JUDITH HOLT: Now, our next 30 minutes will be from the Lehigh Valley center and we have the Seth and Joe show with Amy to back them up. 

SETH HODEREWSKI:  My name is Seth Hoderewski, I'm the director of transition services from the Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living. 

JOE MICHENER:  And I am Joe Michener the director of employment services. 

People often confuse us. 

Just remember, I'm the shorter slightly rounder version of him. 

SETH HODEREWSKI:  I don't quite get it, but it does happen often. 

We are thrilled to be here. 

We were here a couple of years ago when ILRU did their big thing on transition. 

We're thrilled to be a part of this today and thank you all for being here. 

We are also talkers. 

We could talk all day long. 

So between us and Dave, we might need three weeks to get all this done. 

But please feel free to stop us and ask questions at any time. 

We love to talk about this stuff. 

For us, the transition stuff was really born out of us getting phone calls from parents that fall after their young adult just graduated saying they just graduated. 

They're sitting at home. 

They are doing nothing. 

What do we do now? 

So that's really where that came out of things for us. 

And from there, we were able to get a grant from the Developmental Disabilities Council, I'm sure those are all over the place. 

I'm sure people know about that and we can talk about that more. 

Our PA DDC we were fortunate enough to get an initial startup grant to do what was called our School To Life program which really changed and morphed over the last couple of years to what it is today and we'll talk a little bit about all of that. 

That's what it was. 

It was our School To Life program which incorporated our, what we call the Real World Lehigh Valley which was kind of like the MTV show just a little less drama. 

It's, just a little less. 

Just a little. 

Basically, it was a program for young adults with disabilities who had goals to live independently with support one day. 

Those programs included that year-round service, seminars, that six week intensive summer program, parents meetings, giving them that support and getting information from them so that they can share information. 

Mentoring, we had an advisory board which included young adults so we had all that going on, too. 

Goals being one of the main objectives for every young adult. 

What do you want to do and how do you want to go about accomplishing that? 

Especially through person centered planning. 

That is a constant theme you'll hear us talk a lot about person centered planning. 

We do that at pretty much every level of our transition services. 

That helps us really get to the root of what that young adult wants to do. 

It's about them. 

It's not about the parents anymore. 

It's about what they want to do and that is a really powerful tool we have used. 

Our topics basically anything related to independent living skills and for daily living, social, self-advocacy, employment, really that holistic point that you were talking about, how important that is to really every area of life because that is life. 

At this point like we said it kind of, things have all changed. 

Things have morphed into what they are today to where we have three transition programs going on. 

We are involved in all kinds of other local and statewide transition-related activities, but really it began in 2008. 

We are currently now working with our S2L program with our Real World Lehigh Valley Program. 

And we have many of our young adults who are in both of those programs, both are a fee-for-service individually for each. 

But most of the folks in our S2L program are also in our Real World Lehigh Valley program. 

We have about 30 to 35 active participants in our S2L group at this point. 

We had to change initially from that grant funded position and break that down into two individually funded programs. 

The S2L group and the Real World Lehigh Valley. 

But there are about 30 to 35 in our S2L group there. 

There are 15 in our Real World Lehigh Valley which focuses more on that employment skills type of thing. 

The ages are, were 14 to 25. 

We actually had to expand them from 14, they were 14 to 21. 

We had to expand them to 14 to 25 because we had young adults that were starting to age out and they didn't want to go anywhere. 

They wanted to stay involved with what we were doing and they became, they became a family. 

They wanted to stay together and work together and do all this other stuff together. 

We actually increased those ages. 

So we're actually getting to a point now where those young adults are getting to the next level of this and they are wondering what we're doing next. 

We are kind of working on that. 

Like we said, it's cross disability, too. 

We have young adults with all difference types of abilities. 

That is great perspective for the young adults and for the parents, too. 

Because as their parents got to know each other, they learned this is how we do it. 

Maybe you want to try that with where you're coming from. 

