2 Part Live Webinar Series - part 1

Serving youth with disabilities is a rewarding and creative endeavor.  Services require the Rehabilitation profession to aware a board spectrum of ethical and legal considerations.  Dr. Levingston will emphasis the importance of decision making practices.  Who makes decision if a guardian is involved?  What are the boundaries of the relationship?  Is it ever appropriate to be face book friends?  What about accepting a small gift?  Join us for this 2 hour series.

Upon completion of this webinar series, participants will be able to

1. Describe the ethical and legal consideration when youth with disabilities.
2. Identify best practices in serving youth with disabilities.
3. Discuss techniques to address common pitfalls.

Presenter: Brandi Levingston, Ph.D CRC

Brandi Levingston, Ph.D., CRC, is a Principal Lecturer at the University of North Texas in the College of Health and Public Service Department of Rehabilitation and Health Services. She received her doctoral degree in Special Education, with a concentration in Rehabilitation Counseling, from the University of Texas at Austin and her master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. She has also worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for the State of Texas. Her interests include: psychosocial aspects of disability cultural competence, students with disabilities in postsecondary education, and employment of persons with disabilities, specifically people with blindness or visual-impairments.

2 Part Webinar Series - How to conduct job development and engagement of businesses during the current pandemic

Part 2: Dealing with the Impact of the Pandemic: Part 2 of this series will focus on enhancements to existing employer outreach and engagement strategies that can help maintain and strengthen business relationships during the pandemic. Strategies for outreach and conducting employer meetings during COVID-19, and maintaining job seeker focus on employment, will also be discussed. 

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Use best practices for job development and employment searches during the pandemic to continue to support individuals to become successfully employed.
2. Use various strategies that will strengthen the ability to engage businesses during the pandemic, resulting in both successful job searches, and enhanced employer relationships. 
3. Understand strategies for outreach to employers during the pandemic when in-person outreach and meetings are limited.

Presenter: David Hoff

David Hoff, M.S.W., is a Program Director for the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Mr. Hoff has an extensive background in working with public systems and community agencies to enhance employment outcomes for people with disabilities. He has done work in Massachusetts, across the United States, and internationally, providing technical assistance and training on effective practices in human services and workforce development.  In addition to his 20+ years at ICI, Mr. Hoff has been a regional workforce development system administrator, and also spent several years in a direct service role, assisting individuals with disabilities to find and maintain employment. Prior to entering the human service field, he spent ten years in management roles in the private sector. Mr. Hoff is a Past President of APSE, a 3,000+ member national organization focused on integrated employment of people with disabilities, and current president of the Massachusetts chapter. Mr.Hoff has a Master's in Social Work from Rutgers University, with a concentration in Administration, Policy and Planning, and is also a graduate of Cornell University.

This 2 part series will cover how special rules make it possible for people with disabilities receiving Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to work and still receive monthly payments and Medicare or Medicaid. Social Security calls these rules "work incentives."  This session will provide an overview of the available SSA work incentives for beneficiaries.

SSDI & SSI Work Incentives

• Impairment Related Work Expenses
• Subsidies and Special Conditions
• Un-incurred Business Expenses
• Unsuccessful Work Attempts
• Continued Payments Under a Vocational Rehabilitation Program
• Expedited Reinstatement (EXR)

SSDI Work Incentives

• Trial Work Period
• Extended Period of Eligibility
• Continuation of Medicare coverage
• Medicare for People With Disabilities who Work
• Protection From Medical Continuing Disability Reviews

SSI Work Incentives

• Blind Work Expenses
• Earned Income Exclusion
• Student Earned Income Exclusion
• Plan to Achieving Self-Support
• Property Essential to Self Support
• Special SSI Payments for People Who Work
• Special Benefits for People Eligible Under Section 1619 (a) or (b) Who Enter a Medical Treatment Facility
• Reinstating Eligibility Without a New Application

