2/17/2016

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Employment First: Past, Present and

Future!WI AAIDD Conference

February 12, 2016

Wisconsin Dells, WI

What we “expected”

InstitutionSegregationIntegrationIsolationNo SchoolNot EmployableTreatment DependencyNo ChoiceChoice

CommunityIntegrationInclusionFamily/FriendsFAPEUnemploymentServices/SupportsInterdependenceChoiceSelf-Determination

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Today’s Civil Rights Advocacy

• Access to services & supports that reduce the risk of segregation and level the playing field

• Ensuring meaningful community integration

• Demonstrating that this can be achieved without fundamental alterations or an undue financial burden

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Today’s Factors Creating Opportunity for Integrated Employment…

• Employment First policies and practices

• Anti-poverty movement

• Corporate disability hiring initiatives

• Legislative efforts

Recent Accomplishments…

• (Achieving a Better Life Experience) ABLE Act (2013)

– Similar to Section 529 education savings plans for college bound children

– Allows savings of up to $100,000 without losing benefits

– Funds a variety of expenses including: • Medical/dental

• Education

• Community-based supports

• AT

• Housing

• Transportation

Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) 1915c

• Final Rule: the setting in which an individual receives services “…is integrated in and supports full access of individuals receiving Medicaid HCBA in to the greater community, including opportunities to seek employment and work in competitive integrated settings, engage in community life, control personal resources, and receive services in the community, to the same degree of access as individuals not receiving Medicaid HCBS.”

HCBS Settings Rule & Employment

• Person is not required to seek employment, but cannot waive the opportunity to seek employment

• Segregated “pre-vocational” or habilitative programs that have poor track record of placing individuals in competitive integrated employment may not be considered to provide adequate opportunities

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Recent Accomplishments..

• Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014– Increase employment in integrated settings and

significantly limits use of subminimum wage (14c)

– Defines and prioritizes integrated employment

– Requires individuals under age 24 to explore and try integrated employment before being placed in subminimum wage setting; prohibits schools from contracting with subminimum wage providers

WIOA

"...will help workers with disabilities access employment, education, job driven training and support services“

-President Obama, 2014

Disability Appropriations

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

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“…individuals with disabilities are a discrete and insular minority … subjected to a history of purposeful unequal treatment, and relegated to a position of political powerlessness in our society… resulting from stereotypic assumptions not truly indicative of the individual ability of such individuals to participate in, and contribute to, society; … the Nation’s proper goals regarding individuals with disabilities are to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency…”

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The Olmstead Decision

“Institutional placement of persons who can handle and benefit from community settings perpetuates unwarranted assumptions that

persons so isolated are incapable or unworthy of participating in community life.”

“Unjustified isolation, we hold, is properlyregarded as discrimination based on disability.”

Employment First

• Expecting, encouraging, providing, creating, and rewarding integrated employment in the workforce:

– at minimum or competitive wages and benefits;

– as the first and preferred outcome for working-age youth and adults with disabilities;

– especially those with complex and significant disabilities, for whom job placement in the past has been limited, or traditionally has not occurred.

The Right to Integrated Employment

• Established by the ADA & Supreme Court’s Olmstead Ruling

– Each person utilizing services through the state and local government has the right to be employed in the “most integrated settings”

Challenges in Olmstead & ADA Implementation

• Changing the culture• Identifying various forms of segregation within

systems

• Understanding the pathways to segregation

• Unraveling accountability, funding & vested interests

• Identifying obsolescence and retooling for integration

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More Challenges…

• Understanding consumers’ & families’ fears about change and ensuring meaningful, informed choice

• Recognizing the Dignity of Risk• Anticipating responses to adverse outcomes

• Devising measurable targets

• Creating data systems

Opportunities in Olmstead & ADA

• Helping people live as full members of the community

• Reversing embedded stereotypes associated with disability

• Leveraging change in stagnant systems

• Addressing segregation among people with disabilities

Raising Expectations… Polices & Practices Presume Employability

• No work “readiness” criteria

• Consideration of employment mandated part of service planning

• Require documentation for non-consideration of employment

• Decision to not consider employment re-visited regularly

• Follows tenants of person-centered planning –“nothing about me without me”

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The Magic Wand

If you could wish for 3 things for yourself or someone you love, what would they be?

Research Shows…

• Healthfulness

• Happiness

• Longevity

ARE ALL TIED TO SOCIAL CAPITAL!

What is Social Capital?

• It is nothing more than relationships and friendships that people have in their lives

• It leads to people being more tolerant, cooperative and reciprocal

• It leads to people resolving problems more easily

• It enhances physiological/psychological functioning

Simply Stated

The more (quantity and quality) social capital you have, the healthier you are, the happier you are, the more you achieve, the longer you live, and the better the outcomes are in your life. (Al Condeluci)

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Research Also Shows…

That Social Capital is related to:• People getting jobs• People finding others to live with• People finding rides/transportation• People being more tolerant, respectful, kind, helpful

and the like• That most pro-social behaviors increase• People advance or achieve more

Building Social Capital

• We need to stop thinking clinically and focus our attention on the community

• We must understand how community operates• We must find ways to reverse institutionalization

and clinical approaches• We must listen to people and allow them to decide• We must help people build social capital

Why Is Work Important?

Our culture expects people to be productive

Work is a means for gaining status, self-determination and achievement of personal goals

Tied to various aspects of status:• Possessions• Prestige• Power• Control• Influence

What We Know

Paid work experiences while in secondary education is the most compelling predicator of post-school success (Luecking & Fabian, 2001; Test et al., 2009; Carter et al., 2010; Sima et al., in press)

This finding applies across disabilities, geography, and economic conditions (Gold, Fabian & Luecking, 2013)

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Wisconsin

• 81.3% of individuals without disabilities aged 21 to 64 are employed.