That was a very, very powerful tool and for the young adults to be going through those things together in that type of thinking was very, very powerful for us. 

It was originally grant funded and now it's a fee-for-service. 

With a few small supplemental grants here and there. 

We do a lot of fund-raising. 

Our parents and our young adults are very, very dedicated to our programming and they've done big, big fund-raisers for us and have really helped offset costs by doing that. 

We have two full-time staff, three summer staff, all of our core services are incorporated so you know that is the base and the root really for everything that we're doing in both the S2L and the Real World Lehigh Valley programs. 

All of those activities that we do are incorporated at our CIL, our new building and in the community. 

So we'll either be out volunteering or have guest speakers come in and talk about things or we're working on some types of different activities. 

And the goal for the group is really that successful transition into a life after school, whatever that means for that young adult. 

Now you can go. 

Thank you. 

But basically just to see a day in the life of both our S2L group and our Real World Lehigh Valley summer program. 

For our S2L meetings we generally meet on a Friday evening. 

We used to meet really early on a Saturday morning and young adults don't really like to do that. 

So they made that very well known and now we meet on, usually Friday nights and they like that because that's like young adults. 

They want to hang out and like you said Dave, that social piece is so powerful. 

They want to hang out and they want to be like young adults. 

They want to be doing stuff. 

No matter what it is. 

If they learn something along the way, that's great, too. 

So we usually start off with our leadership meeting. 

We've gotten to a point where we have peer elected leaders for our S2L group and there we have our meetings before our regular meetings where we're finalizing the agenda, talking about the things that need to be going on within the group and that type of thing. 

We have our young adults come in. 

They sign in and have an opportunity to socialize and see how each other are doing. 

We do group updates and a question of the day just to see where people are with things. 

Usually have some type of dinner, more opportunity to socialize and then from there it's different types of things, whether it be a seminar on advocacy or maybe we're working on some type of group project. 

One of the things we do in the beginning of the year, usually the first week in January, second week of January is we develop goals both individual goals and group goals. 

So we want the group to be empowered to take control over their group and how powerful that is. 

So they come up with volunteer opportunities, we want to do five of those. 

We want to do different types of social activities, so we plan out for the entire year the types of things that we want to do. 

And then we just follow that as we go along throughout the year. 

And like I said, we're doing seminars on advocacy, team building, we're working on things like our video, a campaign for legislation across the state, that type of thing. 

And then our summer program which is a little bit different is three days a week, 9 to 3. 

You know, the young adults, they come in and fill in their time sheet, check their schedules, have an opportunity to chat and socialize a little bit, and that goes into our small group work. 

Our small group, we'll have one group going out and volunteering in the community while other groups are staying back and working on things like top chef, that is one thing that we've incorporated that all the young adults like. 

We try to take like a real TV kind of thinking, a little bit of competitive and a little bit of fun and we love doing food activities, too, because so much can be learned from that, from the financial piece of that to cooking for one or two people, you name it, to measuring, everything. 

We take it to that point and it gets very competitive. 

Every year they want to win the top chef award, so we do things like that. 

It's just a very, very powerful. 

Lunch, and opportunity to socialize and then in the afternoon we do other things. 

So maybe we'll have someone come in to talk to us. 

We've been working on a lot about a mini business, a micro business that the young adults could do. 

We have done things in the past like cookie sales and that type of thing. 

But we thought about taking that to the next level and really what that could teach. 

So we're actually in the process of working on a little, on a microbusiness. 

And then one of the things that we do with the young adults at the end of each week is have a review with the staff just to give them an idea of how they did, what they're doing, how things are going, that type of thing. 

We really try to take amodel of a workday. 

We tell the young adults this is your job through the summer and you need to be doing this and this and this. 

JOE MICHENER:  And Seth mentioned the S2L program, you want to click for me, we work in the same office for a long time. 

So we kind of pick on each other a lot. 

