The transcript for this presentation was edited for ease of reading. The intent 
of the original content was not changed by these edits.

Ron and Nancy #2

Ron:  I'm going to start with VIA and some examples. I do have some pictures. 
I'd like to start with Donna.  Donna is the lovely lady on the right in the 
slide. I think that you're seeing right now. Donna has for years worked in our 
traditional sheltered workshop. For years, Donna has been telling us, her 
family, and everyone she knows, "I want to get the heck out of here."  We began 
working in a fairly traditional way in our organization of trying to get the 
money that is attached to Donna and her traditional sheltered work program to 
follow her into the community. In our state, Pennsylvania, the Medicaid Waiver 
has offered us some opportunities to do that.  

Donna is an example of many of the people in our organization that have 
benefited from literally the concept of controlling the money that she has 
attached to traditional Medicaid dollars, following her into both looking for a 
job, training assessment, and all of those things being paid for and supported 
by mostly the Medicaid traditional day-funding dollars. Then successfully 
transitioning through a program we call VIA Works into a full-time job with 
benefits, entirely.   She's a tremendous success story as far as the traditional 
money following person into the system.  That's my first example and Nancy's 
going to give us another one.

Nancy:  I can't really talk about these particular individuals without stressing 
how important it is to make sure you've got good connections with the funding 
entities such as:  Vocational Rehabilitation Services, the One Stops, and using 
Social Security Work Incentives.  That is the least exciting piece of systems 
change. It is vital. It is very important that we start using those funding 
sources. One entity can't shoulder the burden of being able to provide quality 
supports to folks that we support.  

The first person I want to mention is John. He has had a love of pets and 
animals. He wanted to work in a Veterinarian Clinic.  The model that seemed to 
fit after we went through a very thorough vocational profiling process, where we 
pulled together the folks who were very important in his life, including his 
parents, was the resource ownership model.  Resource ownership is a model that 
we have found fits so well with individuals we support.  Cary Griffin and Dave 
Hammis have worked very closely with us on helping staff develop skills on how 
to create these opportunities. One thing that Cary likens resource ownership to 
is that we all as we're seeking employment, come with some resource, something 
that's going to make us stand out.  It might be a degree, it might be jobs that 
require you to have a car, but somehow we look at, what is going to make us 
have a better chance of being employed in that position.  Resource ownership 
works in that same sort of way.  It's what is going to give that individual that 
leg up, that is going to result in them being an attractive employee.  

Resource ownership also means that it is that person’s property, equipment, 
whatever the scenario is that they bring with them to the job.  If they are 
unhappy in that particular situation, they can take the resource with them and 
look at other options that might better suit them.  It's a very respectable 
option that creates empowerment for the individual in negotiating his/her 
particular employment circumstances. John was very interested in working with 
the animals.  It so happened, a few blocks from his house was this veterinarian 
clinic that did grooming.  John, with his employment broker, met with the staff 
and negotiated an option.  They talked about what this small business needed.  
You know many self-employment situations are under capitalized, so it's fertile 
ground for being able to negotiate options that would work well for the 
individual.  

In doing vocational profiling, John was very interested in the grooming aspect 
of that.  [John] used his individual training account, which is funding 
available to individuals to purchase resources that actually can be part of the 
One Stop.  There are many Department of Labor grants and initiatives that also 
providers can apply for that have individual trainee account funds as part of 
the grant.  I would encourage anyone to look into because it gives you the 
flexibility to be able to prove to the doubters or as Ron says, the "yeah buts," 
that actually folks who are traditionally identified as not being employable, 
actually are. 

What John has done is purchased through his individual trainee account, this 
hydraulic table that the animal can be put on and raised to a height where he 
can do the grooming.  It also has a washing table with it. He also is wage 
employed. John could not be any happier, and it's a career path.  He and his 
father, who are very much active in any team planning meetings we have, are 
really looking into the future for John to start his own business and dog 
grooming.

End