Help! You Need Somebody

Today's earworm, provided by John, Paul, George, and Ringo: 

"Help! I need somebody. Help! Not just anybody. Help! You know I need someone. Help!"

Feeling like you need some help? 

Whether it's hand-holding to complete an ESRP, a little job development insight, or ongoing management support, we’re here for you. To address those unique needs, our experienced Technical Assistance and Training Team at the Center on Community Living and Careers can deliver field-based mentoring and hands-on skills practice, and we can work with your staff one-on-one or via virtual technology. In the past two years, we’ve worked with employment providers around the state on a number of topics critical for both agency and supported employee success! See our flyer for topics.

And most importantly, we’re flexible. Working together, we can create a training and technical assistance plan as a component of your Establishment Contract, or you can purchase our services separately. 

Here are what a few providers had to say about working with us…

"You are to be commended for your continued efforts to improve outcomes for those we serve and restore financial stability to our employment services. The management team can see the results of your efforts, as our revenues in VR services are slowly climbing. The technical assistance and support is making a difference. Thank you for working diligently to learn and implement new strategies for our consumers and our placement service. We have many exciting opportunities before us in the next year to continue our quality improvements." --Southern Indiana Resource Solutions

"Working with the technical assistance grant was incredibly successful for our team. In the 18 months prior to assistance, we averaged $225 a month in SE billing. Since the assistance on SE began, we are averaging just under $1,000 a month over the last eight months. [The TA team] also assisted us with improving our productivity as a department by providing tools and insights that we were missing. The employment specialists were averaging just over 50% productivity prior to assistance. Since then, the employment specialists as a group are averaging over 81% in their productivity (84% over the last three months)."  --Carey Services

"The technical assistance provided to [our organanization] was extremely helpful in our transition to the current VR service delivery model. Our TA listened carefully to our questions and concerns, and then developed training modules to specifically address them. The trainer…worked hard to make sure the training was meaningful to our staff." --Easterseals Crossroads

"The TA Program provided our Employment Specialists with one-on-one teaching, coaching and mentoring which increased our knowledge and understanding of the VR process. Through this relationship, we also gained confidence which led us to provide better services to our clients. Thus we used our time more efficiently and effectively which led to more appropriate jobs secured for clients. It was an important collaboration and partnership for our department; one that I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to help their Employment Specialists learn to match the right jobs with the right clients. It becomes a win-win for all." --Arc of Evansville

For more information on technical assistance and training consultation services, see our Employment Training and Consultation flyer and contact a team member soon! 

More Help!

As always, you can find lots of resources here on Shared Solutions. To add to your toolbox, and in case you missed them, here are a few webinars we’ve hosted recently…

Please note that Google Chrome has recently discontinued its support for some software programs, which may impact your ability to access trainings recorded in Adobe Connect. If you experience difficulty opening a training, try switching to another browser, such as Firefox or Microsoft Explorer.

Trial Work Experiences 
CCLC and Indiana Vocational Rehabilitation Services join forces to help you learn more about the purpose and expectations of a trial work experience (TWE), as well as how to complete a TWE.

• Trial Work Experiences
• TWE Presentation
• TWE Report Example 1
• TWE Report Example 2

Changes to the Indiana Benefits Information Network 
Listen in to prepare for these upcoming changes and to learn more about how BIN liaisons provide valuable services to your clients with disabilities. Topics covered include:

• What is the Benefits Information Network?
• A New Referral Routing Form
• Timeframe Change
• Payments

Watch the entire webinar here:  

And read the Q and A from the webinar here.

The Visual Resume: Helping Your Job Seeker Compete

The visual resume, sometimes called a presentation portfolio, might just be your job seeker’s leg up, that boost that gets them over the wall or in the door. Combined with your efforts to individualize job opportunities and negotiate “good fit,” the visual resume can help your job seeker compete and get that job! 

Implementation of Indiana’s Order of Selection for VR services will begin August 1. That means your agency and staff will partner with those job seekers who VR regards as having a “most significant disability.” People with the most significant disabilities, including physical and communication challenges, often experience additional barriers to employment, because they have difficulty representing themselves and demonstrating competence or their ability to contribute when meeting employers. Visual resumes allow job seekers to show an employer what they’ve accomplished and what they can do.

Breaking Down Barriers & Making Your Job Easier

A visual resume not only assists your job seeker, it can also give job developers a competitive edge. If you’re responsible for job development, you’ll need to balance the use of sales and marketing strategies with the need to represent people as individuals who have unique contributions and skills. The gap between sales and individual representation is the visual resume. 

Placement can be a daunting task that is sometimes even more complicated when a job seeker has behaviors or traits of disability that are obvious. Sometimes it’s difficult for people to see beyond those obvious impacts of a disability. Humans tend to categorize people when they are very different from “typical,” and employers are humans. The visual resume can help counter employer resistance and bring about understanding: “Different” is not a liability, but an asset!  