Out of the S2L program and the success of the S2L program, the CIL, and this is before I got to LVCIL kind of said what's next? 

What can we do? 

What else is needed? 

And that's where the idea really spawned for the Career Path Program and talking about what is after the S2L program and what is next after that being employment. 

So of course I would be remiss not to mention Rick back in the corner, our VR representative that is here with us and I'm going to sidetrack a minute here. 

I remember before I came to LVCIL and I saw the job opportunity to be the manager for the Career Path Program, one of my colleagues where I was working formerly said to me you're going to go start a supported employment program in this economy? 

You're crazy. 

And I went, yeah. Yeah. 

But from the moment I walked in the door at LVCIL there was just a different energy and I think probably most of you can relate to that. 

A CIL has a different energy. 

A different approach to things. 

And I knew from the moment I walked in the door that we could be successful doing something like this in a poor economy. 

So out of the success of the S2L program all the things that Seth just talked about, the development of a community of young adults supporting each other and believing in each other and empowering each other and us as staff just being the facilitators of that, providing those opportunities, was the essential piece of it all. 

And Seth also mentioned the person centered planning and taking that approach. 

All of you I'm sure have been in IEP meetings where the young adult doesn't even speak. 

That's a hard thing to witness and we don't let that happen. 

We really are all about what the young adult wants to do and then facilitating the opportunities for them to explore what they want to do and see what it means to get there. 

And that was really the basis for the Career Path Program. 

So it's a program for young adults with disabilities who have a goal to get a job. 

Competitive, integrated job. 

Okay? 

Services include, and after lunch we'll get into more of the specifics of the actual services and what the day looks like and all those kinds of things. 

But the services include an intensive eight weeks skills training, developed in partnership with our VR, job shadowing and career exploration, person centered planning, really a huge part of everything we do, community-based work assessments, job coaching and extended services. 

And I believe the gentleman here at the front desk asked a question earlier, how do you convince your boss to, that the holistic service is really what it's all about? 

Our Career Path Program, yes, it's about a job, but all those other pieces have to be in place if you're going to be successful there. 

And what we found and I think Rick will back me up this, I hope, is that the holistic service is more appealing to our funders because it's not, okay, we're working on the job stuff. 

Oh, you have a housing situation? 

Well, you have to go to this other agency over here. 

We incorporate our core services, and Seth mentioned this as well, 

In every program we have, S2L our core services are embedded and I think that's more appealing to a lot of our funders as well. 

So the goals are determined by our consumers interest through person centered planning and supported by staff which I kind of already talked about. 

And topics include anything related to obtaining and maintaining competitive employment. 

We're going to get into this, well, it's actually a bullet point on this one. 

So again it was developed out of the S2L program. 

We started about three years ago, a little bit more than that. 

We started with an innovation and expansion grant and that was, we started with 25 young adults in the program. 

I think. 

It grew to 25 young adults by the end of the grant period. 

We are now at 125 active participants in our program. 

I can talk all day, it is a cross disability program. 

I know, Dave, you're laughing. 

And we started with three staff people. 

We are now at the point where we have nine full-time staff in our vocational services and three part-time staff. 

All core services are incorporated as I mentioned, and the big thing that Seth mentioned, our hub is LVCIL, our building, but the majority of what we do is out in the community. 

We're not practicing job skills at LVCIL. 

We do in a sense. 

We'll have seminars and different things like that, but for the most part we're going out in the community and going to real jobs and checking out what it is like on the job. 

And I think that's essential for young adults to see the differences and the differences and expectations between what they've experienced in school and what a competitive job is like. 

So we were just asked to kind of give a brief snippet on the day in the life of one of our participants in one of our programs. 

I'm not going to spend too much time on this. 

The biggest thing to keep in mind with this is that a day can look every different for every individual in our program. 

It depends on what phase of the program they are in. 

Which we'll get into after lunch. 

There are several different phases to the Career Path Program. 

