Transcription of Podcast

We have a program here in Georgia that is called Reboot Computer Recycling and Reutilization Project.  And we actually have gotten out 7,500 systems in Georgia, computers, laptops, what have you, that have been re-utilized and placed in the homes and hands of people with disabilities throughout the state.  We actually got a national grant from RSA.  Just about two weeks ago it was announced that we can actually expand that program, which we are thrilled about.  But 7,500 systems have gone out, as I said, and that speaks to the need that is really out there. 

And the truth is every single day applications come in and a lot of folks with learning disabilities are actually receiving computers thru this program.  I can give you  more information about Reboot if you would like.  Or you can go to our website, which is www. gatfl.org.  And that stands for Georgia Tools for Life dot org. 

The thing about the statistics that I also want to bring up is that are a lot of questions around statistics, especially when it comes to employment.  There are a lot of questions about how many people with disabilities are really working.  Statistics vary significantly depending on who is the source for your data.  What is the definition of your disability?  How do you define learning disability?  What is the type and severity of the disability?  So there are a lot of questions about that. 

But the truth is we know, and I know because of my personal experience, that there are lots of folks out there with learning disabilities, and lots of folks are unemployed.  The vast majority of people I work with with do have a tough time when comes to employment, either in keeping a job, or in being moved up within their organization.  They stay at the same job, perhaps an entry level job, when they really have the skills to move beyond that.  And so that is something we actually need to pay attention to.  

And the Office of Disability Employment Policy and the Bureau of Labor Statistics are actually developing tools for more specific collecting of this information.  So I am starting to see better reports coming out to get more detailed employment data.  And I am looking forward to when they actually are able to give us more information about that.  And there are numbers out there.  But I just wanted to let you know that this is definitely an issue.

 I don't know how many folks out there are familiar with the Almstead Decision.  Going back to that, that is actually something that happened here in Georgia.  There is a picture that I have up on the screen and there are three women in the picture.  To the right, on the far right, is a woman named Louis Curtis.  And in the middle is a woman named Elaine.  And then on the left is the attorney who actually fought the case and actually went all the way to the United States Supreme Court.  It took five years to litigate this, and this happened in 1999.  And basically what happened here is that these two, Louis and Elaine, these two folks were actually segregated at a psychiatric institution. They were having a tough time because they really wanted to live independently  They wanted to live in the community of their choice.

 The reason I am bringing this up is because this Almstead Decision has actually become a catalyst for a lot of changes when it comes to employment.  Because what we have found pretty quickly is that folks can live out in the community, but they have got to do something.  They cannot just hang out.  It is helpful to start looking at other things like employment, and looking at community and other types of involvement  The things that all of us are doing. 

So employment actually started getting a different look, if you will, because people started looking at that a little differently.  This case, the Almstead Decision, has actually been called the Brown vs. Board of Education for people with disabilities.  And it is having that ripple effect.  The Almstead Community Employment Initiative, which is actually funded from the Office of Disability Employment Policy, or ODEP, is actually one of the things that came out of that decision that I just talked to you about. 

And by the way Louis is actually a good acquaintance of mine.  A friend even I would say.  She is doing very well.  She is an artist in the Atlanta community, and is really starting to generate her own business and have her own stream of funds coming in due to her art.  So she has actually become somewhat of a celebrity, which is nice.  Elaine passed away a couple years ago in December.  Just so the people that ask me questions about where they are now and all of that know.  So just to give you an update on where they are and what they are doing. 

So the Almstead Community Employment Initiative was born out of the Almstead Decision.  And what happened here is ODEP charged folks that applied for these grants with developing and implementing a strategy to address the employment and training needs of of people with disabilities, and also people that were struggling in the workforce and people that were being marginalized, if you will.  It was designed to significantly increase the number of people with disabilities in customized job settings.  So we are actually going to the talk about what that means. 

So Jobs For All is actually one of the Almstead Employment Initiatives.  And Jobs For All is the grant that I actually got to work on with the Institute of Human Development and Disability at the University of Georgia.  I actually came in as one of the assistive technology folks, and as a person who works for Vocation Rehabilitation.  We were trying to make some changes within Vocational Rehabilitation and in the policies, and all of that, to be inclusive of the customized employment model. 

