Transcription of Part 3

So it is an interest based negotiation between a specific person, a job seeker, and the employer.  So it is person centered.  It is one person at a time.  And it seeks the best possible employment conditions for that person.  So  looking at the example I gave before where I had the person come in who had gone through several jobs and just couldn't find the right fit.  We went back to his natural community and what we actually found was that he had a strong interest in automobiles.  And so we were actually able to build on that. 

So we found that he actually had a cousin who had an auto shop.  And his cousin who has the auto shop has a connection with a race car driver who actually had a little museum and needed somebody to help with the museum.  So we actually starting thinking let's start thinking out of the box here.  Is there a connection?  Is there something we can do here?  So we actually took the person we were working with and went up and spoke with the employer at the museum and said, "Hey, is there some way we could figure out some job here?"  And we started looking at all the skills and abilities that the person we were working with brought.  And sure enough he got a job.  And it is a very cool way that that worked out. 

So once again we were working the his natural community.  It also includes self-employment.  Customized employment includes self-employment.  So it is designed for people with high and complex support needs.  That is a good thing.  So for the folks that keep getting in and out of the employment arena. 

It also counteracts the competitive market because it can be pretty brutal for a lot of our folks.  There are some folks that I work with that have kind of given up on trying to find employment because they just don't think that the market has any place for them.  That is just not the case. 

One of the things that I really like about this customized employment model is that it does work when we live into the answers.  When we actually hang out with the folks with intent.  When we actually spend some more time with people and figure out what is it that is going to work for them when it comes to technology, when it comes to what their goals are. or what their true interest is.

 Something else that a lot of people I don't think are as aware of as we should be is that small businesses really represent the majority of employers in the United States.  It is amazing how many small businesses there are.  They are 99% of all employers.  And that is very interesting to me.  How many people when they actually think about it getting a job for somebody and they keep going to the big companies when we actually have these small businesses that are actually looking for very specific people that have skills.  And so we need to start looking at maybe that is where some of the folks can actually find jobs.  And that is is important for us to start looking at.  

 I have some statistics up there about small businesses in the United States.  They employ 53% of the private workforce.  They provide 47% of all US sales.  They account for 35% of federal contract dollars.  That is important to pay attention to especially with some of the legislation out there with accessibility and all that.  They represent 28% of all the high tech jobs, and also represent 96% of all US exporters.  So small businesses might be the way for us to start looking at employment in a real way, in a very important way.  The other thing is is that there are only about 14,400 companies with over 600 employees.  Partner America is where I got those statistics, but those are pretty well known.  So small business is where I found the most success for a lot of the folks I am working with regarding disabilities specifically. 

Employment innovations.  When we are talking about what we are talking about here today, we are talking about customized employment and innovations.  We are actually talking about negotiated jobs, going in there and actually figuring out that we all have strengths and we all have weaknesses.  What are the strengths that I am bringing to the job?  What are some of the things that might be in the job description that a typical or traditional job description that may not be the best fit for me?  And can we move those responsibilities to someone else? 

The truth is if we were together face to face I would ask you, and I would want you to respond back to me, about how many of you are actually doing what your job description says?  The truth is that a lot of us are not doing that.  A lot of us have really customized our own job.  We are doing what we excel at.  There are things we don't like about our jobs.  Hopefully we love more about our job than we don't. 

I love my job but there are definitely things that are not my strengths.  So I am able to move those to someone else, or other folks, spread that out.  I am not a super great person when it comes to numbers.  So you do not want me doing your taxes.  Or maybe you do want me to do your taxes and we would end up in jail.  But you don't want me doing your budgets and things like that.  But I have other people on my team that actually help out with the budget and they love it.  And so in some ways we are negotiating that, if you will.  

It is also job creation.  There are several times, and this is one of the exciting things that I really like this part of customized employment, but it is the idea that you can actually go into an employer and ask, "Where are your gaps?"  "What are those things that no one is doing?  What are the things that you think if you only had a person who can do X, than your business would be more efficient."  "Or if you had somebody maybe take the weight off some other people and create a job".  I get very excited about that.  That is something that I actually didn't think that would really happen much when you are talking job creating.  But when you are talking to small businesses and people think it is a great idea, that is exciting. 

Job carving a concept that has been with Vocational Rehabilitation for a long time.  So it has been incorporated here with the idea of customized employment also, this idea of carving out and maybe creating a new job. if you will.  Or just carving out specific tasks within a job and making the job work for the person as opposed to the other way around. 

Resource ownership.  This is an idea that actually been explored on several levels.  And it is starting to get more attention, which I think is very exciting.  Basically what this is is kind of based on the idea that I, Carolyn Phillips, have my masters degree.  I have my bachelors degree.  I have my practitioners certification from RESNA.  So when I come to a job I bring 15 years of experience in the world of assistive technology and employment with me.  So when I come to the job I am actually bringing those things. 

Well there are lots of folks with learning disabilities and other disabilities that don't necessarily have those.  They don't have necessarily even high school.  They don't have their diploma.  So they have not necessarily graduated with a two year degree program or gotten their bachelors degree.  So what is it that this person can actually bring to the job that is needed?  So I am going to give you some examples in just a few minutes of how this has actually made a big difference when it comes to going back to that negotiation with employers.  So this is a very exciting thing. 

