Facebook
Twitter
Maine's CHOICES CEO Project
Working Together News
A newsletter about Maine's efforts to increase work opportunities for people with disabilities
In Focus
Building Relationships with Business: Trainings Held for Employment Specialists
In November, two trainings for those working in the rehabilitation field were held by the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services in collaboration with the USM Muskie School. One took place in Lewiston and the other in Orono.
The trainings focused on building relationships with businesses in anticipation of a turnaround in the economy. They represented a significant step towards coordinating professional development activities among the staff of a variety of disability programs and state departments.
The keynote speaker and facilitator was David Hoff, MSW, of the UMass Institute for Community Inclusion and the TACE Center. Using Maine labor market data, Hoff led 150 
participants through an examination of businesses and business sectors, informing participants where to look for jobs for the people they serve.
Participants were able to hear directly from both small and large employers on a panel about what employers wanted from employment specialists across Maine. Attendees also heard from colleagues on a second panel who described successful strategies they’ve employed to engage businesses.
A more detailed informational page on these training sessions, including more photographs and links to training materials, can be found here.
Strategies to Engage & Support Employers: New Resources Available
The past three newsletters
discussed workforce development for youth with disabilities that emphasized youth-leadership strategies and essential skills for practitioners. These articles illustrated the importance of early exposure to the workplace for youth with disabilities. However, while research shows that work-based learning leads to improved post-school employment for youth with disabilities, opportunities for this type of learning remain very low. This article explores ways to support employers so they can provide the work-based learning opportunities that are greatly needed.
Workforce development programs must focus on the needs of the future job seeker, as well as the needs and expectations of employers. Successful work-based learning experiences can serve as the most effective marketing tools to employers. Whether through job shadowing, unpaid work, internships, or paid work, these experiences offer a safe environment where employers can become more familiar with the skills of youth with disabilities. Such experiences also help to dispel employers’ fears and misperceptions about employing youth with disabilities. One study found that among 1,500 high school students who completed a standardized time-limited internship experience, more than 77 percent were offered continuing employment beyond the internship.1
The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability (NCWD/Youth) has conducted an extensive review of research and demonstration projects. As part of their work, they have developed a helpful tool, called Guideposts for Success, to steer families, institutions, employers, and young people through the transition from school to work.
NCWD also developed a resource focused on working with employers. Research shows that both large and small employers have consistently expressed a desire for service providers to:
- Understand and report the needs of youth workers
- Provide skilled workers, as well as support in hiring and retaining qualified job seekers
- Coordinate efforts with and through employer-led industry sector organizations and general business organizations
To assist programs in meeting these expectations, NCWD/Youth developed Guideposts for Employers Success. Recommendations include using employer-support materials that are reviewed and endorsed by business partners and providing post-placement follow up with both the young person and the employer. See a complete list of NCWD Guideposts documents.
1 Luecking, R., & Fabian, E. S. (2000). Paid interships and employment success for youth in transition.
‘Think Beyond the Label’ Set to Launch in February
CHOICES CEO has joined with nearly 30 other Medicaid Infrastructure Grantees across the country to create a national media campaign targeted to businesses. The campaign is called “Think Beyond the Label” and encourages businesses to hire more workers with disabilities. It is anticipated that the campaign will go public in February.
The campaign will deliver a ‘business case’ for hiring people with disabilities on a national level and will offer state-specific resources for employers on its website. Thus Maine employers responding to the national campaign will find a Maine webpage that will list business resources such as the CareerCenters and Working Together. Also, states will be given access to ready-made print, audio and visual materials that can be used to extend the campaign locally.
Maine and other states are being asked to participate by creating a “response network” to respond to the increased business interest resulting from the campaign; recruiting corporate campaign sponsors; and integrating the campaign into existing outreach efforts.
Visit the Think Beyond the Label planning website.
Tweet, tweet! We're on Twitter!
Do you tweet? Are you a blogger, a fan of Facebook, or a YouTube fanatic? These Internet tools are all part of what is known as social media marketing. People use websites like Facebook and Twitter to quickly share information with others who are interested in up-to-the-minute news on a given person or issue. These sites help people find others who share their interests. Organizations and businesses use these tools to communicate with their constituents or customers, and to connect people with a common interest to each other and to products and/or resources.
There is a growing presence of disability information on social media sites. The best examples of this in the disability and employment area is Disability.Gov and the Job Accommodation Network. Organizations that are successful with social media have a great website to start with and then use social media tools, like Facebook, to drive people to their website. They also use social media sites to draw attention to events and new items that others may choose to share within their social network, thus driving even more people to the organization’s website.
Another good example is Disaboom, an online resource for lifestyle, employment, and health information. Through its main website, disaboom.com, people can find interesting articles and resources. For those that want to connect with others and be up on the latest news, Disaboom has a companion website, called Disaboom Live, which provides many avenues of social media, such as blogging, discussion boards, and real-time chat. A third Disaboom website, Disaboom Jobs, provides job listings and a resume-posting service. The site reports that more than 100 major corporations from across the country have posted thousands of jobs targeted to people of all abilities.
