Transcript - slide 5

We provided a lot of staff training. We thought that we were doing pretty well in person-centered planning, until we really started to look at what we were doing. We realized that we needed to do a lot better. So, we provided staff training in person-centered planning. We've brought people in to help us with individualized employment planning and customized employment. We needed, and still need, to improve our efforts and our ability to find customized jobs for people [where] they could be successful. We also worked on community building, getting ourselves more established in the community. We joined groups like the Moose Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary, and the Jaycees so that our staff could become more familiar with the community in which they were working. As I mentioned earlier, we are very rural. Many of the staff live outside of our county and come into the county to work. So, they aren't always as familiar with possible job opportunities as someone who might be living in the county or in the community. We've spent resources and time joining community organizations so that we can become more familiar [with them], and they can become more familiar with us.

Similarly, we’ve increased our work with the schools and our transition from school-to-work efforts. We've become a member of our Transition Council and have had many meetings and discussions with school personnel. [We've discussed] our vision, [and] how we see people fitting into the community, working in the community. [We've discussed] how we might work together, early on before people graduate, to help them be ready for that kind of community experience. As I said earlier, we joined community groups such as the Chamber of Commerce. We rented a space at our local Community Center for people [who] were starting their own businesses [and] our self-advocacy group. That building is also the host of other community organizations, and we felt that was a good way for us to be visible within our own community.