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Join host Carol Pankow as she dives into the complexities of Order of Selection (OOS) in vocational rehabilitation with two expert guests: Theresa Kolezar, Director of Indiana Combined, and Chris Pope, Director of the State Monitoring and Program Improvement Division at RSA. In this episode, they break down: ·      Why agencies implement OOS due to financial and staffing constraints ·      Key regulatory requirements and compliance considerations ·      Strategies for managing and eventually lifting OOS ·      Indiana VR's data-driven approach to decision-making and communication ·      RSA's insights on fiscal forecasting and policy compliance If you're in the VR field, you won't want to miss this insightful conversation on planning, stakeholder engagement, and using data to overcome challenges.   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   {Music} Chris: As you know, we have 78 VR agencies and only eight of them have a closed priority category, and only one of those eight have all priority categories closed.   Carol: So by going back and saying hey you gotta look at this other side of the house and really analyze what's happening. It will give you the full picture, than what is playing into what's happening over here on the fiscal side of the house.   Theresa: For the majority of folks. They were maybe even having somewhat of a positive impact because we were able to get them processed, get them in sooner. And you know, there's obvious benefits that go along with lower case load sizes.   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 is Theresa Kolezar, director of Indiana Combined. And Chris Pope, director of the State Monitoring and Program Improvement division at the Rehabilitation Services Administration. So, Theresa, how are things going with you in Indiana?   Theresa: Oh, we're doing well. Thanks. So happy to be here.   Carol: Thanks for being here. And, Chris, how are things going for you in D.C.?   Chris: Things are cold in D.C. at the moment, Carol, but we're hanging in there.   Carol: Yeah, not as cold as Minnesota.   Chris: I knew you were going to say that.   Carol: Yeah. I'm like, wow, we're 14 below people. Well, there has been a lot happening with the VR program over the past decade, and we certainly have had our ebbs and flows with funding and staffing. And as of late, the fiscal pendulum has been swinging, VR programs have been experiencing a tightening of the belt, so to speak, and discussions about the order of selection have been ramping up. And so for our listeners, order of selection is a process required under the VR regulations. When a VR agency does not have enough resources, whether it's funding staff or both, to serve all eligible individuals, and it's designed to prioritize services for those with the most significant needs. But over the years, order of selection really has sparked a lot of tension. And for some it's seen as just another layer of government red tape adding to the stigma around bureaucracy. Others argue that it undermines the very spirit of the rehab act by limiting access to services instead of promoting inclusion. Critics point out that it can widen service gaps. It leaves individuals with moderate disabilities without support, even though they still face serious barriers to employment.   And for our counselors, order of selection can bring its own challenges, including the emotional burden of explaining to clients why they can't receive immediate services. And for clients, being placed on a waitlist can feel disheartening and frustrating. And at the same time, agencies are grappling with a harsh reality. There's limited resources. Tough decisions have to be made. So how do we balance fairness, inclusion and the constraints of funding? And that is the question at the heart of today's conversation on order of Selection. So, Theresa, I've been a fan of yours for a long time. I think you bring a really thoughtful approach to almost every difficult situation in VR, and you been around a while, so I definitely want to pick your brain about your thoughts and approach on the topic. And Chris, I'm really count on you to bring the facts from an RSA perspective on what needs to happen with the Order of Selection. So let's dig in. So, Theresa, can you just tell us to start out with a little bit about yourself and your journey into VR?   Theresa: Sure. I probably have the least interesting journey, but maybe the most classic. I went from straight from undergrad to graduate school to get my masters in rehabilitation, got my CRC that same summer, and I entered the rehab field initially with a nonprofit, CRP, before coming to Indiana VR in 2004. So I've been with the VR program for a little over 20 years. Made my journey starting from a VR counselor and now director with, as you can imagine, a lot of other roles along the way. And I think I'm a fairly tenured VR director with almost nine years under my belt in this role.   Carol: Yeah, definitely you would be. Because I remember being told when I left, I had six years, you know, and people were telling me usually the lifespan of a VR director is about five years because the job is tough. So you're definitely one of our longer term folks. So, Chris, how about you? How did you venture into the VR world?   Chris: Thanks, Carol. Well, similar to Theresa, my graduate degree in rehab counseling, I became a CRC and began my career as a VR counselor with the State of New York in the general agency at the time, for about four years. And I've been with RSA now for a lucky 13. Just had my 13th anniversary. And in that time have served in a variety of roles. So, yeah, really happy to be here and now leading the division that's responsible for all of our formula grant.   Carol: Yeah, it's super cool. It's been fun to watch your career, Chris, as  you have grown. I remember one of the very first conferences you presented at, and I believe you were still, you know, more kind of on the staff level. And I thought, who's this guy? You were up there, you just had such a great presence about you. And I'm like, he's going somewhere. And you have, it's come true.   Chris: Thanks, Carol.   Carol: So let's talk about the realities of Order of Selection. It's not something that can be implemented at the snap of a finger. And so I want to start with you. What are those factors via our leaders need to take into account.   Theresa: Yeah. You know it's hard I feel like I sort of came to terms with it because it's it didn't feel so much like something we had to choose or decide upon, but more something we had to do. if your circumstances are such that you don't have the resources to serve everyone. So in Indiana, we enter the order in 2017, and I believe that was the first time in our history, as far as I know, it came after years of trying other things, you know, implementing strategies to improve our capacity, stretch our resources. And just a few examples. Implementing efficiencies, changing to our staffing structure, changing our minimum VRC qualifications to a bachelor's degree, and a whole lot more. And those strategies were definitely focused for us at that time around staffing resources. But there were also some fiscal unknowns or concerns because right around that time, the 15 earmark requirement was also, you know, kind of hitting us. And we were trying to figure out how to shift those resources. So the strategies we did pre they were definitely helpful. They were effective, but we still were left with a deficit. You know, we still had high caseload sizes. It was taking way too long for new referrals to get an intake appointment. Our VRC turnover rate was much higher than is optimal. Ultimately led us to identify that we were not able to provide the full range of ER services to everyone who was eligible, and therefore we needed to enter the Order of Selection.   So we started planning for that probably around nine months prior to. The implementation and when I was making my talking points, there's a lot that you have to do, right, to prepare for Order of selection. So discussion with our internal leadership, our VR council, our stakeholders, our staff conversation with RSA, drafting that state plan amendment, getting that out for public comment. We took a couple extra steps and met with our other workforce partners because we thought, hey, they may get more referrals here. We may want to tell them why and what's going on over here and what this means. And then we of course, you have to develop written procedures, adapt your case management system. And then we also wanted to be really careful with our messaging to applicants. So we drafted some materials that we wanted our intake counselors to share and get that consistent message out there and, of course, training our counselors. So I think the nine month runway was probably a fast track Approach, thinking about all those steps. You want to do it right? You want to be planful. But at the same time, once you identify that this is a need, you usually need it to happen pretty quickly.   Carol: Absolutely. I know for me, when I was a new director in Minnesota, I actually faced this. And Minnesota Blind had not been on an order for many, many, many, many, many, many years. And being a little naive, you know, coming into VR going, we have this situation, you know, I'm thinking this all can happen super fast. It does not. But I found for me, really getting grounded in understanding our data was so important because I see these things all going on. But you had to put all the pieces together, get your fiscal side of the house and what's going on and how you're making expenditures and investments in different things and what's happening with that. But what also is happening programmatically, the people that are coming in and the characteristics of your caseload and all those different things, you had to put it all together to really get the complete picture. And for me, I know I had to do that rather quickly. So it becomes super important to have people around you. If you are not that person you know, that can pull all that data and present it in a way so you can really see the picture of what is happening and kind of unfolding in the state.   I think it just so foundationally because I know I have this little list at my desk of people that have called me looking at needing to go on order selection or thinking they're going to need to. And we have over a dozen states that have outreached in the last two months. And part of my advice to them has been back, you know, you have to get grounded to and what was your data telling you? Because you can't just base this all in sort of an assumption or something. You've got to be grounded. So I always think that that's a really important piece to start with. Now, Chris, I know from a regulatory perspective there are items that are absolutely critical for VR to have in place when you were considering Order Selection. Can you help us with that? Because I want to make sure people aren't making a mistake, you know, as they're kind of thinking through the process.   Chris: Definitely. There are several regulatory requirements, and before we address those, I thought I could provide just a little bit of context at the moment of where we're at with Order selection across the country. As you know, we have 78 VR agencies and only eight of them have a closed priority category, and only one of those eight have all priority categories closed. So this is significant progress over the past several years, I'd say since the passage of WIOA in 2014, in the past, as many as a fourth of our VR agencies had at least one closed priority category. And I can say that when RSA meets with congressional committees and other stakeholders, they often ask us for a status check on Order of Selection, and I can tell you that they respond really positively when we share that very few VR agencies are unable to serve all eligible individuals. Further, since RSA and our federal partners approved, the latest state plan would be the 2024 to 2027 state plans, RSA has approved one VR agency's new order of selection, and at the moment, we have 2 to 3 VR agencies that have submitted paperwork and are pending implementation.   Carol: You might have a few more. Chris now coming because I have I have my list of people calling. I mean really we do have 12 now on the list, so I expect maybe some more outreach.   Chris: Yep. So in terms of all of those regulatory requirements, like you said, VR agencies need to have a few things in place as they consider implementation. These include a comprehensive fiscal forecast, cost containment policies if necessary, and assessment of staff resources. And as Theresa talked about, consultation with the State Rehabilitation Council, so that fiscal forecast needs to address six data points. Average case costs, the projected number of new IPEs, the current number of IPEs, the projected number of applicants and the cost of any assessment services that might be needed to determine them eligible for the program. Projected increase or decrease in the cost of providing VR services to these groups of people, and projected income, or in any other budget resources that may become available. The fiscal forecast produces that data, Carol, that you were talking about, that demonstrates whether or not the VR agency can do the following four things. Whether the agency can continue to provide services to all individuals currently receiving services under their plans. Provide assessment services to all those individuals expected to apply to the program over the next fiscal year. Provide services to all individuals who are expected to be determined eligible in the next fiscal year. And finally, that fiscal forecast needs to include data that demonstrates that the VR program will continue to meet all of the various program requirements, like that 15% reserve requirement that Theresa discussed. So in terms of creating an Order of Selection policy, there are about five things that the VR agency needs to include in that actual policy.   First is it's priority categories, including the regulatory definition of what significant disability means, how the VR agency will determine which individuals have the most significant disabilities. And that definition must build on that regulatory definition of significant disability. The policy needs to address whether the agency has elected to serve individuals outside of the order of selection, who may require specific services or equipment to maintain their job or to keep employment, was one of those new requirements. The policy must indicate how the VR program will provide information and referral services to individuals who may be placed on a waiting list. And finally, the policy needs to describe how the agency will carry out the order, how it will be implemented so, in effect, how the waitlist will be managed and how the VR agency will decide when to open all of those other priority categories. I was happy that Theresa also mentioned that VR agencies need to ensure that their case management system can fulfill the administration of the order. And we like to see in the policy some discussion of what tracking mechanisms VR agencies will use to account for such things as cost, staff time and caseload sizes. So in other words, sort of that real time data analysis that That informs whether the order continues to be necessary or whether it can be lifted.   Carol: Awesome. I'm sure people are probably, as they're listening, taking copious notes. So folks need to know that there also is always a transcript that goes along with the podcast. So if your wrist just broke, you will be able to just take a look at the notes and get all those things. That is super helpful. Chris, I wanted to ask as a follow up, so that people that have outreached so far, those states that have outreached are you seeing? Is it a fiscally related issue? Is it a staffing? You know how sometimes the states are really struggling with having appropriate staffing? I know it's only been a few, but do you know kind of what that looks like if it's based on more of the fiscal end of things, or is it they don't have capacity because they don't have any staff?   Chris: It's been a combination of all of those things, Carol. So we're seeing agencies with limited fiscal resources, whether that be state appropriated funds, their inability to kind of fully leverage the federal award. It may be retention and recruitment of VR counselors. It could also be sort of capacity of providers, whether those are community rehab providers or contractors who provide VR services. And oftentimes it's other things that kind of just contribute to those as well. And what we're hoping to see in those justifications that VR agencies submit is a real data informed discussion of those factors, like real time data in terms of both fiscal data and performance data. So the money and the people.   Carol: Yeah, I can't underscore that enough, because I know the folks that have reached out to us a lot of times they tend to talk about, you know, their hair is on fire about this thing. And then I'm always bringing  back. So if they're all focused just on the fiscal. But I said, what's happening in your program, what's going on? And that has been very interesting as people are talking about. And then they call us back. They go, you know, the characteristics of the individuals coming in the case characteristics, kind of pre-COVID to now is different. And so we're finding clientele coming in has many more needs, and so the cost of the case are so much greater. And they hadn't realized it until they went back in. They just knew something was going on with the people, but they didn't understand what. So by going back and saying, hey, you got to look at this other side of the house and really analyze what's happening. It will give you the full picture. And then what is playing into what's happening over here on the fiscal side of the house. So I think for, you know, we've all said it, the data is super important. I just want to underscore that. So Theresa, tell us a little bit about your journey with Order Selection in Indiana and your current picture what's happening?   Theresa: I echo the data conversation, that's critical, and you really have to justify the need for the order. So we did all of that really before we even probably got to that, that nine month runway that I spoke of. But from there, our next step was to get our internal leadership approval. And there were hesitancies, which is understandable. We really had to work to articulate and help them understand the challenges that we were facing. Again, justifying using that data that we were not able to provide the full range of services to everyone, while also meeting the range of other expectations, you know, timeliness, getting people in the door in a reasonable period of time. And we really had to work to articulate the negative impact of having these ongoing high caseload sizes and the cycle that we were in with staff turnover. It just felt like we were getting deeper and deeper into right into a hole and further and further away from optimal capacity. So ultimately, we presented the Order of Selection as one something that is federally required for our agencies, you know, not able to provide that full range of services. And then two, a lever of sorts that would enable us to maybe pause or slow some of that growth in participants, giving us the space to get out of that cycle to rebuild our foundation, which for us primarily at that time, was fixing our long standing staffing capacity challenges. But for those experiencing fiscal deficits, of course, that focus would look very different. Once we got leadership support, we moved as quickly as humanly possible. And now on the other side of it. I'm thrilled to share that we have now opened all of our priority categories. We released the last 200 or so from our waitlist just this past October, so we were in and out of the order in about a seven year period in Indiana.   Carol: I love that. I like that you said you want to project, you know, the ways to get kind of out of the order to open the categories and do that. I know for states that have contacted us, that's one of the pieces of advice I've been giving. I'm like, okay, you're thinking about the right now, but you also have to think about the future because that is everyone's biggest worry. You're going to do this thing and it's never going to go away. People are going to be in a waitlist forever. You're never putting strategies in place to come out on the other side of that. And I know for me in Minnesota, that was very much part of what I had to do. And given the circumstances we had at that time, I had this plan and I said, if you all can hang with me, I believe by about 2018 or so, end of 17-18, we're going to be on the other side of this, which actually ended up playing out and coming true. And so you've got to not only like react to your current situation, but you want to be thinking thoughtfully about what are those things that you can put in play so that you aren't just going to stay there? This is the lever we're pulling and we're going to be here forever. So I really like that you said that. I know, Theresa, when you and I talked earlier, Order selection can often be treated like a bad word in the VR world, and it is loaded with a lot of stigma and frustration. But at its core, you know, when you and I were chatting and, you know, you just boil it down, it really is a mechanism. It's a tool required by law to prioritize services when resources are limited. And so if we can't do everything for everyone, it's a system that outlines how to make those tough decisions. What are your thoughts about Order of Selection and how we can maybe shift the conversation to reduce the stigma and see it for what it is? It can be this necessary lever to balance fairness amongst those limited resources.   Theresa: Yeah, that's probably one of the trickiest parts in communication. Communication, right. Communication. Communicating with stakeholders about Order Selection will probably always be challenging. It's a challenging thing, but I think there's a couple of things that were really helpful. And one is sharing a game plan to address the underlying resource challenges. Is a helpful approach, right. Making sure that there's game plan. This isn't the end result, right? This is going to enable us to make this shift and again kind of get out of the cycle. We also found it helpful to share the federal requirements. So just very factually, if you can't serve all you have to prioritize certain populations first. And the Order of Selection is the prescribed process for complying with that. And I think it's a good process for doing that. It's effective at making sure the prioritization happens. Additionally, we also share data throughout our process on the percent of eligible individuals who were impacted. And what that showed is that the majority of individuals were actually not impacted. You know, relatively speaking, a pretty small percent of folks ultimately went on a wait list. And, you know, you could even argue, and I think we did a couple of times that for the majority of folks, they were maybe even having somewhat of a positive impact because we were able to get them processed, get them in sooner.   And, you know, there's obvious benefits that go along with lower case load sizes. So we often relay that only about 10% of eligible individuals were going on a wait list, and 90% were meeting that criteria for those with a most significant disability, which was our open category for a good bit of our seven years. I will say people were a little wary of that stat. They kind of had a hard time believing that, and I think that it's because that term MSD or most significant disabilities, it definitely has meaning. But also we found it could be a little bit misleading. You know, people thought, oh, to be MSD, someone must look like this, right? And we actually found that those meeting that MSD criteria were really a more inclusive group than maybe that term people would perceive that term to imply. And that was just another educational opportunity for our stakeholders and our referral sources.   Carol: I like that you talked about the communication piece around all this, because that really is important. It's almost as important as all of the plans you're putting in place. All the things that Chris told us about that need to go in developing that communication plan, that goes along with how you discuss this out amongst all the stakeholders and such, is super important. I know, Chris, do you have any insights on this part, on the stigma or anything you wanted to share?   Chris: I guess I just had a couple thoughts on like the element of fairness that you talked about in dealing with fairness and at the same time limited resources. So I guess I would just say that order of selection is only one of the cost containment measures afforded to VR agencies through the law and through regulations. And there are other things, too, that VR agencies may want to consider, and that's comparable services and benefits. How we inform people and refer them to other workforce development programs. Those may be our partners or others. How we balance what VR Agencies by in terms of services and what we provide in-house in the cost kind of associated with both strategies. One of the other things that RSA often considers VR agencies to look at when we're talking about implementing an order is kind of carefully evaluating the need to require additional assessments when the law allows and promotes the use of existing information. So sort of not overdoing that eligibility determination process because that often comes with cost. Right. And then finally VR agencies should also be reassessing sort of their routine practices and policies that result in increased cost. That may not always be necessary. So we're really looking at kind of the entire fiscal picture of the program, not just those VR service costs that are provided to eligible individuals.   Carol: That's good. I'm glad you brought all of that up, because we often do talk about these other factors. And I asked people, are you also looking at what are you getting bang for your buck? And not that we're trying to bang on vendor communities, but do you have vendors where people never like they're never done with service, they never graduate, they never get to the end? I mean, maybe it's looking back at that and going are the ways in which their training really working for your clientele? Maybe not. Maybe you need to circle back and work with them or have a parting of the ways and think about that. I also like the thinking about really leveraging our partners. I mean, the whole rehab act, when it was redone, you know, and we had the 2014 WIOA comes out of that. We always had partners, but I don't think we were very good at leveraging what things are they doing. And I feel like some of this stuff is duplicative. You know, why are we offering these same sort of trainings that are now at the one stop that people can access and go to those courses or whatever, you know, types of things that they're offering. So it does force you to take a look at that and really actually live in to WIOA and leveraging the partnerships and the funds across all these systems. I like that. Thank you Chris, for saying that. Order Selection also has to be a super thoughtful process. And so, Chris, I know you talked about the data points that folks should look at. Theresa, what are the data points you look at regularly? And I like it because some directors talk about kind of they're reading the tea leaves to complete your fiscal forecasting, or there's some other things that you like to do.   Theresa: Oh gosh, yeah, We could talk all day on fiscal forecasting. But to just kind of be brief, you have to look beyond just what did we spend last year and apply that and assume that. And I think if you don't have programs talking to fiscal sometimes that is the fiscal assumption. Right. By fiscal staff being made. So with the pendulum swings that we tend to see in VR, which of course are highly driven by trends and applicant and participant counts, you really need to have a very layered approach to forecasting. This is where, again, that program knowledge and fiscal knowledge, it's essential that they're paired up. Just a few things to consider would be beyond the basics right. What is your data show? What are your trends? Show. But what's in your state plan? What are the goals? What are the initiatives that you have in place? There may be a fiscal impact to those, right? There may be a staff resource impact to those. So for instance, a very obvious example in our state plan, we have some goals around increasing enrollment in post-secondary training. There's some fiscal impact there. We need to know what that is, how to apply that, and then really have an understanding of our ability to sustain that goal into the subsequent years.   Again, the applicant and participant growth trends are super important. So keep your eye on and then any impact of any other outreach or collaborative partnerships that might be contributing to some of that program growth. You know, more people served generally is going to mean more expenses. And then just quickly, from kind of a fiscal standpoint, something that might be a little bit unique beyond, again, all the basic essentials of fiscal forecasting is we really have to account for carrying over a certain portion of our dollars. And that really comes down to making sure we don't have, you know, disruptions and services and can comply with this period of performance requirements. So we find in Indiana that, you know, carrying over like 20 to 25% works well for us, ensures that we can continue authorizations past 9/30 and not have that challenge of waiting until ten/1, you know, to encumber new funds. And that just keeps the flow of services going. So I'll just add that as maybe a nuance that others aren't always thinking about.   Carol: Yeah, I appreciate that because I think that having that strategy I did too, as a director, wanting you have your sweet spot of what you like to have in that carry over, because it really does promote that consistency when you have that hard start and stop, and especially in an era of continuing resolutions, you know your whole strategy with how you're flowing into the next year and how all that's going to work. You need to think about that piece for sure. Now, I know a big problem has existed around priority categories and the most significant disability designation. And many programs have three categories, but almost 90% of the customers are in category one, which makes it difficult, you know, when you're implementing an Order of Selection. How did you address that in Indiana?   Theresa: Yeah, that's exactly what we saw. And we balanced this by a couple of key strategies. One is that we did not release anyone from the waitlist until a little over two years into our process. That's  kind of how we, how bad of a cycle we were in. And again, it's a lever. It's  that dial. We had some targets like caseload sizes, retention rate that we were tracking as a gauge to when we could start moving people off that waitlist. So just for example, average caseload size is getting to under 100, turnover being less than 20%. So those were some indicators to watch to start releasing folks. Another strategy that was really helpful is that we opted to do larger releases each quarter instead of kind of smaller, more frequent releases. And this gave us the opportunity to really have our staff know that it was coming the same time each quarter. They could carve out time because it is a lift on top of the day to day, right? You've got to reach out to folks multiple times. You've got to schedule them for meetings. You've got to get IPEs in place. And then with those reviews of the, you know, again, we might look at like 2 to 300 people to see, can we take 300? Can we take 200? Is it somewhere in the middle? How does that break down across your 26 offices? And inevitably each quarter, one office got hit with a high number. And then there were a few that had very little. So we also had to weigh that and see where we could balance our resources to make those work. You know, at the end of the day, you ultimately have to release more people from the waitlist than new people who came in as eligible that quarter in order to get ahead of it. So that was another data point that we looked at.   Carol: Did you find that actually learning kind of through Covid, a lesson, you know, with working remotely and all of that, did that help as you're looking at distributing across the 26 areas? Because you can I mean, and I've talked to other directors about this now you can work with people. Maybe you're in this part of the state, but you can work with other folks as well to keep them moving. So maybe there isn't this huge one off, it's just got 200 people and the other offices get one, you know, they don't have any. Did you find some ability to flex that around the state?   Theresa: Absolutely. That's exactly what we did. So those offices that were hit hard, of course, they were also the offices with the highest number of vacancies. It just seemed to be how it fell every quarter. So absolutely, our region managers really did it. We have five of those five regions. They really did an excellent job troubleshooting that, you know, we helped where needed. But they for sure did that looking across offices in their region and even across the state. We also have about 7 or 8 working lead counselors, kind of floater counselors. So we were able to deploy them to the areas with the highest need. And then as we progressed through the order, we had a pretty robust outreach process. As we were getting ready to release folks, we ended up centralizing that a little bit to take some of that load off of our field staff as well. So, you know, you kind of have to adjust as you go. Move your resources where you can. But absolutely, we found that to be a great strategy.   Carol: Chris, you have any thoughts on that about the priority categories and the most significant disability? I just wondered because I know folks struggle with that. You were looking contemplative, so I thought maybe you might have something to add.   Chris: My philosophy with a lot of things, Carol, has always been less is more. And you mentioned that most of our agencies have three priority categories. And if I were able to say this is a requirement, that would probably be what I would say. But, you know, VR agencies have flexibility to develop more than three. I would just caution that as you get more complicated, things get more complicated for applicants to understand and for VR counselors to implement. So again, I would just say that the law requires that the significant disability category be identical to what's in the rehab act and the regs, and that that most significant category needs to build upon that. So we often see agencies talking about more functional limitations, more services being needed, more time needed to help the person reach their employment goal. So the more specificity there, the better is. I think that helps VR counselors kind of understand where to place people when they're determined eligible.   Carol: Yeah, that's really good advice. Now I know, Theresa, also, you have talked about wanting to bust the myth that nobody gets off the waitlist. And how can we better do that?   Theresa: I can't tell you how many times I've heard that in Indiana, and that was part of the a lot of the grief is that there was this thought that we'll never get out. So we know that's not true. The facts are there. You know, there are many states. And Chris shared, you know, 25% down to less than ten. So less than ten states. So we know it happens. There are states who've done it. I don't know if we do enough to highlight that to kind of our stakeholders, you know, at large and celebrate that. So maybe that's part of the answer. You know, we have those actual examples. That's an important part of the communication to internal and external stakeholders. The other piece here is outlining the conditions that need to be in place to progress, to opening more categories, to ending the order, and then people can see you hitting those target milestones. They may start believing that, oh wow, there's some actual notable objective progress here. We are getting closer to the end. This does seem doable.   Carol: Yeah, I think going back to that communication strategy for sure can help. I know with our SRC, and I had laid out the plan like I had all these points that we needed to do to kind of get through our struggle. And as things were met or we were able to achieve other savings in certain areas without impacting, you know, a quality of a service. Man ,it was great. Like no stone was unturned as we did that. But I wanted to be super transparent. Here's all the things. And I kept a little chart, like, here was this savings, or here we met this thing so people could see we were actively working a process all the way through, versus okay, we are pulling the lever and the lever is just staying closed down. That's it. They don't see the other end. All that work that's being done behind. So what is your best advice for state directors contemplating pulling the lever?   Theresa: Well, we definitely looked at it as that lever or that dial, and we felt that that gave us an opportunity. We really would not otherwise have had to take action on addressing a really significant foundation or core issue while slowing down that incoming train a little bit and refocusing our resources, staffing and fiscal building adequate resources and capacity. It's an ongoing effort. It never ends. It's one of the more difficult things, probably, that we do, but it's so critical to carrying out services in general, let alone good quality services. And it requires a very thoughtful plan and a lot of simultaneous strategies. You know, all the strategies we implemented from salary adjustments to, you know, creating those working lead counselors I mentioned, we developed a layer of case coordinators to take on some of the case management aspects. I think some states call them rehab techs. Lots of gaining of technology, you know, modernization and efficiencies and then some. Right. It ultimately helped us with two really big systemic needs. And one was getting cancer caseload sizes to manageable levels and reducing our VRC turnover. I mean, those things are gold when it comes to staff capacity.   Carol: Now, Chris, I don't want to steal your thunder, but what I'm going to say to folks too is call RSA. Like, reach out to your liaison and talk to them about your situation. You want to start those conversations because the worst thing I would think is you're a state liaison at RSA and you just get this boom, we want to do it. We need to go on March 1st and today is January, you know, 24th. You want to have that partnership all the way along. And I know, Chris, you can speak a little more to that for sure.   Chris: Carol, you know, we often talk about with clients early and sustained engagement. And I would encourage VR agencies to take the same approach with us at RSA. Reach out early and keep that conversation going. The order of selection approval process is going to be iterative. In 99% of times, RSA will have feedback and will have questions, and we'll want to see justifications be made as strong as possible. So to your point, Carol, our ability to approve orders of selection overnight is not possible. Theresa talked about sort of a nine month on ramp. I wouldn't say it's going to take that long on our end, but it will take at least a couple of weeks. And the stronger the justification we receive, the better. Again, I would just say that consider all of the flexibilities that the Rehab Act offers to VR agencies when it comes to managing the program, in addition to implementing an order. And we talked about some of those before, but they could mean cost containment from financial participation to preferences to instate services, to looking at the administrative costs that you might pay for providing services, your staffing capacity, and really leveraging the ability of your SRC. To advocate for the program, we often talk about the return on investment of the VR program, and it really is unlimited. Our program offers a lot of flexibility to be creative, to help people meet their career goals, and that's kind of the best thing we have going for us to argue for the sustainability of the program moving forward.   Carol: Yeah. Excellent points. The SRC can do so much more than we can do, really, and a lot of venues and have a different voice and a seat with the governor. You know, they're appointed by the governor. They have a different mode of communication that they can use that we cannot. So we definitely don't want to forget about them. All right guys, so we're coming to a conclusion. Any last parting thoughts from either of you for our listeners?   Theresa: Well, I'll just add, I think we've touched on a lot of great lessons learned in communication. Number one, really important. And we've hit on some ideas and strategies around that. And then the second, having that game plan, it's  critical so that we're all viewing Order of selection, not as that end result right, or that indefinite status, but as that lever or that dial that can be adjusted to address the situation at hand and then get back on track, get out of the order, be able to serve everyone who needs those services.   Carol: Awesome. I really appreciate you both and appreciate having this conversation. And for our listeners who were taking notes, because I know you guys read the transcript because that will help you with all of that. You can go back through and highlight the things you need to do. Thanks so much for being here today. Appreciate you.   Theresa: Thank you.   Chris: Thanks, Carol.   {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!

