Live.WORK.Achieve
A Listserv for the Mississippi Partnerships for Employment
For Youth and Young Adults with Developmental Disabilities
Including Intellectual Disabilities Project
December 2012
Welcome to Live.WORK.Achieve, a monthly e-newsletter targeting anyone interested in and supportive of employment for youth and young adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities. Live.WORK.Achieve is offered through the Institute for Disability Studies in collaboration with the Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities and Disability Rights Mississippi and includes resources and information on employment and career development.
Inside this edition:
1) Transportation Needs Assessment
2) ODEP Unveils Skills to Pay the Bills Videos
3) Assistive Technology for Employers and Businesses Web Portal Released by RESNA Catalyst Project
4) Postsecondary Education for Students with Intellectual Disability
5) Explore VR – A New Data Collection and Dissemination Resource
6) Bullying - Share Your Story with Others
1) Transportation Needs Assessment
To fully understand and help address the transportation needs of people with disabilities, the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services is partnering with the Mississippi Transportation Coalition to conduct a transportation survey. The survey will be available from Nov. 1, through Dec. 31, via a link on Rehabilitation Services website. Numerous surveys can be completed from one computer, however, please complete only one survey per individual. To take the survey, visit Rehabilitation Service’s website http://www.mdrs.state.ms.us/default.asp and click on the link for the survey.
2) ODEP Unveils Skills to Pay the Bills Videos
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (USDOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) unveiled a series of videos to complement its Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success training curriculum—a creative program of interactive, hands-on activities that educators and youth service professionals can use to help young people prepare for employment. The fully accessible videos portray workplace scenarios related to enthusiasm and attitude, teamwork, communication, critical thinking and problem solving, networking, and professionalism. To view the videos, visit http://www.dol.gov/dol/media/webcast/20121015-softskills/. Printable project materials are available at http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/youth/softskills/.
3) Assistive Technology for Employers and Businesses Web Portal Released by RESNA Catalyst Project
The Assistive Technology for Employers and Businesses Web Portal features information on assistive technology (AT) solutions in the workplace. The portal can be used to find help to access AT through the AT Act Entities, a consultant data base directory of RESNA Professionals and the services and expertise each offers to employers. There are publications on AT and Employment, various resources for employers to explore, and the partners who have worked with the RESNA Catalyst Project to create the Portal including the United States Business Leadership Network, Job Accommodation Network, the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation, Southeast TACE, and the U.S. Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration. For more information, visit http://atconnects.com/resources/at-for-employers.
4) Postsecondary Education for Students with Intellectual Disability
The Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) task force has been working for the past two years to increase understanding and communication between postsecondary Disability Resource Centers and people invested in developing higher education opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities. The online archive of a Nov. 7, webinar covers the following topics: the role of Disability Resource in supporting students with intellectual disabilities; the range of programs available currently in postsecondary education and the need for more and other projects that AHEAD's task force is engaged in pursuing such as a white paper and a position statement. For more information, visit http://aaidd.org/content_9876.cfm.
5) Explore VR – A New Data Collection and Dissemination Resource
Explore VR is a web application that provides easy and convenient access to a range of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) data for planning, evaluation, and decision-making. Through this data-sharing effort, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDDIR) is seeking to increase knowledge about the public VR program and its role within the larger employment and disability service system, within and across states and territories. This initiative is part of the NIDDR-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Vocational Rehabilitation (VR-RRTC). For more information, visit http://explorevr.org/.
6) Bullying - Share Your Story with Others
“My son Luke is 8 years old and is in the third grade. I’m not really a sports kind of guy so Luke does not have that influence from me and therefore has other interests. He came home one day from school and, after my usual question of ‘How was your day?’ he offered this reply: ‘All the boys in my class like sports, so they kind of tease me, but that's OK,’ he said as he shrugged his shoulders. ‘They laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at them because they’re all the same.’ I asked him where he heard that. He answered, ‘I read it somewhere.’ I cried with pride.” Read more contributions and offer one of your own – a video, story, poem, artwork, or audio clip that expresses how you feel about bullying and its impact on the world around you at http://www.pacer.org/bullying/stories/.
***PLEASE NOTE: If you are unable to access any of the links in Live.WORK.Achieve, please make sure the entire link is highlighted. If a link is not highlighted, please copy and paste the entire link into your Web browser.
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Live.WORK.Achieve is sponsored by the Mississippi Partnerships for Employment (MSPE) for Youth and Young Adults with Developmental Disabilities, Including Intellectual Disabilities project. MSPE is funded by the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is managed by the Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities (MS CDD), Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS) and The University of Southern Mississippi Institute for Disability Studies (IDS).
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