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
26 May 2006
Good morning everyone,
Please note that there will not be a weekly resource next week; however, we will re-join you on Friday, June 9th. We wish everyone a beautiful Memorial Day weekend as we remember and honor the U.S. men and women who lost their lives serving this country.
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 Farah
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 ]
[The full announcement is located under the section heading "Publications of the Week."
]
As a Disability Navigator, you are continually learning about local labor market needs and how those needs are met through the workforce system. Along with this growing knowledge on how your local workforce system is meeting the needs of the local business community, this publication by the US Chamber of Commerce will provide you with a national perspective and strategies on how the workforce development system can be more market driven and responsive to the needs of both employers and workers. A series of best practices are shared through the successes of five chambers of commerce that were supported by the Chamber's Center for Workforce Preparation" (CWP) Workforce Innovation Networks (WIN). One significant finding that resulted from this initiative came from a pilot site in Tulsa, OK. When Tulsa businesses were asked how the local workforce development system could better meet their needs, the response was resounding: They asked for a single point of contact to address their hiring and training needs. As a result, Workforce Tulsa (the Workforce Investment Board) was able to effectively merge a seemingly disparate group of business, educational, and service provider organizations that shared a common goal: to meet the needs of local businesses and ensure their readiness to compete in a global economy. This group identified 3 goals: create a single point of contact for employers to help in hiring / training workers, promote that brand of a single point of contact system for employers, and increase employer use of Workforce Tulsa's Business Services. Share this publication with your Workforce Investment Board executive staff, One-Stop Career Center supervisors and Business Service staff, Chambers of Commerce and others interested in best practices in responding to the needs of business and workers.
DATES: Applications must be received by July 3, 2006.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL or Department), Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), announces the availability of up to $5,000,000 to fund both a national technical assistance and research cooperative agreement, and multiple cooperative agreements for sub-national research and technical assistance pilot projects to investigate, develop and validate systems models likely to increase self-employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
ODEP's unique mission is to provide national leadership by developing and influencing disability-related employment policy and practice affecting the employment of people with disabilities. Congress designated these monies to ODEP to further the development of self-employment policy for individuals with disabilities. A critical element of this endeavor will be the generation of data and information to validate systems capacity-building strategies and systems change models for successfully increasing self-employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities, to document the systems-related difficulties and challenges that may be encountered, and to develop and test mechanisms for addressing these challenges. This data, obtained as a result of research and technical assistance efforts, will be used by ODEP and other stakeholders in developing policy recommendations across multiple public and private systems for increased self-employment options as an alternative to more traditional types of employment.
ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS: Applications for Priority 1 (the national technical assistance and research center) will be accepted from both for profit and not-for-profit entities or from consortia of such entities, which include but are not limited to, institutions of higher education (including state institutions) and faith-based and community organizations, all of whom have demonstrated national experience in: (a) Employment, self-employment and disability research and demonstration activities; (b) Providing technical assistance on a range of topics necessary to achieve self-employment for people with disabilities; and (c) Demonstrated knowledge of and technical assistance experience working with state or local systems to promote systems change; and In accordance with the supporting legislative language for this effort which states:
"The Committee directs that, in making the national technical assistance grant, priority be given to national non-profits with experience in delivering direct consumer services as well as training to public and private agencies," an additional five (5) evaluation points will be given to such lead applicants.
Applications for Priority 2 (sub-national research and technical assistance pilot) will be accepted from consortia led by state or local government agencies. The consortium members may include public and private entities, which may include but are not limited to non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, and faith-based and community organizations.
AWARD INFORMATION: Priority 1: the national technical assistance and research cooperative agreement award will be funded for up to $1.5 million for a 36 month period of performance. Priory 2: the sub-national research and technical assistance pilot cooperative agreement award(s) will be funded for a total of up to $3.5 million. Awards may range from $800,000 - 1,200,000, with an average of $1 million for a 36 month period of performance.
Access the URL to read the full announcement including application and submission information.
A Solicitation Information Conference Call will be held at 2 p.m. (ET), Thursday, June 1, 2006. The purpose of this conference call is to provide interested parties an overview of this Cooperative Agreement program and an opportunity to ask questions concerning the solicitation. A transcript of the conference will be made available on the ODEP Web site, http://www.dol.gov/odep shortly following the conference.
Individuals who wish to participate in this conference call must register by contacting ODEP at 202-693-7880, no later than 4:45 p.m. (ET) on Friday, May 26, 2006. Please ask to register for the Self Employment SGA Conference Call. Registrations should be made as soon as possible. At the time of registration, call-in information will be provided.
[Funding opportunity: Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and West Virginia are eligible to apply for these cooperative agreements.]
DATES: The deadline date for the submission of applications is July 21, 2006.
