THE IMPACT OF A COMMUNITY ACTION TEAM ON CUSTOMIZED EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY ACTION TEAM

Transcription

1 THE IMPACT OF A COMMUNITY ACTION TEAM ON CUSTOMIZED EMPLOYMENT * COMMUNITY ACTION TEAM

2 Joseph N. Gousie, Sr., Director Non-Traditional Career Supports and Training Rose Downey Manager Pennsylvania Employment Services

3 *Employment First! Making Integrated Employment the Preferred Outcome In order for consumers with a disability to achieve full citizenship, employment opportunities in fully integrated work settings should be the first priority. It should be the first option explored in the service planning for working age adults. Its purpose is to establish a consistent approach to achieve full competitive work.

4 I want to work WORK is the conscious effort to produce societal acceptable benefits for yourself and others. Hoyt I need to work Work represents the human need to do, to achieve, to be someone and to know it makes a difference that you exist. Hoyt

5 I need to work IDEAL JOB

6 *A Community Action Team (CAT) is a voluntary committee that leverages its members social and economic capital to assist individuals in attaining employment. *The CAT team is trained in and utilizes the Customized Employment (CE) model to guide them. *The CAT is committed to Employment First *

7 *The key to establishing a successful Community Action Team (CAT) is staying focused on the most important outcome: employment. *Most CAT teams fail because they have illdefined missions, passive members, and little or no budget supporting the efforts. *Operating an effective CAT entails committing organizational resources to the effort. *The member businesses are selected based on their ability to leverage power and influence within the employer community. *

8 Customized Employment offers the job seeker the chance for a job to fit who they are, what they need, and what they have to offer. It provides an avenue to employment for any job seeker who feels that traditional job placement methods do not meet their needs. *

9 *Supported Employment *Supported and customized employment are two proven approaches for assisting individuals with disabilities becoming competitively employed *The basic idea behind both is knowing what the potential employee wants to do and is good at doing with what the employer wants and needs, and supporting or negotiating any differences that may exist between the two. & Customized Employment

10 NEW EMPLOYEE JOB SEEKERS EMPLOYERS

11 CUSTOMIZED EMPLOYMENT Talent Agent

12 Individuals who have the right skills and need less support to fulfill the job description make it to the front of the line to be referred for the job opening Leaving individuals who don t exactly have all the skills or talents to fill a particular job description at the back of the line waiting for a job interview that may never come

13 Meet job seeker AJ

14 * Three Stage Process

15 *Discovery provides, in an nontraditional, common sense way, the information needed to determine the strengths, needs, and interest of any person with complex life issues. *Who is this person?

16 *DISCOVERY Stage 1 of CE "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen, and thinking what nobody has thought." -Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

17 *Visiting the home to meet with the employment seeker and family *Observing tasks and activities in different settings to reveal talents and skills *Exploring the employment seeker s neighborhood and other regularly visited places *Interviewing one to three friends, teachers, or acquaintances *Benefits planning *

18 *Stage two of CE Identify Three Vocational Themes

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22 *The job development phase in CE consists of creating a list of places where people with similar interest profiles work for each of the vocational themes. *The Job Developer will work with the individual and the CAT to develop marketing material, ideas and leads. *Job Developer will follow up on potential employers listed under the vocational themes. *

23 *Home-based *SELF EMPLOYMENT AN ALTERNATIVE TO EMPLOYMENT Types of Businesses *Commercially-based *Business within a business

24 *Benefits of Self-Employment *Process begins whenever individual is ready- no lengthy job search process *Businesses grown specifically around individual * Talents, skills, interests, etc. *Necessary accommodations written into business plan *Working at home eliminates transportation issues

25 *What It Takes *Desire to run and grow a business *Team of people willing to support the process (formally & informally) *Patient, systematic, thorough research and planning process *Willingness to revise and learn as you go *Commitment to develop accommodations as necessary

26 *CATs are formed with *2 to 4 members representing friends and family members of employment seeker *Staff and professionals who are currently working with employment seeker *business owners or managers. *Recommended CAT size is roughly a dozen members *

27 *To identify work opportunities essential to the success of any customized employment venture *To bridge the gap between the nonprofit and the for-profit worlds *To find a link within human resources networks *To get up-to-date information on employment trends *To get leads on new businesses coming to a community *

28 *Business people *Manager Workforce Development, Drexel *Human Resources VP *Business Consultant *Chair for Employment Committee, Mayor s Commission on People with Disabilities *