In 2025's first episode of The Savvy Adjuster Podcast, host Chris Nichols welcomes VRC Investigations' Vice President of SIU Compliance and CE Programs Curtis Whitfill to delve into the importance of scene investigations. Find out what red flags adjusters notice that may indicate the need for an expert, techniques VRC employs to get the evidence to verify claim facts, parties they interview, and more.Discussed in This EpisodeTypes of claims that benefit most from scene investigationsRed flags that may indicate fraudScene investigations vs. desk reviewsHow investigators identify people to interviewAdditional examples from real scene investigationsAdditional ResourcesAlpine Intel Resource Page: https://bit.ly/4jjnxsqVRC Investigations: https://bit.ly/3PyMtPhAdditional Fraud Investigation Resources:Guide: Ethical Red Flags Associated with Property Claims: https://bit.ly/4jvDFaLArticle: Combatting Property Loss Claims Leakage: https://bit.ly/4al69iXSelf-Study Course (1 hour): https://bit.ly/3CcUdmR

Well, Danny* has been on our minds lately, somewhat due to working this past Venice Film Festival Immersive as a World Hop tour guide and the cacophony and fun chaos around being an Immersive Tour Guide. Our pal, Manglebird, is the programmer in chief for the Venice Immersive World Hops, primarily on the social VR platform VRChat. VRC allows artists, creatives and Devs to create and publish worlds and experiences to the VRChat global community. From DJ-driven club scenes, deep, immersive, otherworldly environments, and extra-terrestrial realms to physics-breaking realities! You name it; it can likely be found on VRChat. So it is also likely no coincidence that Manglebird's primary avatar is the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland....just a bit demented, looking like they've spent too much tea time with the Mad Hatter. ;) VRChat psychedelia - also known as Shaders, VFX are wild, like taking psychedelics without the nausea and hangover. Anywho, Nanotopia here playing with Euclidean rhythms, sub-harmonics and the lovely Shakmat Dual Dagger filter with the System80 Jove filter. Here is our stab at some form of Psy. Enjoy! *Danny and the Camberwell Carrot from Withnail & I :) released October 18, 2023 on Bandcamp

Tom in for Nick and joined by Lee Mottershead, senior writer at the Racing Post. Lee and Tom initially dive into the Lexus Melbourne Cup nominations and Leigh Jordon of the VRC joins to run down the main headlines. Lee and Tom discuss the latest news from around the racing world including Tom Sammes stepping down from his role as Epsom general manager. We discuss City Of Troy heading to Southwell for his Breeders' Cup Classic prep and Racing TV's Angus McNae joins us to give his view on that and on his Classic aspirations. Dan Barber is along with the Timeform perspective on first season sires and we go around the bloodstock world with Weatherbys to Ajay Anne of New Approach Bloodstock. Plus Rossa Ryan joins us to look ahead to Haydock's Betfair Sprint Cup with both Annaf and Kinross entered.

Tom in for Nick and joined by Lee Mottershead, senior writer at the Racing Post. Lee and Tom initially dive into the Lexus Melbourne Cup nominations and Leigh Jordon of the VRC joins to run down the main headlines. Lee and Tom discuss the latest news from around the racing world including Tom Sammes stepping down from his role as Epsom general manager. We discuss City Of Troy heading to Southwell for his Breeders' Cup Classic prep and Racing TV's Angus McNae joins us to give his view on that and on his Classic aspirations. Dan Barber is along with the Timeform perspective on first season sires and we go around the bloodstock world with Weatherbys to Ajay Anne of New Approach Bloodstock. Plus Rossa Ryan joins us to look ahead to Haydock's Betfair Sprint Cup with both Annaf and Kinross entered.

Leigh Jordon is the Executive General Manager with the VRC and joined RSN all the way from Japan on Wednesday, with the Melbourne Cup Tour underway. He heads to America next, where the winner of Friday morning's race earns a golden ticket into the Melbourne Cup. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AFL Record editor Ash Browne joined Gerard and Kane in the studio to speak about the finish to Thursday Night Football for the home and away season, Josh Rachele's comments on Channel 9 and 5AA, Kylie Rogers' move to the VRC, the leaks in the Hawthorn racism investigation, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to a Wide World of Sports update. A snapshot of the latest sport stories from the 9News team including: Matildas Olympic farewell, The McKay's prepare to renew backyard rivalries, The VRC's new boss straight from the AFL The biggest sport stories in less than 5 minutes delivered twice a day, with reports from the 9News team across Australia and overseas. Subscribe now to make it part of your daily news diet.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to a Wide World of Sports update. A snapshot of the latest sport stories from the 9News team including: Matildas Olympic farewell, The McKay's prepare to renew backyard rivalries, The VRC's new boss straight from the AFL The biggest sport stories in less than 5 minutes delivered twice a day, with reports from the 9News team across Australia and overseas. Subscribe now to make it part of your daily news diet.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The team debate whether or not we should have limits on the amount of imported horses that can come into the country, shrinking foal crops and have the VRC got their Melbourne Cup qualifiers right before discussing women in racing and the news that Luke Nolen will reunite with I Wish I Win. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The boys review some big surprises in the Group 1 Blue Diamond meeting at Caulfield, discuss the VRC's new Melb Cup carnival contract with Ch 9 and TAB and look ahead to the big Australian Guineas meeting at Flemington.

Today we're talking to JP and he is a Marine veteran I met him on TikTok and this guy,  he's got such a great point of transitioning from the military active service to civilian and it's such a great mindset, and Patrick, I don't know if you had a chance to watch any of his videos but it's just  You know, you're going to have shit days, right? And, when I transitioned out, I had so many horrible days. For me,, my bridge was. I wanted to find people who were like me, who had that same story, so what I did was I created this program where I go back to my, I went to San Jose State, graduated there, and they have the VRC, the Veterans Resource Center, so there's a plethora of veterans there. I go there and talk to them about selling houses, I don't try to sell them on anything, I'm about buying houses, creating legacy, creating a budget, and then this whole financial thing started, and that's where we are today.  https://financiaintelligence.blogspot.com/2024/01/jp-veteran-coach.html --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/siliconvalleyliving/message