SUMMARY: In FY 2003, the Administration on Aging (AoA) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) formed a historic partnership to launch the Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) demonstration grant initiative. The goal of the ADRC program is to empower individuals to make informed choices and to streamline access to long term support services. AoA and CMS share a vision to have Resource Centers in every community serving as highly visible and trusted places where people of all ages can turn for information on the full range of long term support options and a single point of entry to public long term support programs and benefits. ADRCs are a resource for both public and private-pay individuals. They serve older adults, younger individuals with disabilities, family caregivers, as well as persons planning for future long term support needs. ADRCs are also a resource for health and long term support professionals and others who provide services to older adults and to people with disabilities. Since FY 2003, 43 states have received three year grants from AoA and CMS to design and implement ADRC demonstrations serving the elderly and at least one other target population of adults with disabilities in at least one community. An ADRC Program Announcement published in FY 2003 resulted in the funding of twelve states that year with an additional twelve states funded to develop ADRC programs in FY 2004. Nineteen additional states were funded to develop ADRC programs based on a Program Announcement published in FY 2005. To view the Program Announcements published in FY 2003 and FY 2005 go to http://www.aoa.gov/prof/aging_dis/background.asp. For more information on the 43 funded ADRC projects go to http://www.adrc-tae.org.
[ Get Microsoft Office C.D., free trial, S / H applies ]This announcement seeks proposals for competitive grants to assist states funded to develop ADRCs in FY 2003 to significantly expand their existing Resource Center programs. Building on current efforts, state Resource Center programs funded under this Program Announcement will be:
ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS: Only states that received an AoA and CMS Aging and Disability Resource Center Grant in FY 2003 are eligible to apply. These states are Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
Only the state agency that was the ADRC applicant in FY 2003, or a state agency with a Memorandum of Agreement with the existing ADRC grantee (e.g. the Single State Agency on Aging, Single State Medicaid Agency or State Agency serving the target populations of people with disabilities) may apply for this Resource Center grant. A letter of support from the Governor indicating high-level state executive support and designating the lead agency is also required. Only one application per state will be accepted.
AWARD INFORMATION: The total amount of Federal funds available for this funding opportunity is $4 million. AoA anticipates funding 10 projects nationwide for a period of up to 2 years. The maximum Federal award for the entire 2-year project period is approximately $400,000. Applicants are encouraged to develop project budgets that reflect annual Federal funding of approximately $200,000 for each project year.
[The following is excerpted from the FCC News Release.]
In response to a petition by the California Coalition of Agencies Serving the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC, more about the FCC in the final paragraph of this section)* has found that all Video Relay Service (VRS) consumers must be able to place a VRS call through any VRS provider's service, and all VRS providers must be able to receive calls from, and make calls to, any VRS consumer. The FCC also determined that restricting the use of a provider's VRS service so that consumers cannot access other VRS providers is inconsistent with the functional equivalency mandate, the public interest and the intent of Congress.
VRS is a form of the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) that enables persons who use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with voice telephone users. Video equipment links the VRS user with a relay operator – called a "communications assistant" (CA) – so that the VRS user and the CA can see and communicate with each other in ASL. The CA translates the signed language into spoken language for the hearing party on the call. Because of its speed, VRS has become an enormously popular form of TRS.
In its Declaratory Ruling, the FCC declared it inconsistent with the notion of functional equivalency to require VRS consumers to have multiple sets of equipment to be connected to multiple providers. It noted that public safety concerns are raised when a consumer has VRS equipment that can be used only with one provider's service.
* About the FCC: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency, directly responsible to Congress. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The FCC's jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions.
A conference for service providers, professionals, people with disabilities, educators, and employers. APSE: The Network on Employment is known for hosting the most informative and stimulating conference on disability and employment in the country. It is the only national annual meeting that focuses exclusively on cutting-edge employment practices for individuals with more challenging disabilities.
Access the URL for more information including the conference schedule and registration.
Easter Seals Project ACTION extends its range and scope of learning opportunities through a series of free "Distance Learning" events. These events are offered as audio conferences featuring distinguished guest speakers who are experts in the topic to be discussed.
To participate to participate in any, or all, of the audio conferences, you must register (online or by telephone). You may send questions for the speakers in advance of the call.
This publication summarizes funding search tips and describes some of the most frequent types of organizations and groups that provide funding. Tax incentives are available to employers of individuals with disabilities. These tax incentives help cover the cost of accommodations for employees and equipment to make businesses accessible. Tax incentives available are the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), the Disabled Access Credit (DAC), and the Architectural and Transportation Barrier Removal Deduction. Additional information about tax incentives can be found at: http://www.jan.wvu.edu/media/tax.html or by contacting JAN at 1-800-526-7234 (V / TTY) in the United States or by e-mail at E-mail jan@jan.wvu.edu. For more information on these tax credit programs, contact a local Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office and visit the IRS on the Web at: http://www.irs.gov.
