Disability Employment Initiative (DEI)

1. Disability Employment Initiative (DEI) Resource Mapping the Guideposts & Working with Targeted Youth Groups Hosted/Facilitated by: Laura Gleneck Presented by: Patricia Gill and Mindy LarsonNational Collaborative on Workforce & Disability for Youth 2011 Training Series (June 1, 2011)

2. Disability Employment Initiative (DEI) • At a minimum, DEI Projects were required to select at least two service delivery components as a primary focus of grant implementation to serve the youth or adult population. • Guideposts, as a service delivery component, was selected by three of the nine DEI projects. • The DEI solicitation states that selection of a focus on adults or youth "must not preclude the provision of services to all individuals with disabilities, regardless of age, who are accessing the workforce system.” • Training and Technical Assistance to DEI Projects on understanding and implementing the Guideposts is provided under U.S. DOLETA contract with NDI Consulting, Inc. and the National Disability Institute (NDI). • Evaluation of the impact of the DEI Projects implementation and outcomes of Guideposts will be provided under U.S. DOL ODEP contract with Social Dynamics.

3. Upon completion of this webinar, DEI Project staff will: Understand how to use the Guideposts for Success as a framework for mapping resources in their communities that address the comprehensive needs of youth, including youth with disabilities. Understand considerations for serving youth with and without disabilities involved in the juvenile justice system and in foster care. Know where to go for support (information, tools and resources) and expertise on serving youth with disabilities and other challenges within the workforce system. Resource Mapping the Guideposts Learning Objectives

4. Resource Mapping the GuidepostsAgenda • Overview of the National Collaborative on Workforce & Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth) • Addressing the Needs of Youth in Transition • Guideposts for Success • Tools to Help DRCs Serve Youth • Overview of Resource Mapping for Serving Youth • Using the Guideposts for Success for Resource Mapping • Strategies and Resources for DRCs Serving Youth • Involved in Juvenile Justice System • Involved in Foster Care • Community Resource Mapping and Cross-System Collaboration

5. Introduction to Presenters & National Collaborative on Workforce & Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth)

6. NCWD/Youth • In our 10th Year • ODEP Funded • Assists state & local workforce development systems to integrate youth with disabilities into their service strategies. • Aims to: • Improve state and local policy; • Strengthen workforce development service delivery; and • Improve knowledge, skills, and abilities of youth service professionals.

7. NCWD/Youth Partners Center for Workforce Development • Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP) PACER Center Center on Education and Work • University of Wisconsin- Madison Institute for Community Integration • University of Minnesota

8. Guideposts for Success • What ALL youth need to transition to adulthood successfully • What additional support, services, and opportunities youth with disabilities need

9. Five Guidepost Areas • School-Based Preparatory Experiences • Career Preparation & Work-Based Learning Experiences • Youth Development & Leadership • Connecting Activities • Family Involvement & Supports

10. Overview of Resource Mapping for Serving Youth

11. Resource Mapping Definition Definition: a methodology used to link community resources with an agreed upon vision, organizational goals, strategies, or expected outcomes. Three Principles: • Focus on what is already present in the community • Relationship driven – partnership, common interests • Working across boundaries (program & geography) National Center on Secondary Education and Transition

12. Purpose of Resource Mapping • Identify new resources for youth • Identify new partners (Integrated Resource Teams!) • Facilitate staff training • Avoid duplication • Identify and fill in gaps • Identify new funding sources • Increase youth outcomes by improving coordination • Facilitate youths’ skill-building by involving youth as mappers (NCSET tool)

13. Steps to Resource MappingStep 1: Define Community • Target population(s) • Youth involved in Juvenile Justice (JJ) System • Youth in Foster Care (FC) • Geographic region • What are service/grant boundaries? • Where can youth actually travel (safely)? • Demographics • Age range • Disability status • Income

14. Steps to Resource MappingStep 2: Define Your Purpose • What will you do with the information? • Resource Guide for Youth • Resource Guide for Staff • Develop partnerships • Pursue new funding • Reduce overlaps and fill gaps

15. Steps to Resource MappingStep 3: Define What You Want to Identify • What do you want to identify? What types of information and for whom? • Guideposts for Success (youth in transition, including those with disabilities, in Juvenile Justice, in Foster Care) • School-based Preparatory Experiences • Career Preparation & Work-based Learning Opportunities • Youth Development & Leadership Opportunities • Connecting Activities • Family Involvement & Supports

16. Steps to Resource MappingStep 4: Review Previous Mapping Efforts • Who has it? Chamber of Commerce, WIA One-Stop/WIB, local newspaper, phone book, internet, previous staff • Who was involved? Youth, families, organization types • What was mapped? Which community, what assets • How recent is it? • Are there any tools or results that you can build from?

