CHARLIE WATERS:So We Have, Surprise,Surprise, We Have Anotherfairly Dense Afternoon

CHARLIE WATERS:So we have, surprise,surprise, we have anotherfairly dense afternoon.

We have a goodbit to get through,but in this next hour,it's going to be a littlebit more conversational.

We're going to be talkingspecifically about strategiesand securing some of thoserelationships with peopleand finding innovativesolutions to fundingprograms and making thechange happen that youwant to see happenin your local areas.

I think Seth and Joe aregonna kick us off.

Is that right?

JOE MICHNER: I think you and Kimberly are.

CHARLIE WATERS:I wiggled my train ofthought away.

I will click for us.

So please continue to useyour post-it notes if youdon't feel comfortableasking questions out loud.

But if you feel comfortablejust asking questions,of course we are notgoing to be able to staysolely on questions,but feel free to throwa hand up and wewill get you a mic.

KIMBERLY TISSOT: We'regoing to go back and forthtoday during this topic, and wemight all jump in.

So get ready for someexcitement this afternoon.

Right now we are going tostart talking about innovativefunding and partnerships.

The most important thing is:You have to look foropportunities.

People are not goingto come to you, andespecially if you guys arenot getting information out.

So we're going to go intodetail today about how wecan look for thoseopportunities and where to go.

Relationships.

I'm going to stress thisthe entire week.

We only have one more day,but the importanceof relationships andcollaboration.

You've got to letpeople know where,what you're doingand establish trust.

And that's a big part of ourdiscussion this afternoon.

And make yoursuccess known.

We post a lot onFacebook and Snapchat.

Not Snapchat,but Instagram.

We send out e-mail blastsconstantly letting peopleknow what wehave been doing.

And also sharing successstories of our consumers.

That is something thathas been very common.

We're going to go into greatdetail about all of this.

I'm going to pass it onto Joe and Seth.

SETH HODEREWSKI: Hello.

We say it definitely relates to,you know, that innovativefunding to our I&R andknowing everyone includingother agencies and whatreally our job to knoweverything that's outthere, you know?

That's who we are, providingthat information and referral.

Knowing reallywhat's out there,who we can work with,who we can collaborate with,who we can haverelationships withfor our consumers.

So we're going to move itto our how we look at thatinnovative funding andrelationship with businesses.

JOE MICHNER: So whatyou're going to see in thenext few slides are differentconversations anddifferent topics so to speakand how to reach outto businesses.

A lot of what we do at ourcenter is talking tobusinesses aboutproviding employmentopportunities.

But there's also opportunitiesto gain funding through that,and not what you're thinkingtraditional funding.

This could be volunteeringat your agency and differentthings like that, which is,in itself, a form of fundingbecause you'regetting help.

So we're going totalk about that.

We're going to talkabout voc rehab in detail.

How our relationships havedeveloped with voc rehab.

We are going to talkabout schools,all those kinds of things.

So the first slide you arelooking at there isbusinesses.

We are constantly lookingfor businesses that willprovide opportunitiesfor our consumers.

Those real opportunitieswhere they can get workexperience, where theycan explore a job.

Where they could get a job.

So we're constantly,we have staff,vocational coaches theyare going out every day,knocking on doors andtrying to find those options.

Through those relationships, as you develop thoserelationships, those canturn into a lot of other things.

They can turn intovolunteering staff fromthe business volunteeringat your agency.

You could eventually starttalking to them aboutsponsorships, right?

We're not going to runin the door and ask formoney right away.

We're going to buildthat relationship first.

Get to a mutually agreeableand beneficial relationshipbefore you say you know,we've got this gala comingup, you want to be a sponsor?

Those kinds of thingscan happen.

It's all, as Kimberly said,all through theserelationshipsyou develop.

Seeking donations,recruiting volunteersfor events, providingeducation andsensitivity training.

We've had a lot of successwith this in the past foryears where going intobig companies likeWells Fargo,things like that,to provide sensitivitytraining to their staff.

We offer that on a regular basis throughoutreach sowherever we are.

That sometimes isa foot in the door,again, for otheropportunities.