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will be able to

1. Describe the impact of earnings on SSI and SSDI

2. Discuss the required reporting requirements for SSA beneficiaries

3. Assist in developing and identifying eligible work incentives

4. Develop a PASS plan

Are you a professional or represent an agency, providing employment services to adults receiving disability benefits, currently facing changes due to COVID 19? Have you invested in trained personnel, but now need to change your delivery of services? The unprecedented times, is forcing providers to look at business plans.  Consider the Ticket to Work program to support your employment services.  Learn about tapping into a partnership where you can market to the larger disability community using effective, proven virtual services.  Hear from a successful Ticket service provider, how providers have incorporated Ticket to Work into their service delivery. Basic information about the Ticket to Work program will be explained in practical ways to blend this funding source into your current and future business planning.  Scenarios will be provided explaining potential funding.  Have a past history with Ticket to Work that is a little sour? Times are different, and options are available today that never were before.  This might be an answer moving into the “new normal”. 

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will be able to

1. State the basics about the Ticket to Work program and examine potential untapped funding.
2. Apply ideas to capitalize on existing business operations with expansion of becoming a Ticket to Work service operator.
3. Explore new business ideas in response to changes in the delivery model and examine new available options to become a Ticket to Work service operator.

Presenter: Mary Lynn Revoir

Ms. ReVoir knows the service delivery system for services and supports to the disability community. At age 18 she started her career providing direct services, later directing an agency for 17 years, and for the past 14 years involved with the Ticket to Work program. A Co-founder and Co-Director of the American Dream Employment Network, a highly respected successful employment network of the Social Security Administration Ticket to Work program, she has provided training and technical assistance to hundreds of private and public, traditional and non-traditional community rehab providers, and state workforce agencies.  The ability to explain practical ways to build Ticket to Work into your business planning is a strength recognized by many agencies she has supported. 

Overview of having/interacting with service dogs in the workplace, including what employers can ask, how to accommodate, the rules of working around a service animal, etc.

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Have an understanding of ADA definitions of a service animal
2. Know their rights as to what they can and cannot ask a handler
3. Feel comfortable interacting with a handler and accommodating their service animal

Part 3 of 3 in series that can be completed individually or as a full series. The interactive three-part series is designed to increase vocational rehabilitation counseling professionals' capacity to cultivate resiliency in people with disabilities. With an emphasis on increasing cultural responsiveness of professionals  who provide services to consumers who are from under-resourced and racially/culturally diverse backgrounds. 

Part three of three series introduces attendees to evidenced-based assessment tools. Rehabilitation professional will increase their capacity to apply information from these tools to promote resiliency in clients throughout the vocational rehabilitation process. 

Upon completion of this webinar, you will be able to:

1) Articulate a research-based rationale for the development and integration of a resiliency framework in vocational rehabilitation counseling. 

2) Describe the assessment tools utilized in a resiliency evaluation and promotion plan. 

3) Utilize assessment results to co-create an individual resiliency plan to promote specific resiliency skill development 

Presenter: Dr. Michell Temple, EdD., CRC, NCC, CCPT, LPC (GA), LPC/MHSP (TN), President of the National Association of Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns, is currently serving as the Counselor and ADA Coordinator at Tusculum University.  She provides counseling and rehabilitation services using a cognitive behavioral approach with an emphasis on meaning making of emotions and life circumstances. She brings a professional commitment of over hundred hours of continuing education to this topic. She holds a doctorate from the University of West Georgia in Professional Counseling.

Part 1 of 3 in series that can be completed individually or as a full series. The interactive three-part series is designed to increase vocational rehabilitation counseling professionals' capacity to cultivate resiliency in people with disabilities. With an emphasis on increasing cultural responsiveness of professionals  who provide services to consumers who are from under-resourced and racially/culturally diverse backgrounds. 

Part One of the series defines resiliency from a human development and a vocational rehabilitation counseling perspective. It uses knowledge of social identity development and racial/cultural identity development to help rehabilitation professionals approach client progress through services as an opportunity to foster resiliency. 

