Webinar - Exploring the New National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities
Title Slide – Slide 1
• Exploring the New
National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD)
• January 30, 2013
(LEAD Center Logo is displayed, which consists of 6 triangular arrows arranged into a pyramid with words LEAD Center to the right of the pyramid)
Slide 2 - Today’s Moderator
Elizabeth Jennings
Assistant Project Director
LEAD Center
(picture of Elizabeth is inserted)
Slide 3
The National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD) is a collaborative of disability, workforce and economic empowerment organizations led by National Disability Institute with funding from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, Grant No. #OD-23863-12-75-4-11.
(National Disability Institute and ODEP Logos are displayed)
Slide 4 - Listening to the Webinar
• The audio for today’s webinar is being broadcast through your computer. Please make sure your speakers are turned on or your headphones are plugged in.
• You can control the audio broadcast via the audio broadcast panel.
• If you accidentally close the panel, you can re-open it from the top menu item: Communicate > Join Audio Broadcast.
Slide 5 - Listening to the Webinar, continued
If you do not have sound capabilities on your computer or prefer to listen by phone, dial:
· 1-415-655-0001 or 1-855-749-4750 (Toll-Free Number)
· Meeting Code: 662 106 862
· You do not need to enter an attendee ID.
Slide 6 - Captioning
· Real-time captioning is provided during this webinar for those who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or for whom English is a second-language.
· The captions can be found in Media Viewer panel, which appears in the lower-right corner of the webinar platform.
· If you want to make the Media Viewer panel larger, you can minimize other panels like Chat, Q&A, and/or Participants.
Slide 7 – Submitting Questions
For Q&A: Please use the chat box or Q&A box to send any questions you have during the webinar to Nakia Matthews or Brittany Taylor and we will direct the questions accordingly during the Q&A portion.
· If you are listening by phone and not logged in to the webinar, you may also ask questions by emailing questions to .
Please note: This webinar is being recorded and the materials will be placed on the National Disability Institute website at http://www.realeconomicimpact.org/Pages/LEAD-Webinar-Jan30.aspx.
Slide 8 – Technical Assistance
· If you experience any technical difficulties during the webinar, please use the chat box to send a message to the host Nakia Matthews, or you may also email .
Slide 9 - Today’s Agenda
· Welcome & Overview of Today’s Agenda – Karen McCulloh
· Overview of ODEP’s Vision for the LEAD Center – Kathy Martinez, Assistant Secretary / Rhonda Basha, Chief of Staff
· LEAD Center's Mission & Focus – Michael Morris
· LEAD Center’s Leadership Activities – Karen McCulloh & Kelly Buckland
· LEAD Center’s Employment Activities – Lisa Mills & Barbara Wleklinski
· LEAD Center’s Economic Advancement Activities – Jonathan Mintz & Michael Morris
· LEAD Center’s Public Policy Activities – Michael Morris & Ari Ne’eman
· Join Us – How You Can Participate
· Question & Answer Session
Slide 10 - Welcome
Karen McCulloh
Project Director
LEAD Center
(picture of Karen McCulloh inserted)
Slide 11 - ODEP’s Vision for the LEAD Center
Kathleen Martinez
Assistant Secretary
Office of Disability Employment Policy
U.S. Department of Labor
(picture of Kathy Martinez inserted)
Slide 12 - LEAD Center Mission & Focus
Michael Morris
Policy Team Co-Lead
LEAD Center
Executive Director
National Disability Institute
(picture of Michael Morris inserted)
Slide 13 - LEAD Center Mission
• To advance sustainable individual and systems level change that results in improved, competitive integrated employment and economic self-sufficiency outcomes for individuals across the spectrum of disability.
Slide 14 - LEAD Center Goals
The LEAD Center focuses on five strategic goals to meet the overall mission.
Slide 15 - LEAD Center - Goal One
• Sustainable systems change through development, dissemination, and bringing to scale of novel, innovative, solutions-oriented models, approaches, and practices.
Slide 16 - LEAD Center - Goal Two
• Strengthen capacity of the Workforce Investment sector by coordinating and providing state-of-the-art technical assistance, training, and knowledge transfer activities.
