Griffin-Hammis Associates, Inc.

Kansas Rural Routes to Employment Initiative

Development Site Application

Three Awards will be given to develop Employment Initiative Sites

Application Deadline: February 24, 2015

This announcement and application is being sent statewide to encourage your application to participate in the Kansas Rural Routes to Employment Initiative (KRREI), operated by Griffin-Hammis Associates (GHA) and the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities (KUCDD), and funded by UnitedHealthcare. The application process identifies 3 local communities as Project Sites, providing your organization and collaborators with training, technical assistance, and mentoring tailored to your community and specific employment seekers. Eligible applicants must:

- be currently providing or capable of providing community employment services to Individuals with Developmental Disabilities in Kansas

- commit to develop a collaborative team of community partners including regional Parent/family, Self-Advocacy, Vocational Rehabilitation, School Transition, and Workforce leaders that participate in learning new approaches to customizing employment for people with disabilities

If your agency is selected as a development site, you will receive:

1.  Support, mentorship and guidance to develop an Active Employer Council (AEC)

An AEC is a small but powerful council of local business owners and mangers who meet monthly with employment seekers and use their social and economic networks and supply chains to leverage work opportunities in the local community

2.  Multiple on-site training, technical assistance, and mentoring visits from GHA and KUCDD staff

Each visit assists the local coalition members with AEC development, employment seeker vocational profiles, job development, and local systems coordination

3.  Free training with the curriculum tailored to the site

The training content is based on local need and coalition member input, but relies on a foundation of Customized Employment (CE) and Self-Determination essentials, leading to an ACRE National Certificate in Community Employment Services (http://www.acreducators.org), including: Introduction to CE and Discovery; Systematic Instruction and Job Analysis; Job Development, Carving, Creation and Resource Ownership; SSA Work Incentives, Support Strategies; etc. Training is provided during on-site visits as well as Live Webinars on specialized topics throughout the year.

4.  Support and mentoring of staff, collaborators, and teams for specific customized outcomes

During the project year, we will support your staff in learning/supporting the CE process starting with Discovery and exploration, and beyond to informational interviewing and job analysis, job carving/creation, negotiation strategies, small business development, etc.

5.  Lead Agency

A lead agency, typically an adult employment service provider, pulls together the local collaborators. This lead agency receives a $15,000 subsidy to offset partial project duties. The site also receives a Quick Start account of $4,000 to underwrite Discovery activities, purchase tools or technology for job seekers, etc. The lead agency will work with GHA/KUCDD on marketing training events, developing the AEC, identifying employment seekers, and reporting on activities. For more details, contact Cary Griffin at

If selected, your agency will commit to and be responsible for:

Initiating AEC meetings and training events with GHA/KUCDD assistance

Responsibilities include identifying and inviting local collaborators and potential AEC members, advertising the training throughout your local region, and securing meeting facilities in locations convenient and accessible to all participants.

Ensuring team members participate in trainings and meetings

Employment seekers (individuals with developmental disabilities, co-occurring mental health labels, and transition age youth) should be recruited for participation during the first months of the project. Key members of their person-centered teams should attend each training, along with other staff and consumers from your agency, case managers, VR counselors, WIOA (Workforce) personnel, Mental Health staff, School Transition personnel, families, et al., from local collaborators, and others engaged in community employment from the surrounding region.

Working through the CE process to a customized outcome with at least 8 employment seekers

Each site recruits 8 individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and/or Mental Health labels who desire community employment. At least 50% of employment seekers will have a primary or secondary co-occurring Mental Health/Behavioral label and at least 3 (13%) individuals, one for each site, will be in the transition from school to work process.

Attached is an application with a series of questions that should be answered briefly. Your answers will guide both site selection and the initial design of our on-site training and technical consultation. A project abstract is also attached below to further explain the project.

