#2021APSE Virtual Conference Track: Funding and Managing Employment Services and Teams
About the Track: See all 11 sessions below!
Funding and Managing Employment Services and Teams Keywords: Management, public policy, funding, supervision, organizational transformation, resilience, team-building, crisis lessons learned, chapter and grassroots efforts
PLUS JOIN WEDNESDAY! Virtual Networking with a focus on the "Funding and Managing Employment Services and Teams" Track happening Wednesday, June 16, 2021
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#2021APSE Virtual Conference
14th-18th June 2021
Monday, June 14, 2021
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM EST
Lessons Learned from Managing in a Pandemic
The leadership team of a 170-person employment services team shares their pandemic story describing lessons learned for organizational transformation, resiliency, and team building. Have an unfiltered look at how this agency used temporary redeployment, voluntary layoffs, remote work, shift differential and hazard incentives, PTO policy revamps, and personalized management to survive and thrive in 2020.
Keywords: Organizational transformation, resilience, team-building, crisis lessons learned
3:45 PM - 4:45 PM EST
Discover your Financial Path
The majority of people understand that benefits counseling is a key component to successful employment. The question is how do we access benefits counseling; who pays for benefits counseling; and when should benefits counseling occur? This session will help attendees understand the best practices of benefits counseling and how it relates to a job seekers informed choice. In addition, we will provide you with ways to access partners and funding to expand the programs within your state.
Keywords: Benefits Counseling, Social Security, Work Incentives
3:45 PM - 4:45 PM EST
Developing Staff Competencies: New Training Approaches for Employment Support Professionals
Skilled and motivated staff are a critical variable in the continued expansion of community-based employment. This session will consider the critical components of the professional development of staff, the role of credentialing and certification, and remote strategies to support these efforts. This session will address the following questions: How do you apply the APSE Universal Competencies in the development of staff? What are the differences between credentialing, accrediting, and certifying professional development, and how does that inform our decision-making? How can online training support a consistent baseline of knowledge for all staff and address the varied schedules of employment professionals?
Keywords: staff development, credentials, remote training options
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM EST
The ABLE Act and WIOA: Paving the Path to Employment
Living with a disability is often associated with significant extra costs. That’s why individuals and families can now contribute to ABLE accounts — tax-advantaged savings accounts that can fund disability expenses. Leveraging ABLE accounts and WIOA-funded employment and support services can make it easier for an individual with a disability to find and retain competitive integrated employment. Hear from a successful ABLE Account owner/ambassador along with the LEAD Center about ABLE to Work provisions and the positive impact of ABLE accounts for working individuals with disabilities.
Keywords: Financial Literacy, ABLE Accounts, Self-Determination, WIOA
3:45 PM - 4:45 PM EST
Department of Justice Olmstead Enforcement in the Area of Employment Services
The Department of Justice enforces the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), including the integration mandate of Title II and the Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C., which recognizes that the ADA prohibits unnecessary segregation of persons with disabilities and requires that persons with disabilities receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. This session focuses on the Department’s Olmstead enforcement in the employment services context and discusses the impact and current status of two specific statewide agreements in this subject area. It will also include a discussion of important principles of the Department’s Olmstead enforcement work and descriptions of a sample of cases.
Keywords: Americans with Disabilities Act, Integration, Enforcement, Settlements
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
11:15 AM - 11:45 AM EST VIRTUAL NETWORKING
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM EST
Verbal De-escalation and Listening Skills: Keys to Supporting Individuals with Challenges in the Workplace
Knowing how to effectively and quickly verbally de-escalate a situation with someone who has become agitated is key to supporting individuals to successfully reach their employment goal. This training reviews and demonstrates seven steps identified in the research-validated English modified version of the De-Escalating Aggressive Behavior Scale (EMDABS). We then pair these steps with basic skills from Motivational Interviewing (MI). EMDABS and MI skills and philosophies assist in establishing a respectful, collaborative relationship with the individual to help reduce their fears and come to beneficial solutions in the workplace, as well as aiding in preventing future crises. This training session provides a video demonstration as well as seven practice sessions to support skill-building.