So Jobs For All was my introduction into the customized employment model.  And basically this grant did focus on folks with significant disabilities who were previously thought to be unemployable.  What I actually started doing is taking some of the things that I learned from the Jobs For All program and applying them to those folks with learning disabilities, and other disabilities, and started finding that these philosophies and this model do translate pretty well into other communities, which is very exciting. 

So the customized employment model that I am going to actually get very detailed with you now about, actually it gives power back to individuals: families, employers, community stake holders.  So it is focused on giving power back.  It includes things that we are all familiar with like self determination, interest based assessments as opposed to just vocational assessments  It promotes an integrated employment philosophy.  So it is not this idea of cookie cutter type thing saying, "If you have, if you are blind you need to go work for the industries for the blind.  Or you need to become a vendor."  It is actually looking at what is the strength and what is the interest of the person as opposed to what are the opportunities available.  So we start to get into a very exciting thing when we start talking about how do we start wrapping the job around the person as opposed to the person around the job. 

Zero exclusion criteria, I am sure some of you all are familiar with that.  And basically customized employment really believes in this: that you can't just exclude folks.  There is zero exclusion.  That everybody can work, and everybody  should be given the same opportunity.  And so that is a new idea for a lot of folks.  it is something that ruffles a lot of feathers that are in some traditional programs.  And so that is one of those ideas that is out there that hasn't quite settled in.  So we will see where that heads. 

Customized employment definitely fosters flexibility, individuality, unique strengths, and desires.  The other thing that is really cool about customized employment is it focuses on partnerships within the natural community.  And what we mean by that is for example there is a person I am working with that has learning disabilities that has been unemployed, that has gone thru several jobs.  He has just had a tough time keeping a job.

 So what ends up happening is that he will go, he will come to Vocational Rehabilitation, he will ask for out support.  We will help him out.  And we teach him how to do job searches.  We teach him how to be independent in his job searches.  But it became this cycle of get a job, lose a job, get a job, lose a job.  And we started thinking about how we are actually taking him out of his natural community, if you will, and actually picking him up and putting him into a job where people don't really know him.  And they don't  really know much about him.  And this is not necessarily where his interests lie.  The jobs the we were actually working on he had the skills for and he had some desire, but it wasn't necessarily where his personal interests lie, if you will.

 So what we started doing was looking at what is his natural community.  What are his interests?  Who does he know?  Who do we know that is close by?  Who are the people that are within the community that he or his family, or his circle of support, or his family of choice, have some contact with?  And so how can we actually start connecting people like this individual with a job within his natural community.  And I will give you more details about that in just a few minutes. 

I want to let you know Rich Tascano is actually the person who has been a great teacher of mine when it comes to the customized employment model.  And so I actually, some of the ideas that I shared in that last slide actually came from him.

 Another thing about the customized employment model is discovering personal genius.  I really like that idea.  So it is a novel approach that reveals life themes, presents a path of discovery, and it begs investigation.  And it creates options.  It also breeds innovative job development.  Those are all very compelling and interesting things to me, and I am sure to you as well.

 It is not group based.  So it is not looking at all people with learning disabilities, or looking at a  group of people with learning disabilities, or looking at a group of people with disabilities and saying, "Okay.  We are all going to go get a job at this place."  

It is not market driven.  The statistics for unemployment, or under-employment, for people with learning disabilities, or those with disabilities in general, has not really changed over time.  Those of you who have watched this have seen that we put all these programs together, but the numbers still stay the same.  And so we have got to figure out a different way to start looking at employment.  And we cannot necessarily be looking at the market.  The truth is that when there was a huge boom in the 90's people with disabilities were still not included in that.  It is not looking for the dream job either.  We don't sit down and say, "What is your dream job?"  We actually do look at what are your interests and what are your dreams.  So that is good but it is not the dream job thing if you will.

 It is not based on vocational evaluations and testing, although we do use those.  And it not based on interest in the (inaudible) alone.  It is also not competitive employment.  So it is not this thing of having folks get in there and sell themselves and be matched against other folks that don't have disabilities, or what have you.  So it 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 specific person.