Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center Podcast

Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center Podcast
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Conversations with leaders, practitioners, and advocates who are working to improve competitive, integrated employment and economic outcomes for people with disabilities.

Episodes

  1. Jun 18

    From Readiness to Results: Career Development Considerations for Job Seekers, Coaches, and Employers, Part II

    We talk with Dan Middleton, Senior Director, Clinical Excellence, Planning and Development at the Catalight Research Institute, about job coaching versus career coaching.

  2. Jun 15

    From Readiness to Results: Career Development Considerations for Job Seekers, Coaches, and Employers, Part I

    In this episode, DETAC Strategic Advisor Dan Middleton shares practical strategies for supporting people with disabilities in their career journeys and how individuals can play an active role in their own career advancement. Drawing on his experience, Dan highlights how tools such as apps, checklists, and planning supports can be introduced in practice and used on the job. The conversation also explores how people and professionals who provide supports can build shared understanding of these tools among job seekers and employers to drive success.

  3. 10/03/2024

    "Work is Just as Diverse as Your Disability": Dispelling Myths About Employment and Loss of Benefits

    We talk with Samantha Marino, a certified rehabilitation counselor, former Center for Independent Living staff member and an independent consultant on benefits management about some of the myths about employment and loss of benefits. She explains ways people can explore employment on a trial basis without endangering their benefits and programs that can preserve benefits when a person develops additional income.

  4. 09/26/2024

    Employing People with Disabilities Through a Person-Centered Process: A Self Advocate's Perspective

    We talk to DETAC's self-advocate advisor Nicole Leblanc, about her personal perspective on person-centered thinking and best practices for engaging people with disabilities through a person-centered process, particularly related to employment.

  5. 07/31/2023

    Self Employment: the Spirit of Individual Enterprise, Part II

    About This Episode Sue Babin founded and runs a self-employment business incubator called “Self Employment: the Spirit of Individual Enterprise” in the state of Rhode Island. In this two-part interview, she goes over all aspects of the program: how the idea came to her, how she started the program, how she secured funding and transformed a pilot into a permanent program, how she produced customized training materials for people with disabilities on running your small business, marketing, the markers of success, case studies of people with disabilities who have created successful businesses for themselves and her advice on how to start such a program in your state. This is part two of this two-part interview. Part one in this series can be found here. Presenters Sue Babin has been working in the field of developmental disabilities for 40+ years. She was the administrator of the Office of Quality Assurance for the State Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) for 30 years advocating for the human rights of people with disabilities and overseeing investigations on abuse, neglect and mistreatment; administrator for supported employment statewide grants; program manager for Rhode Island’s Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver; and responsible for designing and implementing monitoring and quality improvement programs for DD community agencies. For the last 10 years she has been a Special Projects Coordinator for the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council (RIDDC), staff to the Systems Advocacy Committee (SAC), and founder and Project Director for Rhode Island’s Self-Employment Business Incubator Project since 2018. Sue has a Masters Degree in Public Administration (MPA), is a graduate of Leadership Rhode Island’s Omnicron Class, and was a recipient in 2021 for Providence Business News (PBN’s) annual “Rhode Island Leaders and Achievers” Awards. Donald Taylor has been with TASH since 2014, where he is the Manager of Membership & Communications, responsible for membership and chapters, data systems and communication, and collaborates closely with other staff to make sure TASH systems support their work. Donald comes from a background of data systems, operations and business analysis, going back to the 1990s. Donald came to the world of disability while pursuing a degree in history. The history profession is deeply interested in the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century and fellow students studying biomedical systems of oppression inspired in him the desire to make a contribution to this aspect of social justice. Transcript Announcer: You’re listening to the AoD Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center podcast, where we learn from people who are working to improve competitive integrated employment and economic outcomes for people with disabilities. This is part two of our two-part interview with Sue Babin, the Special Projects Director with the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council, where she founded and runs the program, Self Employment: the Spirit of Individual Enterprise. We go deep into the nuts-and-bolts of how to run a self-employment program and the value of self-employment for people with disabilities. [music plays] Sue Babin: Yeah. I can talk about some lessons that I learned early on. When I mentioned that that family, a couple of families had approached me I’ve always had some pretty good research skills and I had been in touch with Griffin Hammis and I knew a bunch of people from Griffin Hammis. And so I reached out to them initially and I asked, who are the states that are doing anything in the area of self-employment? And I also Googled self-employment and found some stuff on the small business administration and a