Upon completion of this webinar, you will be able to:

1) Define resiliency from multiple perspectives

2) Describe resiliency as identity using social identity, disability, and racial/cultural identity development models

3) Apply resiliency concepts across the rehabilitation process

Presenter: Dr. Michell Temple, EdD., CRC, NCC, CCPT, LPC (GA), LPC/MHSP (TN), President of the National Association of Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns, is currently serving as the Counselor and ADA Coordinator at Tusculum University.  She provides counseling and rehabilitation services using a cognitive behavioral approach with an emphasis on meaning making of emotions and life circumstances. She brings a professional commitment of over hundred hours of continuing education to this topic. She holds a doctorate from the University of West Georgia in Professional Counseling 

People who receive Medicaid HCBS have the right to live in the most integrated setting and have full access to community living. This training will provide an overview on the relationship between TWS-VRS and Home & Community Based Service Waivers (HCBS waivers). Training will be presented by Sara Kendall, Program Specialist for Texas VR. Participants will acquire a basic understanding of an ESPs role when working with a VR Customer who also receives  services through an HCBS waiver, who to contact for ongoing assistance and materials for independent, more in-depth research into HCBS waivers.

Pre-recorded webinar series:

Part 2: Emotional CPR for CRPs: Navigating Co-Anxiety, when your customer reminds you of you (Part 2 of 2)

CRPs navigating the provision of services during a global pandemic need tools to assess and address their customers emotional responses. Research indicates individuals experiencing major life transitions and living in a quarantined state can be a trigger for increased levels of anxiety beyond the specific period of isolation. Understanding how to leverage appropriate self-disclosure surrounding shared emotional experiences can positively impact the customer-provider relationship and desired outcomes. 

The interaction of transference and counter transference can complicate and derail the working relationship. Learning creative ways of drawing out your customer's emotional experience, their warning signs, emotional barriers, and guiding them in how to create an effective emotional health action plan is key to your collective success.

This session will serve to assist the CRP in how to develop strategies for self-disclosure and how tot utlize collaboration to build out the customer's emotionally healthy action plan. 

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the difference between transference and counter transference and the impact on the working relationship.
2. Learn how to effectively self-disclose emotions to build rapport.
3. Identify components of emotionally healthy action plans and strategies to implement them. 

Pre-recorded webinar: In this session you will learn basics about reasonable accommodations under the ADA and the responsibilities of employers, applicants and employees.  You will explore what medical-related questions employers and ask when, and you will learn about essential job functions and undue hardship definitions and why they are important.  This session will teach you the basics of the interactive process.

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Know what medical-related questions employers can ask and when
• Understand the legal fundamentals of essential job functions and undue hardship
• Identify practical tips for navigating the interactive process

Pre-recorded webinar series: Two part webinar sessions provide program management strategies and funding alternatives for effective and responsive employment service provision. Employment support services funding are generally thought to be available only through three traditional funding mechanisms for supported employment (State VR, Schools and Medicaid) however there are other opportunities for employment support funding through SSA's Ticket to Work program as well as by accessing state workforce funding for targeted groups (youth, economically disadvantaged, etc.)  and foci (training and credentialing in high-demand business sectors). Session participants will also learn methods to develop cost recovery spreadsheets that detail the number of placements and clients needed in order to fully fund program costs and positions.

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Develop an agency budget that considers myriad funding streams
• Describe the other funding agencies other than state VR
• Effectively plan staff production standards across services
• Determine responsive caselodes and duties

Pre-recorded webinar series: This two part series covers the CORE features of Supported Employment are Career Planning, Marketing and Individualized Job Development, Job Site Training and Supports and Ongoing Supports.  Teaching job skills and the associated soft skills to transition-aged youth are critical to ensure successful employment outcomes and are hallmarks of Supported Employment and Employment First service provision.  Learning the job is of utmost importance but learning how to negotiate the work environment with customers, coworkers, supervisors and others must also be mentored and supported to ensure a successful employment outcome.

Pre-recorded webinar: This webinar examines 28 practical strategies for exercising healthy self-management, each inspired by the ABC's of living well with chronic illness - Attitude, Balance & Communication. The learnings and take-aways will be useful for reinforcing truths that many ultimately know but have lacked the motivation or inspiration to see through to implementation.

