WHITE PAPER 7
FINAL DRAFT (4/10/12)
Recommendations to Improve Effectiveness of the National TACE Model
Introduction: Purpose of this document
The directors of the ten Technical Assistance and Continuing Education (TACE) Centers share the Rehabilitation Services Administration’s (RSA’s) goal to improve capacities of the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) system to serve the employment needs of people with disabilities. It is our desire to meet the spirit and intent of the Rehab Act, regulations, the initial 2008 Notice Inviting Applications and our cooperative agreements. After three years of evolving TACE protocols, we have observed opportunities to improve effectiveness. This paper is our collective effort to address these opportunities and to make recommendations for a more effective system that utilizes the strengths and contributions of all VR system partners.
TACE Strengths
In a discussion of a more effective TACE model, it is important to identify the strengths of the current system so that any suggested changes build upon a solid foundation. Using an appreciative inquiry process with the state directors in our respective regions, we performed an analysis of the current TACE model that resulted in the identification of five categories of strengths that are articulated below.
Category 1: Awareness and Knowledge of the Unique Needs of our Customers
One of the major strengths of the current TACE model is that the TACE centers have intimate knowledge of the unique technical assistance (TA) and continuing education (CE) needs of the individual VR agencies, consumers, community rehabilitation programs (CRPs), and other stakeholders in the community. The TA and CE needs vary from State to State, and many times, within individual states, based on numerous factors that are best known by people living and regularly interacting with people in the Region. The TACE programs have a long history of being culturally and regionally sensitive to the VR programs in their areas and customize TA and CE based on that awareness. Whenever possible, the TACE centers are inclusive of all VR stakeholders in their Regions and are keenly aware of how stakeholders interact with the VR programs and can tailor TA and CE based on this local information.
The TACE centers in each Region have developed trusting relationships with the VR programs and other stakeholders. That trust is based on many years of consistency and reliability and well-established lines of communication. These relationships are the cornerstone for all of the TACE activity and allow the TACE centers to create and modify TA and CE to maximize their effectiveness.
Category 2: Responsiveness
One of the most important strengths of the TACE centers is timely responsiveness. The VR programs and other stakeholders know that the TACE centers provide an ease of access that can only be ensured by placement of the TACE centers within the Regions they serve. The VR programs and other stakeholders across the nation receive rapid responses to their request for TA and CE from the TACE centers. Training is developed quickly, and information is gathered and disseminated to all affected parties within a reasonably short time.
The unique local knowledge of the TACE centers, and their experience responding to the needs of their customers, ensures ongoing capacity to respond quickly and efficiently. In addition, the TACE centers are able to identify emerging trends in their Regions and those shared across TACE centers and develop TA and CE promptly to address the specific needs resulting from these trends. There is simply no substitute for the timeliness and quality of TA and CE that can be provided by local TACE centers that have well established relationships with VR programs and other stakeholders in their Regions.
Category 3: Expertise
TACE centers employ knowledgeable staff with VR experience and expertise as well as knowledge and skills in areas relating to VR partner agencies. The following are critical areas of expertise possessed by TACE faculty that prepare professionals in the field of VR and support RSA’s comprehensive system of personnel development:
• Knowledge of the public vocational rehabilitation program
• Knowledge of current and recurring needs of VR professionals
• Multi-modal approaches to TA and CE provision, including use of technology for education
• Knowledge of unique support needs for learners of all abilities
• Knowledge of emerging practices and the performance, analysis and interpretation of needs assessments
• Numerous subject matter areas including but not limited to improved quality and quantity of employment outcomes, transition, organizational development, leadership, services to specific populations and program evaluation
• Knowledge of the range of VR partner organizations including their current and recurring TA & CE needs in order to provide improved VR services
• Expertise and experience in accessible event management.
Many of the TACE centers have the support and resources of major universities at their disposal when providing TA and CE. This ensures that the training provided will be of the highest quality and supported by a long-standing network of VR professionals. In addition, TACE centers are approved to support the attainment of CRC credit for qualified rehabilitation professionals.
Each TACE center performs an annual and on-going needs assessment, and frequently assists VR programs in their triennial comprehensive statewide needs assessment required by RSA. TACE centers are experienced in developing work plans based on the results of these needs assessments.
Category 4: Networking
The TACE centers constitute a powerful network of resources available to provide TA and CE to the VR community. TACE centers network and collaborate with each other, RSA, CSAVR, NCSAB, CANAR, universities, CRPs and other programs to ensure the highest quality of service delivery. TACE centers often act as a conduit between the Designated State Units and RSA. The TACE network results in an increased ability to leverage resources, develop products, and deliver timely and effective TA and CE. The ability of TACE centers to network has resulted in the development and utilization of learning communities around program evaluation, ethics and transition. TACE centers share research and have the ability to help each other replicate powerful and productive training programs. The networking capacity of the TACE centers leverages the resources of several major research universities that are leaders in the field of rehabilitation counseling, ensuring that there is a wealth of information available to the TACE Consortium that increases the quality of TA and CE provided.
We recognize the benefit of a stronger collaborative community and would like to build on current efforts. Below are a number of specific ways that the TACE centers work together to develop, share and disseminate information that supports their mission of providing TA and CE:
• Monthly conference calls with RSA and each other to discuss current and emerging needs and issues
• Face-to-face meetings at conferences such as CSAVR, NCSAB, NCRE and the National TACE Consortium forum
• E-mail, list-serves and phone calls to obtain and share information, problem-solve and identify needed resources for TA and CE
• Sharing electronic resources via the Web such as training materials on specific topics like Ethics, serving people with Autism, Motivational Interviewing in the VR program, etc.
