Summary of Outcomes: T-TAP Project Focus Group Meeting
January 30, 2003

T-TAP held a focus group meeting on January 30, 2003 in Arlington, Virginia bringing together the project's Community Rehabilitation Program (CRP) Leadership Network. The CRP Leadership Network consists of 10 community rehabilitation programs that have eliminated or substantially reduced the use of Section 14c Minimum Wage Certificates by expanding use of competitive employment opportunities. Representatives from the Department of Labor, Office of Disability Policy (the funding agency), The Arc, and the Association for Persons in Supported Employment (APSE) also participated in the focus group meeting. Staff from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Massachusetts Boston's Institute for Community Inclusion conducted the meeting with the assistance of Ms. Karen Flippo from the Brain Injury Association of America.

The purpose of the focus group was to review participant, organizational, and workplace issues and strategies important to community rehabilitation programs expanding their competitive employment programs. In preparation for the focus group, each of the Leadership Network members submitted examples of participant and organizational issues and strategies derived from their own experiences.

Focal points on organizational development discussed at the meeting included:

- Importance of vision and values training for Board members and staff.

- Utilize as mentors programs that have experienced success with realigning their organization. Find out from these programs what worked and what did not work and adapt these experiences as needed.

- Need for a staff development plan and for staff to own process in realignment of organization to support competitive employment outcomes; provide on-going training to staff over an extended period. Be sure staff is trained to work with the employer community.

- Find out business needs and identify how organization can be a resource for the business community; develop program resources most valued by employers.

- Need for a simultaneous two-prong approach: Must address top down issues but must also focus on developing job opportunities and business linkages.

- Critical importance of financial planning, both short and long range. Seek out alternative funding sources and establish partnerships that share competitive employment values and goals (One-stops and schools are a primary partners).

- Fit strategies to organization; every organization is different and organization change strategy must fit the history, culture, and community of the program.

- Create demand for employment opportunities without angering people; involve consumers and families in the process.

- Avoid back-filling into segregated programs.

Focal points on developing employment opportunities for participants included:

- Go to families to help build support; don't ask families to come to the program setting. Build family-to-family supports.

- Base jobs on person centered plans; use circles of support to help get to know the person. Find what the individual is passionate about; use a variety of settings to help find out about the individual's interests, abilities, and support needs.

- Utilize skill-based job interviews where person can demonstrate strengths and abilities.

- Utilize Job Carving - find duties that can be costly for employers and can be matched to the job seeker; create employment proposals for employers to consider.

- Good self-employment plans can develop into jobs; in rural communities, utilize Rural Self Employment grants.

- Use volunteer settings as a way to build family support; volunteering leads to employment.

- When setting-up Personal Assistance Services in the workplace, look to someone within the workplace as the primary source of personal assistance.

The focus group meeting also reviewed the T-TAP project plan for the leadership role of the Community Rehabilitation Program Leadership Network. A Request for Proposals will identify five programs that are committed to increasing the competitive employment outcomes of the recipients of their services and who would benefit from technical assistance from the project. One component of the TA will be matching members of the CRP Leadership Network as mentors to each of the programs receiving technical assistance.