Working Together, Maine’s business network that is focused on workers with disabilities, recently set up social media marketing sites. Just go to Twitter or Facebook.
The CHOICES CEO project is similarly exploring how social media marketing can be used to engage more people—both those with and without disabilities in the work of promoting expanded employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Are you interested or experienced in this area? What sites do you find helpful? Please let us know by e-mailing or following us on Twitter.
President Announces Initiatives as part of Disability Employment Awareness Month
In October, President Obama announced several steps being taken to further equal access to employment in the federal government for people with disabilities. He expressed hope that these steps would also encourage other employers to expand access to jobs. "As the nation’s largest employer, the Federal Government and its contractors can lead the way by implementing effective employment policies and practices that increase opportunities and help workers achieve their full potential,” said President Obama.
The steps include:
- A federal government job fair to be held in early spring 2010.
- Workshops (to be held during the job fair) on topics such as reasonable accommodations.
- Training development for federal human resource professionals on “Schedule A” hiring waivers, which allow agencies to appoint people with severe disabilities and give them two years to demonstrate their potential to succeed.
- Four “town hall” meetings about the ADA Amendments Act proposed regulations. The meetings will be held in Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and New Orleans, and consist of two sessions: one for disability advocates and one for the employers.
- A video that will address common myths held by employers about workers with disabilities.
- A task force that will report on innovative practices agencies use to encourage the employment of people with disabilities.
State Affairs
Commission on Disability and Employment Annual Report Discusses Upcoming Work
Over the past year, the Commission on Disability and Employment (CDE) established an executive committee to lead its efforts to further define its work plan and position itself to more effectively meet future statutory responsibilities.
Over the next year, the CDE will focus on three primary areas:
- Develop CDE Organizational Capacity, including increasing membership and connecting more closely with the business community.
- Expand Effective Partnerships, including increasing collaboration with other state advisory committees, as well as strengthening work with the full Maine Jobs Council and its subcommittees.
- Promote Effective Practices, including maximizing federal resources, increasing the collection of data on employment outcomes through Maine’s Data Warehouse Initiative as well as by key adult service agencies, and increasing opportunities through the Model employer initiative started by the Governor’s Executive Order in 2006.
The CDE will continue to serve as the advisory committee to the Disability Navigator Program, a key resource to ensuring that CareerCenter services are fully assessable for the estimated 137,000 working aged adults with Disabilities in Maine.
It will also continue in its advisory role to the CHOICES CEO project and an AmeriCorps project of the Maine Transition Network that focuses on youth with disabilities transitioning from high school to the adult world. The CDE will continue its policy work of monitoring the budget process and providing testimony as needed to make sure state resources are effectively used and federal matching funds are secured whenever possible.
Mark Your Calendar
Green Jobs for Women
December 11, 2009; 1 – 4 pm
Wells Conference Center,
University of Maine, Orono, ME
Join Laura Fortman, Maine Commissioner of Labor, for a Roundtable Discussion on Green Jobs for Women.
Careers Conference 2010
January 25 - 27, 2010
Madison, WI
The 24th annual Careers Conference provides practical information for individuals who work directly or indirectly to provide career development services to youth and adults of all ages and abilities.
Ideas for Stories
Please help us… we are seeking stories! Do you know of a worker or employer that we can feature in our newsletter? Please contact Leslie Pohl.
Wrap Up: the Third Annual Working Together Business Symposium
On November 4, Working Together held its third Annual Symposium, produced in partnership with the Maine Diversity Hiring Coalition. In total, 129 people, representing both the public and the private sectors, attended the conference at USM's Abromson Center.
The conference was opened by John Dorrer, who directs the Center for Workforce Research and Information at the Maine Department of Labor. He offered an excellent analysis of current and future projected workforce trends, including discussion of the workforce shortage that Maine will face following the current recession.
"With Maine as an aging state with a very slow-growing population, one of the least diverse states in the nation, we're going to challenged," said Mr. Dorrer. "What we have happening in our workforce is an aging of the baby-boomers and increasingly baby boomers exiting from the workforce. Those are workers that are going to have to be replaced, and the question remains, 'Who is going to replace those workers?'" One solution to this projected shortage will be expanded use of diversity recruitment strategies.
The keynote address was delivered by Martha Artiles, who is the chief diversity officer at Manpower Inc. She shared her observations from a 27-year career that spanned human resources, engineering, and her current position at Manpower, where she oversees diversity and workforce development.
Katherine McCary, vice president of SunTrust Banks and past chair of the US Business Leadership Network, spoke after lunch and presented a short film that previewed a coming public television series on disability and employment. Ms. McCary also presented this year's Working Together Business Leadership Awards, which are highlighted in the next article.
In addition to the Working Together Awards, the Diversity Hiring Coalition recognized three businesses and organizations for their contributions in expanding racial and ethnic diversity in the workplace. The awardees were L.L. Bean, New Mainer’s Workforce Alliance, and Youth Alternatives, Ingraham.
Attendees were also able to participate in breakout sessions on topics such as cultural competency, marketing diversity policies, and the benefits of diversity from the legal perspective.