Track 2: Workplace Supports and Job Coaching
Keywords: Verbal de-escalation, Motivational Interviewing skills, reflective listening skills, communication skills, crisis management
3:45 PM - 4:45 PM EST
Confronting Complacency: Ableism as a Barrier to Equitable Employment
This session will lead participants through a discussion on how ableism unintentionally permeates disability service provision (with a specific focus on employers, professionals, and providers). Even amongst disability service providers, disability inclusion is not a topic many are proficient in. Many providers of disability employment services are not required to learn about disability rights, history, identity, or culture. Historic exclusion has resulted in minimal exposure and experience living and working alongside people with disabilities equitably. Because of this gap in lived experience and/or acquired knowledge, organizations need to make intentional efforts to re-examine the systems we uphold and operate within, and ensure we include people with disabilities in all components of service planning and delivery. This session will be facilitated with the intent of opening discussion and creating dialogue for those who care about advancing disability employment, and how we can either choose to break down (or continue to build up) barriers to disability employment – especially the intangible, attitudinal barriers people with disabilities still face every day in their pursuit of self-determination.
Track 2: Diversity in Employment Services
Keywords: Ableism, Disability Rights, Attitudinal Barriers, Equity
3:45 PM - 4:45 PM EST
Leveraging Electronic Documentation Software to Improve Employment Outcomes. A Panel Discussion
Chances are that you and your organization use electronic documentation software for automating billing and compliance reporting. However, this software can do more than that. Join this session to hear from a panel of vendors of electronic documentation software and learn how to leverage this technology for tracking metrics that matter and improve your program’s effectiveness in assisting job seekers in getting jobs.
Track 2: Technology in the Workplace
Keywords: Employment outcomes, Effectiveness, Quality improvement, Electronic documentation software, Evidence-based
Thursday, June 17, 2021
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM EST
Developing Relationships with Employers is as Easy as 1, 2, 3!
Instead of approaching new potential employers every time, wouldn’t it be nice to have a large number of “warm leads” available once you know the talents and interests of your newest jobseeker? This session will offer easy-to-use techniques and tips to create ongoing relationships with the business community with minimal time requirements and maximum ease and familiarity. Please come prepared to relay your experiences of trying to build relationships with potential employers (while ensuring individualized service delivery to your job seeker). The presenter will answer direct questions and offer scripts for networking, tools for tracking key information, and methods for developing relationships even when your current job seekers are not a match. We will talk about how to customize the scripts, so they reflect you and your situation. The result of some job development activity may not be a placement, but instead getting the potential employers to offer introductions to their network of other employers on your behalf. This session allows you to practice using these techniques, so you are ready to leave the conference and create easy opportunities for employment first.
Keywords: Developing Relationships, Potential Employers, Networking, Leveraging Employer Relationships
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM EST
Moving Forward After COVID-19: Results From the APSE Survey on the Impact of COVID-19 on Employment Services and Outcomes
In 2020 and 2021 employment and day service providers responded to three rounds of the APSE survey on the impact of COVID-19 on disability employment services and outcomes. Staff from the Institute for Community Inclusion in collaboration with APSE leadership analyzed the results of the surveys. This presentation will share the results of the analysis and offer recommendations to assist providers to recover from the pandemic and continue to enhance their employment services.
Keywords: COVID-19, policy, service providers, individuals with IDD
Friday, June 18, 2021
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM EST
Aligning Outcomes and Services: Colorado’s State Transition Team Coordinates Efforts to Enhance the Success for Youth and Students with Disabilities
Learn how Colorado brought together thoughtful state-level leaders to develop a framework for how to better serve and coordinate services for students and youth with disabilities. Through collaborative brainstorms and diving into group work to define postsecondary outcomes and services, Colorado will be able to implement a new framework and support local efforts impacting students' and youth’s individual lives. This session will educate on the importance of Colorado’s transition efforts to create a shared vision, align the state messaging and training efforts for educators, vocational rehabilitation, families, and service providers.
Track 2: Career Exploration, Discovery, and Job Development
Keywords: Service coordination, Raising Expectations, Students with Disabilities, Transition, Postsecondary Outcomes