few other national site site sites that had listed a couple of states. And I contacted them. So I talked to people over the telephone. I didn’t just look at what they had, but I actually called them and said, Hey, can you talk to me? And I asked a question that you asked, which is, what are the things that you would’ve done differently? What did you learn that from running this project that you didn’t have up and running? And what the number one thing that people said is it’s not so much about helping people to learn the business development skills as it is figuring out how to provide them with the ongoing support that they need from the purchase of materials to the selling platforms, to the assistance in thinking creatively about marketing and changing your marketing strategy, depending upon the needs of your customers. And then how do you provide people with the individualized support that they might need through staff or through a specific business expertise that they might have. And so, as I had said, we found that people that had self-directed supports had the most flexibility because they could hire somebody themselves that had marketing experience or business experience or someone that had strong community connections. So that type of ongoing support was really, really necessary. The other thing that, that we learned is that you need to hire the right staff that work in your project. You need to hire people that are good with folks with disabilities and could communicate with them and get them motivated to believe in themselves and inspired. You gotta be, you can’t be monotone. You gotta be, show that passion to come out in the way that you speak so that people are interested in what you have to say. I found that hiring family members, like I hired Claudia, who I mentioned, I hired Michael’s mom, Sheila, and I hired another mom. Why? Because they had firsthand experience in helping individuals with disabilities to start their own businesses. So they knew better than me what the challenges were. They lived it every day. They also knew how, what the shortcuts were, what worked and what didn’t work. So when you hire the right staff, that’s helpful. I mentioned that I hired a communications agency. That was really a helpful thing to do because I got individual stories like the one I mentioned for Renee. Michael has been on, he’s been on TV stations, he’s been in local newspapers, he’s been on national news. That’s really important stuff. And we hired, as I mentioned, Brian La Fauci, the person that was the former director of the Veterans Business Outreach Center, as well as other staff or other instructors that work worked for the small Business administration. Those are the right people. Hiring people from human service industry doesn’t make sense. That’s my background. You know, I know all about the DD world, but I don’t know too much about business development. So you need to hire people that come from that world, not necessarily human services. I think the other area that has always been an issue and will continue to be, is addressing family concerns about loss of SS s I benefits. You know, there’s a lot of myths out there, whether the person obtains a regular job in the community, or whether the person obtains employment by owning their own business, families are concerned about losing ss. S i, so there’s two components to that. One is the medical benefits that people have that’s covered under Medicaid. That one is a little bit easier because people can earn somewhere around $36,000 a year and still have Medicaid coverage for medical. So talking to families and letting them know, you don’t need to really worry about those benefits unless the person is approaching, you know, in $30,000 range of a business. Now we gotta talk about another alternative. The other aspect of social security, the income that people are concerned about is when you have income from a job or from owning your own business and your hours change every month, you, and even if they don’t, you need to report on a monthly basis to social security what your earnings are. When you own a business, you can deduct your expenses from allowable expenses from what it is that you report to Social Security. But then what will happen is your Social security check will be reduced in subsequent months. So that reporting stuff, parents get really nervous about that, and I think that they don’t understand that. The bottom line is when a person has a job or they have their own business and they’re earning more money than getting an Ss s I check every month, that’s more money in their pocket, which will help them to have a better quality of life to pay their bills, to then be able to buy other things that they need or want go on vacations. And just the same kinds of things that other people do in the community when they have income, that’s their own. And so addressing those social security concerns that families have is a really big issue that needs to be addressed upfront. The other lesson that we learned is constantly asking the people that are in our classes, what can we do better? You know, we ask that every after every class, what did you think of this class? What did you like about it? What did you learn? What didn’t you like? Is there something that we didn’t cover? And sometimes we hear from people about different things that help us to add something else on to our project. Like I mentioned about the outside marketplaces, we learned that as people said, well, I’m, I, I have a Facebook page, but nobody is buying my stuff. So we ask the question, well, how many people like your Facebook page? If it’s only a hundred people, that’s not a big market. You need to get more word out, you need to get more likes. Maybe you need to be selling your things in storefronts. Maybe you need to consider some outside marketplaces. So helping people to figure out how they can do those kinds of things is really important. And as the the group that organizes the self-employment project, you gotta be flexible and shift. Another thing that we learned, and through Covid, we were having in-person classes up