It is not necessary for you to discuss these questions in depth, but we are seeking a general understanding of who your team includes as your community partners. The local team should be available to meet briefly with our staff during every on-site visit. Letters or emails stating their commitment to the project from your CEO and your major partners should be sent along with the application to Cary Griffin at

Application Deadline: February 24, 2015

Submit Completed applications by e-mail in the following “fillable” MS Word Format to:

Cary Griffin at

site application: Kansas Rural Routes to Employment Initiative

project site profile

agency:

address:

website:

name project liaison:

position/title:

phone:

email:

agency site team members

(include all staff members and core Stakeholder personnel committing to consistent participation in project training and ta sessions)

Provide Name, Position/Title, Phone, E-mail for each (Add more as needed)

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please provide narrative answers to the following questions:

1. Briefly describe your organization and its existing or potential collaborators that will join you in this initiative.

2. Describe the challenges faced regarding employment opportunities for people with disabilities in your area.

3. What changes or resources do you believe will help people with disabilities go to work?

Our agency fully understands that if selected, involvement with this project will require an investment of staff time. In the event our agency is unable to meet the necessary staff time requirement, we understand that another agency represented on our team may be selected to take over the leadership role.

Executive Director Date


Abstract

Kansas Rural Routes to Employment Initiative

Empower Kansans: UnitedHealthcare Community Plan

Individuals with the most significant disabilities in rural communities are critically under-represented in the labor market. The purpose of the Kansas Rural Routes to Employment Initiative (KRREI) is to develop and demonstrate the impact of combining Customized Employment and the Self-Determined Career Development Model with proven Employer Engagement and Alternative Funding techniques that increase lasting, replicable employment capacity. KRREI proposes a locally-referenced Systems Change demonstration that works with three (3) geographically distributed Community Service Providers (CSPs) having established community employment programs, but that struggle to find quality community employment for individuals with complex disabilities. Customized Employment (CE) is specifically designed to address these complexities, and coupled with the use of evidence-based strategies to promote self-determination, the project will develop a replicable and cost-effective rehabilitation model leading to positive employment outcomes. This is accomplished through the following key program design components:

1. Three (3) Development sites recruited using a simple statewide application process. Successful applicants serve individuals in rural locales, commit Board member and Chief Executive support and involvement, and include letters of commitment from regional Parent, Self-Advocacy, Vocational Rehabilitation, School Transition, and Workforce leaders. A broad-based selection committee votes on site selection. Each site and every job seeker receives extensive training and on-site technical consultation from GHA, a staff stipend of $15,000 to support the project activities and a Consumer Employment Quick-Start fund of $4000 to support rapid engagement in assessment activities, initial wage or self-employment activities, for use leveraging other resources, et al.

2. Each site enrolls no fewer than 8 individuals (24 total) over the 12-month project. At least 4 individuals in each site (50%) will have co-occurring Intellectual/Developmental and Mental Health diagnoses. At least one individual is involved in school to work Transition. One hundred percent will have a completed Career Development Plan and 75% (18 individuals) will attain paid wage or self-employment matching their specific vocational themes and career plans.

3. Lasting local capacity is developed as a cadre of at least 20 community employment staff from each of the development sites, and their related partner agencies (VR, Schools, Mental Health, Workforce), plus up to another 15 regional stakeholders, including families and consumers, receives national Association of Community Rehabilitation Educators (ACRE) certificate training in Customized Employment in the first 3 months of the project. This training emphasizes Discovery (self-determined assessment that creates a vocational profile/career plan), individualized job or business development based on economic development strategies, systematic worksite instruction, Social Security Work Incentives/Alternative funding, natural support facilitation, business development, etc. Community employment staff will also be trained to promote consumer involvement and self-determination using the evidence-based Self-Determined Career Development Model.

4. Amalgamated funding strategies are showcased. Each consumer utilizes at least 2 funding sources, along with at least 9 PASS plans funded generating $126,000 over 24 months (based on our current outcomes).

5. Each site establishes a local Active Employer Council that leverages social/economic capital and supply chain connections to foster rapid job development.

6. A thorough evaluation report, including employment cost analyses, alternative funding options, collaboration opportunities, systems change recommendations and public policy templates for the state of Kansas will be published by the University of Kansas and disseminated broadly via the project Facebook page and KU and GHA websites.

Find information on this and other projects at griffinhammis.com and on our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Griffin-Hammis-Associates/163297153750