17. Steps to Resource MappingStep 5: Plan How You Will Map • Who will conduct the mapping? Staff (all or some), board members, community advisory council, youth, families, other organizations, coalition members, community stakeholders • How will they gather the information? teams or individuals, whole tool or sections, community sections • When should it be completed? Before next quarter, program year, enrollment period, funding year, ASAP • What resources will you need? transportation, clip boards, copies, database, computer time

18. Steps to Resource MappingStep 6: Map!! • Assign areas and/or sections • Track progress (on a data system or go “old school” with a wall map and push pins) • Create system to: • Check data quality • Enter data • Use and disseminate data quickly • Create “snapshots” and priority areas to address

19. Steps to Resource MappingStep 7: Formal Review and Sharing • Analysis – What did we find out? • Audience - Who needs to know? • Internal - staff meeting • External - community/partner briefing • Next Steps - What do we do next? • Guides for Staff/Youth • Website • Meetings with Potential Partners

20. Using the Guideposts for Success for Resource Mapping Tool Overview

21. Mapping the Guideposts For each component of each Guidepost area, identify: • What does our organization (coalition, partnership, One-Stop / local workforce investment area) currently provide? • What do other organizations, initiatives, and/or policies provide? Who is the primary contact for each (phone/email)? • What is the current status and future plans? What if anything is missing? Other comments?

22. Mapping: Career Preparation and Work-Based Learning Experiences All Youth have access to: • Career assessments to identify skills, interests, options, & school/post-school preferences; • Structured exposure to postsecondary education and other life-long learning opportunities; • Exposure to career opportunities that lead to a living wage, including information on education and skills requirements, income/benefits potential and asset accumulation; • Training in job-seeking skills and work-place basic skills (“soft skills”) and opportunities to practice these skills; • A range of work-based exploration activities (site visits and job shadowing); • Multiple on-the-job training experiences (paid or unpaid, e.g. community service) specifically linked to program of study & school credit; and • Opportunities to learn specific occupational skills related to career pathway.

23. Mapping: Career Preparation and Work-Based Learning Experiences In addition to all of the above, Youth with Disabilities also: • Understand the relationships between benefits planning and career choices; • Learn to communicate their disability-related work support and accommodation needs; and • Learn to find, formally request, and secure appropriate supports and reasonable accommodations in education, training, and employment settings.

24. Mapping: Career Preparation and Work-Based Learning Experiences Youth with & without disabilities involved in the juvenile justice system have: • Comprehensive vocational programming consistent with youth’s aptitude and interest, and with high growth industries in community where they will return. • Opportunities to learn about, choose, and plan for career pathway, including list of courses, work experiences, post-secondary options, and career options. • Access to employment and work experiences on and off facility grounds made possible through collaborations with the community and businesses (e.g. graduated release; technology-based simulations). • Advocate/job development specialist to coach youth on workplace skills, assist in obtaining needed training and accessing resources after release, getting records sealed/expunged, responding to employers’ questions. • Training in behavioral skills that may affect sustaining employment (e.g., anger management, accepting feedback, accepting directions).

25. Mapping: Career Preparation and Work-Based Learning Experiences Youth with and without disabilities in foster care have: • Opportunities for ongoing assessment (career interests, abilities, strengths, weaknesses and aptitudes) and focused career exploration, employability skills building and work-based learning, including entrepreneurship. • Permanent, meaningful connections to significant adult mentors and role models in an employment and training context. • Opportunities to develop work values, work ethic and learn how to obtain, retain, and advance in a job, and transition from one job to another. • Independent Living Plans that incorporate employment and training programs/services., leveraging federal Foster Care Independence Act funds (Chafee). • Access to employment-based programs with comprehensive, customized services, including structured work-based learning for transitioning youth, through formal relationship between private/public child welfare agencies and workforce development system.

26. Guideposts: Juvenile Justice &Foster Care Considerations • School-Based Preparatory Experiences • Juvenile Justice – connections to vocational/alternative education GED, post-secondary; transferable credits; training for facility staff; collaborative planning • Foster Care – Access to positive learning environment, training for caseworkers; records; non-parental adult/friend/guardian at IEP meetings • Youth Development and Leadership Opportunities • Juvenile Justice – service opportunities; individualized planning; laws/advocacy; risk-taking behavior explained; adult role models • Foster Care – self-advocacy/esteem; on-going assessments; risk- taking behavior explained; independent living plan; lifetime networks

27. Guideposts: Juvenile Justice &Foster Care Considerations • Connecting Activities • Juvenile Justice – diversion programs; understanding of stage/ process; training for POs; contact w/school and career personnel • Foster Care – valid documents (drivers, library, voter, birth); adults as “navigator”; temporary housing; safety education; financial aid for post-secondary • Family Involvement & Supports (Families who are… ) • Juvenile Justice – well-informed advocates; engaged w/facility and program; input in JJ stages; family-focused treatment (MST) • Foster Care – collaborative “family” planning; know rights; recognize relationship change, belonging need, emotional needs