  6. 07/31/2023

    Self Employment: the Spirit of Individual Enterprise, Part I

    About This Episode Sue Babin founded and runs a self-employment business incubator called “Self Employment: the Spirit of Individual Enterprise” in the state of Rhode Island. In this two-part interview, she goes over all aspects of the program: how the idea came to her, how she started the program, how she secured funding and transformed a pilot into a permanent program, how she produced customized training materials for people with disabilities on running your small business, marketing, the markers of success, case studies of people with disabilities who have created successful businesses for themselves and her advice on how to start such a program in your state. Part two in this series can be found here. Presenters Sue Babin has been working in the field of developmental disabilities for 40+ years. She was the administrator of the Office of Quality Assurance for the State Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) for 30 years advocating for the human rights of people with disabilities and overseeing investigations on abuse, neglect and mistreatment; administrator for supported employment statewide grants; program manager for Rhode Island’s Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver; and responsible for designing and implementing monitoring and quality improvement programs for DD community agencies. For the last 10 years she has been a Special Projects Coordinator for the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council (RIDDC), staff to the Systems Advocacy Committee (SAC), and founder and Project Director for Rhode Island’s Self-Employment Business Incubator Project since 2018. Sue has a Masters Degree in Public Administration (MPA), is a graduate of Leadership Rhode Island’s Omnicron Class, and was a recipient in 2021 for Providence Business News (PBN’s) annual “Rhode Island Leaders and Achievers” Awards. Donald Taylor has been with TASH since 2014, where he is the Manager of Membership & Communications, responsible for membership and chapters, data systems and communication, and collaborates closely with other staff to make sure TASH systems support their work. Donald comes from a background of data systems, operations and business analysis, going back to the 1990s. Donald came to the world of disability while pursuing a degree in history. The history profession is deeply interested in the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century and fellow students studying biomedical systems of oppression inspired in him the desire to make a contribution to this aspect of social justice. Transcript Announcer: You’re listening to the AoD Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center podcast, where we learn from people who are working to improve competitive integrated employment and economic outcomes for people with disabilities. This is part one of our two-part interview with Sue Babin, the Special Projects Director with the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council, where she founded and runs the program, Self Employment: the Spirit of Individual Enterprise. We go deep into the nuts-and-bolts of how to run a self-employment program and the value of self-employment for people with disabilities. [music plays] Donald Taylor: Sue Babin, welcome to the DETAC Podcast. Please introduce yourself for listeners. Sue Babin: Okay. Hello everyone. My name is Sue Babin. I work for the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council, and I’m also the state Director for Rhode Island’s Self-Employment Project, which is called Self-Employment: the Spirit of Individual Enterprise. I’ve been here at the Council for about 12 years. And prior to that I worked for the State Office of Developmental Disabilities. I was the waiver manager and also oversaw the Office of Quality Assurance and Special Projects, and under special projects was employment. Donald Taylor: And tell us about your program, Self-Employment: The Spirit of Individual Enterprise, and your other work on self-employment. Sue Babin: Okay. So back in around 2017, I had a couple of different families approach me at the DD Council because their family members were having a really difficult time finding employment. They were going on interviews, filling out applications and not getting callbacks. And it was getting really frustrating for the folks with disabilities to not be able to obtain a job when they really wanted employment. And so one of the family members Claudia Lowe, who at the time happened to also be the director of the Rhode Island Down Syndrome Society, her daughter had a real big interest in music and she had over a thousand songs in her computer and wanted to be a DJ. And so her mom said, well, how can we help her to start this business up? She’s gonna need some startup money and she’s gonna need to know some things about business. So they had approached the state Division of Developmental Disabilities as well as Voc Rehab and weren’t getting a positive response back from those guys. And so they came to the Council and said, how can you help us? And so what happened was we started to take some business classes together. ‘Cause When I, when I started to talk to Voc Rehab, I said, well, what’s the problem? Why can’t you guys give her some startup money to get this business off the ground? And their response was, well, how do we know that she’s really serious about starting a business? Right? And she hasn’t taken any business classes. She doesn’t have a business plan. You know, maybe this might just be a hobby. How are we gonna know it’s gonna be employment? And so I said, okay, well, we’ll, I’ll take the classes with her. So we started to take some classes that were offered by the Small Business Administration here in Rhode Island that were in-person. But she was finding the material really hard. It was complex information. Sometimes the PowerPoints didn’t have any graphics on it. The instructor wasn’t really willing to kind of slow down a bit and explain different things. And lots of times she wasn’t even raising her hand and asking questions. So we did that for a couple of different classes. And what happened next was I ended up approaching one of the community agencies here in Rhode Island that does small business classes. And I said to them, can I take your curriculum and modify it to make it more understandable to people with disabilities and potentially put some graphics in there, or pictures or things like that and you can approve the curriculum, and how about if I hire you guys to actually teach the classes? And they were like, yeah, we’ll give that a try. Okay. and so that’s what we did. We, when we started with like, basically three different classes and it was the curriculum that came from the Center for Women and Enterprise, which is a small business agency here in Rhode Island. And once we had those three classes off the ground, we started a really small pilot project with five people. And we, we ran through the three classes with them. We got some feedback from them. We also worked on things like developing a one page business plan. And then we went back and approached VR and basically said, well, they’ve taken a couple of classes here, you know they need some support to start their business, to be able to buy some of the equipment and supplies that they need. At that point, they were more receptive because now they had taken three classes. They had a small business plan. They definitely had the passion for what the business was. And that’s basically how we got off the ground. And the word about that started to spread statewide that the Rhode Island DD Council was helping individuals to start up their business. So Katie Lowe became a DJ. She named her business, Katie’s DJ Business, and got some business cards, started to get some gigs lined up for herself playing music at different events. We helped her to get a grantor support from Voc Rehab for a couple of thousand dollars to buy the speakers and sound system and stands and all of the stuff that she needed to kind of get that. She had the computer, which she was funded by her DD plan. She used self-directed supports, and that’s how she got started. And then what ended up happening after that was we found out that there was some funds available through the Department of Labor and Training for job development and job training. And so we applied and ended up getting a grant. And that’s what turned us into a statewide project at that point. And that was in 2018. Donald Taylor: Tell us about the ongoing program now that it’s established. Sue Babin: Okay. So in 2018, we wrote and received approval for a grant from the Department of Labor and Training, which is the state agency here in Rhode Island. And every state has one that is responsible for workforce development, for any kind of an agency that’s interested in helping people obtain jobs within the state. I mean, typically what people do across the country that start up self-employment programs is they go to the DD agency. Well, we didn’t do that. We went to the Department of Labor and Training, which is, as I said, the primary entity for any sort of job development and training programs that a state would offer to any individual that’s seeking employment. And we got it. So our first grant was for $150,000 to run three rounds of the training that we had put together. At that point, we had expanded out from three classes to six classes. So the classes started with, what does it mean to be an entrepreneur? What is that? What skills and abilities will I need to have? And who will I need to look for to assist me with my business? The second class is, what are the steps that are involved in starting a business? What do I need to do? What will my business structure need to be? What kinds of things will I need to have in place? The third class was, how do I write an elevator pitch? How can I talk to people about my business so that they unde