We might do a sensitivitytraining and then all of asudden we have aconnection that couldbe a potentialassessment sitefor young adults togo and explore jobs,things like that.

Many businesses also provide seminars andeducation to groups.

You know, there'spotential to recognizethose employers, too.

I personally am part ofour local employmentcoalition in Lehigh Valley.

We have an event comingup in May where we areproviding, we had thespace donated for it,a hotel is providingthe food for it.

We're providing abreakfast to do someemployer recognitionawards.

So all the agencies thatare together on thatemployment coalitioneach pick two employersthat they want to recognizeas their best employersof the year to give backfor a lot of the things thathave been providedfor our young adults.

SETH HODEREWSKI:We see some of thateducation, thatbusinesses will come in.

Especially like bankswill come in becausethey want to be ableto teach peopleabout checking andsavings accounts andhow to managetheir money.

Basically they want themto come to their bank.

But they'll provide all thatfinancial information thatcould be very, very beneficialas it relates to employmentand that type of thing.

Even things like MassMutual has come in andtalked to our parentsabout life planningand all that kind of thing too.

Again, they're looking forsome business out of it,but in many cases it'sreally good information.

JOE MICHNER: Beforewe turn it over to Kimberlyand Charlie to add on tothis, I want to mentionthe last bullet point,getting business ownerson your board has beenreally beneficial for us too.

One of the bestconnections weever had is withthe local rotary.

And that was because oneof our board memberswas a business owner who was part of that rotary club.

They have sponsoredevents for us.

They have providedopportunities.

We've been able to go torotary meetings andpresent about ourtransition services,and that's turned intoa ton of different things.

And I think wehave a question.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:Not a question as muchas a comment butwith community fooddonations, we have recruitedfor a lot of our events.

I have actually extendedinvitations to therestaurants doing the fooddonation for their staff ormanagers to joinus for the event.

So you can build thoserelationships to meetconsumers to see firsthand what we do andget the buy-in a little bit more.

SETH HODEREWSKI:We have seen that, too.

Local grocery storeswill donate gift cards.

There's differentorganizations that willdonate extra food or bagelsor something like that.

A lot of different places likethat will give gift cardsand stuff like that.

KIMBERLY TISSOT:And making sureto do a follow-up tooif you are getting in-kinddonations from businesses.

Send thema thank you card.

Give them a shout-outon social media.

Put them on your website.

We get all of our fooddonated for our prepprogram and we take apicture of the youth so theyare in charge of, you know,getting the thank youcards out tothe businesses.

We also connect with ourChamber of Commerce.

We are a member ofChamber of Commerce.

We go to their outreachevents and we networkwith a lot of the businesses.

In return, too, we havea program that a fee forservice program that weprovide assessments anddisability sensitivityand that's a great dealof unrestricted funds thatcome into our organizations.

That is position later on.

So networking is veryimportant with businesses.

CHARLIE WATERS: And thepay-off is not always immediate.

99% of these relationshipsare not resulting in golden99% of these relationshipsare not resulting in goldenpaved trails to programs,it's just being available forthose relationships andfor that unexpected tocome from someof that outreach.

JOE MICHNER: Beforewe move on to someother ideas, anymorecomments aboutbusinesses or any concerns?

We're all pretty goodat this, right?

We all, through informationand referral, we know howto make thoseconnections and getother people involved.

SETH HODEREWSKI:Or other positivebusinesses thatyou've come across.

KIMBERLY TISSOT: Building relationshipswith other nonprofits.

So this is a bigresponsibilityof our I & R staff is to makerelationships with othernonprofits that areproviding servicesto our consumers.

So having meetingsscheduled,having phoneconversationsto get an idea of whatthey're providing andthen share informationabout your center as well.

Partner with events,conference transition fairs.

They're out there.

I know schools in ourstate are doing transitionfairs constantly,statewide conferences.

Anything that you see thatyou can be at and have atable or an event table,get involved.

And also look outside of thedisability community as well.

People with disabilitiesare associated withorganizations that aren'tdisability related as well.

So definitely makeconnections.

Nonprofits,we write grants.

Other nonprofitswrite grants.

Building thatcollaboration.

We recently did a grant witha sexual trauma servicesorganization that'snon-traditional.

