel like this is part of who I am. If there is a need, look for ways to address it. I have come across some things where I have handed them off. There is a need here. You look for ways that you can address it, and sometimes there are things that I can move forward with. Sometimes I see somebody who is better equipped to move forward with it, and you hadn it off. But you still want to follow through and make sure that need gets met. It doesn't take much. Get people around you who are experts and say, “Hey, this is a need. This is how I see we can fix it.” Then start getting some advice and some experts around you and a good team. You just get it done. Hugh: A good team. Well, this is inspirational. Thank you for spending time to share the story and your humility in getting out of the way and letting it happen. You brought people together around a vision, and you have been a catalyst for things to happen. I am sure you have been a cheerleader when things didn't quite go together at some point. We are in the sheriff's department and are watching sirens. That is the validation of where we are. Any other things you want to share before we end this story? Kim: Thank you so much for the opportunity to share it. If I can promote EFFORT, I am going to promote it any place that I can because I really think this is going to change lives. We got no negative feedback from the event, which was huge. This was a pilot event, and we stepped into uncharted territory for a law enforcement agency that we had never done before. We got no negative comments, and the only thing that I have gotten is I have gotten comments from other organizations and some individuals saying that they realy want to be a part of it he next time we do it. I have already ahd people calling me asking when we are going to start again. Hugh: The event happens once a year? Kim: Yes. Hugh: What time of year? Kim: After school. We did it in July this year. I think we are looking at the end of June this time. Hugh: What happens between events? I am sure there is some ramp-up time to the event. But does anything happen now for instance? Kim: WE are going to start meeting and planning the next event. We will be looking for donations. Everything was donated for the event pretty much. We had food donated, like a hot dog vendor, ice cream, drinks. We will start making the rounds and getting all those things lined up. We really won't change a lot. Other than changing maybe the layout of where people were, we had this at Christiansberg High School. Very few changes will be made. Between now and June, we will start getting our flyer ready, start making our contacts, start getting the word out. After June in the fall, we will look at doing the GTO program again. Hugh: I love it. It's a great story. I want to do a post-script for this and talk about leadership in general. Let's move in another direction. We are broadcasting this on YouTube, so it will be inspiring some other departments to want to call you. You will be teaching this to some others. You are also active in the community. You spoke to me about a leadership cohort that you get together with. Could you speak to me a little bit about that? Kim: WE do. It's called Project 14. It started at the beginning of last year with myself and Lieutenant Louie Hesslup. We started a leadership workshop where we met once a month and ahd a two-hour workshop. We invited indiviudals from the community, clergy, and other agiences of course to come. We would put together a two-hour workshop. Louie passed away in May, and now his wife is on board. We have changed the name to Project 14 because Louie's number is Unit 14. Once a month, typically the last Thursday of the month, for two hours, we have a leadership project. We have a leadership workshop. We invite speakers in, and it could be anyone from one of the departments. There is a group of us: Lieutenant Andy Wilgram from Bradford PD, Officer Heath Hyatt from Christiansberg PD, and Bryan Roe from Blacksford PD> we have some of the chiefs. Chief Wilson and Captain Ramsey from Christiansberg PD. Other people have come on board. We get together once a month, decide what our topic is going t obe. One of us will do the project, or we will bring in an outside speaker. We just do a leadership project once a month. That has been great collaboration with different departments and us working together in a different way. Hugh: What have you learned there that helps you in your job and helps you in your volunteer work with this project you talkd about? Kim: One of the great things about the leadership project is the different topics that have come in. we have covered everything from the Bernard Bershard and just preparing for some of the events has been pretty challenging, just getting all the departments nad law enforcement to want to attend something like that. the collaboration has been pretty impressive with the different departments walking together. Nobody is really in charge. It's here at the sheriff's office. It's kind of sponsored by the sheriff's office, but it' really a collaborative effort. It's that teamwork thing. It's getting people around you who know how to get things done or have expertise where you don't and then working together and putting on a good project. Hugh: Kim Haug, Captain, thank you for your service to the community and the impact that you make. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act was passed by Congress in July 2014 to ensure that students with disabilities leave high school with a clear path to opportunities for employment and further education. In this podcast you’ll hear Elizabeth Danner from ESC Region 13 and Erin Wilder from DARS Division for Rehabilitative Services discuss WIOA and what it means for students in Texas. Podcast Transcript www4.esc13.net/uploads/transition/docs/Whats_Up_with_WIOA_episode1.docx