  7. 04/19/2023

    IMPROVing Employment Outcomes with IMPROV

    Sierra Royster, the Director of Innovation with the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL), talks with Michael Beers, the Youth Transition Coordinator at Summit Independent Living in Missoula, Montana. Michael is also a standup comedian and runs improv workshops. They discuss a variety of issues in employment, including creativity in employment support, the Centers for Independent Living in rural areas, youth transition to employment and theater as a means of engagement. Presenters Michael Beershas been in an open relationship with Advocacy since 2001 when he was a delegate at thee Montana Youth Leadership Forum (MYLF) in 2001. He then began a casual courtship with Summit Independent Living as a Peer Advocate in 2003, a match that would eventually develop into Michael being labeled as Summit’s Youth Transitions Coordinator in 2008. A position he happily holds to this day and will hopefully have tomorrow. Both these relationships have opened doors for Michael to have a plethora (many) other opportunities to model model model as an advocate. He was a board member with Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL) for the better part of his youth and was a School Board member for Missoula County Public Schools from 2013-2019. Michael is also very proud to brag that he has been able to return as staff to MYLF ever summer since 2002 and is a staff member of the program throughout the year. Finally Michael insists on telling jokes from time to time, another habit he picked up in 2001. He has traveled this country and a bit of Canada telling stories to audiences ranging in size from 1-1,000ish people. He also works at BASE community center (a program of Summit IL) with Missoula’s HomeGrown Comedy to teach communication through improv classes to students of all ages and abilities. Sierra Royster works at the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL) as the Director of Innovation. She works with other national disability organizations to develop training material and new opportunities for Centers for Independent Living and Statewide Independent Living Councils, which make up the majority of their membership. Coming from a Center for Independent Living herself, she understands the importance of creating opportunities for CILs to create connections and peer support to make a large effect on their local communities. She uses this experience to identify gaps and needs within independent living and create programs or services to address them. She strives through all aspects of her position to ensure that rural areas are included in disability services, rights, and programs to create a larger outcome in the community. Transcript Announcer: You’re listening to the AoD Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center podcast, were we learn from people who are working to improve competitive integrated employment and economic outcomes for people with disabilities. For today’s episode, Sierra Royster, the Director of Innovation with APRIL, or the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living, talks with Michael Beers, the Youth Transition Coordinator at Summit Independent Living in Missoula, Montana. Michael is also a standup comedian and runs improv workshops. [music plays] Sierra Royster: I am Sierra Royster. I’m from APRIL, which is the Associations of Programs for Rural Independent Living. We are a national membership organization for Centers for Independent Living. If you’re not familiar with us, [inaudible]. Mike Beers today is very familiar with us. but we are excited to kind of have you here today partnering with the DETAC and getting some of the conversation out around employment and how to make it cool and hip, which is the opposite of those words. Michael Beers: I remember us being in a youth training telling people 10 years ago, as soon as you start saying “hip”, you need to start having your own checked and you need to stop worrying about being cool. So yeah, congratulations. Sierra Royster: I’ve made it. I’ve made it. Michael Beers: We are officially the, those hip people. Sierra Royster: We are. Michael Beers: Fantastic. Well, I am Michael Beers. In addition to being a standup comic and speaker, I’ve worked in independent living for God over 20 years. Primarily for Summit Independent Living Center in Montana, Missoula, Montana. Very proud. And we’ll talk more about a program specifically through Summit that I’ve helped develop along with some national partners and local people called BASE. And then also I’ve worked alongside the Center and another center who sponsors our youth leadership forum in the state of Montana. So the Montana Youth Leadership Forum. I’m an alumni and also a proud employee of that program as well. And was on the APRIL board for a number of years. So very familiar with those amazing programs. And it’s strive for community and, and, and training and, and all things rural, so excited to be here. Sierra Royster: Awesome. Yeah, you were, I think, our first youth board seat on the APRIL Board. Michael Beers: I was, and quick APRIL plug, I, I will always have a special place because it was the, it was the early 2000s and the, the, all the rage was to have national organizations create kids’ tables of youth. So it’d all be like a separate board with only young people that advise the regular board and say, APRIL’s I’ll always give APRIL credit. They said, you know what? That seems like a lot of work [laugh], why don’t we just put a, a youth on our board, [laugh] with everyone else. And I kind of started a trend. We started seeing that more and more. So shout out to APRIL for that. And I was yeah, very honored to be that, that first young person. Sierra Royster: Well, with that, it’s, you know, we, they put you on the board, but they made you work. Michael Beers: Yes, yes they did. They did [laugh] and Yeah. Nice segue. [Laugh], I usually have a, a problem with Segues cuz the throttles on the right. Sierra Royster: Mm-hmm. Michael Beers: Um I have a, for those, it is an audio podcast. I have a very short right arm as well. It’s part of my disability. Yeah, let’s talk employment. Sierra Royster: Well, so today, like employment’s been a conversation forever. I feel like, you know, we, the goal is to get people employed, people with disabilities at a higher rate of employment. And I think every disability organization and service agency has gone about different ways to bring new employment opportunities, whether that is what the person actually wants to do and could just check off a box, or it is actually helping somebody pursue a career that they actually want to be in. But with your comedy background and natural skill I think that you’ve done a really innovative way of kind of approaching employment and talking about employment beyond just how do we get somebody on a job. There’s so many things before we get there, but I think you’ve done a really nice job of opening up the conversation for so long. So I’m excited to hear what you’re gonna, what are gonna say about all that. [Laugh] Michael Beers: No, thank you Sierra. I know and Sierra and I go way back. We’ve, we’ve been at working collaboratively in different areas around, like Sierra said these same questions for a lot of years. And the, the thing is, they were old questions when we got involved. It seems since I got introduced to the independent living and by extension, disability rights movement and those philosophies housing, transportation, employment, you know, there’s the, the, the, the primary four issues that seem to never change as priorities. And, you know, I haven’t checked it lately, but it feels like the unemployment rate for people with disabilities has stayed at that, you know, at that rate since I started. And we haven’t seen much movement despite a lot of creative different strategies for approaching this. So in getting into the schools I think, like I said, the Youth Leadership Forum was both my, my introduction to this language of employment and opportunity. And my first opportunity to be employed through centers. And once, once we got into schools, I know a lot of us you know, began to recognize that yes, our, our our, what we were being asked to do was connect young people with employment and housing and those transition goals. But one of the, the things that became very apparent is that the, the young people that we’re seeing and working with in schools and the issues that they’re dealing with going back to the 2000s and today are, are much different than the, the access issues that began our movements. And it was amazing to be in front of those audience and being able to respond to that. But, you know, the question became how do we respond when, when the issue for employment isn’t a a lack of access to a ramp or an elevator or braille, but it’s, you know dealing with mental health, learning disabilities, you know, these types of things. So I know I’ve I’ve seen a lot of those trends go in and out. I think a lot of it too that we that I recognize and I remember talking about with people working with in schools at the time, Sierra and APRIL, a lot of people at APRIL included was just that once we got into the schools, you know, despite the, the money or the grant money or our charge being employment and housing, that’s not what the young people were most concerned about. Their concerns really boiled down to like loneliness and a lack of confidence. So it, and sometimes a home life that that was, you know, so it was less, less about a disability and more about other issues at home. So, you know so how do you deal with those things and get to get to those, those employment goals? Cuz it seemed like a, a barrier cuz if you’re and it really forced us, yeah, it forced us to look at different ways of addressing those issues. And we’ll talk about later.