Slide 17 - LEAD Center - Goal Three
• Implement and document effective retention and return-to-work policies and strategies at both an individual and systems level.
Slide 18 - LEAD Center - Goal Four
• Develop policy analysis and tools to advance ODEP leadership role to promote federal policy change that enhances employment and economic self-sufficiency for adults with disabilities.
Slide 19 - LEAD Center - Goal Five
• Serve as a central locus and repository of information on best practices and successful strategies, both for individual jobseekers and employment systems.
Slide 20 - Systems Change
• Capacity
• Coordination
• Customization
• Development / Adaptation / Evaluation of new practices
• Dissemination
• Sustainability
Slide 21 - Framing the Picture
• The LEAD Center brings together a first-rate team comprised of 7 National Organizations, 12 Dissemination Partners, and a pool of 13 National Subject Matter Experts.
• The LEAD Center will work with this dynamic consortium of strategic partners to implement a comprehensive, high-impact work plan that focuses on the three key pinnacles of the LEAD Center’s Mission:
v Leadership
v Employment
v Economic Advancement
Slide 22 - LEAD Center National Partners
1. National Disability Institute
2. Autistic Self Advocacy Network
3. Cities for Financial Empowerment
4. National Association of Workforce Development Professionals
5. National Council on Independent Living
6. TASH
7. US Business Leadership Network
Slide 23 - LEAD Center Dissemination Partners - Provided Letters of Support
1. Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA)
2. Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) and NCWD/ Youth
3. Institute for Veterans and Military Families
4. Job Accommodation Network (JAN)
5. National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disability Services
6. National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB)
7. National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA)
8. NDI Consulting/ DEI Technical Assistance Center
9. National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions
10. National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC)
11. Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America
12. Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Slide 24 - LEAD Center National Subject Matter Experts
1. Meera Adya, Burton Blatt Institute
2. Terri Bergman, National Association of Workforce Boards
3. Mike Callahan, Marc Gold & Associates
4. Abby Cooper, Marc Gold & Associates
5. Tawara Goode, National Center for Cultural Competence & University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Georgetown University Medical Center
6. Cary Griffin, Griffin-Hammis Associates
Slide 25 - LEAD Center National Subject Matter Experts, continued
7. Allen Jensen, Center for Health Services Research and Policy, George Washington University
8. Christopher King, Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, The University of Texas at Austin
9. Lisa Mills, Consultant
10. Bobby Silverstein, Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville, P.C.
11. Janet Steveley, Griffin-Hammis Associates
12. Sally Weiss, Southeast ADA Center
13. Barbara Wleklinski, Consultant
Slide 26 - LEAD Center Focus
• As previously mentioned the National LEAD Center is focused on three primary areas:
v Leadership
v Employment
v Economic Advancement
Slide 27 - Focus on Leadership
• National Disability Institute actively recruited and employed leaders with disabilities as the LEAD Center Project Director, Team Leads, and Subject Matter Experts to ensure that the disability perspective comes directly from people with disabilities in following the theme “Nothing about us without us.” The disability perspective influences and impacts every aspect of the LEAD Center program planning and execution.
Slide 28 - Leadership Activities
• The LEAD Center’s leadership activities will focus on three issues that demonstrate to strengthen both individual and system capacity in helping job-seekers and workers with disabilities obtain competitive employment in integrated settings by meaningfully engaging in workforce development programs and services:
1. Development of leadership and informed advocacy skills among job-seekers and workers with disabilities.
2. Enhancement of access for job-seekers and workers with disabilities to the full range of services and supports available in American Job Centers.
3. Development of strong leaders within the nation’s workforce investment system who are knowledgeable in effective practices related to the training and employment of prospective workers with disabilities.
Slide 29 - Leadership Activities: NCIL Demonstration Project
• Five selected CILs from across the US will provide peer-to-peer training, technical assistance, and education on self-advocacy skills to job-seekers with disabilities with the goal of increasing their ability to effectively utilize American Job Centers (AJCs) and access services, training, and assistance to secure employment.