29 *Clear mission and membership duties are adopted, *The CAT Liaison organizes monthly meetings, and individual employment seekers are assisted in presenting their portfolio or resume to the CAT. *A role of the CAT is to meet individuals to assist in identifying connections relevant to the vocational themes *CAT team members use their personal connections and power to augment employment development opportunities through the leveraging of their social and economic capital. *

30 *For self-employment: *A working collection of friends, colleagues, and experienced business people assembled to assist the prospective business owner in formulating an enterprise idea, launching the business and supporting the venture s growth. *

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32 *Individuals represented at the table: *Job seeker *Provider Agencies staff *Businesses *Community leaders *County supports coordinator *Advocacy groups *Workforce Investment Board members *Schools *Office of Vocational Rehabilitation *Families and friends of job seeker *

33 People currently working with employment seeker Support Team Less-formal partners are added: family, friends, church group, vocational counselor, or case manager. CAT TEAM Additional members are then added from business and community Job seeker *

34 1. One liaison person manages logistics for training, technical assistance, communication/correspondence 2. Each employment seeker is paired with team member(s) trained in-depth on the discovery process. 3. Business members learn about the discovery process, give advice and direction, and provide critical community and social network connections. *

35 *The process includes taking inventory of the CAT s social capital *These relationships identify possible employers for informational interviews. *If the employment seeker or family does not know many people, the more advisory CAT members draw on their own or their organization s social capital *Further along in the discovery process, the team members help the employment seeker and family see their connections with businesses they regularly patronize. *

36 *CAT members can assist with vocational themes development by helping job seekers explore not only their interests, but also by providing opportunity for demonstrating the skills and tasks that job seekers may have related to a particular interest. *These components-interest, skills, tasks, and conditions of employment-meld into a vocational theme. *

37 * Informational Interviews *Informational interviewing is not a job interview; it involves meeting with a business to gather information about the business. *The informational interview is a valuable technique for career exploration. *It also helps job seekers, and job developers, interact with businesses without the pressure of a job interview.

38 INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW DISCOVERY INTEREST

39 pictures of AJ

40 After the employer visit, the CAT team members and employment seeker discuss whether an opportunity exists for the employment seeker s skills to benefit the employer through: *Faster or more accurate work; *Better work flow; *Assisting overburdened employees; and/or *Enhanced customer service. *

41 *Success stories *Staff present job seeker to group *Talk about person s interest, talents, and conditions of employment *Seek out suggestions, ideas, and places to do informational interviews *Discuss micro-enterprise potential *

42 *Working one-on-one with each employment seeker; *Applying organization s resources and community connections; *Learning customized employment s core concepts and techniques; and *Bringing social capital to the table *

43 *Learning Customized Employment and the Discovery process. *Touring local employers to perform job analysis for creating natural work supports. *Identifying the employment seeker s ideal employment conditions. *Utilizing Social Security work incentives *Developing and testing business ideas and creating business plans. *

44 * *The CAT approach emphasizes that through collaborative efforts of a variety of interested stakeholders, resources and strategies are better leveraged to support individual job seekers to achieve their employment goals *CAT Teams provide a foundation for discussion that becomes the engine of employment.

45 * *CAT members can provide many resources and connections to the Discovery Process, to informational interviews, and for introductions to business owners that share the same career interests and vocational themes with job seeker. *An effective and critical role of CAT members is the assistance they can provide in aiding job seekers to identify vocational themes rather than the dream job.

46 *A responsibility of the CAT is to meet employment seekers and take a personal role in assisting a few individuals annually in attaining employment. *The role of the CAT Liaison is to make the CAT successful by professionally managing the CAT process through coordination of resources with the agency employment team and by maintaining an employment outcomes-oriented effort. *

47 *Creating formal and informal local partnerships *Discussing Gaps and disconnects in funding and steps to address problem *Discussing the use of SSA Work Incentives *Getting people the correct information they need to gain employment *

48 *Assignment or identification of staff to carry out CAT functions related to employer development, job development tasks, portfolio designs, etc.; *Management of monthly CAT meetings; *Follow-through on CAT recommendations and networking efforts; *Developing formal monthly reports to the management and funders on outcomes, events, and issues pertinent to employment development; *

49 *To be clear, the CAT team s work together is about one thing: GETTING PEOPLE JOBS *

50 Community Action Teams How To Manual

51 Griffin-Hammis Associates, LLC Networks for Training and Development, Inc.

52 Joseph N. Gousie, Sr., Director Non-Traditional Career Supports and Training 1 Judy Way Aston, PA gousiej@elwyn.org Rose Downey Manager Pennsylvania Employment Services 1 Judy Way Aston, PA downeyr@elwyn.org