  8. 02/02/2023

    The New Normal

    In The New Normal, we talk with Nicole LeBlanc, DETAC’s Self-Advocate Advisor, about the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for people with disabilities – mostly detrimental in terms of increased risk and unemployment, but also some changes that have benefitted people with disabilities such as remote work and telehealth. Presenters Nicole LeBlanc is the Self Advocate Advisor with DETAC. Nicole has a keen ability and interest in public policy and excels at communicating the needs of people with developmental disabilities to public officials. Nicole worked for over eight years at Green Mountain Self-Advocates in Montpelier, Vermont as Advocacy Director supporting her peers with disabilities to feel comfortable talking to their elected officials and as a Project Assistant for the Inclusive Healthcare Partnership, working to help people with disabilities get their healthcare needs met. She has had internships at the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Association of University Centers on Disabilities. Since 2011, Nicole has consulted for Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered and the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. In 2018 Nicole served as the Dr. Ruth Sullivan policy fellow and from 2018 to 2019 she was the Self Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center (SARTAC) fellow at NDRN where she produced “Real Jobs for Real Pay”, a booklet advocating competitive integrated employment. In 2019 Nicole joined HSRI as the Coordinator of the Person-Centered Advisory and Leadership Group (PAL-Group) in the National Center on Advancing Person Centered Practices. Nicole just recently accepted a contract role with Not Dead Yet to educate Maryland and Virginia legislatures on the dangers of physician-assisted suicide laws. In 2020 Nicole created the toolkit called “Why Employment Matters” on talking to families about employment. She has given talks, webinars and keynotes throughout the country on Autism, the dignity of risk, presumption of competence, Person Centered Planning, healthcare access, the “new normal” after COVID-19, tele-health, Build Back Better, voter access, competitive integrated employment, self-managed services and Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS). In 2019 Nicole won the David Joyce Advocate of the Year award for outstanding policy advocacy on Capitol Hill and in 2022 she received the Steve Bartlett award that recognizes and honors a person in the private or public sector who demonstrates a strong commitment to using the political system to advance public policy in support of people with disabilities. She earned a certificate of professional studies from the University of Vermont. In 2018 Nicole was the first self-advocate to complete from the Vermont LEND program. Her motto is: Control your own destiny or someone else will. Donald Taylor has been with TASH since 2014, where he is the Manager of Membership & Communications, responsible for membership and chapters, data systems and communication, and collaborates closely with other staff to make sure TASH systems support their work. Donald comes from a background of data systems, operations and business analysis, going back to the 1990s. Donald came to the world of disability while pursuing a degree in history. The history profession is deeply interested in the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century and fellow students studying biomedical systems of oppression inspired in him the desire to make a contribution to this aspect of social justice. Transcript Announcer: You’re listening to the AOD Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center Podcast, where we learn from people who are working to improve competitive integrated employment and economic outcomes for people with disabilities. In today’s episode, we talk with Nicole LeBlanc, DETAC’s Self-Advocate Advisor, about the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for people with disabilities – mostly detrimental in terms of increased risk and unemployment, but also some changes that have benefitted people with disabilities such as remote work and telehealth. [music plays] Donald Taylor: Nicole, introduce yourself for our listeners. Nicole LeBlanc: My name’s Nicole Blank. I live in Silver Spring. I wear a gazillion hats. I serve as the Self Advocate Advisor for the Disability Employment TA Center. I’ve been in the disability field since October 2007. I’m originally from Vermont. Donald Taylor: And how did you get into the disability field? Nicole LeBlanc: Well, I discovered the self-advocacy movement in Green Mountain Self-Advocacy back when I lived in Vermont, when I was transitioning into a shared living provider in getting developmental services. And I discovered the self-advocacy movement was one of the best kept secrets in Vermont, you know, and it’s like, and I, prior to the Selfy movement, you know, somebody always wished to be normal. I was always teased, picked on. I was always like the odd, weird kid, the outcast you could never fit in socially. Donald Taylor: And then how did you end up coming to Washington, DC? Nicole LeBlanc: Well, I discovered, my first time I stepped foot in the nation’s capital was a 2009 disability Policy Seminar where I met Kareem Dale, Lois Curtis, Sarah Peterson, and I was like, wow, now this is a place I could see myself as somebody who’s always been following politics and stuff – the Bill Clinton sex scandal – somebody who’s always wanted to be a change agent. Donald Taylor: So, you’re one of the most opinionated people on the issue of COVID I know. Tell me what are your feelings overall about the, COVID and the pandemic are. Nicole LeBlanc: The disaster that didn’t have to be this bad. Especially given that, you know, Bill Gates is warned about the threat of a pandemic since 2014. It’s like from day one, if we had just given told everybody ware M95s, you know, and invest in cleaning air and like, and most recently studies have come out showing that people with autism, neurodiverse populations are at high risk of long COVID. You know, an autistic doctor in Vermont opened up a practice just focused on neurodiverse populations, all because she was seeing, you know, a massive wave of long COVID in the autism and neurodiverse population. Because people with autism often have an overreactive immune system. Donald Taylor: So you’re one of the most, the, you’re in probably like the 95th percentile of most-cautious-around-COVID people I know. Tell me what your personal thinking on the issue is. Nicole LeBlanc: Well, until this becomes the common cold, masking is the new normal. You know, if everybody would just, you know, you know, and if we would spend on focus on cleaning the air, you know, that would help, you know, and hey, you know, and me personally, you know, just doubling up wearing an M95 mask makes me less anxious. Donald Taylor: I just was talking with someone else here in the office and like, you know, we were talking about like when we mask and when we don’t mask. You know, there’s places where I obviously always wear a mask, like on the subway. Sometimes I don’t wear a mask when I go into the grocery store. I mean, I do most of the time, but at this point I feel like I don’t know what to do. Like, I feel like there’s no guidance. Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah. Donald Taylor: Everybody’s been cast loose. It’s figured out for yourself. I mean, I still, to this day, I still don’t do any optional activities. Like I don’t go to restaurants. I don’t go to bars. Like, I’m not going to a public place still, especially not right now with a whole new [strain]… Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah … Donald Taylor: … the middle of winter … Nicole LeBlanc: … and flu season and having flu on top of it. Donald Taylor: Yeah. Um. Nicole LeBlanc: Like, you know, and because when you look back, you know, at beginning where you saw, you know, flu cases and norovirus, you know, if anything that is shown is, you know, having bad flu season doesn’t have to be the norm, if we, you know, buck-up and make sacrifices, like masking, hand-washing. The same way we stop stomach flu is the same way we stop this pandemic. You know, stomach flu is a super-spreader, just like COVID and it can be stomach flu, just like COVID can be spread asymptomatically. Another comparison: how many of us grew up in the nineties, lived with people who smoked cigarettes? You know, in the nineties, kids got, it was common for children to get massive gazillion ear infections every single year be due to secondhand smoke, being exposed to it in an indoor setting. As soon as my parents, all my uncles, everybody stopped smoking, people like me stopped getting a million chronic ear infections, which all those antibiotics now, antibiotic, even though they’re getting rid of the chronic ear infection, they’re now causing colon cancer, which is why colon cancer screening is 45. It’s like it’s airborne. Cigarette smoke is airborne, you know, we know we need to look at these COVID mitigation measures as, you know, just like airport security, you know, we, what do we do when we go to the airport? We take off our shoes, go through all that, you know, and put up with pat downs. As much as we hate being patted down a million times, you know, we just suck it up and do it. It’s why we, you know, show up two hours prior to flight. It’s no different than airport security. Donald Taylor: What is your own sense of what we should be doing right now? And … Nicole LeBlanc: Right now everybody should be, you know, keep doing, you know, hand washing and masking and we should be spending billions of dollars, you know, stop spending money on war and spend money on cleaning the air. This is airborne. It is. It’s circulating in the air. Even after somebody leaves the room, you know, their germs are still in the air. You know, that’s the thing. The World Health Organization, everybody,