Visual resumes hold so much potential, in fact, that Wisconsin is the latest state whose Vocational Rehabilitation system pays an outcome fee for its development. That’s because a visual resume can be the means of helping an employer see both what a job seeker can do as well as how that person might be able to meet the business’s employment needs, the crux of customized employment. How exciting is that?!

When Demonstration Beats Conversation

So, what is a visual resume? It’s a customized, visual presentation of your job seeker – that’s it! You can use PowerPoint or another type of presentation software or video to introduce your job seeker to an employer and to “show off” your candidate at his/her best. 

How people are represented to employers frequently makes a difference in whether a person gets a job or not. According to Marc Gold & Associates, “When the visual resume was pilot tested in 20 states across the country, the feedback from employers was that it increased their comfort level with hiring someone with a disability and enabled them to see a person with a disability within their business.” 

Visual resumes can be especially helpful for job seekers who have:

• little to no formal work experience.
• clearly obvious and overt impacts of disability. 
• difficulty expressing themselves in conversation.

With pictures, video, and text, the visual resume highlights and demonstrates:

• strengths
• work experiences (both formal and informal)
• tasks performed and skills demonstrated during these work experiences
• interests 
• work-related skills 
• a customized task list of potential contributions (used as the basis for negotiating a customized job description)
• certificates, recommendations

Visuals are important! You should collect pictures and videos throughout the Discovery process and pull them together as a wrap-up or summary of what you’ve learned about your job seeker. If you remember to take pictures and discrete videos throughout Discovery, visual resume development doesn’t take much time! 

Resource Time!  

Start with this Visual Resume Builder guide. Keep in mind, while you may use a standard template (PowerPoint), each visual resume will be as unique as each job seeker.

Next, watch this video to get an idea of how an Indiana employment specialist uses a visual resume for her client, Mark. And listen as Mark describes how a visual resume can help a potential employer understand who he is and what he can do. 

For reference, here's Mark's complete visual resume.

And finally, there are lots of examples of visual and video resume examples on the internet. Do a search to find inspiration. We thought you might enjoy Elizabeth J.'s creative video resume. 

‘What’s up?’ An In-Depth Look at the Meet and Greet

Hi. How are you? Nice to meet you. Tell me about yourself. 

Come on, dive in; the water’s great! The Meet and Greet, also known as a home visit, is

your “jumping off point.” During that first visit with a new job seeker, you may find or identify skills and interests to use as an initial starting point for planning future Discovery activities. If you’re able to establish a rapport and go deeper, the things you learn in a Meet and Greet may also prevent you from jumping to conclusions and help you avoid premature job identification and selection.  

In this post we’re going to find out how to get the most bang for your buck with a Meet and Greet.

Home Sweet Home

When beginning Discovery, we strongly recommend starting the process at your job seeker’s home, especially if that’s where he or she is most comfortable. Anytime a person feels more at ease, they will be more willing to share about themselves! You’ll also have the advantage of observing the job seeker’s surroundings, which can reveal how they spend their time and can help you learn about interests and strengths. Making these observations can be a great way to start a conversation. You may learn about things that the job seeker might not think to mention and that you’d never discover while sitting in your office!  

If your Meet and Greet can’t be at the job seeker’s home, choose a location in the job seeker’s community where they’d prefer to talk, such as a library, coffee shop, or church. While you won’t get the benefits of observing where the job seeker spends a lot of time, you will still be in a space that’s more comfortable to the job seeker. For many people, a visit to your office feels like visiting the doctor or dentist!  And that makes us all a little uneasy, right?

Whether you meet the job seeker at their home or somewhere else that they choose, it can be helpful if the job seeker invites important people in their lives. This will vary from person to person, of course. Sometimes we can learn a lot about a person’s strengths and interests from their partner, parent, or sibling!  This could happen at that first meeting, or down the road when you all get to know each other a little better.

Let’s see what a Meet and Greet looks like in action:  

Video 1: Intro 

Frank, the job seeker, and Dawn, his employment consultant, are just sitting down to begin the conversation. Pay careful attention to how Dawn asks questions, to her body language, and to how she responds to Frank. You will be able to see the following:

• The employment consultant asks permission to take notes.
• They’ve completed intake prior to this meeting.
• The employment consultant uses the visit(s) to establish and build rapport and trust.

Video 2: What are you most proud of?  

Dawn lets Frank lead the conversation by confirming what Frank has to say, and by encouraging Frank to expand on what he’s sharing. Dawn does not lead the discussion or structure the meeting as an interview. Rather, she’s promoting an open-ended conversation.

Video 3: Expanding on an interest 

Here, Dawn is observing and learning from Frank. She’s capturing likes, preferences, dislikes, and what makes Frank tick. Notice that Dawn continues to engage with Frank in a way that puts him in charge, and that encourages him to share what he’s passionate about.  

These videos illustrate what it looks like to really build a relationship, and they demonstrate the specific skills Dawn engages in to be successful. 

Okay, we hear you saying, “Easier said than done!” You’re right. But if you’re still nervous, here's a handy dandy Tips and Tricks resource to help guide your conversation. 