28. Strategies for Serving Youth involved in the Juvenile Justice System

29. Serving Youth involved in the Juvenile Justice System • Understand and work at all stages of the system – intervention, diversion, prosecution, adjudication, facility • Staff training and access to resources – make their job easier and support their outcomes • What happens inside should matter outside – transferable credits and skills, plan early for reentry, make connections • Rights & Advocacy – youth, families, and staff must know laws, rights, and how to access and advocate for them

30. Resources for ServingYouth involved in the JJ System • Guideposts for Success for Youth Involved in the Juvenile Corrections System http://www.ncwd-youth.info/guideposts/juvenile-justice • GUIDE – Making the Right Turn: A Guide About Improving Transition Outcomes for Youth Involved in the Juvenile Corrections System http://www.ncwd-youth.info/juvenile-justice-guide • INFO BRIEF - Improving Transition Outcomes for Youth Involved in the Juvenile Justice System: Practical Considerations http://www.ncwd-youth.info/information-brief-25

31. Strategies for Serving Youth in Foster Care

32. Serving Youth in Foster Care • Independence and Self-Care – financial planning, housing, transportation, health care, benefits, career preparation • “Family” & Other Caring Adults – Connections to role models, extended family, networks, and trained staff • Records & Permanency – documents (driver’s license, birth certificate, SSN), educational/health/career records • Rights & Self-Advocacy – youth-driven planning, Chafee Program, self-esteem/goal-setting, systems navigator

33. Resources for Serving Foster Care Youth • Guideposts for Success for Serving Youth in Foster Care http://www.ncwd-youth.info/guideposts/foster-care • GUIDE - Negotiating the Curves Toward Employment: A Guide About Youth Involved in the Foster Care System http://www.ncwd-youth.info/negotiating-the-curves-toward-employment

34. Resources for Community Resource Mapping • Community Resource Mapping: A Strategy for Promoting Successful Transition for Youth with Disabilities http://www.ncset.org/publications/viewdesc.asp?id=939 • Transition Planning: Community Mapping as a Tool for Teachers and Students http://www.ncset.org/publications/viewdesc.asp?id=2128 • ESSENTIAL TOOLS —Community Resource Mapping http://www.ncset.org/publications/essentialtools/mapping/default.asp

35. Resources for Cross-System Collaboration • Making the Connection: Growing & Supporting New Organizations – Intermediaries http://www.ncwd-youth.info/white-paper/making-the-connections • This paper describes how a new organizational strategy - intermediaries - can link the supply and demand sides of workforce development. • By aligning and brokering multiple services across institutional and funding sources, intermediary organizations can play an important role in improving employment outcomes for youth with disabilities.

36. Resources for Cross-System Collaboration • INFO BRIEF- Blending and Braiding Funds and Resources: The Intermediary as Facilitator http://www.ncwd-youth.info/information-brief-18 • How intermediary organizations can facilitate the blending and braiding of funds and resources to encourage cross-systems collaboration to improve educational and employment outcomes for all youth, including youth with disabilities. • Strategies states can use to support local communities in the “blending” and “braiding” of resources. • Outlines how cross-systems collaboration and alternative funding strategies can be facilitated by intermediary organizations. 36

37. Next Steps • Youth DEI Projects • Begin using the information presented today as a framework for mapping resources in your community to help address the needs of the youth groups your project will be serving. • Based on responses to the DEI Youth Projects Questionnaire: • Number one targeted youth group = youth in the juvenile justice system followed by youth with mental health and learning disabilities • The training opportunities will begin to focus on these targeted groups. More information will be included in the training opportunities announcement for June. • DEI Technical Assistance: • Access and utilize the following information and resources: • Disability Resource Coordinators Serving Youth http://www.dei-ideas.org/chapter2-2/page2a_youth.cfm • Guideposts for Success Service Delivery Component http://www.dei-ideas.org/chapter2-1/page6a_gfs.cfm • National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth http://www.ncwd-youth.info/

38. Questions/Comments Questions, tips, and/or lessons learned in moving forward with resource mapping using the Guideposts? A: Submit it to the host in writing via the Chat or Q&A Box to the right, or…B: Click on the “raise hand” icon to have your line un-muted and ask your question/make your comment.

39. Contact Information Key NCWD/Youth Contacts: Patricia Gill 202-822-8405 Ext. 154 Gillp@iel.org Mindy Larson 202-822-8405 Ext. 169 Larsonm@iel.org Key Websites: http://www.ncwd-youth.info/ http://www.dol.gov/odep/