  9. 02/18/2022

    “Am I Not?” A Conversation with Angela Greene on Leaving the Sheltered Workshop for Competitive Integrated Employment

    In this episode, we talk with Angela Greene. After 21 years in a sheltered workshop, she left in favor of competitive integrated employment as a Dining Room Attendant at the University of South Carolina. She is also a founding member and secretary of I.M.P.A.C.T. South Carolina. This podcast is a continuation of Angela’s presentation during the DETAC webinar, Employment First 2.0: Developing a Foundation for Excelling Systems Change Efforts through Legislative Action. Angela is also a poet. Listen to the end of this podcast to hear her read two of her poems, “Am I Not” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”.   Transcript Announcer: You’re listening to the AoD Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center podcast, where we learn from people who are working to improve competitive integrated employment and economic outcomes for people with disabilities. In today’s episode, we talk with Angela Greene. After 21 years in a sheltered workshop, she left in favor of competitive integrated employment as a Dining Room Attendant at the University of South Carolina. She is also a founding member and secretary of Impact South Carolina. Today’s podcast is a continuation of Angela’s presentation during our webinar, “Employment First 2.0: Developing a Foundation for Excelling Systems Change Efforts through Legislative Action”. Angela is also a poet. Listen to the end of this podcast to hear her read two of her poems, “Am I Not” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”. Amy Gonzalez: Hello everyone and welcome to a podcast that we have today featured with self advocate, Angela Green. This podcast is a continuation of the National Community of Practice webinar that we facilitated in January, “Employment First 2.0: Developing a Foundation for Excelling Systems Change Efforts through Legislative Action”. In that webinar, we featured a few grantees that were moving the needle on competitive integrated employment through legislative action. So we heard from a Center for Independent Living in South Carolina by the name of ABLE South Carolina. And through that, we identified a self advocate that was formally in the sheltered workshop. So we are with Angela Green today, and we are just delighted to have her with us. And what we’re going to do today is take a deeper dive into Angela’s journey to competitive, integrated employment. And so what I’m going to do now is start off by welcoming Angela. Angela, thank you so much for being here with us today. We are so excited to talk to you more about your former life in a sheltered workshop and about your job as a dining room attendant. What I am going to do is just talk you through a series of questions that we have for you at the DETAC. Can you introduce yourself again, please? What is your name? Angela Greene: Hi, my name is Angela Greene and I’m a self advocate. Amy Gonzalez: Thank you so much, Angela. Can you please tell us what city and state you are from? Angela Greene: I am from Richland County, Columbia, South Carolina. Amy Gonzalez: South Carolina. That is wonderful. Now what we understand based upon your excellent presentation in January, Angela, is that you formally were in a sheltered workshop for 21 years from 1994 until 2015. In the amazing presentation that you gave, you talked a little bit about working in a sheltered workshop Monday through Friday, making about $3 an hour. Can you tell me a little bit more about what you did in the sheltered workshop when you were there? Angela Greene: Well, when I was in the sheltered workshop, what my jobs were: cleaning offices, I would dust offices, and I would do bathrooms and wipe down tables and take trash out, that sort of thing. Amy Gonzalez: Now were these tasks something that you like to do or did they just tell you that you needed to do those types of jobs there in the shelter workshop? Angela Greene: Um, It … it’s a … it was more of not … I didn’t really, wasn’t crazy about my job and jobs I did. No, I, I didn’t fancy them. Amy Gonzalez: Yeah. I can understand that, you know, when somebody is, isn’t given a choice to choose the type of work they wanna do that it can cause feelings of, you know, not really being excited about the work that you’re doing. What can you tell me about the sheltered workshop? Did you have friends? Was it lonely? Was it a scary place? What, what can you tell me about being there? Angela Greene: Um, it was not a scary place, but I didn’t really have friends because as you can see, I’m, I’m a very outgoing person, but the kind of relationships, if you will, I had at the workshop, weren’t very friendly. So no, I didn’t have a lot of friends. Amy Gonzalez: Well, I’m sorry to hear that, but, but I know that you have some exciting things to talk about relative to, to your new job. And, and before we take