This fact sheet also includes funding tips for individuals.
The Alternative Financing Technical Assistance Project is a sponsored project of RESNA, the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America. This includes Alternative Financing Programs funded under Title III of the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-394) and Access to Telework Loan programs funded under the New Freedom Initiative.
Alternative Financing Programs offer more than affordable access to assistive technology for people with disabilities. These federal-state loan programs open doorways to enhanced participation in family and community life, education, employment and health care for individuals with disabilities by expanding options for obtaining and, ultimately, using assistive technology. If a person with a disability needs to purchase assistive technology (AT) such as a wheelchair or other mobility device, a specialized computer, home accessibility modifications, or an adapted car or van, these items may be out of reach because of their high costs. Other potential sources of AT financing, including health insurance, vocational rehabilitation programs or conventional bank loans, often are pursued by individuals with disabilities but many times provide little or no assistance because of funding limitations or eligibility. The Alternative Financing Program (AFP), authorized under Title III of the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, was designed to help people with disabilities overcome these financial obstacles to accessing assistive technology. With the AFP, many people with disabilities can qualify for and receive low cost loans to purchase AT devices or services. The AFP is administered by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the U.S. Department of Education under Title III of the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (AT Act).
To contact your State AT and Telework Financial Loan Programs, access: http://www.resna.org/AFTAP/state/index.html.
To learn about Success Stories of people who have received AT loans to purchase vans, communication devices, computers, vision aids, and other devices, as well as modify office spaces and homes, access: http://www.resna.org/AFTAP/success/index.html.
[The following is excerpted from the Introduction to the Tool Kit.]
The U.S. Department of Education strives to expand educational opportunities and to improve instruction for all students. To achieve excellence in education for students with disabilities, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings launched an initiative focused on improving teaching, learning, and assessing by increasing states' capacity to provide rigorous assessment, instruction, and accountability for these students. The keys to this effort are instruction and assessment, relying on the most current and accurate information on how students with disabilities learn while also measuring student performance to ensure continuous growth and progress.
Student achievement is front and center in all our efforts. The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), and the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) are collaborating and linking their programs together to support states' efforts to improve instruction and assessment of all students with disabilities. To support this initiative, the Department has developed a Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities (Tool Kit), which offers a compilation of current information that will move states forward in improving results for all students with disabilities. The Tool Kit will be added to over time to include more information designed to support states' efforts and to communicate the results of research on teaching, learning, and assessments.
The Tool Kit brings together the most current and accurate information, including research briefs and resources designed to improve instruction, assessment, and accountability for students with disabilities in a format that is easy to access and to understand. The Tool Kit will assist state personnel, schools, and families in their efforts to ensure that all students with disabilities receive a quality education. The Tool Kit includes information about the Department's investments, papers on large-scale assessment, technical assistance (TA) products, and resources. The section on large-scale assessment includes a collection of seven papers and a glossary that address key issues related to the participation of students with disabilities in these standards-based assessments. The TA products are divided into four substantive areas: Assessment, Instructional Practices, Behavior, and Accommodations. Materials in each substantive area are color-coded so that they are easily recognizable and contain sub-categories of resources:
Primary access to the Tool Kit is through the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Ideas That Work Web site (http://OSEPIdeasThatWork.org). The Web site contains a table of contents that lists all Tool Kit resources and links to each of the items listed. Users will find a description of each resource, including its citation and target audience. The Web site contains the master list of Tool Kit documents and will be updated as new products become available.
This Tool Kit is an example of the Department of Education's ongoing commitment to ensuring that states, local school districts, schools, and families have the most current and relevant information about practices that will improve and enhance educational opportunities for students with disabilities throughout the nation.
WorkforceUSA.net is dedicated to the field of workforce development. It is designed for the day-to-day needs of workforce development practitioners in community-based organizations, community colleges, private firms, employer associations, unions, economic development organizations, One Stop Career Centers, Workforce Investment Boards and elsewhere. It is intended as a site of shared learning. It provides an opportunity to 'meet' and learn from peers throughout the nation.
WorkforceUSA.net is a collaboration among workforce development organizations and professionals dedicated to providing resources for the work of workforce development. It provides a national network for professionals in the workforce development field, linking them to events and job and funding opportunities. It is committed to promoting innovation and sharing best practices through our featured articles and on-line resource library.