The Maine Public Broadcasting Network reported on the conference in their story, “Despite Jobless Rate, Labor Shortage Looming, Officials Say.”
For more details and to view photos from the conference, go here.
Working Together Awards Three Maine Businesses
Three Maine businesses were the recipients of awards at this year’s Working Together conference. The awards are given to businesses that show outstanding commitment to employing people with disabilities.
Kohl’s Store in Biddeford received the Business Leadership Award, which recognizes the efforts and accomplishments of larger businesses. The store was nominated by an agency that helps workers with disabilities find jobs. The nominator stated that Kohl’s of Biddeford treats all of its workers equally, and employees were welcoming and supportive of their co-workers with disabilities.
Aroostook Centre Mall in Presque Isle was the recipient of the Small Business Leadership Award. The nominator, an agency that has worked with Aroostook Centre Mall for 11 years, reported that the mall has hired at least 10 employees with disabilities, and that manager Patty Crooks has been a strong and caring advocate on issues of employment and disability.
The Workforce Achievement Award, also known as the “Just do it” award, is given to employers that rolled up their sleeves, without a lot of process or fanfare, and brought people with a disabilities into their workplace. This year, two businesses in Lincoln received the award: Access Auto and Lincoln Rental. Owner, Sterling “Boody” Osgood, has always been very open to working with KFI, an agency in the Lincoln area that helps workers with disabilities find work. He hired a person through KFI’s job placement program 13 years ago who is still there (Boody calls him ‘his best man’). The KFI staff nominating Boody for this award told of several other similar hires where Boody gave workers a chance to perform.
Updates
Job Fair Hosts CART and Disability Resource Booth
The Bangor Job Fair, sponsored by the Bangor Career Center and the Bangor Daily News, was held on October 15th at the Spectacular Event Center in Bangor. For the first time Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services were available at all the workshops. CART is a word-to-word speech-to-text interpreting service for people who need communication access. It benefits people who are late-deafened, oral deaf, hard of hearing, or who have cochlear implants.
In addition, attendees at the Fair had an opportunity to learn more about workplace opportunities for employees with disabilities. A Disability Resource Booth at the fair was planned by six partnering agencies as part of National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
Agency representatives took turns tending the booth and talking with an estimated 45 visitors. Most questions were related to disability and employment but several asked about topics such as housing and Social Security benefits. One employer asked about guidelines to make his business accessible for patrons. Packets with materials on hiring people with disabilities were distributed to employers who participated in the job fair.
The partnering agencies were Alpha One, Allies, Inc., Community Health and Counseling Services, the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services, Eastern Maine Development Corporation (Disability Program Navigator), and Maine Medical Center Vocational Services. The CHOICES CEO project helped by providing the display and some materials.
Tips of the Week Now on CareerCenter Website
Over the past couple of years, the people serving as Disability Program Navigators (DPNs) have gathered resource listings and other useful information and distributed it as the “Tip of the Week” to agency staff and customers in the regions the DPNs serve. One drawback to this system was that the information wasn’t being shared across DPN regions. Over the summer, past Tips from all regions were updated for placement on the CareerCenter webpage, where they are accessible to anyone. The new Tip of the Week webpage has resources for providers, job seekers, and those with disabilities who are already employed.
Diversifying Your Workforce – A Quick Reference Guide for Employers
Research shows that people with disabilities make excellent employees; however, not all employers know how to effectively recruit, hire and retain such individuals. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy has developed a reference guide, “Diversifying Your Workforce: A Four-Step Reference Guide to Recruiting, Hiring & Retaining Employees with Disabilities.” The guide outlines the advantages of hiring people with disabilities, and presents four simple steps to increasing the inclusiveness of your workforce. This guide also contains links to valuable resources. Other ways to get a copy of the guide is by downloading a pdf version, or ordering a free hardcopy of the guide here.
Ticket to Work: First Maine Employment Network Training Held
The CHOICES CEO project is continuing its work with the newest rollout of the Ticket to Work program—a national program that helps people who receive disability benefits from Social Security find a job. We are examining this complex program, including its potential to bring new federal funding to Maine’s service system. Visit our ticket article archive to view past articles on this topic.
On December 4, a training teleconference was held for Employment Networks (ENs)—service providers approved by the Ticket to Work program. Earlier in the year, a phone survey of ENs indicated that there was interest in further training around the Ticket program, especially in the area of helping Maine-based service providers to succeed as ENs. The teleconference, sponsored by the CHOICES CEO project and the Maine Department of Labor, was organized to address this need.
As part of the training, The National Coalition for Health Systems Development (NCHSD), and CESSI (the Ticket to Work program manager for recruitment and outreach) made presentations about the Ticket program and the resources available to current and potential ENs. Discussion topics included new Ticket to Work regulations, revenue opportunities, and resources such as the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance initiative. Eighteen people participated in the call.
If you were unable to attend the teleconference, there will be other training opportunities. Plans for a more in-depth training with ENs are underway for early 2010. Please let Larry Glantz know if you have suggestions for topics to be covered in future trainings.