• Periodically sending trainers to other Regions (at the request of the TACE in that Region) to provide specialized training
• Partnering to develop web-based curriculum on Program Evaluation
• Development of learning communities consisting of TACE staff from all of the Regions that share information and investigate best practices on important topics such as transition, ethics and fiscal issues.
• Development of standards and curriculum designed to increase the professionalism of rehabilitation personnel delivering employment services to consumers of the VR program. The Association of Community Rehabilitation Educators (ACRE) training is an example of such collaboration providing competency-based training for VR Partners.
• Facilitation of national data collection (ROI, federal employment of PWD, employment conference initiatives, Randolph-Sheppard initiatives)
• Facilitation of national communities of practice such as the Program Evaluation Quality Assurance Summit Group and associated conferences
• Presentations at national conferences and on webinars
• Authorship of articles and documents such as IRIs
• Partnering to implement leadership and supervision programs
Category 5: RSA Monitoring Process
The TACE centers assist the public VR programs and RSA in the monitoring process. The TACE centers can help VR programs prepare for monitoring and are involved in the monitoring process at whatever level the VR program desires, from simple consultation to full-time immersion. TACE center staff helps the VR program and RSA develop TA and CE plans in response to monitoring findings and these plans constitute a major portion of TACE center activities throughout the year.
Foundation for Recommendations
Based on the strengths the TACE centers bring to the VR system, we have developed recommendations for improvement. Following are the underlying values driving our recommendations:
1. Quality outcomes
2. Professionalism
3. Responsiveness
4. Collaboration
5. Flexibility
6. Accountability
7. Customer Service
8. Respect for partners and stakeholders
9. Efficiency (streamlined process)
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended provides the authorization to support training centers that serve either a Federal region or another geographical area and provide for a broad integrated sequence of training activities that focus on meeting recurrent and common training needs of employed rehabilitation professionals throughout a multi-state geographical area. The TACE Program Goal as stated in the Cooperative Agreement is to improve the quantity and quality of employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities through technical assistance (TA) and continuing education (CE) for State VR agencies and partners that cooperate with State VR agencies. TACE centers should contribute to improved quality of vocational rehabilitation counseling skills and related services for increased effectiveness and efficiency of state vocational rehabilitation agencies’ service delivery, also, according to the Cooperative Agreement.
With this funding authority and our values aligned, we offer the following broad recommendations to enhance TACE services nationally.
Recommendations for Improvement
As we look toward the future, we envision a consortium of TACE centers that share resources and staff expertise, collaborate on development of training and TA strategies to meet common needs and complement each other’s availability of on-line programs and expertise.
Each TACE will bring unique strengths to the network, but all will provide culturally specific solutions to the agencies in their geographic area. While staff from across the TACE Consortium will contribute to a common knowledge base, each center will customize an approach for utilization to the specific needs of the agencies they serve.
The TACE Consortium will consist of centers that are autonomous but support each other as a greater whole, rather than act in isolation. Therefore, leadership will be decentralized and shared, building a peer-to-peer network with flexibility to achieve agreed-upon commitments. Administrative processes will not be centralized but will be replicable for each center, allowing for ease of collective reporting and resource identification, while addressing field-initiated concerns.
Some specific recommendations for improvement include the following:
1. Increase Collaboration and Strengthen the TACE Consortium
We recognize the opportunity for the ten TACE centers to develop further a National TACE Consortium around common themes and priorities. Currently, the TACE centers collaborate in a number of different ways to develop, share and disseminate information that supports their mission of providing TA and CE. Some of these strategies were listed above (See TACE Strengths). We are striving to create more effective and efficient systems for sharing and leveraging resources that will enhance our capacity to serve VR programs. These include but are not limited to:
· A relational data base for needs assessment, work plan and reporting that will be web-based, searchable and mined for data in a variety of ways. Each TACE will enter information for their geographic region and will be able to search for needs and activities nationally by topic area. RSA will be able to see discrete reports for each region and query for a wide variety of reports at any time. It will facilitate aggregation of data at the national level while affording each TACE Center management functions for their own information.
· A web-based inventory of knowledge, abilities and skills of TACE staff for use of the TACE Consortium in planning for cross training, region-to-region training/TA, identification of gaps in expertise and staff development activities within the TACE Consortium.
· A standardized process for collaboration which is developed, directed and administered by the TACE Consortium. The process would include annual meetings consisting of sharing of information from the regional needs assessments and advisory forums, review and determination of common needs, brainstorming potential collaborative ventures, and planning for collaboration. This would result in an annual written plan for collaboration, with input from CSAVR and NCSAB representatives, which would be submitted to RSA for their review. Activities will be completed on a national basis or through designated regions based on need, practicality and equitability. This process would allow for naturally occurring collaborative activities which we have found to be more productive than prescribed collaboration requirements.
· Expansion of nation-wide TACE learning communities that identify best practices and develop state-of-the-art training materials in response to emerging trends, issues and concerns facing the public VR program and its stakeholders. These learning communities will be marked by representation from all TACE centers, flexibility, speed and responsiveness. The content developed by these learning communities will be the shared property of all TACE centers and will be available through multiple sources, including on-line and electronic sources.
· The development of national training opportunities that are available to VR programs and their partners across the nation and that provide training that is collaboratively developed by the TACE centers. Funding for these national training opportunities will be shared by the TACE centers as will organization, platform development, content development and instruction.
We recommend an internal structure among the TACE grantees in partnership with RSA and State VR agencies rather than an external coordination entity to accomplish the establishment of the Consortium. By employing the strategies recommended above, we can create an efficient system that does not duplicate staff efforts and resources.