Slide 30 - Leadership Activities: NCIL Demonstration Project, continued
• Local AJC staff will receive training and technical assistance from CIL staff on disability awareness and appropriate communication with job seekers representing a cross spectrum of disabilities to ensure full access to intensive services and accommodations, as needed, to assist job-seekers with disabilities in achieving their employment goals. Effective practices related to universal design and accessibility will also be disseminated.
Slide 31 - Leadership Activities: NCIL Demonstration Project, continued
• This pilot will result in the development of partnership models for replication nationally to expand effective participation of citizens with disabilities in American Job Centers through the Centers for Independent Living (CILs).
Slide 32 - Focus on Employment
There exists a critical need for the testing, scalability, and replication of novel and proven innovations that focus on the unique abilities of individuals across the spectrum of disability, inclusive of mature workers. As such, the LEAD Center will focus on:
• Bringing to scale both effective practices previously invested in by ODEP and novel strategies focused on improving employment outcomes of citizens with disabilities; and
• Implementing innovative strategies aimed at facilitating the magnitude of systems transformation necessary to ensure the widespread deployment of effective practices coupled with policy guidance leading to sustained improvements in the employment of citizens with disabilities.
Slide 33 - Employment Activities: Bringing to Scale Effective Practices & Sustained Systems Transformation
• Led by TASH, a collaborative of subject matter experts will provide local level training and technical assistance to support the integration of both proven effective practices (including but not limited to group discovery, customized employment, and self-employment) as well as develop models for the validation of novel strategies within the application of workforce development services.
Slide 34 - Employment Activities: Bringing to Scale Effective Practices & Sustained Systems Transformation, continued
• Through the dissemination of policy guidance and technical assistance at the state level, LEAD will promote the alignment of policy, practice, and funding strategies across systems to facilitate participation in the workforce of job-seekers and workers with disabilities possessing long-term support needs.
Slide 35 - Employment Activities: Bringing to Scale Effective Practices & Sustained Systems Transformation, continued
• These activities will collectively result in a comprehensive focus on both the scalability of effective practices and sustained systems transformation, leading to real progress in improving the employment outcomes of citizens with disabilities.
Slide 36 - Employment Activities: Return-to-Work Model
• Work with a national employer to identify and confirm factors that influence an employer's perspective with respect to integrating and managing workers with disabilities in the workplace.
• Demonstrate how to promote the employability of the aging workforce and employees impacted either by work-related or non-work related injury, illness, or disability, while reducing costs.
Slide 37 - Focus on Economic Advancement
• LEAD Center staff and subject matter experts will educate stakeholders on available economic advancement strategies that can be accessed in communities across the country and further integrated into workforce delivery services.
• CFE Fund will design a Financial Empowerment Program to deploy systematic integrations within the American Job Centers using proven supports to improve employment opportunities and financial stability for program participants, including professional financial counseling, safe banking products, and other opportunities as appropriate
•
Slide 38 - Economic Advancement Activities: Core Strategies
• A myriad of economic advancement strategies will be explored to support individuals with disabilities in making the shift from employment as “the” goal to a more comprehensive approach to financial stability that integrates employment as an initial step towards greater financial advancement.
Slide 39 - Economic Advancement Activities: Cities for Financial Empowerment
• The CFE Fund's mission is to improve the financial stability of households by embedding financial empowerment strategies into local government infrastructure. Financial Empowerment covers 4 key service areas:
o Financial Education and Counseling
o Access to Safe and Affordable Financial Products
o Asset building
o Consumer Financial Protection
• Mindful of both the general and unique needs of American Job Centers’ client populations, the LEAD Center and CFE will design a targeted approach to implementing and evaluating financial empowerment integration within the Centers’ service delivery components.
Slide 40 - Focus on Public Policy Development
• Develop policy analysis and tools to advance ODEP’s leadership role to promote policy reform and systems change that advances employment and socioeconomic advancement of individuals with disabilities.
Slide 41 - Public Policy Development: Year One Priorities
1. Labor - CMS Collaboration
• Employment and long term supports
• Affordable Care Act Implementation
2. WIA Section 188 and Methods of Administration: Equal Opportunity policy development
3. WIA Performance Measurement and Waiver Options
Slide 42 Public Policy Development: Year One Priorities, continued
4. Labor - Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Collaboration
• Consumer Education