Episode 191 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Dec 11-15, 2023.1. Google Reiterates: Domain Age Does Not Impact Search Rankings - In a recent discussion, Google's John Mueller addressed a long-standing question in the SEO community: Does the age of a domain name impact Google search rankings? This topic, often debated among SEO professionals, has been clarified by Mueller, providing valuable insights for business owners looking to understand the nuances of search engine optimization.Key Insights from the Discussion: Domain Age and Rankings: Mueller stated that the age of a domain name does not impact Google search rankings. This clarification dispels a common belief among SEOs that older domain names correlate with top rankings. Misinterpretation of Google's Patent: The misconception about domain age as a ranking factor may have originated from a misreading of a Google patent titled "Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data." The patent, however, focuses on identifying spam sites using domain-related information, not on boosting the rankings of legitimate domains. The Role of Domain Data: The patent mentions using domain data to catch throwaway domains used by spammers. It indicates that valuable, legitimate domains are often paid for several years in advance, unlike spam domains. However, this information is used to predict the legitimacy of a domain for spam detection, not for ranking purposes. This clarification from Google means that focusing on the age of your domain as a ranking strategy is misguided and highlights the importance of accurate information in the SEO industry. Instead, attention should be directed towards creating high-quality, relevant content and optimizing your website for a better user experience. It is a reminder to always seek clarity and accuracy in SEO strategies, ensuring that efforts are directed towards genuinely effective methods.2. Google Chrome: Phasing Out Third-Party Cookies for Enhanced Privacy - On January 4, 2024, Google will begin testing a new feature that restricts third-party cookies by default in Chrome, impacting 1% of users globally. This rollout is part of Google's broader initiative to phase out third-party cookies entirely by the second half of 2024, marking a significant shift in online privacy and digital advertising practices.Key Aspects of Google's Update: Testing of Tracking Protection: The new tracking protection tool will be rolled out to a small percentage of Chrome users, starting with 1% globally. This feature is designed to limit third-party cookies, which have been a fundamental part of the web for nearly three decades. Impact on Websites and Advertisers: Websites that depend on third-party cookies for advertising or other purposes might face challenges due to this rollout. It's crucial for site owners to prepare in advance for a web without third-party cookies. Google's Privacy Sandbox Initiative: This initiative aims to develop technology that safeguards online privacy while providing tools for successful digital businesses. The primary objectives are to phase out third-party cookies and reduce cross-site tracking, maintaining free online content and services. For small business owners, especially those relying on digital advertising, this update signals a need to adapt to new privacy-focused online practices. The phasing out of third-party cookies will require a shift in how businesses target and reach their audiences online. Preparing for these changes is essential to ensure continued effectiveness in digital marketing strategies.3. Google's Local Search Algorithm Update: Prioritizing Open Businesses - On December 16, 2023, Google announced an update to its local search ranking algorithm, emphasizing the 'openness' signal for non-navigational queries. This change means that Google now ranks open businesses higher in local search results than those that are closed, particularly during the business's operating hours. This update is a response to the evolving needs of users who are increasingly looking for immediate services or products.Key Aspects of the Update: Strengthened Openness Signal: Google's local search algorithm now considers whether a business is currently open as a more significant factor in ranking for local pack rankings. This change applies to non-navigational queries, where users search for types of services rather than specific brands. Impact on Business Visibility: Businesses that are open at the time of a user's search query are more likely to appear higher in search results. This update benefits businesses that operate 24/7, as they remain visible even when competitors are closed. Advice Against Manipulating Business Hours: Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, advised against changing business hours to appear open 24/7 unless true. This manipulation could lead to penalties or adjustments in the ranking signal in the future. For small business owners, this update underscores the importance of accurately listing business hours on Google. Ensuring your Google Business Profile reflects true open hours can improve your visibility in local search results, especially during your operating hours. This change can significantly impact customer footfall and inquiries, making it crucial for businesses to update their profiles accurately.4. Google Confirms: Publishing Content in Both PDF and HTML Formats is Acceptable - On December 13, 2023, Google's John Mueller clarified a common query regarding the publication of content in both PDF and HTML formats. In a recent AskGooglebot video, Mueller confirmed that it's perfectly fine to publish content in both formats, as Google's systems can index them separately, even if the content is technically a duplicate.Key Insights from John Mueller's Statement: Independent Indexing of PDF and HTML: Google can find and index both PDF and HTML pages separately. This means that even if the content in both formats is the same, they can be shown independently in search results. Managing Duplicates: If Google's systems identify the content as duplicates, they usually defer to the HTML page version. However, website owners have control over this through various methods like using a 'noindex' HTTP header or robots meta tag to block indexing of one format, or using the 'rel=canonical' link element to indicate a preference. Practical Use Cases: Mueller highlighted that the choice of format often depends on what the audience prefers or requires. For example, restaurant menus are best suited as HTML pages for mobile viewing, while forms or guidebooks might be more practical in PDF format. Google's stance on publishing content in both PDF and HTML formats offers businesses an opportunity to diversify their content strategy. By understanding how Google indexes and handles these formats, business owners can make informed decisions about content publication, ensuring their information reaches the audience effectively in their preferred format.5. Google Takes Action Against Parasite SEO - On December 11, 2023, Google's Search Liaison Danny Sullivan announced that the search company has taken steps to address the issue of 'parasite SEO.' This term refers to the practice of leveraging high-authority third-party websites to rank content that otherwise wouldn't perform well in search results. Sullivan indicated that while the specific change related to the upcoming helpful content update isn't live yet, Google has implemented other measures to combat this problem.Key Points from Google's Announcement: Addressing Third-Party Content Abuse: Google has enhanced its systems to better handle third-party content that falls under the category of parasite SEO. This includes content hosted on reputable sites but created primarily for SEO manipulation. Ongoing Efforts: Sullivan emphasized that Google will continue to refine its approach to dealing with such issues, indicating an ongoing commitment to maintaining the integrity of search results. Advice for Content Creators: The advice given by Google regarding third-party content remains relevant. Creators are encouraged to focus on producing helpful, people-first content to be recognized as valuable by Google's algorithms. Impact on Business Owners: This development is particularly important for small business owners who rely on organic search traffic. Understanding and adhering to Google's guidelines is crucial for maintaining visibility and credibility in search results. Google's proactive steps to address parasite SEO highlight the importance of ethical SEO practices. For business owners, this serves as a reminder to focus on creating high-quality, user-centric content rather than resorting to manipulative tactics. Staying informed about these changes and aligning with Google's guidelines is key to achieving long-term success in search engine rankings.6. Googlebot Crawling Experiment: Surprising Insights for Website Owners - On December 14, 2023, an intriguing experiment conducted by technical SEO expert Kristina Azarenko revealed the impact of disabling Googlebot from crawling a website. This experiment, which ran from October 5 to November 7, offers valuable insights for business owners about the importance of Googlebot crawling and its effects on website performance.Key Findings from the Experiment: Impact on Favicon and Video Search Results: The website's favicon was removed from Google search results, and video search results took a significant hit, which still hadn't recovered post-experiment. Stability and Volatility in Search Positions: While positions remained relatively stable, there was slightly more volatility in Canada. Slight Decrease in Traffic: The website only saw a slight decrease in traffic during the experiment. Increase in Reported Indexed Pages: Despite pages having 'noindex' meta robots tags, they ended up being indexed because Google couldn't crawl the site to see those tags. Multiple Alerts in Google Search Console (GSC): The site received multiple alerts in GSC, such as 'indexed though blocked by robots.txt' and 'blocked by robots.txt.' This experiment highlights the critical role of Googlebot in maintaining and updating a website's presence in search results. For business owners, it underscores the importance of ensuring that Googlebot can crawl their site effectively. Any impediments to crawling can lead to unexpected issues, such as outdated information in search results or the indexing of unintended pages.7. Google Ads Unveils Expanded Video Reach Campaigns - On December 12, 2023, Google Ads announced a significant enhancement to Video Reach Campaigns (VRC), offering businesses more formats to maximize their brand awareness on YouTube. This update reflects the evolving ways people engage with YouTube, from mobile Shorts to TV screen browsing, presenting brands with diverse opportunities to connect with their audience.Key Features of the Update: Expanded Video Formats: Video Reach Campaigns now include the ability to scale video creatives to in-feed and Shorts, in addition to in-stream ads. This expansion allows advertisers to reach viewers across various YouTube formats, increasing the potential for brand exposure. AI-Powered Efficiency: Leveraging Google's AI, multiformat ads in VRC deliver enhanced reach and efficiency. Testing has shown that campaigns opting into all three inventory types (in-feed, in-stream, and Shorts) achieved an average of 54% more reach at 42% lower CPM (Cost Per Mille) compared to in-stream-only campaigns. Case Study - Bayer's Midol Campaign: Bayer utilized VRC for their Midol multi symptom relief campaign, opting into in-feed, in-stream, and Shorts ads. A head-to-head test against in-stream-only VRC revealed that the multiformat approach delivered 30% more reach at a 45% lower CPM.8. Google Ads Enhances Business Operation Verification Process - On December 12, 2023, Google Ads announced the rollout of a comprehensive guide to assist businesses in completing their Business Operation Verification. This new resource aims to clarify the verification process, providing detailed explanations and examples to help advertisers understand and successfully navigate the verification requirements.Key Features of the Update: Step-by-Step Guide: The guide offers a clear, step-by-step explanation of the Business Operation Verification process, including reasons for verification failure and example scenarios where verification might be required. Easy Accessibility: The guide is accessible through the billing icon in Google Ads and via in-account prompts, ensuring that advertisers can easily find and use the resource. Clarification on Verification Requirements: The document outlines specific scenarios and reasons why a business might need to undergo verification, helping advertisers to better prepare and complete the process efficiently. Google's Commitment to Transparency: This update reflects Google's ongoing efforts to maintain a secure and transparent advertising environment. By providing additional information to advertisers, Google aims to enhance the overall experience and effectiveness of the advertiser verification program. Google Ads' introduction of a detailed guide for Business Operation Verification is a proactive step towards supporting advertisers in meeting compliance standards. For business owners, this resource is a valuable tool in optimizing their advertising efforts and maintaining a credible presence on Google's platform.9. Meta's Threads App Embraces Decentralization with ActivityPub Integration - On December 13, 2023, Meta announced a significant step towards decentralization and interoperability for its Threads app by integrating with ActivityPub, a decentralized social networking protocol. This move allows Threads content and profiles to be accessible via other Fediverse-based apps, marking a notable shift in Meta's approach to social media.Key Aspects of Meta's Integration with ActivityPub: Threads Content Viewable on Mastodon: The integration enables Threads content to be viewable on Mastodon and other ActivityPub-based systems, effectively plugging Threads into the Fediverse concept. The Fediverse Concept: The Fediverse is a collection of independent, federated servers working together to facilitate open social media access. It aims to reduce centralized control, allowing each server to establish its own parameters and algorithms. Meta's Shift Towards Decentralization: Historically, Meta has been known for its 'walled garden' approach. This integration represents a significant move towards decentralization, potentially connecting Threads content to a range of tools and platforms that utilize the ActivityPub standard. Interoperability and Data Portability: The integration aligns with Meta's commitment to data portability and control over content. It also facilitates a broader connection into the Mastodon network, expanding Threads' audience reach and engagement. Meta's integration of Threads with ActivityPub is a bold step towards a more open and interconnected social media ecosystem. For business owners, it presents an opportunity to leverage the expanded reach and interoperability offered by this integration, potentially enhancing their social media strategy and audience engagement.

Wayne Hawkes joins Gerard in studio for a Spring Carnvial wrap and to react to the VRC news about extending the Spring Carnival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest this week is Danny Palo. Danny is the CEO of Vital Records Control. This company started in 1988 at $300,000.00 in annual revenue and today is at $300,000,000.00. Windjammer Capital now owns VRC and is in 80 markets with 2,000 employees.What's even more impressive is that Danny's only job prior was flipping hamburgers. He then started as a delivery driver, dropped out of college, and has run this company for nearly 40 years with a great group of long-time associates, original investors, and owners. They are one of the top leaders in their industry.The document management industry has exploded with the adoption of computers and printing, and now, there is a shift to digital.This is a great episode that covers: Why not having a college degree hasn't held Danny back Operating principles that have driven success for decades and why staying relentlessly focused on the customer drives success The value of doing a deal with the right private equity partner and what makes that work Plus, so much more! Please enjoy this week's episode with VRC Networks CEO Danny Palo!Danny- https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-palo-46650225/VRC- https://vitalrecordscontrol.com/Windjammer- www.windjammercapital.com

This episode honors Veteran's Day. We showcase the work being done at the Veterans Resource Center (VRC). Our episode begins with Desiree Campos, the Manager of our VRC, highlighting the amazing work she has accomplished in her time on our campus. We also chat with two current Mt. SAC students, Jonathan Haggard who served in The Marine Corps and Edward Derbyshire who served in the Navy. Resources: Visit: https://www.mtsac.edu/veterans/ Instagram: @mt_sac_vrc Email: veterans@mtsac.edu  Run Time: 1 hr, 06 min To find the full transcript for this episode, click HERE  

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!  

The VRC's Executive General Manager of Racing, Leigh Jordon joins Racing Pulse with the final fields for Makybe Diva Stakes Day

Meet Guy Redhouse, the Product and Marketing Manager at General Travel Group.If you haven't heard of General Travel Group, they help sports and events get the most out of their tickets, hospitality and travel - associated with organisations such as the AFL Event Office, Grand Prix Travel, and the Cricket Australia Travel Office (which you'll hear be referred to as CATO throughout the episode).Simply put, Guy has crafted a career combining sport and travel, to help fans experience events around the world.With his experience first beginning at STA travel, he transitioned into the sport industry with the Victoria Racing Club. Here, it was where he learnt how to build websites, which lead him to 9 years in the ticketing and travel team at Cricket Australia, before later moving into Leading Teams for 3 years.If you love your sport and you love travelling the world, this episode will open your eyes with how to combine both. Definitely worth tuning into this one!In this episode we cover:(0:00) - Introduction(2:11) - Community update(8:42) - Welcome Guy(10:15) - The hidden project opportunities that can exist in sport(16:55) - Guy's career journey post-Uni(21:49) - How he got his foot in the door of the sports industry at the VRC(26:03) - Guy's time at Cricket Australia(30:22) - His approach to pricing a premium offering(33:27) - How they designed the Indian Fan Zone Package(35:38) - How to sell Hospitality at the Cricket(38:31 - A low at Guy's current role(45:33) - Guy's advice for people graduating University(55:49) - How to express yourself through your resume(1:01:08) - Guy's final advice(1:04:08) - #ASKSPORTSGRADAdditional episodes you might enjoy:#179 - Will Taylor (ICC T20 World Cup) - How the ICC are building communities of cricket fans#236 - Danny Bowerin (Deakin University) - Sports Marketing Consultant career journey (so far!)*Want to stay up today with all the new podcasts, events, and blogs to help you get a job in sport?

