Law, Health Policy & Disability Center
University of Iowa College of Law
http://disability.law.uiowa.edu/dpn/
and
The Burton Blatt Institute
Syracuse University
http://bbi.syr.edu
One–Stop Toolkit
Resources of the Week Technical Assistance Project E–Mail listserv
9 May 2008
Good morning everyone,
Below please find the web site and publication of the week, as well as other resources that we hope will be useful as you work on systems change activities to help improve employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
To subscribe and / or view past resources of the week archives, access: www.onestoptoolkit.org and click on the link to "Resources of the Week" on the right hand side of the home page.
To view an indexed list of the resources of the week by subject matter, visit the L.P.H.D.C. web site at http://disability.law.uiowa.edu/lhpdc/resources/wig/default.asp. It currently includes 20 categories, covering over 300 annotated references. Each category opens to a new window with each Resource of the Week which covered material in that area.
Have a good day and weekend!
Laura Gleneck
Program Associate
Law, Health Policy & Disability Center
University of Iowa College of Law
P: 617–489–0086
F: 617–489–1374
[ E–mail Lgleneck@mail.law.uiowa.edu ]
[ E–mail LFarah8@aol.com ]
[ http://www.onestoptoolkit.org ]
This week’s “Resources of Interest” section includes two fact sheets and one brochure that may be of interest to some of you depending on what needs you are currently addressing in your community. In addition, under “For Your Information/Action,” please sure to check out the article on the change in the U.S. Department of Defense security clearance question on mental health.
[The Homeless and Disabled Vets Tax Credit Resource of Interest is in the Resources of Interest section.]
For many employers, the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) especially small businesses, this tax credit may provide an additional incentive to hire and retain veterans who qualify for the credit. The Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act of 2007 extended the WOTC program through August 31, 2011. Read the Fact Sheet for more information.
[The Small Business Community Resources Resource of Interest is in the Resources of Interest section.]
An individual interested in owning a small business can obtain information, gain access to personal and professional networks with others who have similar interests, and locate additional business resources available within the community when connecting to these organizations. Read the Fact Sheet for more information.
[The Transit Customers Resource of Interest is in the Resources of Interest section.]
“Rights and Responsibilities of Transit Customers with Disabilities” is the title of ESPA’s 16-page guide for transit riders with disabilities. And now it’s available in Spanish! The publication guides riders through an understanding of their rights and responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It also addresses etiquette and thoughtful behavior on vehicles, and encourages community advocacy for transportation issues.
[The news release is included below in its entirety.]
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced grants totaling almost $3 million to advance the President's Prisoner Re–entry Initiative. Through a partnership operated with the U.S. Department of Justice, grants of $130,434 each will go to 23 criminal justice agencies across the country. They, in turn, will fund faith-based and community organizations to deliver employment services to prisoners returning to civilian life. "These grants will advance state partnerships with local faith-based and community organizations to equip ex-prisoners with basic job skills, counseling and opportunities to earn an honest living in our communities," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao.
The President's Prisoner Re–entry Initiative is designed to strengthen urban communities through an employment-centered program that incorporates mentoring, job training and other comprehensive transitional services benefiting ex-offenders. This program has significantly reduced the rate of recidivism by helping non-violent ex-inmates find meaningful employment through the assistance of local faith-based and community organizations.
Over the next two years, funds will be used to offer services such as basic skills remediation, soft- skills training, counseling and on-the-job training. Job placement efforts will be coordinated with local One-Stop Career Centers, businesses, educational institutions and other employment providers. "Successful re–entry is often built on effective cooperation between the criminal justice system and community and faith-based organizations. By strengthening these relationships, we can help ex-offenders find and retain jobs and avoid re-incarceration," said acting Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training Brent R. Orrell.
In addition to the District of Columbia, 22 states will receive these post-release services grants: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
For more information on the Prisoner Re–entry Initiative, visit http://www.doleta.gov/pri.
[The news release is included below in its entirety.]
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) has received a $4.2 million contract to help people with disabilities find jobs that reduce their dependence on government assistance. The three-year contract from the Social Security Administration will allow VCU to provide comprehensive training and technical assistance for more than 500 Community Work Incentives Coordinators -- local professionals who promote employment opportunities for SSA beneficiaries with disabilities in all 50 states and U.S. territories.
Fear of losing critical cash benefits and health insurance prevents millions of beneficiaries from attempting to obtain employment or return to work. As a result, these individuals remain unnecessarily dependent on government benefits as their sole source of financial security, according to the National Council on Disability.
This dependence is often unjustified, as SSA disability programs include many work incentives designed to encourage and facilitate employment. When provided complete and accurate information, many individuals can pursue careers that will lead to increased independence and economic self-sufficiency.