Pre-Recorded Webinar: The counseling working alliance is an essential aspect of service delivery for all counselors that is consistently linked to positive treatment/service outcomes. The alliance refers to the bond developed between the counselor and client, in addition to counseling goals and specific therapeutic tasks to achieve these goals. This webinar will focus on factors that enhance the working alliance between client and counselor and will provide a comprehensive understanding of mechanisms that promote change or progress toward counseling goals. These skills and insights can be utilized for counselors in vocational rehabilitation or traditional counseling settings.

Pre-recorded webinar: This presentation will discuss common ethical and other dilemmas typical to the helping professions, particularly those specific to rehabilitation or vocational counseling. Rehabilitation professionals are responsible for providing direct services to people with disabilities. The range of services typically provided by these professionals is diverse and includes helping those with disabilities adjust to their limitations and living circumstances, determining their employability, assisting them with career changes following the onset of disability, obtaining and retaining employment, and advocating for them in various settings.  As they provide these services, rehabilitation professionals not only spend much time with the individual with a disability, but also frequently interact with their families, employers, treatment providers, lawyers, and insurance providers.  In the course of those interactions, rehabilitation professionals often find themselves at a crossroads of legal, ethical, or moral issues on which they have to independently make decisions and/or take action.  This presentation will discuss common ethical and other dilemmas typical to the helping professions, particularly those specific to rehabilitation or vocational counseling.

Pre-Recorded webinar Part 3 of 3. This series addresses how apps can be used throughout the employment process. The first webinar will focus on using apps for pre-employment tasks such as researching job possibilities and interview preparation. The next webinar explores how the same apps can be used once on-the-job. We'll end the series discussing how the apps can be used in everyday life. You'll learn to use a handful of apps to help at work, home, and school.

Pre-Recorded webinar Part 1 of 3. This series addresses how apps can be used throughout the employment process. The first webinar will focus on using apps for pre-employment tasks such as researching job possibilities and interview preparation. The next webinar explores how the same apps can be used once on-the-job. We'll end the series discussing how the apps can be used in everyday life. You'll learn to use a handful of apps to help at work, home, and school.

Pre-recorded webinar. This workshop will enrich participants' capacity to meet the needs of African Americans with disabilities. It will include an interactive review the disability employment outcomes for African Americans with disabilities. It will explore the CRCC Code of Ethics ((A.2, C.1, D.2.a, D.2.b, and G.3) perspective on providing high quality services that promote positive employment outcomes.  Participants will leave with practical clinical and organizational tools to improve their practice.

Pre-recorded webinar Part 3. This 3 part webinar focuses on preparing students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  The first training will discuss services and preparation for 10-12th grade. Second, we will focus on accommodations and college services.  Finally, the discussion will address first semester college experience.

Pre-recorded webinar Part 1. This 3 part webinar focuses on preparing students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  The first training will discuss services and preparation for 10-12th grade. Second, we will focus on accommodations and college services.  Finally, the discussion will address first semester college experience.

Pre-recorded webinar Part 1: In these 3 part sessions we will explore the types of assessment that can be used to support informed decision making and self-determination in determining career options, understand the pros and cons of varying types of assessments, take a look at how to take all that data to support individuals in goal setting, and developing reasonable accommodations that can be implemented in the workplace.

Pre-recorded webinar Part 1: This session will focus on Ethical Guidelines in Employment First Rehabilitation and the importance of adhering to these comprehensive set of standards and ethical guidelines.

Pre-recorded webinar: This webinar is designed to provide Community Rehabilitation Providers information to share with their customers regarding emergency preparedness. This presentation will provide the knowledge, skills, and resources to plan for emergencies that may endanger health in the work, home or community setting.

Pre-recorded webinar: This webinar will explore at least three methods of interest inventory delivery, focusing upon which types of inventories may best meet the needs of clients' specific needs.  Inventories that may best meet the needs of persons with ASD, depression, intellectual disability, and limited English/language proficiency will be discussed.