Actually I will give you an example now.  There is a person I am working with that has a learning disability.  And he wanted to work in a warehouse.  It is a small company.  Actually when we went it and were talking to them they were having a tough time because they were having a tough time keeping their inventory straight.  Just kind of on a side conversation  The owner of the company said, "We would be so much better off if we could get our inventory straight.  That would make all the difference." 

So we started talking about what that would look like.  Is this something that the person I was bringing in could actually help with?  So when we started talking it looked like yes indeed, this was something that was definitely missing from the company.  It was something that the owner did not feel like he could really invest in, but he definitely could pay for someone to be on his staff. 

So what we actually did is looked for some money.  Got some money.  And bought the inventory system, a computer, some hand-held scanning devices, a bar-code system, all that stuff.  We spent about $3000.00 and the person who was looking for the job actually owns this.  So this is his inventory system, but he is using it on the job site.  He is one who is actually using this.  And so it has become this thing where he is actually bringing to the job site this whole inventory system.

 Now think about that.  When he leaves it is his system.  So if he gets fired or what have you, it is his system so he takes it with him.  But right now that was a very powerful way to get his foot in the door.  He has been on the job for quite some time.  It has been very successful.  And he is also very excited about contributing and being a part of this company.  Every time I see him he is wearing the company shirt.  It is very exciting.  And that would not have happened without this resource ownership philosophy. 

Self-employment obviously is part of the innovation here, and also assistive technology solutions.  So customized employment and job development avoids the market driven approaches as we talked about before.   And it uses various funding mechanisms.  So we have used past plans.  We have worked with Vocational Rehabilitation, we have gotten some plans from WIA, we have gotten school systems involved.  And it has pretty much become this like amalgamated sources of funding, grants, what have you.  Sometimes the employer will jump in and help too.  And then also individualized budgets and working with people to get their loans, small business loans, or what have you, to make these kinds of things happen. 

It also relies on interviews, or hanging out with intent.  And what I mean by hanging out with intent is really just spending time with some of the folks and really getting to know what their passions are, what their interests are, and the things they do not like to do.  There are things that I have found out that I would never have known on an evaluation just by hanging out with some folks that I am working with that have learning disabilities 

So for example some people are better in the morning, some people are better in the afternoon.  Some people are great at night.  And you do not necessarily know that from evaluations.  Some people really and truly are not going to take a shower every single day.   And that may be a problem when you are trying to get some folks to work with other folks.  There a lots of issues that come up.  And lots of strengths and abilities that also surface when you are hanging out with intent.  Actually Kerry Griphon is the person who introduced a lot of those concepts to me and I am really grateful. 

Paid job try-outs is something we have actually done.  And we have actually been very successful with that.  Almost everyone that has done a paid job try out got hired. Also going where the dream made sense.  That is what I found with a person who had this interest in automobiles and race cars and all of the sudden he is working at a museum.  And that is pretty much what customized employment relies on. 

One of the things that we do when we actually get together as a team, and it is a team approach when it comes to customized employment, and so we use the Rule of Three.  So when we sit down and ask what it is you want to do, we let the person who is the job seeker if you will come up with the team.  And we sit around and ask them to talk to us about what jobs do you think would be great. 

And we usually throw out the first idea.  I have found that that actually does work in some ways.  Because a lot of times people will throw out an idea that they have seen somebody else that looks like that person, or somebody else that has that specific learning disability, or what have you.  So it is not necessarily the best idea.  And then we say that we are going to throw out some ideas.  The first one we are going to toss out, and then we are going to dig deep.  And we have actually found that is it several layers before you actually get to where the person really ends up striking gold, if you will, when it comes to employment.

 We also avoid the Four F's:food, flowers, folding, and floors.  Once again I got that from Kerry Griphon and that has been valuable.  Because a lot of times we find that unless somebody wants to work in the food industry,or work in the florist industry, or a laundromat, or what have you, doing floors, if that is what their goal is and what their dream is that is fine.  But usually that is stuff that I just kind of toss.  I say this is not necessarily where we want to go.  Because that is where a lot of folks, including people with brain disabilities have been placed.  That is not necessarily what we want to do. 

When we are talking about customized employment it has become pretty inter-dependent with assistive technology.  And we have found that it is important to find out what it is that works for the individual and then build on that, whether it is a strategy or a device, whether it is one of these customized employment solutions.  And I wanted to share with you because I thought this was a little disheartening, but I wanted to let you know that when we are talking about assistive technology, this was something that I found in doing my research that TAPFCE, which the Technical Assistance Program for Customized Employment, actually had this on their website.  That despite the promise of assistive technology many people with significant disabilities remain in facility based employment programs.   Because we have found that a lot of assistive technology there is a lot of promise, and there is a lot of hope wrapped up in that.  And a lot of times it goes under-utilized or is abandoned. 

So someone will get excited about voice input for example, or they think word prediction is going to be the thing for them.  Some of the technology that Penelope Chambers shared last week with you.  Some of those solutions wrap up their hope and promise on that.  But unless more folks are able to get training and try before you buy and incorporate some of those things then we are going to find that this will be true for people with learning disabilities: that the promise of assistive technology will not really pay off.  So I just wanted to raise your awareness about that.