Day in Washington #Disability #Policy Podcast. #Youth with Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice (#JJ) System and Access to #Education http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/JJ-Youth-PWD-and-Department-of-Ed-Letter-Final.mp3 TRANSCRIPT: Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. Together, we will explore and analyze issues of interest to the disability community.  I'm your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed.  Today, I want to talk about young people with disabilities in the Juvenile Justice system and what the Department of Education is doing to ensure they get their Educational needs met. On December 5th The U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services sent out a letter focusing on the educational needs of students with disabilities who are in correctional facilities and highlighting that the requirements of Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) do apply to these students and it is the responsibility of States, State educational agencies and public agencies (including local educational agencies (LEAs), and responsible noneducational public agencies to make sure students are getting appropriate accommodations. €œThe U.S. Departments of Education and Justice recently stated, the fact that a student has been charged with or convicted of a crime does not diminish his or her substantive rights or the procedural safeguards and remedies provided under the IDEA to students with disabilities and their parents." Absolutely! The letter also provides information regarding technical assistance and other relevant resources to help with these students' reintegration into the school setting or participation in programs. Now let me pause and say that students with disabilities represent a large portion of students in correctional facilities. National reports put it at about 1/3 of the population of students in juvenile facilities with some having as few as 9% and others as high as 78%. Let me give you my top 7 key points made in this letter regarding IDEA, Part B requirements, as they pertain to students with disabilities: Absent a specific exception, all IDEA protections apply to students with disabilities in correctional facilities and their parents Every agency at any level of government that is involved in the provision of special education and related services to students in correctional facilities must ensure the provision of a Free Appropriate Public Education, even if other agencies share that responsibility. States must have interagency agreements or other methods for ensuring coordination so that it is clear which agency or agencies are responsible for providing or paying for services necessary for these students with disabilities in correctional facilities. State Education Agencies must exercise general supervision over all educational programs for students with disabilities in correctional facilities (unless covered by an exception) to ensure that their educational programs meet State education standards and IDEA, Part B requirements (and that also means ensuring that those same students are included in general State and district assessments. States and their public agencies must have procedures in place to identify, locate, and evaluate students who are in correctional facilities who may have a disability under the IDEA and are in need of special education and related services. Remember that wide variance in percentages of students with disabilities in correctional facilities I mentioned earlier 9% to 78%. Part of the reason for that maybe be related to the question of how much has been invested in identifying and assessing students for disabilities versus assumptions that it is behavioral or that they're problem kids.just a bit of opinion there. Unless there is a specific exception, all IEP content requirements apply to students with d...

Listen in as Ali Faruk encourages civic engagement in local and state government issues. Mr. Faruk, of Virginia, is the Special Assistant for Policy and Communications at Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services. His work expands into health care, housing, community development, economic development, state/local budget, public policy research & analysis and communications. He sheds light... The post EP 61 – Local Government Advocate Ali Faruk appeared first on Greed for Ilm.

Our guest Julie Diep :  I am the founder and Executive Director of OC Autism.  Our mission is "to ensure the highest standard of care in our community."  We believe in empowering parents and professions with the necessary tools to succeed. I have a Masters in Speech-Language Pathology from Loma Linda University (LLU) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) from National University (NU).  I hold a Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), a Credential in Clinical or Rehabilitative Services and a California State license.  I have over 17 years of experience in the field as a Bilingual Vietnamese SLP and a currently a BCBA Candidate.  I am the owner of New Hope Therapy Center in Orange County, specializing in ASD, Medical Speech Pathology (serving adults and children) and Special Education Rights (working as an expert witness and IEE assessor).  All Autism Talk (allautismtalk.com) is sponsored by Autism Spectrum Therapies (autismtherapies.com) and Trellis Services (trellisservices.com) and Learn It Systems (learnitsystems.com)

Joyce welcomes Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services for the United States Department of Education, Sue Swenson to the show. Ms. Swenson will discuss proven effective practices, as well as what's new in special education.

Our series on concussion in sports continued with an interview with Anne Mucha, PT, MS, NCS, a physical therapist in the Center for Rehabilitative Services at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where she specializes in neurovestibular rehabilitation. Mucha discussed some of the ways that athletes (and nonathletes) are tested for concussions and rehabilitated, both to return … Continue reading ‘Head in the Game’ Part 2: Series on Concussion in Sports