Joining Carol in the studio today is Sabrina Cunliffe, Disability Innovation Fund (DIF) Grant Manager, with Oregon General. Find out how Oregon General has tackled some challenging cultural issues and is starting to see great results with their strategy for implementing the DIF grant through their Inclusive Career Advancement Program.   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: Welcome to the Manager Minute. Joining me in the studio today is Sabrina Cunliffe Disability Innovation Fund, Inclusive Career Advancement Program Manager, or DIF grant manager for short with Oregon General. So Sabrina, how are things going in Oregon?   Sabrina: Oh gosh. Oregon has five seasons, fall, winter, spring, summer and fire season. So it is currently fire season. It looks like a little post-apocalyptic nightmare outside right now, but other than that, we're doing really well.   Carol: I'm sorry to hear that, though. There's been a lot of the wildfires this year that have been so devastating.   Sabrina: Absolutely.   Carol: Well, I'm really glad you're here today. And I just want to take a couple of minutes to give our listeners a little bit of background on the Disability Innovation Fund grants. And so in this particular round, grant activities are geared to support innovative activities aimed at improving outcomes of individuals with disabilities and the Career the Advancement Initiative model demonstration. And these were funded in FY 2021 were intended to identify and demonstrate practices that are supported by evidence to assist eligible individuals with disabilities, including previously served VR participants in employment who reenter the program to do kind of four of the following things to advance 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 their competitive integrated employment outcomes, economic self-sufficiency, independence and inclusion in society, and to reduce the reliance on public benefits like SSI and SSDI and or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Now I remember reading the application and kind of the notice and all of that, and there was really actually some disturbing data that provided the base for RSA and why this particular area was chosen to fund. And they were looking at the program year 2019, RSA 911 data, and it said things like this, like approximately 80% of the participants were earning less than 17 bucks an hour. And in fact, participants who exited the program in competitive integrated employment reported a median wage of 12 bucks an hour and median hours at 30 hours a week. And the ten most common occupations that were reported by one third of the participants who exited in CIE were stock clerks and order fillers, customer service reps, janitors, laborers, stack material movers, retail salespersons, cashiers, food prep survey, including fast food production workers and dishwashers. It's that whole food, filth, kind of the flowers thing I used to call it. And I know they probably were focusing on career pathways because RSA had also done a competition back in 2015 and they awarded for career pathways for individuals with Disabilities projects under a demonstration training program. And furthermore, Congress made career pathways a necessary, if not foundational, part of WIOAs workforce reform. And so you put all of this together just to put a little under our belt, I just wanted people to have a little bit of a base. Like, what on earth are they picking and why are they doing this? So let's dig in and learn more about you in the project. So can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and what your journey was getting to VR?   Sabrina: Sure, Carol. I started out going to college, majoring in business, working in the corporate world, doing that sort of thing, did that for several years, and then life sort of caught up with me. And I had children and my second child was born with cerebral palsy. And when that happens, it kind of changes your whole view on the world and you start to find out about disability in a way that you never really knew, and you really dig into the systems that exist and see what's available for your people in the world. And what I saw was, you know, the long trajectory of my son's life. And I decided, hey, you know what? I'm going to leave the corporate gig behind. I'm going to go back to graduate school, study disability awareness, study disability services ended up leading to rehab counseling, became a rehab counselor in the state of Oregon in 2009 and then was a branch manager starting in 2013. And then just about a year and a half ago, signed up to take on this innovation grant so that I can maybe change the system from the inside out a little bit was really what happened for me and why VR is so important and critical?   Carol: I love your story because we all come with these different stories and how we got involved in this field and some people fall into it a variety of different ways. But I really like your journey and I think it'll give our listeners a great perspective as they hear you because it's super fun, your passion and and all of that. So can you give us some facts too, about Oregon General? Like how many staff and customers do you have?   Sabrina: Yeah, so we have approximately 275 employees in Oregon that work for Oregon General, and we serve roughly 10,000 customers annually. I would say it used to be a lot more pre-pandemic than it is now or working through that. And we serve customers across 13 individual VR branch offices. So there's 13 branches, 20 offices throughout the state. Oregon has four very distinct economies that are geologically diverse and geographically diverse. We have that Oregon, Portland metro area, and then we have very much rural eastern Oregon and we have the coast and then the southern Willamette Valley and southern Oregon regions. So it's sort of like working in four different states all at the same time in a lot of ways.   Carol: I didn't realize that about Oregon. I was thinking about it. I knew you had some sort of rural nature, but really thinking about those four different distinct areas, that does always pose a big challenge, I'm sure, with both staffing and just as far as getting service provision.   Sabrina: Right, running a statewide program and trying to make it locally based and locally run and locally honored can have its own special challenges for sure.   Carol: Absolutely. So what prompted Oregon General to apply for this grant?   Sabrina: So you may or may not know that Oregon had probably the worst, if not the second worst. We might have been the second worst as far as data in that RSA911 that they based these grants on for measurable skill gains and credential attainment just in the tank, really. And it's something that that we knew that we needed to change for WIOA 2014. And we just never really got with the program in changing the culture of VR to really talk about optimal level of employment and to fully bring post-secondary education into the fold to get those credentials and those Measurable Skill Gains that we needed. And in Oregon, we have this beautiful, robust, existing career pathway system within Oregon's community colleges with hundreds of different career pathways nationally recognized that VR was completely under utilizing. And so what a great opportunity for us to partner with Oregon community colleges and change the culture of Oregon VR, really to see post-secondary education as a gateway to optimal level of employment that we needed to be focusing on.   Carol: Well, the only place to go is up then, from where you were. No. You know, when you start kind of in the basement, you're like, all right...  Well, we're climbing out of it. Good on you. So can you give us a big overview of the project? I know you have these different arms of things you wanted to do.   Sabrina: So ICAP - Inclusive Career Advancement Program is what we named our grant, and it supports a minimum of 500 people with disabilities, including those from marginalized communities. So 45% from black, indigenous, people of color communities in Oregon to help them choose a career pathway of interest, access post-secondary education, participate in that training or the internships in those high demand career fields. Obtain the credentials in their career field that's chosen, and then to also help them gain the employment upon completion of their program and we're doing that through installing a career coach in 16 of the community colleges across Oregon. So in one FTE position at the college, that's the boots on the ground person to be that conduit between the counselor and the community college. And the difference between this mean you might see navigators with Department of Labor or with all sorts of other different programs. But what's different about ICAP is that that career coach is specifically trained around people with disabilities, the specific needs of people with disabilities, really looking at the intersectionality of race and disability, of poverty and disability and all of those things that often people with disabilities don't have success or as much success with those other navigators because very specific disability barriers are lost on them. And so huge emphasis on that. We have four core partners. It's Oregon VR, it's the main grantee, and then we have Portland Community College, which is a Subawardee that manages all of the individual sub grants with each individual community college. And then we have Oregon Commission for the Blind because we wanted the Oregon Commission for the Blind to have their participants be able to participate in our program as well. We have two of them already, which is fantastic. And then Cornell University or the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, there are evaluation partner and also our training and provider for this grant.   Carol: I'm so glad that you partnered too, with your blind agency. Sometimes we've got states where you know you're both there, but it's not always good communication between you, so that is great.   Sabrina: And then we just have the GEPRAs. I just wanted to touch on those real quick so people know what we're measuring. We're 500 people is the target of those 45% need to be from black, indigenous and people of color communities. So that'd be 225. We need to have 375 of those that start finish and of those 375 that get a credential, we need another 75% of those to actually get competitive, integrated employment within the span of the grants timeframe. And then 75 Percent of those people to get hourly wage gains, 50% of those to get employer provided medical benefits. 65% of those also need to increase the hours that they worked from whenever they came in to whenever they left. And then we need to also track if anybody got a promotion or any additional responsibilities or anything like that between when they get the job and when the grant ends. And then also reporting about whether or not they are receiving less or no public benefits with 35% hopefully having their competitive integrated employment be their primary source of support.   Carol: So you're going big or going...   Sabrina: Big or go home. Exactly.   Carol: That's right. So what are you seeing as the biggest challenges?   Sabrina: Oh, gosh. When we decided to do this innovation grant, we could have gone two ways. We could have had ICAP be separate and apart and ran it completely independently of the larger program. And we decided not to do that. We decided to fully integrate it into the existing program. All ICAP participants must be VR participants. All VR counselors can work with ICAP participants, no specialization of any kind. So we needed to completely train the entire staff about this cultural shift, about what it means to have optimal level of employment, to teach them how to write post-secondary ed plans that work, how to do the comprehensive assessment in a way that we're really, truly looking at interest, ability, skills, resources, priorities, concerns all through an informed choice lens and making optimal level of employment happen. And not just for lack of a better term, McJobbing people left and right and hiring job developers and punting and seeing how it goes for folks. And so that is our innovation for our grant. It doesn't sound like much, but it's huge for us to be able to do that work. And so, of course, the first challenge we have is the amount of time it takes for someone to become a participant. It's not like we could just sign them up for ICAP. They had to go get in line at VR, and in Oregon, Sometimes that can take up to three months. By the time they get asked, call the office, ask for an intake, meet with the counselor, found eligible for our services. And when you're working with particularly youth and students that are going from high school and potentially entering a career pathway, they might decide that they want to start a career pathway two weeks beforehand. And so our system and the career pathway system had to really say, we need to look at this, right? We're starting to really pay attention as an agency to figure out what several other states are doing. Some states are finding people eligible within three days or 17 days. And we're looking at all of those different ways in which we can change that. That's a larger process that's going to have to happen. But what the ICAP Grant did was really shine a light on it and gave us some really cool data of something that everybody knew but that nobody had really codified in writing and reported to the RSA. And so here we are. That challenge has been identified and it's definitely something that we're going to have to address. We've, of course made lots of little shortcut solutions in there to address the ICAP grant. But as far as the larger program, it's kind of front and center. Now that particular issue. The second biggest challenge that we have is that while we thought we had a great post-secondary ed policy, what we found out that it was really how to rule people out, not how to rule people in policy, and it created an exorbitant amount of red tape for counselors. No counselor wanted to do it because it was an extra three hours worth of work with a participant. Right. Who would want to go through all these checklists and make sure all of these things are in place and fight these fights with the financial aid offices and do all of this stuff that was required in our policy that just seemed like we're going to figure out every way to not support post-secondary ed. So one of the first things that we did was identify that and we completely rewrote our post-secondary ed policy, took out all of the language that you shall and you must and made it seem very inclusive. And you know what? Tell us what you want to do. Let's figure out what supports you need so that you can be successful. We're going to do that and we're going to remove all that paperwork piece for the VRC to be able to feel confident in doing that. And we also had these things with every branch manager, had to approve every plan that a counselor wrote for any post-secondary ed that was removed completely. And it's given autonomy and trust to the counselor to make these judgments that they need to make in their jobs. And so that just came out a week and a half ago, though. So we haven't seen the impact of it yet completely. But one of the most exciting challenges and solutions that we've had to date, what's great, we have Cornell University on doing our and training. We've probably done over 50 trainings in the last year and a half, really looking at the discernment for appropriate use of training through an what does that mean for someone and how do we write those plans? Just creating fake plans, really. I have plans, samples that are like for IB CAPPY so counselors know how to reflect the services and the plan. They know how to write them effectively. They know how to really understand. And their decision making and how to have those critical thinking moments and how to have the conversations with the client that are more appropriate when you have a lot of counselors that have been discouraged for years from doing this work. It can be kind of scary as they learn these new steps and when people kind of make decisions out of fear, they do it either with, Oh, you can do whatever you want and there's no accountability. That's probably half the VRCs, and the other half is, No, you can't do this because I need to have control over this and make sure that I can control the outcome, right? So finding that middle ground, empowering clients, empowering VRCs to do the work has been absolutely huge. We'll be ongoing for the duration of the program and then lack of equitable workflow for coaches. So we were silly kind of when we designed this in the beginning and we didn't realize that there are 17 community colleges in Oregon, but they are vastly different in their capacity. And so we started out with everybody is going to serve, you know, the same amount of participants in the grant and what we found out, that's not going to work because Portland Community College, you know, has seven campuses within the Portland metro area and has 30 different VRCs that are referring to the program. We're out in eastern Oregon. There's two VRCs and one community college with only 14 career pathways, right? So we couldn't expect the same result from rural schools as we have from metro schools. And so really not looking at it through an equality lens, but an equitable lens for our performance measures through each of the individual community colleges is something that we're doing when we start serving students at the beginning of this year. And hopefully that will give our numbers more meaning and have people feel more respected in where they're at and what they can actually do.   Carol: Well, I love that you're digging into these very tough challenges, and I know things like our policies and procedures, words do matter. I mean, it sets a tone for your counselors. And we've seen this with lots of states. When we do TA work, you know, people will be like, thou shalt not, you know, and everything that the customer has to do and we will not pay for this or do this. And you have to prove yourself and all of that. When you flip all those words around, it does send a message, even if it's subliminally to those people that are reading it can just see that in other states you see this cultural shift happening because you're looking at this more positively. You're focusing more on like a person's strengths instead of all the reasons they can't do something. I think digging in and all your kind of warts, so to speak.   Sabrina: Yeah. And to watch someone go from having a process driven agency to a people driven agency just warms my heart. It just feels really good.   Carol: See, that's all you West Coast folks, because Joe Xavier started the charge with that because he's like, We're not going to let the paperwork get in the way of the people. Like we got to remember the people are here first. And so you're picking up on that, too. And you also have created new acronyms with the IBCAPPY or whatever. That is very cool. So obviously you've got all these things, you're digging in and you're doing this stuff, but how like I know you said you wanted everybody in the organization to be able to do this, so you didn't keep this all separate. But structurally, organizationally, I'm sure people are sitting out there thinking, okay, Sabrina, there's you, do you have a team of people? Like, how are you structurally carrying this off?   Sabrina: When you look at our key personnel for the grant, I left my cushy branch manager job and took a limited duration job to do this. Not much of a pay raise at all, but I believed in it so much. That's how I got here. And then I have a communication specialist. That's Jen Munson. She sort of runs all of the communication and all of the outreach activities. Really in lots of communications we have organizationally is a community of practices, so local community of practices and statewide community of practices. And so she makes sure that those are happening. And then I have a data analyst and their job is to extract all of that 911 data for ICAP participants to work really well with Cornell and their evaluation team, making sure that they get the data that they need. And then just giving us kind of a daily update on all of the data that's happening and where we need to be focusing so that we can stay really data informed as we move forward and continue to innovate the grant. So there's three FTEs with the grant and then there's a project manager for 0.2 or 0.3 FTE. I have a project manager that is worth their weight in gold. They write our huge project plan, develop all of our buckets, tell us all of the different work that needs to be happening in those buckets. By when mean don't wake up a single day without knowing exactly what I need to do that day and why and how it needs to happen and when it needs to be done by. So it creates a very proactive approach to managing the grant through this project management lens that we have. And then of course, we have our deputy director who's overseeing the entire grant at 0.2 FTE of her salary is dedicated to this grant for the duration of the grant. So that is how we're structured internally. And then of course, we meet with branch managers, get an ICAP FaceTime with me for an hour once a month, and there are multiple opportunities to our communication system on the side that we're able to distribute information and keep people up to date on what's happening.   Carol: So you do not have an army, I mean like you're really literally talking about 3.5 FTEs?   Sabrina: Yes   Carol: And you're making miracles happen, like you're changing the world with three and a half people. You know, I know sometimes states think like, oh, we don't have enough people, We can't do the thing, We need this and that. But like, you are making it happen with a really minimal staff investment. But it is shifting all this thinking and shifting the ways that the agency is operating. That is very interesting.   Sabrina: Yeah, it has the love, though, of the entire exec team of Oregon VR. We couldn't do it, just the three of us. If Keith and Heather and all of the other people that do all of the instrumental things that are happening in VR, if there was infighting about the direction that we needed to go culturally, it'd be a much different situation. But we are united in our thinking and our belief system about where our agency needs to go. And so I think we get a lot of free labor actually from whether it's our youth manager or policy manager, our business and operations manager, probably not a single person in VR that hasn't helped us in some level or another. Also, so don't want to make it sound like just the three of us pulled this off.   Carol: Yeah, you do have a really good exec team because Keith is great, like Keith and Heather. I know those guys and they're very invested. And especially as you talk about like wanting to change the culture and making significant impact, like go big or go home. I love that. I love that. So I know you said some of the activities, you know, you were out you did like 50 trainings and all of that. What are some of those other activities like specifically you're carrying out? Because I'm sure people are thinking like, oh, my gosh, you have this huge project. And when you were listing like all of the kind of the metrics that you want to accomplish, it sounded like this massive word problem. So if we were in Chicago leaving on the train and then we hit New York, you know, like how many people are on the train now, all of that. But gosh, like, how do you start this?   Sabrina: So the interesting thing about a DIF grant is that you find out you're getting the grant and then two days later you get this money, right? And don't know about you. But in state government around here, it takes about six months to write a position description, get it approved, post the position, get the positions, go through the hiring process, and then start dates and then onboarding. And so while the grant started in October of what, 21 is that it? 22?   Carol: Yeah.   Sabrina: Yeah. I wasn't hired until the next end of April. And so there was a large chunk of time where there was a whole bunch of work happening on the background when people could, when they weren't trying to run Oregon General at the same time, but also trying to get the people hired to do the work. And then we also needed to hire all of the career coaches at all of the community colleges and the infrastructure within Portland Community College to manage those career coaches. And so all of that took the first 9 to 10 months of the grant where we weren't really drawing down hardly any funds, and it made the people who monitored the drawdowns very nervous. And so that clock starting immediately, just be aware of that, right? It might be a five year innovation fund grant, but you're really not going to start to serve the participants. And we were lucky we were able to start serving them at the end of year one probably had about 19 or 20 participants then, but lots of DIF grants even struggled even more than we did with getting those people hired and into those positions. And then we created a framework, is really was the first thing that I did whenever I came was say, okay, this is the framework document, this is what we're doing, this is how we're going to structure our community of practices. This is how we're going to communicate with each other. This is how we're going to get everyone on the same page. This is how we're going to delineate workflow between what's a VRCs responsibility, what's a career coach's responsibility, what's everyone else's responsibility? And really talk about that. Educate all of the VRCs on what career pathways are, how to access them, how to contact them, develop the referral processes that needed to be developed for those, we needed to update some policies we're doing that. We'll continue to do that and then develop statewide community of practices in addition to the local community of practices and calendaring. All of those sorts of things is really how you get started is just map it out, sit down and go, okay, this is where we want to be. Work backwards from there. Get your project manager in, create your work buckets and get to work.   Carol: You made such a good point. I think people don't realize that. So for our listeners, you know, as you're thinking about the DIF and people that have been part of one, they'll realize we've heard it over and over, man, that first year. It does not go like you think because it takes forever for every state government, you know, to get rolling with getting those positions hired and all of that. So you've got that pile of money sitting there and then you're going, Oh my gosh. I mean, we're just trying to get the people on board and get rolling. So that is good advice. Just to remind people, it takes, takes a bit to get going. So I know you are starting to already see some initial results. What are you seeing?   Sabrina: Let's see. We have about 140 students enrolled now. Ten folks have already received their career pathway certificate, which is fantastic, which means they're in the looking for a job stage. We're about two months behind on the reports that we get from the community college. So actually, there might be people out there that have a job. I just can't tell you that for sure because I don't have it in writing yet. About 58% of our ICAP students are youth, which is fantastic, and 37% of those youth population are from the BIPOC community. And so what we're noticing is that we have a lot more success if we focus on youth and career pathways than if we are looking to people who are needing to change careers for whatever reason. We need to find out more about that. But as far as our referral process is concerned, really working with our youth partners to pull this off I think is going to be instrumental that we didn't realize we needed such an emphasis on when we started. We have ICAP students are enrolled in 75 different unique educational pathways. Right now, 75 we have 58% of the VRCs in the state have at least one ICAP participant. We have that much penetration with VR staff, which warms my heart because we were worried about that. But we'd love it to be 70 by the end of this. So if you were to combine all the college credits that our ICAP students are currently taking, they're currently taking over 4000 college credits, according to my little data analyst told me this morning. So they're doing it.   Carol: Good stuff. That's good stuff that's happening. I love to hear it. So now that's the happy news. What are some of these speed bumps that you've hit along the way?   Sabrina: The biggest one is that in our $18 million grant, 2.3 million of that is supposed to be spent on client service dollars, right? Tuition fees, books and supplies. And what we're finding is there are so many comparable benefits out there. And how we're structured with comparable benefits in VR doesn't do anybody any favors. And so when we're getting their Pell Grants or their Oregon Opportunity grants or their SNAP grants, there's so many. When Oregon is the last payer that US spending that $2.3 million and doing it within regional and policy has been really, really challenging. And so that'll be interesting to see how it is that we can maybe change that or shift that or find ways to braid services more effectively with all of these other different grant opportunities because they're the last pair to they're just less cumbersome than VR is in order to do that. And just some more of that ancient thinking on the part of VR as we only pay after we've made sure everybody else is paid right, What might that look like if we were a little less stringent? And then of course, our big, big giant speed bumps were around Measurable Skill Gain Credential Attainment. The nuts and bolts of that we found out, is really how we were capturing that data in our aware program. And the translation is, is we weren't. And so hence the...   Carol: Reason you were in the basement.   Sabrina: Right? So we had to completely look at how we had those screens developed on our educational goal screen in Orca. And like so many late nights of Heather and I watching videos from Missouri General on how they did it right and looking at that and then rebuilding that entire part of our Orca system, Orca meaning AWARE system so that we could capture that data and have it be accurate because it's not that Oregon wasn't doing MSGs and credential attainment. We just never wrote it down. And so we had to train staff about what those are. We had to create procedures and have those in place for how to do the data entry. And we actually had to build the infrastructure back so that it would actually report correctly on our 911 reports. So that was a huge undertaking of I'll sleep when I'm dead kind of activities that needed to happen to pull this off.   Carol: Holy cow. I like it when you get you did your voice as your stringent voice. Oh my gosh. So I know you also have had you are not shy for all our listeners. I mean, Sabrina and I had chatted a little bit ago and super cracked up because you are definitely one to say what's on your mind. And so I know you made some interesting observations since you started leading this project. What are some of your ideas you thought should change?   Sabrina: Oh, that's the if you could change the world, Sabrina, what would it be question? Oh, this is just Sabrina talking, not saying anything. But if I could, we all know how poverty and disability go hand in hand. Same outcome results since the 80s. What's going on? Where's the juggernaut? Guys, we have the ability to fix this and it all comes down to post-secondary ed and our unmet need problem that we have, how we take their Pell grants and we skim right off the top and we do tuition fees, books and supplies off of their Pell grant. If nationally, we could find a way to take that Pell grant and let them use that for poverty based stuff housing, food, all their disability related stuff that we can't pay for or that they don't know how to report. Just let them have their Pell grants to live on and. We covered tuition fees, books and supplies. In addition to that, it would be life altering and life changing to the poverty cycle. We continue to find people with disabilities in in America, but that can only change with big time people that have, you know, some sort of sway in how it is that Pell Grants are administered and approved. And think under the Department of Ed, they could really work together in a great way to recognize participants in a different way. With Pell Grants, let us do the tuition fees, books and supplies, allow those Pell Grants to serve the people from their poverty lens. Huge opportunity there. That I think would really take a lot of fear. And the struggle I mean, you know, it a person with a disability doesn't have the option of working three hours in the evening while going to school full time. It takes them 2.5 hours to get dressed in the morning. It takes them another three hours to work with their adaptive equipment to write that paper. It's not apples to apples. It doesn't need to be apples to apples. And we have an opportunity to recognize that. And change the unmet need calculations for VR or change how Pell Grants are interpreted by VR. That's my biggest dream. It would change so many lives.   Carol: That is excellent. I know one of my colleagues, DJ Ralston, does a lot of training around disability and poverty and how it goes hand in hand, and I think we don't talk about it enough in VR. It's like we somehow think all of that's superfluous, like it's out to the side and but it's so intricately intertwined with the person because if you don't have food and you don't have a house, how are you...   Sabrina: You're not going to go to school.   Carol: How are you going to school and where are you plugging in your laptop? You know, you can only be at Starbucks so long in a day.   Sabrina: Or if you're  housing is tied to those benefits that are tied to a poverty cycle.   Carol: Yeah.   Sabrina: Yeah. No , can't do it. Yeah, So much fear around that.   Carol: Do you have any other thoughts on changing the world?   Sabrina: I have so many thoughts on changing the world, but that's the one that. That's the one that I probably have the okay to talk about.   Carol: Yeah. We don't want to get you off the grant now. So one of the other things that's interesting is that the DIF grants are a discretionary grant. So when we get our VR or 110 dollars, it's a VR formula grant. What kind of challenges have you faced in managing this discretionary grant versus, you know, the typical VR funding?   Sabrina: I would say it's constantly managing and balancing the funds and the report writing requirements of the grant. I don't think anybody knew what that was all about. Whenever we signed up to do this, it's pretty heavy. We have, you know, monthly reports that we need to write, monthly calls with that we need to attend quarterly, meetings with other DIF people that we need to attend. And then twice a year we had an end of year report, annual performance report, that are giant documents. We are held accountable for every penny. Don't lose a penny, Pull down the money, spend the money, Why aren't you spending it fast enough? But make sure it's applicable, make sure it's reasonable. Make sure it's necessary. Make sure you prove it to us. Then all of those things are. But are you serving the people? How many people are you serving? It's this dichotomy of crazyville that kind of gets me going around pulling down the funds, spending the money, managing the budget, re managing the budget because you're just guessing when you say how much this is going to cost, you have no idea that the entire workforce is going to receive a 6.5% wage increase next year and another 6.5% wage increase after that. And you didn't write that into your grant and you don't know that travel is going to be exorbitant with inflation, all sorts of things that you have to constantly rebalance the funds and you have to write down absolutely everything you do with a DIF grant. So you have to say what you're going to do and then go do it and say what you're doing while you're doing it, and then say how you could have done it better and then say what you might do better in the future in this continuous cycle across 15 to 20 different work buckets and work plans that you have in place? Yeah. For every minute that you spend doing something, you spend another minute and a half writing about it, it feels like.   Carol: So yeah, I'm glad we brought this up because I know it's just the stark reality of it. And so I think folks sometimes get into the DIF grant and they don't understand this about, you know, you have line items in a budget and now we're going to go outside of this and we want to move money, but we got to get okay, you know, and all of these things because it's very different than the VR grant. So I think it's better for people to at least understand that going in that there is going to be this component. So if you're able to build in, you know, someone that can help assist with some of this stuff as you're doing the project, which is the really cool stuff, you know, that you're trying to get done. But you have to remember there is this sort of a little bit of an administrative burden. And it's not just even a little bit, you know, it's kind of a, a lot bit, but it is sort of the price we pay to have these funds to do these cool different things.   Sabrina: Totally worth it. But yeah, go in with your eyes wide open. And if you don't have somebody that's done grant management or you have somebody that's strong in project management, think about the person that you need in that role to be able to pull that off for sure.   Carol: Yeah, good advice. Good advice. So of course we talk about the bummer things, but let's talk about something like what is like one of the coolest things that has happened to date. Do you have a fun story or something really cool? We want to leave people with like a happy thing.   Sabrina: Want to share two things because two things came to mind. The first thing that comes to mind is part of our initiative is to either develop or enhance existing career pathways in Oregon for people with disabilities. So make them more accessible, make them more anything that they could be to be working for the people that we serve. And so one of the things that they've done out in eastern Oregon is create this drone program. You know, those drones that go up in the air and fly over stuff. And so what that's done is it's allowed for people that want to work in agricultural fields and want to work with cattle, want to watch crops, want to work for an elk hunting operation, those sorts of things. They can now, without a lot of physical mobility, be able to run a drone, go check on their crops, go check on their cattle and their herds, run hunting programs and all sorts of things through this program that teaches people how to run these drones and how to work for companies that have these drones all over eastern Oregon, which I think is really cool. And we're having several people that have disabilities sign up for those programs in a way that because of this program, we're able to develop that and make that possible for them. So that feels really good.   Carol: That is very cool.   Sabrina: Yeah. But one of the cooler things that sort of hits me in the feels is just when an ICAP participant walks up to you and says, Before I had my career coach, I didn't have anyone. But with career coaches that understand my disability, I have gone from a 1.6 GPA to a 4.0 GPA, and I'm the first person in my family to ever go to college. Right? Those just, yup. that's why we all get up every day and we do this work and we keep plugging away at it and we try and make the world a little bit better for people. And so that's really what excites me. And it happens not just once, not just twice, but all the time.   Carol: That makes my heart happy. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Because we've thought about those navigators, other places we've had, but not here. Like what your spin on this has been super interesting. I love it.   Sabrina: What happens if that career coach understands disability, understands that unique lens? Gives grace. Just somebody that goes in and talks to the Accommodations office at the local community college on behalf of a student that can even troubleshoot it with a professor if it's not working out right, somebody that's physically there that they can just walk into their office and sit down and go, Hey, this is really hard. It's great. Those coaches, they're amazing.   Carol: That's great. So what are your next steps?   Sabrina: Next steps, Right. We're going to continue with our messaging. We really need to target in to get up to that 45% BIPOC number. With our recruiting strategies, there's not a lot of black indigenous people of color in Oregon. It's pretty low, 14.4% of the overall population. So that 45% is a big ask for us and they don't have a lot of warm, happy feelings about accessing VR in general or our larger human services offices that we're all located in. So that's a big deal. We are going to be onboarding three additional community colleges to start serving students this fall. We started out with the core ten. Now we're adding three more. So that's a big deal. We're going to continue to draw down those funds as quickly as we can, find new and inventive ways to braid funding more effectively so that we can use those client service dollars. And then really, the big thing on my mind that I worry about is figuring out a way for this to be sustainable. How do we get to retain those coaches long term in Oregon? We're going to prove that they matter and that they make a difference. How do we keep them? So that's on my to dos.   Carol: Well, I'm fully confident you're going to do it. All of it, because you are a get up and go kind of gal. So I so appreciate the work you're doing in Oregon. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us and share so our listeners can get a little glimpse into what's going on in Oregon. I think it's fun and that you guys have been willing to like you expose all your dirty laundry like where we were. You know, we're in the basement, we're going up. It's going to be so good for the people in your state. And I'm really excited. I hope you'll come back towards that last year when you have really fun results to share.   Sabrina: I hope so. I do hope so. That'd be great. I'd love to come back. Thank you, Carol, so much for inviting me. It's been fun. Thanks.   Carol: Have a great day.   Sabrina: Hey, you, too.   {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!