The Meet & Greet Home Visit: Tips and Tricks for Making You and Your Job Seeker More Comfortable


Many thanks to Frank and to Dawn from Sycamore Services for sharing their conversation with us!

Job Ready, Set, Go!

Many people struggle with some level of challenge. Some challenges, though, can be a barrier to successful employment. In those cases, a job seeker will need some additional help. Job Readiness Training to the rescue! A new an underused service offered by Vocational Rehabilitation Services, Job Readiness Training can help consumers work on:

• getting to work on time; 
• appropriate dress and grooming; 
• increasing productivity; 
• soft skills development; and 
• social skills development. 

Taking a job seeker through the Job Readiness process before any training or job development begins, can help identify specific need(s) as well as the teaching techniques and strategies that you and the job seeker can use to develop essential skills. The job seeker gains insights about how to manage challenges related to his or her impairment as well as strategies for: 

• improving interactions;
• building meaningful work relationships; 
• influencing others’ perceptions of them; and 
• demonstrating ways to improve communication, teamwork, and interpersonal relationships. 

Skills to Pay the Bills: One Tool to Use with Job Readiness Training

You might find Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success helpful as you develop a Job Readiness Plan. This curriculum, developed by ODEP, focuses on teaching "soft" or workforce readiness skills to youth, including youth with disabilities. The curriculum is an introduction to workplace interpersonal and professional skills, and is targeted for youth, ages 14 to 21, in both in-school and out-of-school environments. However, it can be adapted to work one-on-one and with any age group. It’s also an excellent resource to help you plan for and organize content in any Job Readiness Plan.
The program provides engaging activities focused on six key skill areas:

• communication; 
• enthusiasm and attitude, 
• teamwork; 
• networking; 
• problem solving and critical thinking; and 
• professionalism.  

The activities are a great way to help individuals think about how they would react or respond to various workplace situations. Curriculum users will begin to recognize that these crucial skills are necessary for success both within and outside the workplace. Skills to Pay the Bills can be found at: https://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/youth/softskills/

Example: Working with A.J.

Employment specialist Warren Swanson is working with A.J., a young man participating in the Discovery process. Warren has discovered that A.J. is extremely shy and lacks self-confidence. Warren thinks this might be a significant barrier to successful employment and discusses the need for improvement with A.J. and the VR counselor. They decide a Job Readiness Plan, with a focus on improving A.J.’s soft skills, especially in the area of confidence, could be helpful. Warren decides the strategy is to adapt Lesson #10 “Turning Benefits into Features” from the Skills to Pay the Bills Communication Curriculum- Skill # 2 —“Enthusiasm and Attitude.”  

Just so you can see it in action, we staged a brief scene of Warren working through Skill #2 with A.J. 

And take a look at an initial Job Readiness Plan sample for A.J. 

If a consumer requires Job Readiness Training, you must identify it as a needed service on the IPE. Reach out to your VRC and job seeker to the discuss the possibility of Job Readiness Training.

Informational Interviewing: Another Tool in Your Discovery Toolbox

Informational interviews, according to employment consultants Griffin-Hammis Associates, Inc., are a great way to: 

• develop Discovery activities that make sense for the job seeker, like a situational assessment or a work experience; 
• build a job placement network; 
• discover new kinds of jobs;
• introduce yourself and your services to employers; and
• build the mental database that all of us rely on for employment ideas before beginning a job search with someone. 

Fabulous. So why is it that employment specialists aren’t doing more of them?  Probably because the gift of gab doesn’t come easily to some of us, and we feel as if we’re imposing on an employer, asking for their time. This post is all about moving out of your comfort zones and learning to ask questions!

In the Indiana Employment Services Model, informational interviews fall under Discovery. Since Discovery activities should be targeted and purposeful, based on each consumer’s individualized needs and informed choice, you won’t need to conduct an informational interview with an employer for every person on your caseload.

Why, then, would you conduct an informational interview? 

Griffin-Hammis trainer Patty Cassidy says an informational interview can:

• help refine vocational themes.
• reveal skills and tasks found in workplaces.
• reveal conditions of employment.
• serve as a warm-up to job development.
• keep you thinking in different ways.
• provide INFORMATION!

Informational Interview Graphic. Click here to see larger view.

Keep in mind, says Cassidy: No selling occurs; an informational interview is only a conversation with someone with similar interests. Let the opportunities evolve from the conversation. Employment specialists should help guide the initial interaction, watch for opportunities, and highlight mutual interests. The client should be present during the interview with the employer and be a part of the conversation.

How do you conduct an informational interview?

• Set up the interview. Ask for 20-30 minutes. Keep it casual. 
• Prepare your client; do your homework.
• Use "smooth listening" with the employer (you're there to learn).
• Observe everything.
• Ask for advice--find warm leads. 

What questions should you ask?

Here's a simple list of sample questions (and a few you should avoid). Informational Interview Questions

Need more information? Flip through this presentation from Patty Cassidy, of Griffin-Hammis, who talked with us about informational interviewing in a 2015 Check & Connect webinar.  Informational Interviews