a deeper dive into the job that you have now, I wanna ask, Angela, did you ever ask or talk to maybe, uh, the staff in the sheltered workshop about getting a job somewhere else in the community? Did you ever let them know that you wanted to try something different? Angela Greene: Yes, I did. Amy Gonzalez: And what, what would happen after you told them that? What would they do? Angela Greene: They got that out. They felt that I didn’t have my, they felt that I wasn’t capable, that I didn’t have the capabilities of, you know, doing more. Amy Gonzalez: Well, that can definitely be frustrating when people tell you that you are incapable of something when you know that you can do it, right? Angela Greene: Right. Amy Gonzalez: I wanna talk a little bit about a pivotal moment in your life that you talked about during your presentation, Angela. You said that in 2015, you went to a new agency. You talked about the new agency believed in you and that they helped you gain employment in the community. They took a chance on you. Can you tell me a little bit more about how your new agency worked to help you get a job and learn more about the things that you like to do? Angela Greene: So, wait minute, I moved here, but I originated from Manning. And so how I got in the program was through other programs, if you, um, um, a lady named Ms. Christie and Ms. Val. And at that time they had supportive living and that’s how I got connected with Babcock [Center]. And they, um, helped me, um, find employment. Amy Gonzalez: So you were able, through your supported living program, to learn that there was other, other agencies who could help you and provide services and help you connect to getting a new job. And that’s when you ended up going to the new agency. Is that, is that right? Angela Greene: Yeah. Amy Gonzalez: Okay. Got it. Got it. So how long were you with that new agency until you were able to, to get your new job as a dining room attendant? Angela Greene: It was just like magic. If you – I wasn’t going to use magic – it was just, like once I came here, I moved here in 2015 and I was saying, about a couple of months and how I got connected, how I was able to – was again, was the job coach program through the job coach program. That’s when I gained, um, the competitive employment. And so now I have been working for USC for seven years. Amy Gonzalez: So you are working at the university in South Carolina for about seven years. That is excellent! Seven years is a really long time. And it shows, Angela, your commitment to your job and to your employer. So let’s talk a little bit about your job. What do you do as a dining room attendant? Angela Greene: Well, more so, what I do where I take out trash, I do wipe down tables and then I sweep the floors. And sometimes I stack up the utensils if needed. And then I go in the other units, if they stuff need wipe down, I wipe down. Then I stack up their utensils and stuff as well. And then sometime if someone needs somebody down, the other units, I do that, you know. Amy Gonzalez: Excellent. So it sounds like, yeah, you may do some cleaning here and there, but there are way more aspects of your job, like making sure the utensils are clean, they’re in order, they’re stacked up – because people need those utensils to eat. So that sounds like an important job, Angela. Now, what is your shift? Like what hours do you work? Angela Greene: I’m more from it’s 11 to 5 and that’s, I kind of go in like more the rush hour. That’s where a lot of the kids are be coming in at lunch time, per se, so, okay. That’s, that’s 11 to – yeah – 11 to 4, and out of four days a week. Amy Gonzalez: Yeah. Okay. Four days a week. Got it. And is it a same schedule, like the same days every week, or do you change days? Angela Greene: Same. Monday. And the only day is I have off is Thursday. Amy Gonzalez: Thursday. And that’s why you’re here with us today on this webinar on a Thursday – because you had a day off. Well, that’s great, Angela. And out of all the work that you do, all the tasks with the utensils and the cleaning and making sure things are in order, what is your favorite task to do? Angela Greene: Well, my favorite is this seeing the kids satisfied and a job well done. This, giving them, um, you know, encouragement, I would say through the work I do, but some I come across me, some days look, kind of sleepy or down or whatever, and I’ll come by and say, are you doing all right, young man, are you doing right? And they’ll be like, yes, I’m doing fine. So that’s my biggest enjoyment. Amy Gonzalez: That’s really nice. It’s, it’s that social part: connecting with people, right? Talking to people and having relationships with people, which seems very different, um, than the work that you would do at the sheltered workshop. It seems like here at your job as a dining room attendant, Angela, that you have opportunity to engage with people and talk to people. Um, and just going back to what yo