Nick is joined by Lydia Hislop to discuss the latest news and events from around the racing world. At York for the continuation of the Ebor Festival, they look back on Day 2 and look ahead to the second half of the fixture. Sam Hoskins joins the debate about sales races in the wake of Dragon Leader's runaway success in the Goffs Harry Beeby. Also on today's show, Nick and Lydia recognise the contribution of Lady O'Reilly, who has died aged 73. Kevin Blake and Jack Cantillon drop by to discuss their new stallion acquisition Bouttemont, while VRC's Leigh Jordon tells us of his excitement at the European Challenge for the Melbourne Cup and milliner Lisa Tan shares how the Cup's 'Fashions on the Field' initiative is going global. Paul Hanagan describes his feelings as he prepares for his final ride, and Nick and Lydia bid the fondest farewell to Sire de Grugy, the Moores' horse of a lifetime.

Jill, Mary, and Lorie from Delco Dawgs discuss their mission to protect Delco's four-legged friends. They are a non-profit in the county. Get more info at: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/delcodawgs?m... Email: Delcodawgs@yahoo.com Venmo: @jill-speckman (0600) Paypal: donatedelcodawgs@gmail.com VRC: 610.647.2950 Glenolden Vet: 610.237.6120 New website, links, tik tok, instagram coming soon. Check Delco Live out at www.DelcoLive.com

The VRC's track manager has been overseas with other metro track managers and joins us in the studio to explain what they learnt

The fate of retired racehorses has never been under more scrutiny, and Jo McKinnon couldn't be happier. The respected media contributor recently launched her own website designed to monitor the post competitive lives of thoroughbreds and performance horses. Jo joins us to talk about the creation of “offthetrackhorses.com.au” and to look back on her own exciting life in media and in the racing industry. She talks of the origins of her independent on-line platform. Jo outlines her ideas for regular content on the site. She acknowledges the support of some special behind-the-scenes people. The talented media veteran takes us back to her very first job with the Herald and Weekly Times and the thrilling scholarship win that got her there. Jo talks of her duties with the major Melbourne newspaper. She looks back on her exciting transition into television as a sports reporter with Network Ten in Melbourne. She was on her way. Horse loving Jo was thrilled to join the team being assembled for Sky's history making home racing channel. She was the first female presenter to be seen on the satellite coverage. Today there are many. She reviews the many roles she filled in the early days of the burgeoning media giant.  Jo talks of a sea change and a return to her hometown of Melbourne. She landed a plum role with the Moonee Valley Racing Club. She recalls an enjoyable stint as Marketing Manager for Aushorse which was in the process of rebranding. The role took her to Asia several times. Jo looks back on a brief association with the Nine Network and a return to Sky Racing. This time around she was chief anchor for the popular Sunday morning programme Racing Retro.  True to form the versatile personality felt the need for a change of direction. Before she knew it, Jo was working for the Hong Kong Jockey Club as a presenter at Happy Valley and Sha Tin. While in HK Jo's ability to adapt to different roles landed her a job as “food writer” for the famous Tasting Kitchen magazine. Back in Australia in 2014 she landed a role with the VRC as head of PR for the famous spring carnival.  Jo looks back on enjoyable stints with Racing.Com and Equestrian Australia. Perhaps the most rewarding of her many accomplishments was the creation of a documentary with brother Lachie as her co- producer. Jo looks back on the five episode series called “A Racetrack Somewhere” which received excellent reviews. The talented McKinnon talks of her involvement in racehorse ownership. She part owned a pretty smart mare a few years ago. Jo talks of her participation in a recent RSN programme called Talking Horses, and her current role as guest columnist for the on-line publication ANZ Bloodstock News. Fast forward to 2023 and a new life on a 3500 acre property at Quirindi with her partner Andrew Talbot. Jo talks of Andrew's long time association with Elders Ltd. He manages the famous Killara Feed Lot operation from the Quirindi property.   She says an invitation to join the committee of the Quirindi Jockey Club proved impossible to decline.   It's a laid back chat with a lady who's just as comfortable astride a show horse as she is in front of a television camera. 

Leigh Jordon from the VRC joined Warren Huntly fresh from a huge day at headquarters yesterday

Mentor Moments Season Two Story Moments: Everyone has a story to tell. Our unique stories shape our lives and the individuals we become. This season Mentor Moments will feature individuals sharing their story moments. Each episode will illustrate how seemingly little life moments ultimately shaped our careers in ways that were unpredictable and personally fulfilling. This episode we feature Casey Anderson! Casey graduated from Maryville University's Rehabilitation Counseling program in 2017 and started my career as crisis intervention advocate at YWCA St. Louis, offering support to individuals who experienced emotional, physical and sexual abuse. I then was promoted to the Program Supervisor of Crisis Intervention where I continued developing professionally; planning and facilitating community trainings, supporting a team of staff and volunteers and developing partnerships. I left YWCA in March 2020, joining VR as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor in the St. Charles office. I have found that my advocacy skills are valued here in my position. I have been on various committees and I am the designated VRC for the Work Based Learning program that coordinates and partners with Workforce Development, a CRP, and local school districts. I love making connections with others and watching folks discover confidence and independence by achieving their employment goals. I look forward to making a difference in people's lives through our mission and vision here with the MRAEC. Missouri Rehabilitation Association Eastern Chapter Maryville University Rehabilitation Counseling Maryville University Rehabilitation Counseling Youtube MRA Eastern Chapter Blog

Tina Herzik, the Vice President of Operations for Service Source, and Brent McNeal, the Director of the Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, join forces with Carol Pankow in the Manager Minute studio to chat about creative staffing solutions in the great State of Florida. Tina and Brent discuss how the Florida General agency and Service Source are partnering to meet staffing needs with a unique model. With a business relationship that spans over 22 years, the duo shares how their two organizations continue to serve as front runners of innovative staffing practices and transformational leadership.   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. Joining me in the studio today is Tina Herzik, Service Source vice president of operations for the VR program in Florida, and Brent McNeal, director of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Florida. General, I am so happy to have you both with me in the studio today. So, Brent, how are things going in Florida?   Brent: Things are going well, Carol. Thank you. We're definitely happy to see the end of the hurricane season here in Florida and looking forward to going through the homestretch here into the holiday break.   Carol: Yeah, I've seen you've had a lot of weather. We had our own 13 inches of snow on Monday, so at least you don't have that. Holy cow. So, Tina, how about you?   Tina: Same thing. Just getting over trying to lose that word pandemic and getting back to normalcy. But I live in Vero Beach, so happy that last hurricane didn't take us down. But we're standing.   Carol: Strong. Yeah, absolutely. Know all the Florida folks. I really you know, our hearts go out to y'all with everything that happened in that Fort Myers area. That is something else. I don't know how you deal with that all the time. That kind of those terrific weather conditions that can really just devastate a whole area. So I know you're rebuilding and people are working strong. So, Brent, it was really fun meeting you live and in person at the CC VR Leadership Forum before the conference began, and we all heard a pretty sobering message about the state of the national VR program. And we've got to spend the money. Each agency is facing different challenges, but the factor that binds us all together has to do with finding ways to expend funds. So the VR program, much like the rest of business across the country, is in the midst of a staffing crisis and trying to seek solutions to meet customer needs. Now, I know Florida General has a model that's been in place for over 20 years as a result of a legislative change. Now, this model is not really conventional, and I think you're the only people in the country doing something quite like this. But you have worked out all the kinks and have really learned so many lessons. So we thought others could benefit from the work that you all have done. And there's really a unique partnership that really is withstanding the test of time. So let's dig in. So, Brent, why don't you tell us a little about yourself, your background, how you came to VR and a little bit about Florida General?   Brent: Sure. First of all, I'm happy to be here. I echo the statements that you've made, we certainly are in the same boat as other programs around the country. And so this is a way that folks could explore to spend some of those funds and to better provide services to their customers. So my background, I came to VR first in 2009. It was my first job out of law school, actually, and did not know anything about VR or what it was, but quickly became so interested and invested because of the good work that I saw that the division was doing and so really enjoyed getting to learn the program. I also represented our Florida Division of Blind Services, so got to do a lot of interesting work and Randolph Shepherd and in other areas with that unit. So that is how I came to VR. I worked with VR in a legal capacity for around eight years and then took this director's position back in February. So coming up on one year here shortly in terms of Florida General, we're housed within the Florida Department of Education, headquartered in beautiful Tallahassee, Florida. The states broken up into seven geographical areas, and each of those has an area director. Now, we haven't always been here in the Department of Education, and we'll talk a little bit about some of the history and where the division was previously. But yeah, we've been with the Department of Education for a number of years now and are a big component of Florida DOH.   Carol: So your background really positions you nicely for this job because you know, the regs really probably pretty inside and out as being the attorney for the agency for so long.   Brent: You know that part is certainly helpful and I tap into it regularly. I have to resist the urge to just be the lawyer. And we have a very capable and wonderful deputy general counsel that leads our VR legal team. So I defer to Nicole Saunders now on legal matters, but it is nice to have that background as well as those relationships that I was able to build as the attorney, including with folks like Tina.   Carol: Absolutely. So how many people do you serve and how many staff does Florida General have?   Brent: For the past several years, it has varied between around 45000 to 50000 individuals receiving services within a state fiscal year. We have 884 full time equivalent staff that are employees of the division of the state of Florida.   Carol: Wow. That is huge. Are you in the top five programs in the country or something? As far as size, I think.   Brent: I think we must be I know that we're one of the largest. And, you know, Florida is such a diverse state, too. We talk about from the tip of the panhandle, which is where I grew up over in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, all the way down to the Florida Keys. And, you know, those two ends of the state could not be more different in terms of, well, just geography, but also all of the economics, you name it, just really diverse and a lot of different challenges throughout the state for such a big state as Florida.   Carol: Yeah, tough for you to just like we're going to drive to all the offices today. That can't happen. So the model I alluded to, what is this model that Florida general is working under to meet your staffing needs?   Brent: For over 20 years now, Florida VR has been working with Service Source in a successful public private partnership, and that's really added service capacity in our state. And so I'm looking forward to telling everyone more about that today.   Carol: Very cool. So, Tina, I didn't mean to leave you out.. Why don't you tell our listeners about yourself and your background and how you kind of fit into this picture?   Tina: Oh, thank you, Carol, And thanks for inviting us here today. I have been in Florida most of my life here. As I said, I live in Vero Beach. I did live where you are from in Minnesota for five years. So I've enjoyed the Minnesota life as well. I started my career out as a teacher, so working with the youth has always been very close to my heart. I obtained my master's degree while working under this contract over the years and rehabilitation counseling, I have my CRC, my Certified Rehabilitation Counseling license. I was the second employee hired under this original contract with this partnership in 2001 as a vocational rehabilitation counselor. Believe it or not, I took this job under a newspaper advertisement. Does anybody know what that is anymore? So the director that hired me to start up was the startup director for the privatization project, Steve Palumbo. Steve had worked with the state of Florida VR system for many years. He started this privatization. He was a great mentor to me. I was very green, just like Brent talks about coming in. I didn't know that much at all about what I was getting myself into. I had no idea that 20 years later I'd be as excited as I am about what we do. And as he mentored me over the years, I started out as a VRC, so I was a vocational rehabilitation counselor for a few years and then I became a unit supervisor for one of our largest units, which was one of the first units in this partnership on the Treasure Coast. It serves four different counties, and I did that for about 11 years. And then when Steve retired in 2017, I became the director for the program and have held that position ever since. I've worked with Service Source for over 20 years and I've been very excited to be part of what I always say to people, kind of the trailblazer of this type of model. And it's been great because, as Brent said, we also work together very closely when he was the attorney for VR. So it's just been a great partnership.   Carol: So Brent, what happened back in the 1999 legislative session that led to your model for meeting staffing needs?   Brent: Well, I'll give the caveat that obviously I wasn't around at this time, but I've done some research and know anecdotally that there were some similar circumstances to what we're facing now. There are very high caseloads. We had a number of vacancies that were presenting challenges and consequently we had some underserved areas in Florida where folks were having a hard time receiving VR services. In response to that problem, the Florida legislature passed Senate Bill 230 and which directed VR and I'll quote, to enter into local public private partnerships to the extent that it is beneficial to increasing employment outcomes for persons with disabilities and ensuring their full involvement in the comprehensive workforce investment system. So at that time, Florida VR was broken into 24 regions. The division was housed in another state agency at that time and had not made the move to the Department of Education. So there were 24 regions in stark contrast to our seven areas now, and initially contracts were only awarded for three of those 24 regions. Service Source was awarded two of the three contracts that were initially awarded after procurement was conducted in 2000. And just a little bit more about Senate Bill 230. It did include a section on the legislative intent, which I thought might be interesting to listeners, and it basically states the legislature finds that individuals with disabilities experience the highest unemployment rate of any group in society as high as 75%, and that unemployment and poverty go hand in hand. The legislature also finds that persons who complete the vocational rehabilitation program are twice as likely to obtain and maintain employment, and the use of private providers is the readiest way to add service capacity for this population. I'll stop there.   Carol: That's really interesting. You know, we're still facing that issue today with people with disabilities being one of the largest groups that have issues with unemployment and living in poverty. And so the needle has not changed a ton, but you were able to increase capacity. So let me just clear this up. Did the legislature at the same time, did they like freeze your FTEs or you actually lost some FTEs, but you could then use this source to be able to make up the difference?   Brent: I don't know that there was a simultaneous move with respect to FTEs. I know that over the years that has occurred where they have been frozen or we have been permission to expand, but I don't know if that was occurring simultaneous to this effort in 1999. And Tina may be able to speak a little bit more about that because obviously there was some trepidation on the part of division employees to this fairly significant change.   Carol: Well, absolutely. They're thinking we're being eliminated. You're taking our jobs away. So, Tina, why don't we go to you? Because you were around back in 1999. What's your perspective on what happened back then?   Tina: Yeah, absolutely. I actually remember it like it was yesterday. As I said, when I came into the position, I remember, you know, you start your first day on the job with your little box of all your desk items and you're walking in. And state workers at the time, field staff looked very concerned. There was a lot of concern and it wasn't the welcoming that you might have expected on your first day of your new job, because I didn't know that at the time and didn't understand it. But as time went on, I understood that the communication wasn't very clear on why we were there and what we were doing there. But we were brought in. We were brought in to work alongside state employees. So at the time we were working in the same offices right next door and taking over some of the caseloads. And, you know, everybody's very particular about giving up their caseloads. But what I believe happened at that time is VRC caseloads, the vocational rehabilitation counselors were dealing with over 300 plus cases in certain units. There were counties that, as we were talking about, were completely underserved. As I said, I started out here on the Treasure Coast. There are four counties on the Treasure Coast, very large school districts that needed to be served. And we are about an hour and a half driving distance from the actual area office for the state. So this worked very well and it took a little bit of time. But when the employees started to feel the relief and some of the challenges they were having and they realized we weren't there to take their jobs, I feel like over time it just made things a lot easier when they saw the positive responses and that they still had their jobs and they were able to leave as they retired and there was no difference. In that particular office, those people, those state workers left over time through retirement. And then it became that the Treasure Coast was mainly the private provider inside the state offices. So definitely, as Brent said, it was a very unusual time and communication wasn't very forthright. Nobody really knew why. We knew we had jobs. We were coming in to help, but nobody understood it. But I believe over time those challenges kind of went away and the fear went away when we were helping and it was making a difference. And so that made a big difference. It got better.   Carol: So I'm sure the feds probably wanted to say one or two things about this arrangement. So what do either of you think, Brent, I'll go to you first from a state perspective, if you are able to answer this, what did you guys do to help alleviate federal concern about this arrangement? Because I keep thinking non delegables, you know, in my head.   Brent: Sure. Well, that's the big one. And so that is addressed contractually. And I think it's certainly explicit and clear in our current contractual arrangements, which we'll get into. But I would imagine that that had to be addressed right out of the gate because it would be the obvious challenge or something that we would have to deal with. And I think we have done so well. But I think to go back to the federal response, I do understand that RSA had some pretty significant concerns initially, and I speculate that that led to the decision to only enter the three small contracts initially rather than to try to do the whole state. And I understand they were only one year contracts with a possible renewal for two years. So a limited term and very limited geographically to start out. And I think that probably helped to address some of the concerns.   Carol: So, Tina, do you have any thoughts back then about the federal concern because you were there, you probably heard a little bit about that.   Tina: Sure. Basically what we found or what I saw was that RSA contracted agencies to come in and do quality assurance. We had many, many audits and quality assurance reviews regularly. And what I feel probably alleviated those concerns over time because I was part of them, my cases were pulled for audits and then when I became the supervisor, we were still doing many, many quality assurance desktop audits. And basically once we would get through these audits and they were positive and they could see that we were following processes, we were doing the same work that the state was doing, we were following everything that was laid out in the contract. The audits became less, the quality assurance coming around every few months were less and less. And I believe that just spoke to the kind of work that was happening over time. But there was definitely a lot of concern in the beginning and as Brent said. It started out with short term contracts and now we've gone into more of a three year with three year extensions. And of course, everything is still we're all being we should all be under compliance audits from time to time, but it's more regular now. It's not like it was in the past.   Carol: Gotcha. Okay. That helps clear that up. So, Brent, I know I said something about the non-delegables, so how do you address that to ensure that VR remains in control? Because I'm sure our listeners are thinking, all right, but how does that work exactly?   Brent: As I mentioned, we clearly set forth the definitions within the contract and sort of address that head on. And early on in the language of the contract, for example, in the purpose of the contract, under brief summary of the nature and purpose of the project, it states, the purpose of this contract is to perform delegable VR services to eligible persons with disabilities in Area two, Area three, Area six and seven. Essentially, we're establishing that right out of the gate we define what those terms mean within the definitions, of course, citing to the applicable regulations and laws. And then most importantly, every unit has an assigned position that is a state employee that we call a counselor analyst, and they have the final signing authority for all work in the unit. So that's really essentially how we address this the non-delegable issue. The Service Source unit supervisor reviews the work first and then it's ultimately reviewed and signed off on by the counselor analyst. And so Tina mentioned our Treasure Coast where we have two counselor analysts based just on the size of that unit and the population there. The counselor analyst reports to our area director in each area around the state and those four areas that have the private units. And so, of course, we always have to document customer choice and form choice and working with private or state staff. I think we do a good job of explaining during our intake process that the services will still be the same and that it should appear the same regardless of which selection a customer makes. As to whether they would prefer to work with our state staff or with Service Source staff.   Carol: So that speaks to the question then what steps did you take to integrate staff in the work? And Tina, I'm going to send that to you because you've been there since the very darn start of the whole thing.   Tina: Yes, we wanted this to look seamless, and in the beginning I wasn't part of those decisions, but I can see why we did this. And it worked. Basically, our Service Source staff are on the state system, so we have emails, we're included in all the state correspondence. If you were to pull up myself or Brent, we're both in the system, so are all of the staff, Our Service Source staff, we do take our Service Source trainings like you would do for any company that you work for. But then we also, our staff is part of the mandatory state trainings, including ethics and sexual harassment and all the beginning onboarding, because it's important that our staff understand when they're working inside of a state system. There might be a little bit of differences in how the state system may work to a private agency, so they're held accountable for the same things that the state employees are. The VR staff have some additions. What I had to do is we have a staff handbook for Service Source. I actually had them update the handbook over time to add some things that my staff that are working under this contract need to also abide by because they're under this contract. Our management for Service Source is part of all the bureau meetings. We sit on their task forces. It's been wonderful because over the years that's a big piece. The communication has gotten better and better. And what we found is that if we collaborated together and that we work together on strategic plans, brainstorming ideas for Florida, we work together so our management and our leadership sits with their leadership and we work as one. And really it's seamless. We don't go out into the community and say, we are Service Source, employees, we are VR. So when we're in the office, we get paid by Service Source, we work for our company. But when we are working under this contract, we are working as a VR employee.   Carol: I like that you said seamless. That was the word that popped into my mind because you're explaining this. I'm like, This seems really seamless and I'm sure that took time to get to that point.   Tina: It evolved. It evolved. But I feel like in all the years I've been here, we're at that place. We're at that place where it's the best I've ever seen it. And it's been a lot of collaboration that's brought us there, but definitely seamless at this point.   Carol: Excellent. So I know one thing that buzzes around in my mind because in Minnesota we're a unionized state, several different unions our staff fell under. So Brent, is Florida unionized?   Brent: Florida is a what's known as a Right To Work state. And that essentially means that a person can work in the state, whether they're in a union or not. They can't be compelled to join a union as a condition of keeping their job. I believe a little over half of the states are right to work states. You know, that doesn't present as much of a challenge for us here as it might in other areas.   Carol: Sure, no, thanks for clarifying that. So, Tina, I wanted to look at today how much territory does Service Source cover in Florida and how many employees are on the Service Source side of the house.   Tina: Yes. Brent alluded a little while ago to the fact that we are in four of their contracted seven areas that we covered. We are inside 16 state offices from Jacksonville to Key West we are predominantly in central part of Florida. And on the East Coast, we have 145 employees inside this contract. When we began to kind of give you how we've evolved, we started out with 45 and we only had two offices. So now I would say percentage wise, years ago, it's probably about 18% of what the state is doing. We're involved in, I would say somewhere between 18 and 20%, but we have offices mainly between Jacksonville and Key West.   Carol: Yeah, that helps to give a better picture of what that looks like. So what are some lessons that you've learned along the way? And Brent, I'm going to go to you first on that.   Brent: Sure. And, you know, Tina and I have talked about this as we prepared for this podcast. And I think we both agree that communication is really the key. And Tina alluded to that earlier, that the communication perhaps could have been better and stronger, more robust at the beginning of this process, because any time you have a significant change like this, we all know that there's going to be if there's a vacuum of information that's going to be filled and people are going to fear the worst and they're going to just come up with the sort of 'Parade of Horribles' to use an old legal term of what might go wrong. So I think it's just critically important and has been important to our relationship that we keep those lines of communication open. We need to make sure as the division that we ensure that our partners, that Service Source, receive the same messages and information that our state employees receive and really toward the greatest extent possible work to that seamlessness that we've talked about. And it's interesting that you all focused on that word because that has been sprinkled throughout. But also I think it just does go to that seamlessness that we look for where for all intents and purposes, the work we do is the same and the customer has the same quality experience no matter who their counselor is.   Carol: So how about you, Tina? Are there any other lessons learned that you want to talk about?   Tina: Yes, I totally agree with Brent. Communication has been the biggest key lesson learned over time. Change management would have been a good lesson 22 years ago. We could have used that topic right? How to help people get used to something different. But I guess something that comes to my mind, I think about many, many years ago we tried to do a staff leasing concept many years ago in one of the areas that we serve. We tried the idea of having a state supervisor, supervising Service Source staff in an underserved area, and it worked for a little bit, but I don't think it worked as well as our current model and what we're doing. So I think that was definitely a lesson learned that we should probably stick to what we're doing from the beginning here with this model, because when you're answering to or you're being supervised by somebody in your own company, it still was all the same concept. But I think it definitely worked better when we didn't do that staff leasing. Having the contract the way it is now, but hugely about communication all across the board. It helps with employee retention, it helps with training, it helps with us all following policy and doing things the way we're supposed to do to serve the customers.   Carol: So I'm sure everybody is wondering how you both are dealing with staffing shortages. I was thinking about that. Does staff move between like the two organizations and how do you deal with that? Tina, I'm going to ask you that first.   Tina: Sure. You know, Brent and I even newly working together, we discuss this ourselves, and I've talked about this with every previous director. We definitely discourage poaching. We do not look to take each other. So that's not the whole purpose of this contract. The purpose of this contract is that we're working together. However, we don't discourage it happens very infrequently that the employees go from one side or the other. But it does happen and it happens for good reasons sometimes, you know, some people have to move to another area of Florida and Service Source doesn't have an office there inside the state. So it would naturally make sense that they would stay within our system and they would go to a state unit and vice versa. And also for any kind of possible advancement. We do not have all of the positions that the state of Florida has. We have quite a few of the positions that they have under contract. But there may be an opportunity for one of our staff on both sides to have advancement if they come. So we do want to keep all of these great passionate people inside the system. So we're not looking to do that, but we don't encourage that. But that's the biggest thing, is making sure that we're working together and as a team rather than encouraging anything like that.   Carol: So is the pay similar then?   Tina: Yes, the pay is very similar. The only thing different you have to understand is that state benefits are less expensive. If you really kind of look at the bottom line, sometimes it may appear because we have to add on a little bit of money there to cover benefits and different things that a private company would be different than a state system. But when you really look at the actuality of them, Very similar. Very similar.   Carol: Gotcha. So, Brent, how about you? How are you dealing with just the overall staffing shortages?   Brent: Well, we're certainly thankful for our partnership with Service Source to provide the services that they do and the staff that they do. But bigger picture, I'm pleased to announce that we have put forward as part of the department's legislative budget request some pretty significant raises for our what we call our frontline staff, our counseling positions, our technicians and those folks who are working with the customers. It's frankly long overdue. And we, as many agencies around the country have experienced, have definitely had challenges with staffing. So we have gotten further along in this process than we have. I understand that before I came on board last year, the division was taking a run at this and getting their proposal into the legislative budget request, but it did not happen. So that has occurred this year. We're very excited about that. We have the department's support and we're cautiously optimistic that that will make its way through the legislature and this upcoming session and that we will have a great outcome there.   Carol: Good for you. That is exciting to hear. I'm sure colleagues across the country will be interested in how you pitch that to get into the budget. That's always part of the problem. Just getting it out of the agency.   Brent: Absolutely. And I will say a lot of blood, sweat and tears and a lot of hard work with staff here who really thought deeply and for a long time about the various ways that we could go about this. Yes, I'm proud of the folks here who have helped to make that happen. And as I said, cautiously optimistic. And we've tried to be as transparent as possible with folks around the state as well to let them know what we're doing and that we are we're trying to go to bat there and we're excited about the possibility and looking forward to a good result in the spring.   Carol: Excellent. Well, do keep me posted on that. So, Tina, I'm curious, are there other states that Service Source operates in? And then what kind of services can you provide?   Tina: Yes, we are a leading nonprofit disability resource organization. We have services and prime contract operations located in more than ten states and the District of Columbia. Service Source have five regional offices share a common mission to provide exceptional services to people with disabilities through a range of valued employment training, habilitation, housing and many, many other support services. We have regional offices that are in Florida, Virginia, Delaware, Utah and North Carolina. Our mission aligns with vocational rehabilitation mission. I mean, we are committed to building more inclusive communities.   Carol: Very cool. I had heard mentioned that maybe you guys even get into like being able to provide interpreter services and things like that.   Tina: Yes. Well, from this contract, having this contract for many, many years, you know, as I said, we sat on many bureau meetings and at one point Florida was in need of having a larger interpreter services scope throughout Florida. They already had interpreter services positions throughout Florida, but they were looking for a private organization or a contract. And we had experience in our Florida regional office working with individuals with deaf and hard of hearing. So we immediately jumped in and offered those services. And through that task we have a contract now where we have an interpreter services contract that is based out of our Clearwater, which is our regional office here in Florida. And we have positions throughout the state, again, just like our contract sitting inside state offices, serving right alongside the state interpreters, the state and staff interpreters. And it's been a wonderful program over the last few years.   Carol: Very cool. Yeah, Thanks for sharing that. I know some folks have struggled with the interpreter contracts. I've just heard that as of late across the country. As with anything else, you know, where people are struggling to get staffed. So looking back on all of this and knowing what you both know now, is there anything you would change about what has happened and how it may be happened? Brent, I'll go to you first.   Brent: Well, as I look on the historical record and the documents that I've been able to find about how all this occurred, I think hindsight being 2020, probably some of those initial contracts could have been drafted in a way that might not have raised so many red flags. Now, again, that is hindsight, because this was such a new and different concept. It may have been the case that regardless of how they were drafted, there would have been concerns. But, you know, I think some lessons can be learned from that as to how those have evolved. And again, there was some movement around this time when all this was occurring where VR was sort of moved from one agency to another, and it eventually landed with the Department of Education in 2002. And I think that provided some additional stability for the division, and we've been here ever since. So I think it was probably wise to start small and scale up from there and to focus on underserved areas. Those are, I think, some lessons that were properly implemented and that that would be a good way to get something like this off the ground.   Carol: Tina, how about you? Any thoughts on that? Anything you would change?   Tina: Yeah, I totally agree with Brent. The contracts started out very differently. At one point we had five contracts for this, this one contract. We had five different serving different areas of Florida. And I understand why it happened that way. Looking back now, though, probably with the idea that you can do amendments to contracts, I think if we were to do this again, just amending contracts and having one large contract, because now we do have over the last five years, the most recent contract is one large contract working as a team approach across the state. So all of our goals and deliverables are work together as in anything that you work with and a team approach always works better. I have consistency among managers working together. Everybody has final goals that we're all working for the same mission and concept, but they're working together and they're working as a team rather than working in separate areas of Florida with different guidelines and thought processes and salaries. It wasn't as consistent years ago. So I definitely think that was something that definitely will help all of us in the future when we look at something like this. But we have to, over time, continuously work on streamlining and efficiency based changes. They're necessary and we've done that over time. And I think because we've done that, it's led to the success of the program.   Carol: Well, the lessons that you all have learned and everything that you've gone through can definitely help another state because they don't have to go through the same path. They can start off kind of right where you're at really with learning from you all. So do you have any parting words of wisdom? If somebody is interested in this type of model? How about you, Brent?   Brent: Sure. I will just continue to say how well it's worked for Florida and how much we value the partnership. And I echo the sentiment that the state should all learn from one another and from one another's mistakes and challenges. And that's one of the great things about our collegial body that we share around the country with our colleague. You know, we're certainly willing to talk to folks to share documents, to let them know about how this is historically evolved. And I guess I would just say that it's one of the great benefits is that we're able to learn from one another and to complement each other. A private entity is able to be a little bit more nimble in many ways than a state agency that has layers of bureaucracy and sort of red tape. That's certainly a benefit that can occur with this kind of arrangement. It's something that we would certainly welcome any questions from other folks as to how they might do something like this in their state.   Carol: Excellent. So, Tina, how about you? Any parting words of wisdom?   Tina: You know, I would say just like Brent, it's a great partnership. We've had almost 22 years of experience working to support the state of Florida and their mission that has become our mission. It works successfully because we've cultivated an excellent working relationship with each other. The natural cooperation with our state counterparts has been an influential force in our success. Many years ago, one of the previous directors called it We now are VR one. We're no longer Service Source in State VR, we're VR one. I look to what we've just been talking about over the last year in the CSAVR, especially in the Spring Virtual Conference about transformational change and transformational leadership. You know, I wanted to raise my hand and go, that's like what we did 22 years ago. We were the transformational change that nobody really thought of back then. And so these are the types of ideas I hope that during my career now, I can see us replicate this relationship in other states so we can assist state VR agencies that are in need to help them achieve their goals and better serve their customers.   Carol: Very cool. I love that VR one. That's awesome. So I know you both had mentioned if somebody out there is interested in the idea and there's certainly welcome to contact you. So Brent, what's the best way for them to do that?   Brent: Sure. Number one, I have to get in a plug for our new website that has recently been redesigned. That's at w w w dot rehab works dot org. So that is the Florida general website. But to contact me directly, I'd be happy for folks to shoot me an email. And that is Brent dot McNeal at VR.fldoe.org.   Carol: Excellent. And Tina, how about you if somebody wanted to reach out and talk to you?   Tina: Sure. And I'll give you my contact first. That same thing with Brent. You can reach me on the state system at tina.Herzik@VR.fldoe.org or you can reach me on my service source, which is Tina dot herzik h e r z i k at service source all one word dot org. Please look up our website as well, ServiceSource.org. You'll get to hear and see all the other wonderful things we're doing throughout the country and you can see what's happening with other parts of our business. But we are very unique with this partnership. As far as what service source is doing for what we're talking about today. But that's also in the information when you look it up.     Carol: Excellent. Yeah, I really appreciate both being on. This is very cool to hear about what is. Happen and that it's sustained. It's really lasted the test of time, which is really interesting as well. And Brent, I hope you keep me posted on what's going on with those staff salaries later on. So I wish you both the best and happy holidays.   Tina: You, too. Thank you so much, Carol.   Brent: Thank you so much, Carol. And thanks, Tina, for agreeing to do this. It's been a great experience and happy to spread the word and hope that it's helpful for folks.   Tina: I'm glad we're working together, Brent, This is great, continuing our journey. That's right. Happy holidays, both of you.   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