And it depends on what their goals are and where they are at in the program. 

Out of S2L and then Career Path, we really decided that we wanted to work more with the school districts and I know a lot of you are here to learn about that and how that relationship kind of developed for us. 

Basically, the success of our S2L program and our Career Path Program spawned a lot of people to get in touch with us and say how about working with the schools and getting this ball rolling a little bit earlier? 

And so we had schools contact us. 

We've had parents contact us. 

We've had, we did a lot of outreach as well, but really that turned into our LIFE program which is the Living Independently for Everyone program. 

And this program works with young adults who are in school and we're working with school districts to supplement what they're doing. 

So if young adult isn't getting what they need through the school district, we're trying to fill that need. 

So maybe it is independent living skills, maybe it is vocational things as well, so there is pieces of the Career Path Program that can be incorporated in this program. 

This is really an a la cart kind of program. 

Here is my need and we're figuring out how to provide the service for that need. 

So we have young adults in this program that come to us every day Monday through Friday. 

It is their school day. 

It is their school schedule. 

We have other young adults that maybe comes once a week for three hours. 

So it really depends on the needs and this has probably been one of the most challenging things for us is to be as flexible as possible to fit the needs of the student and also what they're doing as they still involved of course with their school throughout the school year. 

So, again, we have skills training, job development, all the services are based off the IEP, we throw some person centered planning in there which the school districts have been very responsive to. 

They like the person centered planning. 

It's seen as, not that there is anything wrong with an IEP, but a person centered planning is much more positive. 

It's much more up beat, much more including of the young adult's hopes and dreams. 

So, again, mobility training, assistive technology, whatever the need is, we're the professionals that can provide that service, whether it be independent living skills or vocational or whatever. 

So this came out in 2013. 

We had ten active participants during this past school year. 

So, again, as I said we had one student coming to us every single day Monday through Friday for their entire school day. 

We've had other young adults come for just a certain amount of time. 

Ages 14 to 21 but that is really flexible. 

It really has to do with where the student is at and what the needs are. 

It is a fee-for-service program. 

This was not started with a grant unlike S2L and Career Path which both got launching points from a grant. 

The Career Path Program provided us the infrastructure for this program as far as staff capacity and the ability to handle it. 

We have four part-time staff that work on this and some of the Career Path staff also kind of help in this area especially when the vocational services are involved. 

Again, all core services are incorporated. 

Activities again occurring at the CIL and out in the community. 

And the goal being successful transition. 

Another just kind of snippet, example in the day of the life of, this is a young adult who attended this past year and she would attend her first two classes at the high school. 

The high school would then bus her to us and then once she was with us we would provide transportation from there if we were going out into the community or whatever the case may be. 

So I will tell you, we're going to get into this later, that every school district we work with is different. 

We work with six school districts. 

We have worked with six school districts with this particular program. 

And every school district has been different in what they want and what they need and what they require of us. 

That's also a real challenge which we can get into much detail later. 

And that's us. 

]AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hi, Becky Fay again. 

I have a question. 

You mentioned that your goal is a successful transition. 

What is your definition of successful transition? 

How do you see that? 

JOE MICHENER:  That's a great question. 

It really has to do with a person centered planning and that approach and what the young adult's goals are. 

We have never, in the years I've been there, stopped somebody's services at a certain point. 

Do you know what I mean? 

There is no end game for us. 

There are short term goals and long term goals as far as that transition plan goes and we're willing to stick with that young adult through as much of that as we possibly can. 

So I don't know if I have a clear definition of what successful transition is. 

SETH HODEREWSKI:  and it being what that young adult feels, and their parents feel is the goal for them. 

You know, and we see it as the young adults, they are our consumers through the future. 

We can support them for many, many years. 

And help them along their path. 

JOE MICHENER:  the key to it is having that diversified funding. 

As I said, our vocational services may stop at a certain point. 

We're on a job. 

We're successful in that job. 