The Council of State Governments established the Re-Entry Policy Council (RPC) in 2001 to assist state government officials grappling with the increasing number of people leaving prisons and jails to return to the communities they left behind. The RPC was formed with two specific goals in mind:
disabilityworks, an exciting initiative from the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the City of Chicago, is designed to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities throughout the Northeast Region of Illinois. Designed as a "one-stop" portal of information about all aspects of employment for people with disabilities, this initiative gives employers access to a qualified pool of candidates from which to hire. disabilityworks has valuable information and resources that inspire sound employer-to-employee relationships.
disabilityworks' efforts focus on three constituencies: people with disabilities, businesses and non-profit service providers. disabilityworks provides education and outreach to people with disabilities through workshops, resources, and information and referral. The Chicagoland Business Leadership Network (CBLN) is a business-to-business consortium designed to help employers understand, utilize and benefit from people with disabilities in both the labor and consumer markets. The Chicagoland Provider Leadership Network (CPLN) is a network of more than 100 non-profit service providers that enhances providers' capacity to deliver services to their target populations for job placement, training and educational opportunities. Businesses can enhance their competitive edge by ensuring that people with disabilities are integrated into the workforce and customer base.
The six pilot SBDC locations in the Northeast Region involved in the disabilityworks initiative include: the College of Lake County, the Illinois Hispanic Chamber, the University of Illinois-Chicago, Joliet Junior College, Chicago State University and the College of DuPage. These SBDCs will receive resources to better serve clients with disabilities, including an awareness and resource conference for SBDC counselors, and will host information workshops in collaboration with multiple community and regional partners.
This publication includes a series of best practices that share the successes of five chambers of commerce (four local and one state) that were supported by the Chamber's Center for Workforce Preparation" (CWP) Workforce Innovation Networks (WINs) initiative to develop innovative pilot programs in workforce development. WINs is a national, multiyear initiative that helps chambers make the public workforce development system more market driven and responsive to the needs of both employers and workers.
[The following is excerpted from the Introduction.]
This Toolkit is intended to help guidance and career counselors to better assist high school students with disabilities in accomplishing transitions into post-secondary education and employment…The 2004 re-authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that beginning no later than the first Individualized Education Program (IEP) to be in effect when the child is 16, and updated annually thereafter, the IEP include appropriate, measurable post-secondary goals based upon age appropriate transition assessments related to training, education, employment, and, where appropriate, independent living skills.
In developing this handbook, we reached out across the country to counselors, who generously shared with us their thoughts and concerns about the particular challenges confronting today's high school students with disabilities. In response to their input, we have assembled this Toolkit of information and resources. Concluding the Toolkit are the Appendices, which consist of an extensive listing of related organizations and websites, and a packet of additional tools to further your work with students. The Toolkit is also available on CD-ROM and appears at the HEATH Website, www.heath.gwu.edu.
Hurricane Katrina struck near the Louisiana-Mississippi border and became one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, affecting a large geographic area and necessitating the evacuation of people from parts of the area, including vulnerable populations, such as hospital patients, nursing home residents and transportation-disadvantaged populations (such as the elderly and persons with disabilities) who were not in such facilities. The disaster highlighted the challenges involved in evacuating vulnerable populations due to hurricanes. GAO was asked to discuss efforts to plan and prepare for the needs of seniors in the event of a national emergency. GAO describes its ongoing work on evacuation in the event of emergencies, such as hurricanes, and provides preliminary observations on (1) challenges faced by hospital and nursing home administrators that are related to hurricane evacuations; (2) the federal program that supports the evacuation of patients needing hospital care and nursing home residents; and (3) challenges states and localities face in preparing for and carrying out the evacuation of transportation-disadvantaged populations and efforts to address evacuation needs. This testimony is based in part on a prior GAO report, Disaster Preparedness: Preliminary Observations on the Evacuation of Hospitals and Nursing Homes Due to Hurricanes, GAO-06-443R (February 16, 2006).
According to this report, in preparing for and carrying out the evacuation of transportation-disadvantaged populations who are not in institutions during a disaster, states and localities face challenges in identifying these populations, determining their needs, and providing for and coordinating their transportation. Identifying these populations and determining their needs present challenges because their overall size, location, and composition can be difficult to determine in advance of an emergency. For example, while transportation-disadvantaged populations include the elderly, low-income individuals, and persons with disabilities, during disasters these populations can also include people who do not own or have access to cars and people who do not permanently reside in the community, such as tourists.
The elderly are particularly likely to be represented among the transportation disadvantaged because they are more likely, compared with the general population, to have a disability, have a low income, or choose not to drive. Providing for and coordinating the transportation of transportation-disadvantaged populations presents challenges because evacuating them requires additional planning, time, resources (for example, evacuating seniors with special medical needs from their homes), and communication efforts (such as communicating with the vision or hearing impaired). In the course of GAO's review, it observed mixed efforts at the state and local level to address the evacuation needs of the transportation disadvantaged. For example, emergency management officials in two locations GAO visited indicated they did not yet have a good understanding of the size, location, and composition of the transportation disadvantaged in their communities. However, GAO also observed efforts in some locations to address the evacuation needs of the transportation disadvantaged by encouraging citizens to voluntarily register with their local emergency management agencies, integrating social service providers into emergency planning, and other measures.