Join Craig Hutchison and Damian Barrett for S7 Ep 39.The Sounding Board is proudly supported by Drinkwise. If you're choosing to drink, choose to drink wise.TIME CODES0.00 - Damo and Hutchy were both at the races but didn't even bump into each other. Damo was the guest of Sportsbet – do we need to tell Media Watch?2.30 – Melbourne v Sydney racing. How are the TV ratings going given the changes now that Channel 10 have entered the broadcast arena.6.30 - Netball Australia announce a $15million sponsorship deal with Visit Victoria. How do we feel about tax payer money propping up entire sports?14.20 – The Winx of Journalism aka Nick McKenzie is back with his latest story for 60minutes ‘Trafficked'. He's in fine form.16.00 – Melbourne Football Club has appointed a new GM of media coms. Matthew Goodrope sent out a media release about himself!.18.45 – Discussion of The Herald Sun's article on Hutchy's income and reported bonus pay.23.40 – Question of the Week for Drinkwise from Andrew Vitolins via Email. “After a disastrous first season as new owners of Perth Wildcats Hutchy's method of feebly attempting to pacify the Western Australian public has seen him repeatedly come out with his mantra '' judge us what we do on the court". What is Hutchy's own judgement of the season so far for the Perth Wildcats?26.45 – Spin City. Hutchy is a steward for the VRC who stuffed up the barrier draw.30.00 – Damo's ‘Blow Up' at Hutchy – check out the Mediaweek story HERE. 32.00 – Discussion of the release of Tim Payne's new book.To send Hutchy and Damo a question jump on Twitter or Facebook or email thesoundingboard@sen.com.auThe Sounding Board is produced, engineered and edited by Jane Nield for SEN.

Frederick Charles Standish left England in 1852 under a false name and fleeing moneylenders. Landing in Melbourne, he was forced to live on the goldfields and run a sly grog business. Yet, just six years later, he would be the colony's Chief Commissioner of police, be a pallbearer at Robert O'Hara Burke's funeral, invent the Melbourne Cup, become a key player in the formation of the VRC and lead, very unsuccessfully, the hunt for Ned Kelly.   Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the life of one of Australia's strangest characters, a man who paused the hunt for Ned Kelly while the weights of the Melbourne Cup were declared. Follow Sports Bizarre on: Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok YouTube

Gaemia Tracy, DVM, DACVIM, (Neurology) attended veterinary school at Ohio State University and then completed a one-year rotating small animal internship at Carolina Veterinary Specialists in Charlotte, North Carolina. He joined the VRC team in 2020. Tracy's special interests include IVDD treatment and management, atlantoaxial instability management, management of inflammatory CNS diseases, and seizure management. 

The boys spoke about Durston's withdrawal from the Melbourne Cup, the huge VRC carnival ahead, the effect of the rain, flooding in the area, and more.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Minimalist extended very repugnant conclusions are the least repugnant, published by Teo Ajantaival on October 24, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. This is part four of a series on minimalist axiologies (i.e. axiologies that essentially say “the less this, the better”). Every part of this series builds on the previous parts, but can also be read independently. Summary Population axiology matters greatly for our priorities. Recently, it has been claimed that all plausible axiological views imply certain “very repugnant conclusions” (defined below). In this response, I argue that minimalist views avoid these “very repugnant conclusions”, and that they face less repugnant conclusions than do contrasting offsetting views. 1. Are repugnant implications inevitable? In population axiology, certain offsetting views, according to which independent bads can be offset by a sufficient amount of independent goods, face the Very Repugnant Conclusion (VRC): A population of arbitrarily many lives with arbitrarily high welfare is worse than a population of arbitrarily many arbitrarily negative lives plus sufficiently many ε-lives that each have an arbitrarily small quantity of positive welfare (Figure 1). Offsetting views also allow the ε-lives in the VRC to be rollercoaster lives that all contain unbearable suffering (purportedly counterbalanced by a sufficient amount of bliss). In particular, symmetric classical utilitarianism implies interchangeability between a non-suffering ε-life and the rollercoaster life illustrated in Figure 2 (provided that the “overall welfare” of the rollercoaster life equals ε). Additionally, one may replace each non-suffering ε-life in the original VRC with an intrapersonal VRC life (Figure 3). Recently, Budolfson and Spears (2018) have argued that all plausible views in population ethics imply similarly repugnant conclusions, namely that they imply either the VRC or a closely analogous Extended VRC (XVRC), which I illustrate shortly at the beginning of Section 2. The purpose of this essay is to argue that this claim does not apply to minimalist views. In a nutshell: minimalist views avoid the VRC, can avoid repugnant XVRCs, and, at any rate, face XVRCs that are less repugnant than are the comparable conclusions faced by offsetting views. Three claims Budolfson and Spears (2018, pp. 31–32) make the following three claims: Claim 1: No leading welfarist axiology can avoid the VRC. Claim 2: No other welfarist axiology in the literature can avoid the XVRC. Claim 3: The XVRC is just as repugnant as the VRC. The authors conclude that: Repugnant implications are an inevitable feature of any plausible axiology. If repugnance cannot be avoided, then it should not be. We believe this should be among the guiding insights for the next generation of work in value theory. Claim 1 does not apply to minimalist axiologies The scope of Claim 1 (“No leading welfarist axiology can avoid the VRC”) is limited to ‘leading' welfarist axiologies, that is to views that, according to the authors, are commonly-held in the axiological literature (p. 8). These do not cover minimalist axiologies, although axiologies that are essentially minimalist have been defended, for instance, by Schopenhauer (1818/1819, 1851), Wolf (1996, 1997, 2004), Fehige (1998), Breyer (2015), and Knutsson (2021b, “axiological claim”). To the extent that the VRC seems repugnant, it is worth noting that all minimalist axiologies do avoid the VRC, and can do so neatly without relying on arbitrary or ad hoc assumptions. Claim 2 requires that we extend the XVRC Claim 2 (“No other welfarist axiology in the literature can avoid the XVRC”) is not straightforward to evaluate, because the original XVRC, as the authors define it, applies strictly only to views that make the assumption of independently aggregable ...