We provided the support on the job, but that doesn't mean our core services can't continue. 

That doesn't mean, there is other, as Amy mentioned earlier there is 17 different funders. 

So we're finding ways to make our funders work for the needs of our consumers. 

I don't know if that answered your question at all. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hi, so I noticed the School To Life and Real World are largely fee-for-service funded as well as Career Path as well as LIFE. 

I was wondering who are the funders paying those fees in each case and then my second question is to the extent that successful transition into life after school is whatever that means for the young adult, to the extent that vocational rehab is funding, do you get any push-back if that young adult does not see employment as the successful post school life? 

JOE MICHENER:  Great questions. 

SETH HODEREWSKI:  the School To Life group and the Real World Lehigh Valley comes from a variety of different places for the funding. 

You know, many cases the parent pays the fee and in many cases we get some from the county. 

Some school districts have paid for the summer program and or portions of it. 

So it really is a diverse thing. 

And fund-raising is huge. 

We do a lot of fund-raising. 

With the fund-raising that we do, certain portions of the money goes back to the student to help offset the cost of the program. 

JOE MICHENER:  and then I was going to say that S2L program, that original program when it transitions just recently from grant to fee-for-service, the parents and the young adults were so invested in that program that they, there was concern, of course, when you leave that grant period that are we going to be able to do this fee-for-service. 

But they were so invested that they invested themselves in keeping the program going. 

They've done some huge fund-raising, but it is really a combination. 

The Career Path Program when that left the grant stage, our primary funder now is VR. 

And they're paying fee-for-service. 

We do have some other from our office of developmental programs and things like that. 

And then the LIFE program is funded by the individual school districts. 

So the school district has a student that has a need. 

The school district is paying for them to come to us for services. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Daryl Christenson from ABIL in Phoenix. 

Two questions: one is how did you address your transportation for youth with liability issues and such? 

The second question, normally there is funding for schools, from schools and such for 14 to 21. 

Why not take 21 to 25 and move them over to the adult IL services? 

What was your decision there? 

JOE MICHENER:  Well, I'll tackle the first one, the transportation is a challenge everywhere, we all know that. 

We really rely on the school districts to provide the transportation to and from our center and then from there, and maybe Cara can help me with this. 

How we've been able to effectively afford the insurance to then transport during the day. 

I think we can maybe address that in a later session possibly. 

And then the second question -- 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  21 to 25. 

JOE MICHENER:  All of our age ranges, we put numbers up there because we were supposed to. 

They are extremely flexible and it's whatever funding works for that person for where they're at or whatever their goal is. 

Obviously VR is not paying for IL skill development. 

So we have to figure out how that funding is going to work for that person whatever their age is and whatever the case may be. 

It's individual. 

And fortunately, we have a really bright fiscal person who is hiding over there in the corner. 

And she's able to help us determine that a lot. 

It's about true flexibility when it comes to funding. 

Last question. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  in relationship to person centered planning, I was wondering do you have a specific training for your staff to teach them and/or is there a curriculum you use for the students? 

JOE MICHENER:  Great question. 

We have taken a hybrid of all the person centered planning models out there and picked the pieces we liked. 

I don't know if you're allowed to do that but that's what we did. 

SETH HODEREWSKI:  It works for us. 

JOE MICHENER:  We got into person centered planning, again, Seth can speak to this before I did, I loved it when I got there. 

We went through the models and that works for us. 

This doesn't and then we have a very free flowing person centered plan so it is really guided by the young adult in the meeting. 

We provide a template. 

We say hey why don't you answer these questions before your meeting and then wherever the meeting goes is wherever the meeting goes. 

SETH HODEREWSKI:  We were able to get a great connection with a local professor from East Stroudsburg University who knew a lot about person centered planning. 

He taught us about that, what it was about and how it worked and then like Joe said it became a hybrid of what it needed to be for our programming. 

JOE MICHENER:  and for the specific needs of our community and things like that.