Thursday, September 5, 2013

[Mspe] MSPE Live.WORK.Achieve Listserv - September 2013

Live.WORK.Achieve

A Listserv for the Mississippi Partnerships for Employment

for Youth and Young Adults with Developmental Disabilities

Including Intellectual Disabilities Project

 

September 2013

 

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) 2013 National Disability Employment Awareness Poster Now Available

2) The Conversation for Change – September 9-11

3) A Better Bottom Line: Employing People with Disabilities

4) Online Training Modules for Computer and Electronic Accommodations

5) Free Webinar on Discovery Process in Transition Planning for Young Adults – September 25

6) Maine Becomes “Employment First” State

7) Archived Webinar Available on Using Discovery to Identify Employment Goals

__________________________________________________________________

 

1) 2013 National Disability Employment Awareness Poster Now Available

 

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), a campaign held annually to raise awareness about disability employment issues and celebrate the many and varied contributions of American’s workers with disabilities. The 2013 NDEAM poster consists of four circles, each depicting a successfully employed worker with a disability.  Poster background colors range from bright green at the bottom to light blue at the top.  Centered at the top is the Department of Labor’s logo with the Office of Disability Employment Policy, United States Department of Labor next to it. Below this header are the words of the theme:  Because We Are EQUAL to the Task.  The words at the bottom include National Disability Employment Awareness Month, What Can YOU Do? and ODEP's website. The poster is available for download in English and Spanish or you can order free copies by visiting http://www.dol.gov/odep/.

 

2) The Conversation for Change – September 9-11

 

Employers, human resource and diversity professionals and others with expertise and insight into disability employment issues are invited to participate in an online employer Dialogue sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability (ODEP). The dialogue will be centered around the question, “What services do you need to facilitate the hiring, retention and advancement of people with disabilities?” The sharing of ideas and comments or voting on others’ ideas and comments starts Sept. 9, and will be accepted 24 hours a day through Sept. 11, using an online crowdsourcing tool. To register, visit http://employerdialogue-epolicyworks.ideascale.com/

 

3) A Better Bottom Line: Employing People with Disabilities

 

As chair of the National Governors Association from 2012-2013, Governor Jack Markell of Delaware focused his year-long initiative on improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities.  The initiative, A Better Bottom Line: Employing People with Disabilities, concentrates on the employment challenges that affect people with disabilities and defines the role government and business can play in advancing opportunities for gainful employment. To read more about the initiative, including a brochure and blueprint for governors, visit http://ci.nga.org/cms/home/1213/index.

 

4) Online Training Modules for Computer and Electronic Accommodations

 

The Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP), part of the U.S. Department of Defense, offers several online training modules to help employers understand how simple hiring employees with disabilities can be and how to provide reasonable accommodations after they are hired. Current sessions focus on increasing federal employment of people with disabilities, providing reasonable accommodation solutions, and providing solutions with a focus on dexterity disabilities. The modules are offered free of charge and may be viewed at any time. For more information, visit http://cap.mil/NewsEvents/Training.aspx.

 

5) Free Webinar on Discovery Process in Transition Planning for Young Adults – September 25

 

Transition planning from school to postsecondary education, employment, and community life is critical for all high school students.  The focus of the webinar, Customized Employment: The Role of the Discovery Process in Transition Planning for Young Adults with Disabilities, Including Deaf-Blindness, will highlight strategies to improve post school outcomes for young adults with disabilities. Presenter, Mike Fagbemi, will provide an overview of customized employment, an innovative planning approach that emphasizes the student’s personal interests, strengths and complexities for decision making that will guide the transition process. The webinar will be held at 2 p.m. Central Standard Time on September 25. No registration is required. Before the meeting, take time to run an Adobe Connect test at http://hknc.adobeconnect.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm. On the day of the meeting connect to http://hknc.adobeconnect.com/nfadb-1. Type your name, enter as guest. When you enter the Adobe room, you will be prompted for a call back number. Enter your phone number and Adobe will call you. If you are at a phone with an extension, dial 1-866-244-8528. The Participant Code is 219009.

 

6) Maine Becomes “Employment First” State

 

A law passed by the Maine legislature in June has made Maine the second Employment First state to have both policy and law aspects of the movement and the only state to have policies and laws that address the needs of all individuals with disabilities. Employment First is a philosophy/policy which requires all entities that provide services to individuals with disabilities of working age to ensure that competitive employment in integrated settings is always the first priority option considered in providing services. Advocates founded Employment First Maine in August 2011 and continued to actively pursue Employment First activities through passage of the Employment First Maine Act. Read more about the Employment First movement in Maine in the September issue of APSE Connections, the newsletter of the Association of People Supporting EmploymentFirst (APSE): http://cdn.impact-publications.com/downloads/apseconxnseptember13.pdf.

 

7) Archived Webinar Available on Using Discovery to Identify Employment Goals

 

A recorded archive of the LEAD Center webinar "Promoting Employment – Discovering Your Potential: Using Discovery to Identify Your Employment Goals" is now available. The webinar, held on July 31, 2013, provides information on how to use discovery, an alternative assessment tool proven to identify the strengths of job seekers with and without disabilities, to discover personal employment goals. The webinar and presentation materials are available at the LEAD website: https://www.leadcenter.org/webinars/promoting-employment-discovering-your-potential-using-discovery-identify-your-employment-goals.

 

 

***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.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Live.WORK.Achieve~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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).   

 

***********************************

 

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE

***********************************

 

TO SUBSCRIBE

 

If this mailing was forwarded to you and you are not already subscribed to the Live.WORK.Achieve listserv, here’s how you can become a subscriber:

 

Sign up online at https://mailman.usm.edu/mailman/listinfo/mspe.  

 

TO UNSUBSCRIBE

 

Unsubscribe online at https://mailman.usm.edu/mailman/listinfo/mspe  and login with your email address and your password. If you do not have a password (they are emailed to members at the beginning of every month), contact one of the administrators listed below.

 

****************************************

 

Please visit the IDS Calendar of Events at http://www.usm.edu/ids/calevents/.

 

Questions may be addressed to

Alma.Ellis@usm.edu

OR

Jerry.Alliston@usm.edu

_______________________________________________

MSPE Live.WORK.Acheive mailing list

mspe@usm.edu

https://mailman.usm.edu/mailman/listinfo/mspe