More than 7000 homes and businesses in Victoria's north could soon be flooded as the state's historic emergency event continues. Shepparton residents are continuing to be bombarded with flood water, while other areas start the clean up process following last week's monster deluge. The Goulburn River may peak near 12.1m later on Monday morning, potentially putting 7300 homes and businesses in Shepparton, Mooroopna and Kialla in danger of being surrounded or filled with flood water. Victorian Emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp said they received 56 requests for rescues in those areas overnight on Sunday, with some yet to be undertaken. Bureau of Metrology meteorologist Dean Narramore said several river catchments are expected to peaked on Monday. “On the Avoca River around the Charlton area, it looks like will peak around 8m today with major floods that will cause some issues there today,” he told the ABC. “Moving further eastwards, we're looking at major flooding continuing and it will for a number of days on the Campaspe and the Goulburn River. “We'll see the floodwaters peak in Echuca and Moama, similar to the 1993 levels. “Shepparton as well looking to peak sometime later today or into tonight. Similar to the levels of 1974, so it's going a long way back. “There's a massive amount of water on the Goulburn right now and that all feeds into the Murray River, so we're concerned for Echuca and Moama in the coming days.” But he warned more heavy rainfall has been “unfortunately” forecast for later in the week, with up to 25mm potentially hitting already flood-affected areas like Echuca and Shepparton. “Not good news for our flood-affected areas ... looking at widespread 25-50mm falls over much of inland New South Wales, northern Victoria and Queensland,” Mr Narramore said. “This is a lot less than what we saw, but with everything now so wet and saturated, this is going to lead to renewed river level rises on many of our already flooded rivers. “Particularly as we get in towards that Thursday and Friday time frame … we could see quite a few severe thunderstorms through inland areas across multiple days later this week and into the weekend.” Mr Narramore also said “it could be a while” until the rain lets up for residents in Australia's east. “It looks like we will get a brief break over the weekend Sunday and Monday, but there is another system hot on its heels as we move into early parts of next week,” he told The Today Show. “ This wet pattern continues to bring widespread flooding across eastern Australia.” Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said Victoria was facing a “a very serious situation”. “The reports I‘m getting, we could be looking at up to 9000 homes inundated in northern Victoria and potentially close to about 34,000 homes in Victoria either inundated or isolated,” he told the ABC. Mr Crisp said around 300 to 400 homes have inundated with flood water in Echuca, while about 800 to 900 have been affected in Rochester. “I had the opportunity to fly over Rochester yesterday. To be frank, it‘s depressing, there's water everywhere,” he told the ABC. “We'll work with, stand with, and support the community of Rochester and we'll be doing everything we can to help them get back on their feet.” On Saturday morning, a respected member of the Rochester community sadly lost his life in his backyard during the relentless weather event. Kevin Wills, 71, who was born in the Victorian town lived with his wife on High Street for years, with the community heartbroken at the loss. Mr Wills' wife was also found by emergency services trapped at the property but was rescued safely. Victoria SES has issued more than 60 flood warnings across the state, more than 100 Australian Defence Force personnel have been deployed, while around 120 schools and 100 early learning centres are closed on Monday. The state and federal governments have prepared the Centre for National Resilience in Mickleham to provide crisis care for those needing accommodation. The Mickleham facility will provide 250 beds from Tuesday next week for people who have lost their homes in the floods. Residents will also receive food and other support services at the site, as well as remotely. The Commonwealth built and owned Mickleham location recently closed as a quarantine hub, allowing it to now open its doors to flood victims. Emergency Management Victoria, along with Emergency Recovery Victoria and Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria, are working collaboratively to set the facility up, using the existing quarantine staff and service providers to get support to those who need it quickly. The centre will act as a hub, as residents will be supplied with free regular transport on a provided shuttle bus to the local train station and shopping centre. Every room provided to those in need will hold toiletries and necessities, and people will be provided with three meals per day. Local charities are working to provide items that families may have had to leave behind in the floods, such as clothing. The federal government also made disaster assistance payments available for 44 flood affected areas across Victoria, NSW and Tasmania. In Victoria those 23 local government areas are: Alpine Benalla Buloke Campaspe Central Goldfields Corangamite Gannawarra Greater Bendigo Greater Shepparton Hepburn Horsham Loddon Macedon Ranges Mansfield Maribyrnong Mitchell Shire Moira Moonee Valley Murrindindi Northern Grampians Pyrenees Strathbogie Wangaratta One-off Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payments are also available in Campaspe, Greater Shepparton, Maribyrnong, Mitchell and Strathbogie. There is $1000 per adult and $400 per child in recognition of the significant losses people in those areas have experienced due to the floods. The state government also revealed on Sunday that Melbourne Water will conduct a review into the 3m floodwater wall around Flemington Racecourse. It will investigate claims from frustrated residents that the racecourse managed to avoid the severe flooding because the wall pushed water into the surrounding Maribyrnong area. “Melbourne Water will conduct a thorough review of this flood event and any impact that wall had on this flood event,” Mr Andrews said. “And they'll do that work at arm's length from the government and report progress.” Racing Victoria chief executive Andrew Jones told Channel 9 over the weekend the well had created “unintended consequences”. “The VRC took steps to flood-protect its property 15 years ago, which it's entitled to do. That's obviously had unintended consequences for neighbouring residents,” he said. “Obviously there was no intention of the VRC to cause harm. They tried to protect the spring carnival and the Melbourne Cup Carnival, which is a massively important part of Victorian life and the Victorian economy, so I think this is an unintended consequence.” FLOOD WARNINGS Major Flood Warning for the Avoca River Major Flood Warning for the Broken River Major Flood Warning for the Campaspe River Major Flood Warning for the Goulburn River Major Flood Warning for the Loddon River Major Flood Warning for the Seven and Castle Creeks Major Flood Warning for the Wimmera River Moderate Flood Warning for the Barwon River Moderate Flood Warning for the Ovens and King Rivers EMERGENCY WARNINGS Echuca and Echuca Village (Evacuate Immediately) Bunbartha (Evacuate Immediately) Charlton (Evacuate Immediately) Shepparton, Mooroopna, Orrvale, Murchison, Kialla West (Too Late to Leave) Rochester (Move to Higher Ground) Campaspe River downstream of Rochester (Move to Higher Ground) Nanneella, Fairy Dell, Koyuga and Kanyapella South (Move to Higher Ground) Campaspe River Lake Eppalock to Barnadown (Move to Higher Ground) Loddon River Loddon Weir to Kerang (Move to Higher Ground) - by Hamish Spence and Isabel McMillan, news.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leigh Jordan heads up the VRC team as the barrier draw for the 2022 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington takes place live in the RSN 927 studios!

Melbourne Cup nominations closed yesterday and the VRC's EGM of Racing Leigh Jordon joins us to discuss who might be making the journey out to Australia

Joining Carol Pankow in the studio today is Toni Wolf, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC) since 2017. Toni leads her agency with the belief, "If the system isn't enhancing the quality of life for the individual, we at MRC must change the system."   Toni explains how MRC has developed a culture of engagement with customers to build trust and make space for the conversation about what is possible.   Find out how the focus on engagement and partnerships with the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Transitional Assistance is moving the employment needle to quality.    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: Moving the Employment Needle to Quality - Learn How the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission has Used Engagement and Partnership to Pave the Path to Quality Employment   {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: Well, welcome to the manager minute. Joining me in studio today is Toni Wolfe, commissioner of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission since 2017. Toni has a rich history in the mental health arena and is leading her agency with the belief if the system isn't enhancing the quality of life for the individual, we at MRC must change the system. So, Toni, how are things going in Massachusetts?   Toni: Well, you know, first of all, I'm really proud of representing Massachusetts today. So thank you, Carol, for having us here. And Massachusetts is thriving. I mean, like everywhere across the country, there are enormous amount of job opportunities. And so I feel like it's our time. It's our time with people with disabilities. Inclusivity is the buzzword. People are really embracing it. They're really believing in it. And that includes people with disabilities.   Carol: Well, I'm glad to hear that. So, Toni, I don't know if you remember back, but I had the good fortune of meeting you back in 2017 when you were attending your very first CSVAR conference. And we chatted over lunch and you were getting your feet wet and now you've been at it for five years. I'd say you're probably one of the more seasoned VR leaders today. We've had such a turnover in the field these past eight years, so it's been pretty unbelievable. But it's awesome to see the things that you've been digging in and making so many enhancements to your agency, and people are definitely buzzing about the things happening in Massachusetts. So I wanted to focus our conversation today on the quality outcomes that you're seeing now. I know it didn't just happen by accident, and I'd like to unpack what went into the work you did with your agency. So can you give our listeners a little bit of perspective about MRC, like how many individuals you serve, kind of the number of staff you have, and any other facts that might help paint a picture of your agency?   Toni: Sure, I'd be happy to. Massachusetts is a small state compared to other states in the country. We have about 800 employees. We serve currently 15,000 people in VR. Now that used to be 22,000 before COVID. And that's true, I think for all the agencies right now we're seeing a decline, but we are also very eager to increase that number in addition to our VR services, which right now is about 57 million, we also have a very robust community living division, serving same number of people and actually increasing the dollars with federal dollars as well. So we're a little bit about 63 million in our community living division. And then we also manage and support Disability Determination Division that's funded obviously by SSA. So that gives you a little bit of a perspective of MRC, Mass Rehab Commission.   Carol: Yeah, I had no idea. You said you're small, but you're a lot bigger than I thought you were. That is awesome. So you had mentioned to me when we visited earlier that you're really focused on looking at quality jobs that can provide a career pathway for individuals. So what's that look like in the sectors that you're seeing in Massachusetts?   Toni: Well, I think, number one, we're really focusing a lot on cybersecurity. Those are positions that are starting salary is 65 and up. And we really want to help people really advance their career opportunities. So that also meant a longer training program because obviously it requires that kind of knowledge base working with the community colleges, working with our staff, working with the individual people are really seeing the value of cybersecurity and the job offerings are unbelievable. So again, there's a huge opportunity there. We're also seeing things like STEM positions, anything that's related to technology. And Massachusetts is really fortunate that we're at this hub right where we have amazing employer partners. So it really is an opportunity to really help people advance. And that's really what it's about. It's about mobility. You may not start in the job. That is exactly the job you want or the rate that you want, but does it give you the opportunity to have mobility? And that's what we're looking at.   Carol: So how is that impacted your data focusing on these different sectors? Have you started to see some changes in your data?   Toni: Well, we're definitely seeing in terms of higher wages now, I would love to say we want to see more of that, which is definitely true. We're also seeing that internships, apprenticeship programs are really the way to go on, not to say that people should not have a four year education opportunity, but we're really seeing short term training opportunities that gets people into the door with employers, then gives people the mobility access that they need.   Carol: I love that you said that because I think internships and apprenticeships we have not been very good at in VR. I mean, I don't think it's so good for a long time and I'm really glad WIOA has put a focus on that as well. And I think society as a whole has put sort of this, you know, the prestige around this four year degree or you've got your masters in, they're forgetting all these awesome occupations where you can have an internship or apprenticeship, you know, and get into a certain position and we're missing the boat, like making that somehow seamless because those are crazy careers. Like, I have a plumber at my house right now and you go, Those people are making a lot of money. It's not like five bucks an hour or so.   Toni: Well, and it's also relying on the resources of the employer. Employers really are eager to have people come in to the door and really support them and also really advance them so that they can keep a good employee. So it's really about maximizing not only the VR resources, but the employer resources with internships and apprenticeships and also helping people explore what's out there. Know there are positions that we've never heard of before that didn't even exist three years, five years ago. They exist today. So let's really help people think about what's out there.   Carol: Yeah, I think the pandemic opened up a whole new world to what we learned, what was possible from all of that. Right now, I know this idea of engagement has been really important to you. Can you tell us about the strategies that you have developed around engagement?   Toni: So this is very hot and mass rehab. So what we saw was that we missed people in the beginning steps, right? That we looked at our data and looked at the statuses and what was happening and how we lost people. And engagement means before you even talk about employment, you engage the individual to say, I'm here, let's think about what's possible. All right. And we spent a lot of time and we're using a lot of state resources to make sure that we are giving employees the opportunity to engage in individual. What that means is building a relationship, connecting with them, going where they are not always making sure that the individual comes to us. So that could be at a residential program, that could be at a community setting, that could be someone's library or natural community. It's really, again, going where they are or where they feel comfortable and engaging. And what we're seeing is, is that that opportunity allows people to begin to build a trusting relationship, to then be able to talk about work, talk about what's next, give you the opportunity to think about, am I really interested in employment? Maybe I could be right, because we're seeing people so hesitant right now, so even more so than ever, it really requires engagement.   Carol: So how did that happen with the staff? I know some other states have been talking with staff, have been a little hesitant about going out and meeting people, especially meeting people in their homes or things like that. But even meeting people in the community, folks have been worried about data privacy and all different things. How did you work with staff to make all this happen?   Toni: Well, we started first with one of our programs, which is a partnership with the Department of Mental Health. And we hired people that what we're calling mental health specialists, mental health rehab staff who really enjoy that population and understand the challenges and the strengths of people with mental health conditions. And we set up front, you're going where they are, you're going in the community residence, you're going. So that really set the tone automatically. Let me just say that. And also, we talked about engagement. What we did was we kind of looked at some of the principles we really want to instill throughout MRC and let's do it on a small scale basis. So we have a $4 million project with a Department of Mental Health. We have about 25 counselors, and they are going in the community settings, they're going in the residential programs, they're going in clinics. All right. They're going where consumers are, right, where it's not such an effort to engage people. And we also are making sure that our counselors are working within a team, that it's wonderful that VR has traditionally been one on one. But what we know also is that people really thrive when there are more resources at the table. So not just think about the person in the VR lens, but think of the whole person.   Toni: So is their home safe? All right. Do they have food on the table? All right. Can they think about work? Can they think about going on an internship? What about their transportation? How can we help people? So again, it's not only just working with the individual, but working with other resources so that people can really thrive on their goals. So that's when we started that. And then we expand it to a different partnership, which is our Department of Transitional Assistance Partnership. So again, we made sure that people learned and heard the value of going where the consumer is. And I have to say now what we're calling via are throughout the agency, people are realizing that that office is not the Pandora's. We can open that up. Right? We don't have to be glued to the door. And there was a myth that in VR for some of our counselors that felt like if an individual went to the office, that meant that that was kind of a test. They were really committed. Right. We know that's not true. There's lots of reasons why people don't make appointments. Right. It doesn't mean that they're any less interested in achieving their goal. So I do think in this, a remote arena that we've all experienced, it also is opening up enormous opportunities.   Carol: Yeah, you are spot on on that. I remember the whole test concept. If they get there and think about Minnesota like Winter and there maybe someone is also in a wheelchair and they're trying to navigate buses and then trying to get through our parking lot. That's not plowed very well. And then they're late. And then the counselor is thinking, wow, they weren't very committed to getting here. It just probably took him 2 hours to get here. So we don't have to put people through kind of through the paces. I know you're talking about this partnership with mental health. And of course, you've had that long, rich history in the mental health arena. So I wasn't surprised that you were engaging in partnering with your Department of Mental Health. How is that relationship blossomed over these last five years? Have there been any things you've been doing specifically to sort of cultivate that?   Toni: Yeah. So we first created a vision statement as a group so that we wanted to make sure this was a long term historical perspective. We wanted a vision statement. We wanted to make sure both agencies were committed short term and long term to really work with people with mental health conditions. We also on a monthly basis, even today, this project has been going on for four years. We look at the key performance indicators. All right, how are we doing? What is the say? What does this actually mean? Maybe we need to go back and dig into the data to see if there are other things that we can tweak. So it is really a partnership that we're doing with EMH and with MRC and it also involves other clinicians. And so how do we help other clinicians who may not always think about employment? All right, but how do we help them as well? See, broaden their lens to make sure that employment is part of their discussion with the individual.   Carol: When you talk to you about that partnership with the Department of that transitional assistance, I don't have a good feel exactly for what all that department does. But can you talk a little bit about that and how you have cultivated that? Like what is we didn't have a department that was named that. So I'm not understanding exactly what they what they do.   Toni: Yeah. So I'm not sure what's related to other states. So I apologize. But they are. The Department of Transitional Assistance provides residents with cash benefits, food assistance and workforce training opportunities. We're really excited to partner with the Department of Transitional Assistance on our Empowered to Employ program. Gotcha. It's a group that traditionally has not always seen individuals with disabilities, and yet we know that individuals with disabilities are everywhere. All right. So we sat down and said, look, the individuals that we work with are using your services. We are the experts in the disability arena. Let's partner together. You are the experts in benefits. You are the experts in food security issues. You are the experts in supporting individuals with food assistance and other economic features. Let's combine our efforts, and that has really been an eye opener for both DTA and for MRC. And I say that for MRC side. Traditionally we don't always see individuals as part of a family, all right. That they too are caregivers. And so a lot of individuals that we are servicing through our DTA project are single parents. So it has enriched our consumers, it has reached our staff, let me say, to really appreciate the challenges people have that are also caregivers themselves with a disability. Right. And it has helped to because they're seeing something incredibly positive when people get employed. All right. So it helps them also believe that more is possible for their individuals. So I think it's been a really enriching partnership and we are in the process of expanding that partnership. It's been so successful.   Carol: That is brilliant because if you think about it, you want to look for a job, but you're also you have these basic needs like.   Toni: Childcare.   Carol: Food. You know, I need food and I need childcare and I need all this other stuff. And so it's kind of this really revolving circle. And if you can't, you've got to get it all met together so that that all is in sync. That's right. So if somebody was wanting to reach out to that because we it was our Department of Health and Human Services and Minnesota would be that agency that did that and that kind of the SNAP and TANF and all these different programs. How would somebody reach out to get that relationship going? If you were giving some advice to your colleagues out there, how could they go about trying to engage that partnership?   Toni: So, you know, I would be lying to tell you that it was not something that happened easily. But at the same token, it was about relationship building. That's what everything is about. So it was really at that time the commissioner myself talking about where our shared individuals that we service were right how to think about that differently and not being so siloed in our roles and in our departments, but really looking at what I'm calling collaboration. Right. And we had more in common than we had. That was different. And so that really, really allowed us to really think about let's start a pilot project where we're working together, where we're looking at actually having a VRC in a DTA office. And this was pre-COVID. All right. So our VR counselor actually sat and was headquartered in a DTA office to start building relationships, and that then grew over time. And that's really, I think how you build partnerships is that you start building relationships, you start thinking about the shared individual that we all care about and serve and what's best for them. And I have to say, DTA has been a great, great partner.   Carol: That's smart. I mean, that was really smart, starting with that VR counselor in their office. Good for you. So I know partnership is definitely a theme and you took some lessons you've learned to help you secure. You get a Disability Innovation Fund grant from RSA in 2021. So what's the premise of that grant you wrote, I think you had called it Next Gen. It was something kind of snazzy like that.   Toni: Well, that's what we want to be snazzy. I think VR has a rap of not being innovative and that's not true. We are incredibly passionate here at MRC. Every staff person is incredibly passionate about the work they do, and yet we also have to translate it so people think differently about us, that we are innovative, that we do really look at servicing the individual and the family in a really robust way. So next gen is to serve what we're calling 18 to 30 year olds. All right. It is really about translating what we do to their needs. It's again, focusing on the team approach so that if somebody does not feel comfortable working as part of a team, they would not use next gen. But this is a very much of a team effort. The thinking behind this is that there would be a benefit specialist up front, there would be a counselor, there would be a peer mentor, someone with lived experience themselves. That's part of the team that could help an individual. They would be somebody that also understands outreach and the importance of outreach and the resources in the community. And the thinking is that the youth or the young adult is we're calling that person 18 to 30 really is part of the circle of that team and they will decide who they want to work with at that point in time. It doesn't always have to be the VR counselor that's the case manager or the care person that's coordinating efforts. So it's really putting the young adult in charge. And what we're hearing with youth and young adults, they want to feel like they're dictating what happens and they should. It's their life, right? So it's really putting the young adult in the center and really making sure that they're driving the ship. So we're very excited. And next gen, it does mean thinking very differently around VR services. It does mean, again, internships, apprenticeships, working in the community very differently. But we're very excited about this opportunity.   Carol: That's really cool. So I see you're probably like a year into this.   Toni: Now we're actually in a year of model design. And just to give you an idea of what we've done, we have vetted it with a number of young adults. We have vetted with sister agencies. We have vetted it with families because very much families have felt left out and not as included as they should in thinking about services. And I think that, again, there's always this sometimes myth, sometimes reality, that if you involve the family, the individual is not as independent. And we believe that both parties have a voice in that. And sometimes it's different. A different voice. All right. But if you don't, again, bring people to the player together, you won't have the results that you want. And that's really what this is all about, is really making sure that that young adult is successful and has results.   Carol: Well, I'm definitely going to follow up with you later on a later podcast about how things are going with that project. I'm really excited to hear about that. That is very cool. Now, I know we talked about the pandemic for just a second. At the beginning, you talked about the number of customers you're serving, went down from 22000 to 15000. Obviously, we saw this major contraction during the, you know, the pandemic and the people served in VR. So did you have any surprises as you kind of look back on the pandemic, any kind of surprises that may have come up that you learned about? And are your numbers starting to come back up?   Toni: Yeah, we are. Recently, we see about a 25% increase in the last 60 days. So we are seeing the numbers increase. I think, again, it's depending upon each state and where they are with their COVID rates. But Massachusetts has been very aggressive. Every state employee here in Massachusetts is required to have a vaccination. So we've been very aggressive in that. I think when I think about surprises as horrible and as challenging COVID has been, both in terms of people's personal lives, people's losses, it also has really, I think, demonstrated the resiliency of us as people. And it has meant that people had to change. There was no choice. We all had to react and we all had to react quickly. And so it has relied it has required us to rely on technology faster. And for some of us like myself, it always is a little bit of a challenge to learn a new technology. But it made me I haven't had no choice. And in some times when you have no choice, you embrace change and you don't even realize you're embracing change until you're in it. So I think for MRC, it really helped us really be able to appreciate the resiliency of our workforce, the resiliency of the individuals we serve. You know, we made sure that we did not close any cases for a long period of time. We just wanted to engage. All right. Let's not worry anymore about numbers for a while. This is a pandemic, but continue to reengage and have a relationship with that individual and. The individual will come back. And that's what we're seeing in the last 60 days. Our numbers have been increasing.   Carol: That's exciting to hear. Good for you. I think that's that's a good approach, that engagement. And I know for so many of the customers, people were losing employment. You know, they got laid off during that. So there was a lot of things and a lot of just everybody was struggling with personal issues, whether, you know, being ill or family and all of that. So I think keeping connected. So are your staff, are they back at the office or are you guys still working hybrid or.   Toni: Yeah, so we're embracing the hybrid model. We think there's enormous strengths and we actually are just now engaging with working with a vendor to really be able to have feedback every month from our consumers so that we understand what their experience is. Because what we're seeing is it's changing, right? People are beginning to feel more comfortable, but we want to really evaluate that. What are the things that an individual is experiencing well and what are the things that they're not experiencing? Well, at MRC, we are hearing that a lot of individuals we serve really appreciate remote access. It eliminates transportation challenges. It gives a quick opportunity. All right. And we've also had, I think, really fortunate opportunity to also offer technology to our individuals. So we've spent about $15 Million to make sure that people have the technology they need. So there was not a divide, a digital divide, which is what I was fearful of, to be honest. Yeah, we have now staff using technology, but we don't have individuals with disabilities using technology. So it does require training, it does require some education. We're also doing some things like what I would call soft tricks, soft skill training on how do you actually look when you're working remote, right? What are some of the things that you need to be mindful of when you're interviewing remotely? Right. So really being able to help people have a little bit more self awareness in this remote arena. But I think that it's been really a great opportunity for everyone. And what I'm seeing in our small state, even though we're small, right, it has allowed us to talk to the East and the West State in 5 minutes. Right. We've pulled more meetings together in a more collaborative way because we don't have to drive two and a half, 3 hours to get to that meeting. And so I think it has allowed us more access, more communication access for sure.   Carol: That is excellent. I'm glad to hear that. What advice would you give to colleagues across the country? You know, they may want to pivot and focus more on engagement and partnership. And obviously, you've been doing this for five years now. And as you said with something earlier, it doesn't just happen overnight. It takes some time. But in your wise wisdom hat, what advice would you give folks out there?   Toni: Well, I don't think I have any right to give anybody advice because we're all learning. But what I will say is that it does take time, but you really have to believe that people are committed to the work. And I do want to say that there is not a staff person here at mass rehab that's not committed to the work. You can't teach commitment. All right. You can teach change. You can help people adapt to change. You can't teach commitment. And so I think for me, it's really helping people understand the change, have the vision of the change. And one of the things that we did here was that we had a roadmap. We literally, when I came on board, brought in a consultant to help us develop a roadmap of where we're going. And in that roadmap, we still have a roadmap steering committee that really looks at are we keeping true to the priorities we've set and we communicate out quarterly to the results of that roadmap? Are we still staying true to what we said we want to work on in spite of COVID or maybe because of COVID? Right. Doesn't take away the direction and the vision of the agency. And so I think more flexibility is necessary in VR. I think innovation is absolutely essential and I think being able to translate the work differently is really also important. What we're getting feedback from young adults just with our own name called Mass Rehabilitation Commission, is that people are not broken. There's nothing about rehab that should be in our name. So we are also looking at our own branding exercise and we have a great communications director that's helping us do that. But it really is about how do we translate differently to the population we're serving. Young adults today are different, all right? They want different things. They want quicker reactions. They want responses. We need to be that reactive in a positive way.   Carol: That's like the Amazon overnight delivery. They want a quick we all do. If you can't touch your screen and scroll and all of that, you're like, what's going on?   Toni: That's right.   Carol: Yes, absolutely. So you've talked about so many cool things. I've been interested in this contractor that's doing the surveys monthly, and you've talked about the different projects you've had. Does any of this live on your website, any information about some of your projects? Because folks I know people always like to go, hey, can you get us a link to a website so we can go look?   Toni: So this is when I think our director of communications probably like scrounging right now because we're aware that a website does not reflect as much as we would like. We're in the process of developing a new website and enhancing our website. So please get on board and connect with us. And we'll be. Happy to give you any information we have. I really think this is a community that we have to support each other in change. And I want to put a shout out to California, who's really helped us as we developed our eligibility process and expedited eligibility. Thanks to California. All right. And we have now a centralized eligibility system called MRC Connect so that people can actually apply for services one time, whether it's in VR or HCL, that's really about really again streamlining processes. So for the individual we serve, it's not such a bureaucratic process. So I do think that innovation is really critical. Our website may not reflect that yet, so just reach out to us.   Carol: Okay, that sounds really good. And Joe Xavier would love that you gave him a shout out. We did a podcast with Joe's team about, I think about four podcasts to go talking about the rapid engagement, and it is our highest downloaded podcast that we've had to date. It's been really fun, but you are so right, Toni. I mean, it takes a village and VR and people have all these incredible ideas. I know Joe helped me back in the day and a team model approach and so many different things I took from colleagues across the country. And then you take it and make it yours, you know? So I love that you're willing to have people reach out and just contact you.   Toni: Yeah, please do.   Carol: Thanks much for sharing. You packed a lot into this half hour. I love it. And so there's been a lot of very cool things that you've talked about. And I definitely am going to want to circle back with you at a later date just to find out the progress, especially on your Next Gen, very snazzy, cool Grant. So it sounds good and thanks much. I wish you the very best, Toni. Great job.   Toni: Thank you. Thank you for allowing us to shine a little bit and MRC will be proud. But more importantly, I think everyone really cares about the work across the country. So thank you for helping us do that.   Carol: Have a great day.   Toni: All right. You too. Bye bye.   {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.  

