Webinars and Resources

Partnering with Individuals and their Families: An Important Ingredient in Employment First Planning

Presenter: Rachel Pollock

Explore the key role of effective engagement with individuals and families in our employment first initiatives.  Emphasizing the importance of understanding concerns, fears, and life goals as a starting point for engaging individuals and families  in employment first planning and designing agency plans/system change. Also discussed is the  effective strategies for collaborating with families and an overview of the basic information we need to provide  individuals and their families in the areas of work incentives, wrap around supports, and provider commitment.  

Webinar

Meaningful Writing: Capturing Strengths and Ideal Conditions of Employment

Presenter: Doug Crandell

There is an ever-expanding demand from the vocational rehabilitation system to communicate, through written reports, the strengths, capacities, abilities, and preferences of the people we serve. Sounds simple. But the reality is, writing can be a bit of a challenge for most people. Even more so, how can we capture and document the focus person using a narrative approach? What if you were able to write a vocational profile that actually told the story about the person you are supporting, in a way that you and others could visualize that person working? This webcast provides basic ideas to improve writing skills, decrease stereotypes, and use words to create pictures, with the goal that the reader will gain a better understanding of the job seeker.  

Webinar

Competitive Employment for People with Challenging Behaviors

Presenter: Dr. Dan Baker

Employment for people with intellectual or development disabilities who also present challenging behaviors remains on the more vexing problems in the field of disability supports. This group of people is often excluded from meaningful work, but needs the benefits of employment like any other person. This three-part webinar series addresses this topic area, blending employment supports and positive behavior supports in a person-centered manner. Hands-on strategies will be the focus of this series.

Webinar Part 1           Webinar Part 2            Webinar Part 3

Systematic Instruction: Teaching to Promote Success 

Presenter: Teri Johnson

This is a two part webinar series provided by Teri Johnson on Systematic Instruction. Teri has extensive experience providing individualized technical assistance which includes: identifying strengths and preferences of individuals to guide job development; designing tasks and environments to accommodate learning styles; utilizing systematic instruction in teaching new and complex tasks; developing self-management strategies to increase and maintain independence; and troubleshooting performance issues including speed, accuracy and employability skills.

Webinar Part 1             Webinar Part 2

Employer Relations and Considerations for Customized Employment

Presenter: Michael Callahan

This webinar, by Michael Callahan, focuses on how to develop relationships with employers, specifically in terms of customized job development and placement. Michael has consulted throughout the US, Canada and Europe in the area of supported employment for the past thirty seven years. He has worked with Marc Gold & Associates (MG&A) since 1979 and has served as president of the organiza­tion since Marc Gold’s untimely death in 1982. He is an editor of a popular “how-to” book on employment for persons with severe dis­abilities, Getting Employed, Staying Employed (1987) and co-author of ­Keys to the WorkPlace (1997) a text on systematic instruction and natural supports in supported employment.

Webinar

Community Action Teams

Presenters: Emily Raming & Janice Weinsten, PsyD

Discover an essential component of establishing partnerships for your agency in learning how to initiate community action teams (CAT) that will focus specifically on securing competitive integrated employment for persons living with ID/DD.  This webinar will define how community businesses and family members can be sought for the CAT based on their ability to leverage influence and follow through with leads in the employment community. Explore how schools, provider agencies and other stakeholders can also be recruited to participate on the CAT. This webinar will also teach how to build a forum to allow job seekers to be heard in a strength-based and supportive setting as as to naturally educate and engage the community in customized employment.

Webinar

Building Natural Supports with Intentional Job Coach Fading for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Presenters: Emily Raming & Janice Weinsten, PsyD

The technical support that we provide to employers can make or break the success of a job placement. When we work with people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, we need to provide employers with hands-on training and education about their new employee and how he or she will succeed. The first step is to create a job description and a thorough task analysis that matches the learning style and level of support the job seeker needs. Another crucial step is looking at the culture of the company and identifying key staff to support employees with disrupting the business's productivity and typical routines. This webinar provides pointers on how to facilitate the relationship between the employee and other important team members, including parents. A successful plan includes intentional exit strategy with the goal to step back and fade.

Webinar