"Work incentives planning and assistance services provided by Community Work Incentives Coordinators provide the single most important method for communicating correct information to help beneficiaries overcome these fears," said project director John Kregel, Ed.D., associate director and research director of the VCU School of Education's Rehabilitation Research and Training Center.
"To be effective in this counseling, however, the coordinators must acquire a complete understanding of Social Security Administration disability programs and federal health insurance programs," he said. "Incomplete or inaccurate information can often lead to financial hardship and lack of access to medical services for individuals who can least afford it."
This contract continues VCU's role as a leading national clearinghouse for information and training that supports the employment efforts of SSA beneficiaries. Since 2000, the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance National Training Center at VCU has been awarded more than $14 million in federal contracts and provided training and technical assistance to 800 community- based professionals providing service to more than 250,000 SSA beneficiaries.
"VCU's knowledge of work incentives is immeasurable and the partnership with VCU is very important to us," said Laura Vogt, project officer in the SSA's Office of Employment Support Programs. "Everyone has a right to work and everyone should have a choice, and the combined efforts of VCU and the WIPA projects provide our beneficiaries the information they need to make an informed choice about work."
On May 1st, Secretary of Defense Gates announced that seeking mental-health care due to post-traumatic stress will no longer be seen as an obstacle to getting a government security clearance. Since many One-Stop Career Centers are serving returning service members, many of which who experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), we felt this information would be of interest.
Thank you to Angela Work, Disability Program Navigator with Michigan Works! Career Alliance, Inc., Flint, Michigan, for alerting us to these recent changes.
[The following includes excerpts from the news article.]
The Standard Form 86, Questionnaire for National Security Positions, asks the applicant to acknowledge mental health care in the past seven years. It does not ask for treatment details if the care involved only marital, family, or grief counseling, not related to violence by the applicant, unless the treatment was court-ordered. Officials said surveys have shown that troops feel if they answer “yes” to the question, they could jeopardize their security clearances, required for many occupations in the military.
As of April 18, applicants no longer have to acknowledge care under the same conditions, nor if the care was related to service in a military combat zone. The revised wording has been distributed to the services and will be attached to the cover of the questionnaire. The revised question will not show up printed on the forms until the department depletes its pre-printed stock later this year, officials said. DoD security officials said no one has been denied a security clearance based solely on the fact they received mental health counseling, but the perception that receiving care would jeopardize a security clearance, combined with the stigma of having to acknowledge the care on the form, may have been preventing some from receiving needed care.
Workforce Discovery: Diversity and Disability in the Workplace, co-sponsored by the Virginia Business Leadership Network (VA BLN), is an in-depth "train-the-trainer" event, focused on disability awareness, with the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) integrated throughout each of five training modules:
This training is designed for those who serve in a training capacity; participants are expected to conduct at least one training using these materials during the following year.
Visit the Workforce Discovery: Diversity and Disability in the Workplace page for more details or to register online.
Workforce Innovations 2008: Success Decoded will bring together local, state and national-level strategic workforce investment partners to learn from successes and cultivate the talent development solutions needed in today's global economy. Workforce Innovations is the premier annual conference promoting collaboration among leaders from workforce development, business, economic development, education, community-based organizations, and philanthropy.
For those who will be attending this year’s premier event, there will be many great workshops and exhibits to choose from. In this issue and in future issues, we will highlight workshops of interest you may wish to check out.
Thriving Through Networking: Utilizing Community and Faith-Based
Partners to Expand Your Workforce System's Reach, Results and
Resources
Through the Access Point strategy, many Disability Navigators
are building strong relationships between faith based and community
organizations (FBCO) and the One-Stop Career Centers and increasing
access for people with disabilities and facing other challenges.
To view more details on these sessions, access: www.kra.com/dol.
[ Get free Adobe Reader ]
For More Information: please contact KRA Corporation Conference Services at (301) 562-2340 or E–mail wbest@kra.com.
While the field of youth services has undergone many changes in the past few decades, many of the needs facing the nation's young people are more urgent than ever. Many programs still fail to have a positive impact in reducing the occurrence of pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, school drop out and failure or delinquent behavior.
As the requirements for program evaluation evolve and the standards become increasingly stringent, it is essential to identify and implement steps for improvement. Discover the importance of data collection and evaluation in your youth services organization by using effective measurement tools. Also hear about how the Workforce Investment Act provisions can increase your program improvement.
Segments of the youth population are often overlooked or missed. These could be youth who struggle with disabilities, mastering the English language, juvenile offenders, or out of school youth. Learn to plan effective strategies for engaging and encouraging these youth and providing them with the necessary tools to succeed.