En este episodio conversé con Diego Villeda el CEO de VRC, una empresa que comercializa motocicletas, accesorios y repuestos (marcas propias y marcas internacionales). El modelo de negocio es interesante, ya que venden franquicias de sus marcas y son proveedores de sus propios productos. Hablamos de los retos de liderar como segunda generación y sobre las franquicias. Diego es un amante de las criptomonedas y blockchain. Los invito que visiten este episodio.

Nick is joined by writer and broadcaster Lydia Hislop to discuss the news and events from around the racing world today. They lead with the proposal to cut 300 races from the GB calendar in order to increase the competitiveness of the sport, and ponder whether racing's leaders will enable that at a meeting of the executive committee today. Elsewhere, Nick talks to Leigh Jordon, Executive GM racing at the VRC about a massive prize money injection in Victoria, while Emily Scott, racing manager to AMO Racing gives the lowdown on their 2 year olds for Royal Ascot. Jim McGrath and jockey Harry Bentley both bring news from Hong Kong, while Hughie Morrison explains why Quickthorn won't be supplemented for next week's Gold Cup and shares his thoughts on horses he's looking forward to running.

Nick is joined by writer and broadcaster Lydia Hislop to discuss the news and events from around the racing world today. They lead with the proposal to cut 300 races from the GB calendar in order to increase the competitiveness of the sport, and ponder whether racing's leaders will enable that at a meeting of the executive committee today. Elsewhere, Nick talks to Leigh Jordon, Executive GM racing at the VRC about a massive prize money injection in Victoria, while Emily Scott, racing manager to AMO Racing gives the lowdown on their 2 year olds for Royal Ascot. Jim McGrath and jockey Harry Bentley both bring news from Hong Kong, while Hughie Morrison explains why Quickthorn won't be supplemented for next week's Gold Cup and shares his thoughts on horses he's looking forward to running.

The VRC's Racing Engagement and Cup Tour manager joins us off the back of the great news yesterday

The VRC's Racing Manager joined Michael Felgate fresh with the Andrew Ramsden final field and some exciting news surrounding the Melbourne Cup Carnival at headquarters!

Today in the Confessional, Sandy chats with brave and beautiful Melissa Griffith. Melissa is a transgender authority and advocate based in Melbourne. As a diversity and inclusion consultant, Melissa has managed to get a gender identity policy introduced at various horse racing clubs including the Victorian Racing Club. Melissa has also consulted with Cricket Australia in development of their Guidelines for inclusion of Gender Diverse and Transgender People in Cricket. She is also currently a board director of Sydney based non-profit organisation JustSociale and previously a board director of Elder Rights Advocacy in Victoria. Overcoming many challenges in her journey as a transgender female including overcoming the obstacles of transitioning in the workplace; society's attitudes and many challenges that come with living day-to-day as a transgender female, Melissa received an Australia Day Achievement Award as well as the Rex Karmaveer Global Fellowship and Karmaveer Chakra Award instituted by ICONGO & the UN from India. Melissa was a finalist in the 2019 Australian LGBTI Awards in the Hero Category and a finalist in 2018 Women's Agenda Women in Leadership Awards for Agenda Setter of the year. Melissa completed the first ever LGBTI Leadership Program in 2018 and was a finalist as LGBTI person of the year in the 2017 Victorian LGBTI Awards. Melissa is a recognised Thought Leader who draws upon her experiences and expertise to consult to business and mentor individuals as well as speak out and be a voice for those whose voices are not heard.Melissa is also a recipient of an Australia Day Achievement Award. Melissa was the keynote speaker at RMIT for International Womens Day speaking about Organisational Gender Diversity and Policy. She also spoke at the National Employment Solutions Conference in 2018 presenting Transgender from All Angles talking about how all issues around a transgender person transitioning in the workplace. You can follow Melissa here:https://www.melissagriffiths.com.auhttps://www.instagram.com/melissacgriffithshttps://www.facebook.com/melissagriffithsMelissa is represented in Australia by:BookSpeakersDirect - https://www.bookspeakersdirect.com/find-speaker/Keynoteworthy Speaker's Bureau - https://keynoteworthy.com.au/directory-diverse_dire/listing/melissa-griffiths/Platinum Model Management - https://www.platinumpromotionsaustralia.com.auJustSociale:https://justsociale.org/LGBTIQ+ Helplines:Better Pride:https://betterpride.com.au/Trans Hub NSWhttps://www.transhub.org.au/Minus18 (LGBTIQ+ Youth Support)https://www.minus18.org.au/Transgender Victoria:https://tgv.org.au/Reach Out https://au.reachout.com/https://www.yourcommunityhealth.org.au

In this episode, Dr. Gaemia Tracy - Neurologist at VRC in Malvern, PA - talks with Turpin about the importance of diversity in the veterinary industry, the human-animal bond, and advice for those preparing to enter into the veterinary field. (Hint: Never forget your WHY.)If you'd like to reach out to Dr. Tracy for more information feel free to email him at gaemia.tracy@vrcmalvern.com. 

Join hosts Laura and Carletta to reflect on the past year and hear how they've been able to maintain their own wellness in a year of constant changes. Podcast Notes: You've made it to the last episode of our "Fine is Not a Feeling" podcast! In this episode, hosts Laura and Carletta reflect on previous episodes, what they have learned, and how this has helped their own wellness journey. Remember, health and wellness is a journey, not a destination. There are many aspects that come together to help with your journey so below are some ways VEBA can help you get started: As mentioned in this episode, the VEBA Resource Center offers a Care Navigation program where you can meet with a Care Navigator and create a tailored plan for a healthy body, mind and spirit. Your plan will be customized for you and your personal wellness journey. If you are interested in signing up or learning more check out the VRC Care Navigation page here. It is important to always be intentional and positive with your health journey. Change your mindset and don't let criticism be the driver of your journey. Check out this blog by the VRC on ways you can maintain motivation and positive self-talk throughout your health and wellness journey. The VRC has tons more to offer to help support you in every aspect of life. One way you can stay updated on new offerings, blogs, classes, etc. from the VRC is by signing up for our email newsletter. View past VRC newsletters, sign up and learn more here. Find more information about us at VEBAResourceCenter.com

Hosts Laura and Carletta are joined by special guest Bobby to discuss real world practical tips and techniques for how to navigate life's constant changes without losing it! Podcast Notes: In this episode, our guest Robert (Bobby) Cappuccio, VEBA's Director of Coaching, Cultural Development and Behavior Change, joins us to discuss the importance of being connected to your mindset and emotions in order to navigate through life. Mindset is the philosophy of how we move, eat, think, and feel which then creates mental models for us to use to navigate our behaviors. Learn more ways to help you become more connected with your mindset and emotions below: What do you value in life? One of the first steps in successfully beginning your health journey is developing your value statement. To develop your value statement, determine what has played a value in the outcome of some of your favorite moments. Bobby talks more about ways you can find clarity on what you value in his video "Reflecting on Values" which can be found on the VRC's YouTube channel here. All behavior changes are facilitated by emotions, so without being connected to our emotions, we are not good decision-makers. Bobby mentions Joseph Ledoux, a Neuroscientist from New York, who wrote "The Emotional Brain", a book about the structure and function of the brain. When you look at the structure of the brain, our emotions have a profound influence over the decisions we make. If you are interested in learning more about the connection between our emotions and our decision-making, check out Ledoux's book here. Bobby mentions the Self-Determination Theory, which explains how results that have any type of long-term adherence has to be driven by intrinsic motivation. There are 3 parts of intrinsic motivation called ARC: Autonomy, Relatedness, and Competence. The best results begin with small and intentional practices. If you are having trouble with getting started, check out this blog by the VRC, "Adjust to Attain", to learn new ways to attain your goals. Find more information about us at VEBAResourceCenter.com

Hosts Laura and Carletta are joined by special guest Angie Neison, M.D. to have a conversation about the facts & falsehoods of nutrition. Podcast Notes: In this episode, our guest Angie Neison, M.D., VEBA's Co-Medical Director, joins us to discuss Culinary Medicine and why it is important when learning about the facts and fictions of nutrition. Culinary Medicine is the science of the human body put together with the art of food and cooking to create a field that optimizes your health. Get more familiar with how Culinary Medicine benefits your overall health with additional resources from the VRC below: Food is medicine and Dr. Neison emphasizes how important adding more plants to your diet is to help create a great foundation for your nutrition. Living a healthier lifestyle may be overwhelming at first but Dr. Neison gives us 10 additional tips in her Healthy Living blogs. Read Part 1 and Part 2 on the VRC website to learn more. Dr. Neison defines what a "Fad Diet" is and how to spot one. Our hosts, Carletta and Laura, had specific questions about Intermittent Fasting and if this is considered a fad diet. Dr. Neison goes into detail about what Intermittent Fasting is and how to do it in a healthy way, but you can learn more by watching this video on the VRC's YouTube about Intermittent Fasting. As mentioned in this episode, Dr. Neison and VEBA's Registered Dietitian, Anjali Patel, dive into the science and the best studies to teach us more about Culinary Medicine in the VRC's Culinary Medicine classes. The VRC offers multiple culinary classes a week, including one of Dr. Neison's favorites "Quick and Easy Delicious 5-Ingredient Recipes." If you are interested in attending one of these free classes to learn more about Culinary Medicine, register here! Follow Dr. Neison on Instagram: @flavors4wellnessmd Find more information about us at VEBAResourceCenter.com

Hosts Laura and Carletta are joined by special guest Dr. Michael Carey to discuss how to keep your body active and well while you're working! Mike shares tips and tricks for stretching, posture, and keeping yourself from the dreaded Zoom fatigue! Podcast Notes: In this episode, our guest Dr. Michael Carey, chiropractor and executive director of What the Strong do to RISE, explains how working from home has affected our posture. Dr. Carey believes there are two pandemics here, COVID-19 and the "Flat Butt Syndrome" caused by the lack of movement in the last few years. Learn how to escape from Flat Butt Syndrome with some helpful tips below: Dr. Carey talks about Upper Cross Syndrome (UCS), also known as "Text-Neck". UCS is caused by poor posture (such as looking down at your phone and texting). Over time, your disks start to compress and that can lead to neck and back pain. It is important to reset your posture throughout the day, but if you have been experiencing pain, the VRC offers a Low Back Care and Pain Prevention class, every Tuesday and Thursday, to help you improve your posture in order to stay pain-free. One of Dr. Carey's favorite tools to use for stretching is a 36-inch Foam Roller. Check it out on Amazon here. Check out Dr. Carey's Foam Rolling videos on the VRC YouTube page to learn Basic Foam Rolling for the Lower Body and Basic Foam Rolling for the Upper Back. Experiencing pain but don't have a Foam Roller handy? Dr. Carey also mentions two of his favorite stretches to do without a Foam Roller: Bruegger's Stretch and Figure 4 Stretch. Learn how you can even do these stretches at your desk by checking out the videos on the VRC YouTube page! Find more information about us at VEBAResourceCenter.com

Hosts Laura and Carletta are joined by special guest Cynthia Freedman to have a conversation about how to navigate those difficult to have conversations with family and friends when it comes to health. Podcast Notes: In this episode, our guest Cynthia Freedman, executive director of operations for What the Strong do to RISE, helps us learn how to talk to our friends and family about their health. Especially this past year, it has become difficult to address health-related situations with your loved ones. Cynthia shares her experience about how she overcame these obstacles, and here are some of her tips: Remember, your attitude plays a huge part in your healing. A negative attitude is not going to help you, so always try to keep a positive mindset. Watch Carletta's recent webinar called "Give Me a Break: It's All About M.E. (Mindset and Emotions)" where she provided more tips and techniques to create a positive mindset. When talking amongst others about another person's health, it is important to keep in mind what they would want you to share. Cynthia shared with us the example of keeping her mother's trust when she couldn't share her health condition to her brothers. It may be difficult, but be present and accepting of what the person wants and needs you to share. Learning how to deal with change is important, especially if it's a change in a loved one's health. Watch the VRC's video "How to Deal with Change" for some helpful advice from Carletta. If someone is coming to you with concerns about their health and you are unsure on how to respond, create the appropriate boundaries. Cynthia shares key questions to ask beforehand: Are they looking to vent? Are they looking for advice? Are they looking for opinions? Asking these questions will help you approach the conversation appropriately for your loved one. If you are in need of a way to destress from any of the conversations you are having, read one of our favorite blogs from the VRC, "Ways to Destress at the End of the Day". Find more information about us at VEBAResourceCenter.com

In today's episode, I got to interview the people who saved me when I first moved to LA and they are Erin + Justin Shields. They are a newly married couple, who met at the club they both founded, which is called Venice Run Club! Venice Run Club was the light for me when I moved to LA and this club gave me a sense of belonging and family and I can't wait for you to hear how VRC started to where the club is now. Justin + Erin are the fearless leaders who have cultivated such an amazing community of people who have one common trait and that is running. In today's episode we talk about topics like: How to make a community thrive My own experience with VRC What is VRC and what does the club stand for How Erin + Justin fell in love because of the run club 48 For Change Doing something for a greater cause Being vulnerable with others Not letting your ego get the best of you Doing something even greater than yourself How you do one thing is how you do everything Where To Find Venice Run Club + Erin & Justin: Instagram: @venicerunclub @justshields @erinshields Venice Run Club Details: Where: Venice Beach: The Kinney Hotel When: Group Runs Tuesday: 7:00pm Wednesday: 6:30pm Saturday: 8:30am This podcast was created to motivate, inspire and help you find your light to shine on the rest of the world! For updates and more info follow me on Instagram @jujhealth + @juju_roberts

Braga, King, and Ski talk: :30: old TV shows, King hates on Shock G, Paul vs Mayweather. 22:00: 4/20 athlete names, Oregon basketball's sad roster, concerns with Ty Thompson. 39:22: talking with Scott Wolf, old radio memories. 47:17: Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter, Wunderland 5th Street vs VRC. 101:35: a college football Super League.