Monthly Archives: April 2012

Nashville Mayor’s Poverty Workforce Team May & June events

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The Nashville Mayor’s Poverty Workforce Team is hosting/planning/conducting the following meetings and events in May and June.  Below is a list of those events. All of these are at Goodwill (937 Herman Street, Nashville, TN):

May 7   11a-2p

Big JOB FAIR at Goodwill (35+ employers)  Ideal audience is our clients/participants, and comm. organization staff are welcome as well.

May 8    11a-1p

Workforce Development Challenges and Opportunities in the Nashville Financial Sector, lunch provided Hosted by Emily Mitchell from Fed Reserve Bank.  Invitation went out a few weeks ago. To reserve, contact Emily Mitchell. (emily.mitchell@atl.frb.org)

May 9   11a-2p

Healthcare JOB FAIR at Goodwill  (18+ Healthcare employers)  Come one, come all!  Ideal for anyone interested in jobs in the Healthcare field.

May 14   9-10:30

Meeting to learn all about the new Nashville Software School, the program and their enrollment process.  Hosts are John Wark and Don Leyrer  Ideal audience is job specialists, career counselors, etc., and clients/participants interested in learning about how to enroll in this new school.  More info to follow with some details.

June 18  11a-1p

Employer Workshop:  Benefits of Hiring Immigrants and Refugees,  lunch included.  Principal audience:  Employers.  Reserve at mtshrm.org , on their calendar.

June 22   9-11

Workshop for all agencies’/organizations’ staff to learn how to effectively help your clients/participants be successful at a job fair.  Autumn Henderson will discuss the Music City Center job fair scheduled in August and will have some of her employers there.  Principal audience is job specialists, career counselors, case managers, etc, those who prepare the clients to attend a job fair.  Goodwill staff will also present the basic info.  This program is an output of the Operations/Goals Committee.  I’ll send out a more formal invite closer to the event.

So many meetings and events!!!! Hope you can attend some/all of them!  Please notify your staff and participants about some of these as well.

Contact:

Betty J. Johnson, MBA, SPHR
Vice President, Employment Services
Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc.
1015 Herman Street
Nashville, TN  37208
p/f 615-346-1238

www.giveit2goodwill.org

Our business is changing lives.

Job Clubs and Career Ministries Roundtable Discussion

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May 2 10am – noon

U.S Department of Labor’s Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Ideal audience is community organization leaders and staff. Invitation was sent out over a week ago. Reservations : http://jobclubs.eventbrite.com/.

The Poverty Workforce Team is hosting/planning/conducting this event at Goodwill (937 Herman Street, Nashville, TN).

Super opportunity to hear about a national resource and initiative.

Nominate exemplary vendor agencies serving individuals with ASD

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February 15, 2011

Dear Colleague,

I am writing to inform you about our project funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research in the portfolio area of Employment.  The project is titled: Vocational Rehabilitation Service Models for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Information about all the project’s activities can be found at the following website: http://www.autism.sedl.org

I am enclosing an “Autism Vendor Nomination Form” that I am requesting you or your designee complete and send it back to us. One activity of this project is to identify what seems to be working effectively in obtaining employment outcomes for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) currently. To help us in this effort, we are requesting that you nominate vendor agencies in your state that you feel provide exemplary service to individuals with ASD and have successfully obtained good employment outcomes with those served.

SEDL project staff will follow up with each vendor agency identified. We will be looking for evidence about the services provided and consumer outcomes realized. The project’s national advisory panel (see attached list) will review nominees and make the final selection of “Effective Programs.”  This process occurs on an annual basis in order to help us stay up with this rapidly changing service area. To date, seven programs across the country have been designated as Effective Programs. Sharing information about these Effective Programs enhances awareness of vocational rehabilitation staff about employment strategies that seem to be working for people with ASD.

If you have questions or concerns about this request, please feel free to contact me. Thank you in advance for your help in this important effort.

Sincerely,

John D. Westbrook, Ph.D.

Project Director, Vocational Rehabilitation Service Models for Individuals with ASD
Email:  John.Westbrook@sedl.org
Phone:     (800) 761-7874
Text Telephone:  (512) 391-6578
FAX:  (512) 476-2286

Tennessee Disability Pathfinder

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Tennessee Disability Pathfinder is your best resource for finding employment and transition related services and information in your part of Tennessee. Call them at 1-800-640-4636 or email them at tnpathfinder@vanderbilt.edu, or search for yourself in the Services Database.

Tennessee Disability Pathfinder (or “Pathfinder”) is a statewide database of disability services including social service agencies, low-income medical clinics, and a multitude of other valuable resources updated daily. Information is organized by both geographic location and type of service provided.

Pathfinder is designed to be both accessible and user friendly. Searches can be as defined as the specific name of an agency, or broad enough to locate all agencies that provide a particular service within a geographic area.

Categories relevant to employment by which to search include:

Employment Services

Government Disability Assistance

State Agencies

Transportation Programs

Review of literature–what works in the employment of persons with ASD

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Adult employment assistance services for persons with autism spectrum disorders: Effects on employment outcomes, was published by the Campbell Collaboration (C2), and the full-text is available at the C2 Web site. The review sought to determine the effectiveness of adult assistance services for persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Continue reading →

GED accommodation options expand

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The GED testing service has just released a new set of accommodations forms for a previously excluded group of individuals – those “who have lower cognitive abilities [that] did not always “fit” the Learning Disabilities model”.  Previously, candidates who had an overall IQ score of under 70 required special permission to gain accommodations on the GED (the assumption being that perhaps the GED was not an appropriate assessment for this individual). This new track, called Intellectual Disabilities, will make it possible that some of the candidates with this disability will be able to be approved for testing accommodations.  As you will see on the forms, for this group of candidates, we are placing less emphasis on IQ scores, and more emphasis on the discrepancy between timed and untimed test results.  This will give us a better idea of who will (or won’t) benefit from accommodations like extra testing time.

The I.D. Accommodations Request Form, along with corresponding Documentation Guidelines for Evaluators, have been posted to the accommodations website: www.gedtestingservice.com/accommodations

John A. Hosterman, Ph.D.
Director, Accommodations | GED® Testing Service
Director, Accommodations | Pearson VUE
5601 Green Valley Dr.
Bloomington, MN  55437
952-905-7170 [mailto:John.Hosterman@GEDTestingService.com]

The National Service to Employment Project: A Path to Competitive Employment for People with Disabilities

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The National Service to Employment Project: A Path to Competitive Employment for People with Disabilities

Date: May 9, 2012 – 3:00-4:00pm EDT

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/160312210

National service programs like AmeriCorps and Senior Corps (sometimes called the domestic Peace Corps) provide a non-traditional way to experience personal growth, professional growth, and growth as a community member.  This AAIDD webinar will familiarize you with the National Service to Employment Project (NextSTEP), which has a focus on service as a path to competitive employment for people with disabilities.  Join the NextSTEP staff to learn about policy demonstration findings on service inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities and practical ways to get involved with national service as a path to employment activities.

What do we count in Supported Employment?

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Evaluation of State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency Administration of Supported Employment Programs

The Rehabilitation Services Administration has proposed to conduct a national survey of all 80 state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Agencies, seeking to evaluate how State VR agencies implement supported employment services, how agencies use funds, and if agencies are effecting in obtaining supported employment outcomes. RSA has submitted this evaluation to OMB [download documents here] and is collecting comments on the value of the information collection and the reporting burden that the evaluation would impose.

Comment on or before May 18, 2012.