• 36.3% of individuals withdisabilities aged 21 to 64 are employed.

• 24,800 individuals aged 16 to 20 have a disability;

• 312,200 individuals aged 21 to 64 have a disability

• 67,000 individuals with disabilities aged 18 to 64 receive Supplemental Security Income payment.

• VR obtained 3,250 jobs for individuals with disabilities in Wisconsin in 2012.

1. 2012 Disability Status Report: Wisconsin, disabiliystatistics.org2. StateData: The National Report on Employment Services and Outcomes, 2013

Important Implications

Work is both an expected outcome AND a critical intervention

A well defined and delivered intervention leads to outcomes

Employment should be the Expectation not the Exception

“If people are treated as capable, they often surprise everyone and live up to expectations.”

~Ken Steele “The Day the Voices Stopped.”

20+ years in the making…“Thousands of adults labeled ‘severely handicapped’

are currently enrolled in sheltered workshops, work activity centers, or adult day care programs. Their placement is not a result of their inability to learn the skills necessary to obtain and maintain employment in integrated environments. Rather it is the function of our inability to design service systems responsive to their learning needs.Our central thesis is that sheltered environments should be phased out in favor of employment opportunities in integrated settings.” (McLoughlin, Garner, & Callahan, 1987)

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Stuck on an Escalator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47rQkTPWW2I&feature=related

Choice

“Choice, all by itself, is a very slippery idea. People can fall prey to slick marketing

campaigns that continue the patterns of segregation, disconnection, and dependency,

and still call it choice”

- John O’Brien

Choice

• Individuals with disabilities should have the opportunity to make informed choices. – They must have full and accurate information about their

options, including what services and supports are available in integrated settings.

• They should have the opportunity to visit integrated settings and talk to individuals with similar disabilities working and living in integrated settings. – Their concerns about integrated settings should be explored

and addressed.

Learning from choices

• People have the right to make bad choices.• Individuals should be given advice by their

support team.

• “Choice is not a solitary activity.”Michael W. Smull, 2000

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The Consequence of Choice

• In the name of “choice”, we have supported services that promote

– Long-term dependence (poverty);

– Low status (under or unemployed);

– Limited competence (no challenge);

– Little respect (segregation)

What we have learned about choice…

• When individuals with disabilities are provided with opportunities to experience integrated employment & community participation with the proper supports, they choose integration over segregated services

• When individuals are provided with true and informed choice, they choose integration over segregated services

What Do People Want?

• To be supported to get:– Meaningful Day Activities (Interesting things to do)

– To Live in their Own Home (Housing)

– To Be Able to Get Around (Transportation)

– Lots of Friends (Social Capital)

Interest

Exposure

ACTIONMotivation

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activity

Deficits vs.

Assets

Deficits Assets

• Short attention span• Irresponsible

• Distractible

• Hyperactive

• Explosive

• Lazy

• Spacey

• Obsessive

Many interests Carefree/Free Will

Perceptive

Energetic

Dramatic

Laid-back

Imaginative

Focused

What Andrew’s “File” said

What we saw:Passion is Music Plays the piano and saxophoneGood clerical and computer skills‐ fast typistLoves gardening and lifting weightsNeeds verbal information presented slowly  Likes clean, organized environments‐ hates noisy, chaotic placesLikes structured, consistent tasksHates to be interrupted

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Employment ReadinessMyth

• Employers are expecting perfect employees

photo of the character, Michael Scott from the TV show The Office and cartoon of a man giving an award to an employee “At last, a perfect employee…” Employee is labeled “Blind Loyalty.”

Have you ever worked with anyone who…

• Couldn’t get along with others?

• Acted inappropriately?

• Had behavioral outbursts?

• Was chronically late?

• Complained about everything?

• Didn’t communicate well?

• Didn't work very fast?

• Got distracted easily?

• Couldn’t follow directions?

• Acted impulsively without thinking?

• Refused to take public transportation?

• Had a messy office?• Wasn’t organized?• Wasn’t always

professional?• Was rude?• Couldn’t take criticism?• Was lazy?• Wasn’t very good at their

job – but managed to still keep it?

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Preferences Are Important Readiness for Employment Means:

• Motivated to work (based on experiences)

• Individuals understanding themselves: strengths, skills, interests

• Individuals understanding their support needs

• Availability of supports

THE CHALLENGE:Actual work experience has a large impact  on 

these factors

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Presumption of Employability as Practice

There is an integrated job for everyone who wants one;

regardless of disability label, need for support, or economic vitality of

the community.

http://www.poppinjoes.com/home

Presumption of Employment

Integrated Employment

Jai – Best BuyHome & Car Stereo Supervisor

Woody – JW WincoManufacturing

Commensurate Wages & Benefits

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Control & Power of Supports

Tony – Milwaukee Brewers

Focus on Capacity & Capabilities

MattiePizza Hut… School District Office Assistant

Ivan –Marquette University

Importance of Relationships Importance of Community

Patrick – Tailored Label ProductsPackaging

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Sofia – WalgreensSales Service Associate

Systems Change

The organization (system) should never be more important than the individual

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize!

Comments!Questions?Thoughts!Reflections!Ideas!Debate!Dialogue!Stump the Presenter…

Thank You!

Laura Owens, Ph.D., CESP414‐581‐3032lowens@transcen.orgwww.transcen.org