  10. 07/26/2021

    From the Sheltered Workshop to Musical Mentor: A Conversation with Sunny Cefaratti

    About This Episode Following last month’s webinar, “Celebrating Olmstead: It’s Time for 14(c) Phase-Out: Lessons Learned from Advancing Legislation & Leaving the Shop”, we go deeper with one of the webinar presenters, Sunny Cefaratti, about her early post-high school experience of going to work in a sheltered workshop, how she asserted her desire to leave the sheltered workshop, and how she built an independent life of music as the co-founder and Autistic Self Advocacy Mentor at the Musical Autist. Presenters Sunny Cefaratti is the Co-Director and Autistic Self Advocate Mentor at The Musical Autist. Sunny is a performing pianist and vocalist, and mentor to other autistic self advocates. She is an essential part of the organization and on the Board of Directors. She was born in South Korea, completely blind, and was adopted by her family in the United States at two years of age. She was diagnosed with autism in 2001. She is a graduate of Maryland School for the Blind. Amy M. Gonzalez, M.S. is the Project Manager for the Disability Employment TA Center (DETAC), funded by the Administration on Disabilities. In this role, she manages the various components of the DETAC, including training and technical assistance to grantees who are Centers for Independent Living, Councils on Developmental Disabilities, Protection & Advocacy Entities, University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Education & Research, Traumatic Brain Injury Programs and Projects of National Significance. Prior to her role at DETAC, Amy was a Senior Policy Advisor on the Workforce Systems Policy Team at the U.S. DOL, Office of Disability Employment Policy. She formerly served as the State Director of Employment & Day Services for the Tennessee Department of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities. Amy started her career in direct service and has a broad range of experience in serving individuals with disabilities through the following systems: Education, Vocational Rehabilitation, Workforce Development, Medicaid, including employer outreach and engagement. She also strives to elevate important systems issues that continue to be overlooked such as marginalized and underserved communities. Transcript Announcer: You’re listening to the AOD Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center (DETAC) podcast, where we learn from people who are working to improve competitive, integrated employment and economic outcomes for people with disabilities. In today’s episode, we talk with Sunny Cefaratti, the co-director and Autistic Self-Advocacy Mentor at The Musical Autist about her experience being put into a sheltered workshop, quitting and creating an independent economic life for herself. [music plays] Amy Gonzalez: Hi, good morning, Sunny. Welcome to the Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center podcast. We are really excited to talk with you today. This podcast is going to focus on similar content to what was discussed in the June national community of practice webinar, which is taking a deeper dive into learning, Sunny, about your experience with leaving the sheltered workshop and obtaining a meaningful job, an integrated job in the community, that gives you value and purpose. And so I’m going to start off with asking you, Sunny, if you could please introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit more about yourself and what you do for work. Sunny Cefaratti: Well, good morning, everyone. I’m so glad that I can be here on this podcast today. My name is Sunny Cefaratti. I am co-founder of The Musical Autist, which is a non-profit organization that promotes sensory friendly concerts and empowerment jam sessions and musical autist truth for autistic individuals. I am totally blind and I am on the autism spectrum. Currently I am getting my certificate in entrepreneurship. I take classes at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland, and I am a self-directed services participant, which I can go into more detail about that later. But that’s basically who I am. I am 35 years old. I’m quite busy, you know, now that the pandemic is finally ending. I am getting out more and doing more stuff in the community. Amy Gonzalez: Excellent. Thank you so much, Sunny, for that wonderful introduction about yourself and some of the wonderful work that you are doing. The next question that I’m going to ask is going to focus on your experience, your youth experience and transition at your school. Sunny, when you were in high school, did anyone ever talk to you about what you wanted to do for work post-high school? Sunny Cefaratti: Unfortunately, I did not have that choice. I graduated from the Maryland School for the Blind in 2007 with a certificate of completion. And I was placed in a sheltered workshop upon graduating from Maryland School for the Blind. And I remained there for eight years. Nobody told me, you know, self-direction, wasn’t even an option for me in 2007. And I’ll go into details in a little while as to my experiences at the sheltered workshop, but unfortunately I did not have the choice. I was just placed there because of a broken educational system. Amy Gonzalez: Thank you for sharing that, Sunny. So just to kind of recap what we’ve talked about or what you just mentioned, you were not provided with any opportunities in high school to learn more about your interests in the world of work, you were not provided really a voice or a choice in being able to decide on your post-high school outcomes, but rather instead, you were pretty much just informed that the only opportunity for you was out of sheltered work. And because of that, you ended up staying at a sheltered workshop for about eight years. So I want to talk more about that, Sunny. I want to take a deeper dive about your experience in a sheltered workshop. Can you tell us a little bit – so you were forced to go there, you were in this shop: what type of work were they giving you and what was that environment like, Sunny? Sunny Cefaratti: Well, for starters, you know, I was given piece work. I was paid sub-minimum wage. I would say really the only positive experience I had in the shelter workshop was that I played and sang in a handbell choir. For those of you who might not know, I play the piano and I sing. And I guess the other positive experience that I had was I would volunteer at a local nursing home twice a week, playing the piano for the residents. But the shelter workshop had more negative experiences than positive experiences. When I first arrived in the sheltered workshop, you know, there was a young lady who was – and I did not talk about this at the webinar, but it’s a good thing that I’m taking a deeper dive – but was a young lady who had significant behavioral issues and I was the person mostly that she would target. I mean, I’m using an iPhone for this call right now. And if I had this iPhone in 2007, it would have been broken. This individual – part of her behavior issue was that she would destroy people’s belongings. And so a lot of times my belongings would get broken. Also the sheltered workshop did not allow me to walk around the facility independently because they did not want to be liable in case I got hurt if somebody was having a challenging behavior. In the shelter workshop, I did not set my own goals. I was not allowed to decide where to go, what to do, who to work with. I was just assigned with whomever. And there were – and I’ve seen very unprofessional behavior from the staff. There were days when I sat around in the shelter workshop, waiting for work to come. Some of the piece work I’ve done was counting flyers, assembling products. People would, you know, when there was no work, people would do puzzles, they’d color pictures, they’d watch movies all day. You know, we would take classes on how to keep a job, but you know, this sheltered workshop didn’t really have people working in the community in mind. There were people with really high levels of need that were aggressive toward me. I’ve gotten punched by clients. I’ve gotten hit by clients. I’ve gotten my stuff broken by clients. I’ve gotten hurt by clients and laughed at what I have gotten hurt by clients. It’s just, I mean, yes, I’m being a little graphic here, but this is the environment for a person that is placed in a sheltered workshop who does not need to be there. Also, you know, like I said, the last paycheck I got there when I left in March of 2015 was $2 and some change for two weeks of work. That’s how much money I got it. It was awful. So I left the shelter workshop in 2015 because of an incident that occurred, which I really don’t want to talk about on this recording because it’s kind of gross, but that was the last thing that happened before my mother decided, okay, you are finished in this environment. This is not the best place for you. And my parents realize, you know, now that having me placed in the sheltered workshop was a huge mistake. But in high school, you know, in Maryland School for the Blind and in schools like it, this is where students go. And a lot of times the families decide, the educators decide. And this sheltered workshop claimed – and sheltered workshops like the place that I was in claim – that they’re going to help their clients find a job. Well, this shelter workshop did not help me find a job – quite the opposite, actually. And so that’s basically how I was treated. Again, I did not decide my goals. I did not decide where I went, what I did. I was at the mercy of someone else. And the sheltered workshop was a place where I did not need to be. And people that are like me, who are perfectly capable of working in the community, do not need to be in this environment. Amy Gonzalez: Thank you, Sonny, for sharing those very intimate, important details that I think is important for people to understand the true environment within a sheltered workshop and

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Conversations with leaders, practitioners, and advocates who are working to improve competitive, integrated employment and economic outcomes for people with disabilities.

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