Learn to expand programs and boost the participation of the youth in your programs, schools and the community. Discover strategies for building lasting partnerships and promoting youth leadership. Implement programs that will improve youth leadership and participation, while increasing labor outcomes in the workforce.
Access the URL for more information including the agenda, conference brochure, and registration and other logistical information.
What is the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)? The WOTC is a federal tax credit that encourages employers to hire job-seekers with employment barriers by allowing them to recover a portion of the wages paid during the initial period of employment.
For many employers, especially small businesses, this tax credit may provide an additional incentive to hire and retain veterans who qualify for the credit. The Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act of 2007 extended the WOTC program through August 31, 2011. Read the Fact Sheet for more information.
Individuals with disabilities who want to start a business can find assistance and support from a number of different local agencies. These generic resources usually are funded by taxpayer dollars and are available to anyone including people with disabilities. Some of them include Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), the Service Core of Retired Executives (SCORE), One-Stop Career Centers, Business Leadership Networks (BLN), and others described in this Q&A.
An individual interested in owning a small business can obtain information, gain access to personal and professional networks with others who have similar interests, and locate additional business resources available within the community when connecting to these organizations. Read the Fact Sheet for more information.
“Rights and Responsibilities of Transit Customers with Disabilities” is the title of ESPA’s 16-page guide for transit riders with disabilities. And now it’s available in Spanish! The publication guides riders through an understanding of their rights and responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It also addresses etiquette and thoughtful behavior on vehicles, and encourages community advocacy for transportation issues. ESPA invites all transit agencies to order a free quantity of this booklet to make available to their customers.
The Institute for Community Inclusion is located at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. It is a research, training and systems change organization that has a heavy focus on employment on several levels. It works with several state developmental disabilities and mental health agencies nationally, One-Stop Career Centers, and a provider level around organizational change and improving employment outcomes. The StateData.info website offers ready access to descriptive information on services and outcomes for state agencies that provide employment supports to people with disabilities. The state data provides benchmarks allowing comparisons to other states and it can be updated easily. The target audiences include state agency personnel, policymakers, and advocates.
This website generates customized charts of state, national, and individual disability data. Accessible text versions are automatically created by the charting software. Users can view data in four formats:
The site currently includes data sets from the following six data sources. In the near future, the website will also include data from mental health agencies.
The ICI National Survey of Day and Employment Services for People with Developmental Disabilities collects summary data on day and employment service distribution and funding at the state level. It provides information on placement in services such as integrated employment, community-based non-work, facility- based work, and facility-based non-work.
RSA-911 is a public access database that captures individual characteristics, services provided, and employment outcomes at the point of closure from vocational rehabilitation (VR) services. Records are at the individual level and cover approximately 600,000 case closures per year.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) reports the number of individuals on SSI who are working. In addition to these figures, we offer information on work incentives programs such as Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS) and Impairment Related Work Expense (IRWE).
State Demographics provides state population data taken from US Census website, unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, and earnings data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s website.
Out of the wide variety and employment and training programs funded by the US Department of Labor (USDOL), this website examines data for two of the major USDOL funding sources: Wagner-Peyser and WIA. These are primary sources of funding for the infrastructure of the One-Stop Career Center System in all 50 states.
Wagner-Peyser data provides a significant source of data regarding the performance of the One-Stop Career Center System, since One-Stop partners are encouraged to register everyone they serve in the Labor Exchange Services funded by Wagner-Peyser. Data for Wagner-Peyser Act come from publicly available data files on the USDOL Employment and Training Administration website.
Workforce Investment Act (WIA) data are from two WIA funding streams—Adult and Dislocated workers. These data represent a subset of individuals served by the One-Stop systems, which are eligible for services under these funding streams, and receive services beyond self service or informational activities.
The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed by the US Census Bureau to provide nationally representative information on employment, age, race, income, and other demographic data. It provides data on disability in broad categories.
These one or two page publications represent newsworthy findings from StateData.info and related data sets. They are available in both .html and .PDF formats. They are often highlighted in the One-Stop Toolkit Resources of the Week. The following state data notes are currently available on the website:
This brief document summarizes the challenges faced by youth with mental health needs when they enter inappropriate service tunnels dictated by their point of entry and when they encounter transition cliffs as they age out of youth systems and attempt to access adult services. It offers examples of emerging promising practices related to career preparation and employment for youth and offers an action plan to make the coordination of services a cross-systems priority.
Youth service practitioners in the workforce development system are responsible for supporting vulnerable youth; several of these targeted groups include many youth with mental health needs. Fortunately, there are a growing number of strategies and resources to support youth with mental health needs in achieving independence, self-sufficiency, and success in employment and postsecondary education.