So non-traditionaldisability organization.

And we're going to sharefunding if awarded.

Get involved.

We do IL workshops.

How many of you do ILworkshops in your centerright now, where you mighthost a monthly training?

I saw a couple hands.

Okay.

What we do is we havemonthly trainings onwhatever topic is needed.

So we survey ourconsumers to see whatkind of topic theywant to talk about.

We do this withyouth as well.

A common topic that isalways on that list is sex.

They would like to knowmore information aboutsexuality so we havesexuality trainings.

So different topicsevery month, andthat brings a lot oforganizations involved.

It ties, when you buildrelationships with othernonprofits, they doa lot of your outreachfor you as well.

Advocacy groups,protection and advocacyfor people withdisabilities are veryimportant for you tobuild collaboration with.

They are organizationsthat fight for disability rights.

We should be rightthere with them.

So definitely formthat relationship.

Also look outside ofthe disability advocacygroups as well.

There's really not thatmany within your state.

Establish relationshipswith like sexual violenceorganizations and everyonethat you can think of.

We have a relationshipwith South CarolinaEquality, which is actuallyfor gay lesbian, bisexualand transgenderedgroups.

That relationship hasdone a lot because theyalso are fighting for a lot ofthe same things that we arein equality, so we've beenable to partner on anumber of projects together.

CHARLIE WATERS: CanI see a show of hands,who likes sitting oncommittees or councils.

We've got five or six hands, 7, 8, 9.

Wow.

Oh my gosh.

I can't stand them.

I appreciate people who like them.

I think I'm just on abunch of them right nowand it's great right?

Well it seems tedious andit seems like it's hard tofit within workloads thosetask forces and committeesand councils where groupsare coming to a table andtalking about things even ifit's not disability specific,coming to the table andbeing that voice to makesure that people withdisabilities in your areaare getting their needs metthrough initiatives like that.

We have a statewidetransition alliance that aimsto have inner agencycollaborative teamsworking solely onimproving outcomesof transition in everyschool district in thestate of South Carolina.

This is really common intransition and it's comingout and recognizedas best practice.

A lot of these transitioncouncils and regionalgroups, inner agencygroups are popping upand it's somethingthat is reallyworthwhile to look at.

Through that group we'vesecured fee for servicefunding and having thingsfigured out in areas likeself advocacy and beingable to support work that'sbeing done within schooldistricts through those teams.

KIMBERLY TISSOT: If youdon't have a committeesuch as that, create one.

Get really creative andbring people to the tableso that you all can tackle a barrier together.

And usually you start talkingabout funding opportunitiesand next thing you knowyou're applying for grantsand looking at fee forservices together.

SETH HODEREWSKI: Just two points to addon to some of that.

Along with that collaborationpiece, I think organizationsthat are putting the fundingout are looking for thosecollaborative piecesbecause they're lookingfor the most bangfor their buck.

They are trying to get toas many people and getout as much as possible.

So those collaborationsare so important.

And one of the other reallyfun things that we did,I love the transition fairsand those kind of things.

The outreach thatgoes along with that.

One of the fun and uniquethings we did was atransition cookie bake off.

We wanted it to be atransition chili cook-off,but the Department ofHealth was not too into that,but you can do bakedgoods in Pennsylvania,which was cool.

So we had all the differentagencies, it was a reallyneat collaborative effort.

And all the differentagencies came together.

They brought their bestcookie and we had judgescome around and judge.

We had young adultjudges, we had the mayorof Allentown come andbe a judge, we hadthe weather lady from ourlocal 69 News was a judge.

It was pretty reasonableWe didn't spenda lot of money on it.

We used all of ourpartners to get theinformation out and itwas really a lot of fun.

We had a big giant cookietrophy that someone won.

It added a little bitof that element ofcompetitiveness betweenthe different agencies ofI'm going to come withthe best cookie andI am going to win and don'teven bother coming.

It was a lot of fun.

It is those kind of uniquethings that maybe drawpeople in a little bit more.

And when you have cookies,that always helps.

JOE MICHNER: I know, in my history, I have beendoing voc rehab stufffor like 15 years.

When I first started it wasvery competitive andnobody talked toeach other.

Maybe it's like that for you.

The agencies and providersthat do these services foughtagainst each otherfor everything.

But through these kind ofcoalitions and these kindsof things, you can makesome bonds and you canalso get a lot out of them.

I mentioned we're doingthis employer recognitionthrough the localemployment coalition.

That's not something I coulddo by myself and if I tried todo it by myself, it wouldbe kind of meaningless.

It would be me and twoemployers sitting in a room.

To do it through all theseother agencies on thecoalition, we have aroom full of employersthat I can now,if I don't have aconnection with them,I can network with them.

I can make strongerconnections with them.

We as agencies can shareinformation and worktogether more and realizethat it is okay that we areworking together.

It does not have to bea competition or afight over funding orhowever you want to look at it.

I understand that noteverybody is in thatscenario, but try tofind those right groups.

Where you can, you knowyou said sometimes they'retedious, and it's true.

Because some ofthem don't do anything.

That's the hard part, right.

So find the onesthat are active.

Find the ones where thereare people willing tocollaborate and be partners with you and youcan get a lot of stuff done through them that youcannot do by yourself or just your agency.

KIMBERLY TISSOT: Thereare a lot of nonprofitsthat are specificallyfocused on youth,and guess who theyexclude a lot of times?

Youth with disabilities.

That's where you canreally partner with themand teach them how toserve people with disabilitiesand also see aboutcollaborating to expandtheir youth programs andmaybe you can be a partof that youth program aswell, your organization,and share somefunding that way.

JOE MICHNER:Rec centers.

KIMBERLY TISSOT: Goodexample.

For nonprofits too, I think every stateusually has a nonprofitassociation of some sorts.

I know the young man that was up here talked aboutgoing on to their websiteand seeing the jobs posted.

But connecting with anonprofit associationso that you could seeall the nonprofits out there.

There usually have somekind of annual event,annual conference toattend and that's a greatnetworking opportunity.

JOE MICHNER: K know in our area we havea volunteer center.

That a lot of the nonprofitswork with to get volunteers.

It's a great place to see alist of other nonprofits inthe area that youmight not know about.

Anybody have commentsor questions before weget into the hottopic of voc rehab?

I'm not sure I wantto flip the slide.

So voc rehab.

Full disclosure here.

I am fully aware that acrossthe country the relationshipbetween CILs and voc rehabis not always a positive one.

I know that where we arewe're very fortunate tohave the relationship wehave with voc rehab.

It's interesting how it canbe just subtly differenteverywhere you go.

For us, for all the programsthat we talked to you aboutearlier, like 90 percent of our funding comes through voc rehab.

For ABLE, not the case.

How does that all play out?

Our blind and visualservices office doesn'tcontract anythingout in our area.

So it's really just dependson where you are.

And who the counselors are.

For us, when we startedour Career Path program,which is our first kind ofbig voc rehab program,wour executive director hada pretty good relationshipwith the local districtadministrator of voc rehab.

Then they brought me into manage that program.

I had known allthe VR counselors.

I could call them and havethe honest conversationsand say hey, here I am.

I'm at the CIL now.

I'm going to be doing stuffwith you guys and we'regoing to do it differently.

Are you cool with that?

And have those kind ofheart-to-heartconversations withthose counselors.

I fully get that a lot of youdon't have the same situation.

But, I think as we go throughsome of this stuff and wetalk about a lot of the newstuff, what voc rehab isrequired to do, there's some realopportunities for you toget in the door if youhaven't been able to before.

We have some lists there.

Partnering on programs,partnering on events.

Setting programswith set rates.

We can getinto all of that.

Does anyone want totalk about the WIOApre-employment and howthat could potentiallybe an opportunity?

CHARLIE WATERS: It's ahuge opportunity I don'twant the training to beentirely about WIOA,but if you're in the placewhere you are lookingfor a spot to break intoand have a more robustyouth services outof your center,WIOA is right there.

People are still strugglingwith implementation.

People are still uncertainabout what it means.

With Title I, it's requiring thatvocational rehabilitation atthe state level set aside15% of their entirebudget to youth,to serving youth.