Expanding CIL Capacity through Youth Transition Services: Collaborating with School Districts and VR (13 hours)

Training Source: 
ILRU
Beginning Date: 
08/12/2014
End Date: 
08/14/2014
Type of Training: 
On-demand

About the Training

Is your CIL looking for proven approaches for establishing and maintaining fees-for-service relationships with schools districts and vocational rehabilitation agencies for youth transition services? This on-demand training was a originally conducted as a three day training in August 2014.

This program provides participants with models from three different CILs and their involvement with their local schools and VR systems. The team of presenters includes CIL staff, and representatives from school districts and VR. They discuss how they got started working together and offer recommendations on how to move past the challenges and meet with success. The CILs share how they established contracts and fees-for-services with the schools and VR, and the planning process they went through in establishing fees. This training also provides you with some nuts and bolts methods for analyzing costs and setting rates, and explains what goes into a fee-based budget.

Target Audience

This training will be most beneficial for CIL executive directors, financial directors, program managers, youth program coordinators, board members and others interested in expanding CIL capacity through contracts and fees-for-services with school districts and VR.

Learning Objectives

You will learn:

  • Three successful CIL approaches to fee-based youth transition services
  • How to get started working with vocational rehabilitation and school districts
  • Potential barriers and successes in managing an ongoing relationship with schools and VR
  • How to analyze your CIL's capacity to move beyond grant funding to contracts and fees-for-service
  • Action steps in contract negotiation
  • What type of staffing is required and where they need to be stationed
  • What contracts and agreements should contain and how to initiate them
  • How to build a budget, analyze costs, and set rates
  • What cash flow issues and policies need to be considered and how to deal with them
  • Steps to implement your own programs

Video/Training Materials/Resources

Follow the link to Training Materials/Resources to find copies of the PowerPoint presentations and handout materials from the on-location training. This training was captured on video and links to those videos are also provided.

About the Presenters

Representing Granite State Independent Living:

Peter Darling has worked in the field of rehabilitation and education for more than 40 years. He is Vice President of Community Economic Development at Granite State Independent Living. He has provided direct services to a wide range of individuals with disabilities as well as worked collaboratively with a number of school districts through a series of national employment initiatives. He has taught at the college and graduate levels, developed and administered a number of school based programs. Peter has owned his own employment business and served in a range of administrative positions in non-profits in the state of New Hampshire. His recent efforts led to an ARRA-funded program to address students with disabilities who had dropped out of high school or where at risk of dropping out. He and his staff developed the Earn & Learn Opportunities program that brought together the collaborative efforts and funding of the Manchester School District, New Hampshire Vocational Rehabilitation, community-based partners and the resources of Granite State Independent Living.

Maureen O'Donnell is Director of Educational Services, Granite State Independent Living. She has over 30 years of experience assisting individuals with disabilities to obtain and maintain gainful employment. She has worked in partnership with New Hampshire Vocational Rehabilitation and has placed over 800 VR customers in successful job placements. For the past five years, Maureen has directed the Earn and Learn Opportunities program, assisting at risk high school students with disabilities to become re-engaged in their education by providing extended learning opportunities for academic credits.

Representing Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living:

Amy Beck has been the Executive Director at the Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living (LVCIL) since 1999. She holds a BA in Social Work from Elizabethtown College, and an MSW from Marywood University. She is Secretary of the Pennsylvania Council on Independent Living, and has served on the Pennsylvania Statewide Independent Living Council. Amy is an adjunct faculty member for Lehigh Carbon Community College where she teaches Management of Human Service Agencies. During her tenure with LVCIL, the agency has launched successful programming such as an array of innovative holistic school to adult life transition services including Real World Lehigh Valley (an intensive summer program addressing life after high school), regional Have You Thought About Life training and conferences, Career Path vocational services and LIFE school-based services.

Seth Hoderewski is the Director of Transition services at LVCIL where he has worked for over 4-1/2 years. He has a B.A. in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and is working towards a MA in Special Education at East Stroudsburg University. He has worked in the social services field for 19 years, with the last four plus directly in the field of transition. He has helped to shape the current multi-faceted youth transition services at LVCIL.

Joe Michener is the Director of Employment Services at LVCIL, where he manages the Career Path and LIFE (Living Independently For Everyone) programs. Joe has worked in vocational services for more than a decade, and he has been involved in developing and managing successful grant and fee-for-service programs in partnership with the Department of Labor (including Vocational Rehab) and the Department of Public Welfare.

Cara Steidel is the Director of Finance at LVCIL, where she manages all aspects of the agency's financial requirements. Cara has worked in the financial field since 1980. Prior to joining LVCIL she worked in the for-profit sector as an auditor, cost analyst and controller.

Representing Metropolitan Center for Independent Living:

David Hancox is Executive Director of the Metropolitan Center for Independent Living (MCIL) in St. Paul, Minnesota. Previously, David served on the Center's Board of Directors for six years. MCIL provides a wide range of services and opportunities to individuals with disabilities living in the seven county metro area of Minneapolis/St. Paul and serves approximately 35,000 individuals per year. David also serves as the primary legislative lobbyist for the Minnesota Association of Centers for Independent Living, assisting MACIL with their legislative agenda and activities. David's previous employment includes Senior Planner, Minnesota DD Council; Minnesota Coordinator, World Institute on Disability; and Policy Analyst, Ohio DD Council. David also provides consulting services that focus on disability policy and issues related to individuals with disabilities and their families.

Representing School Districts:

Kenneth Duesing is the Assistant Director of Student Services for the Manchester School District in Manchester, New Hampshire. He is a certified educator in the area of General Special Education, Emotional Disturbance, and Special Education Administration. Kenneth began his career by teaching students with emotional and behavioral disorders in private and public schools. Currently, Kenneth works with administrators, teachers, and parents regarding the provision of special education services in the 22 schools in the Manchester School District, as well as serving as a member of a number of committees, both within the District and ones that are community based, devoted to helping students, both with and without disabilities, meet success in school.

Amy Noone is the Transition Advisory Assistant for Commonwealth Connections Academy (CCA). CCA is a public cyber charter school in Pennsylvania, serving students and families in grades K–12. She received her Associate's Degree in Business Administration from Harcum College and has done extensive course study in Psychology through Harvard University's Extension School and American Public University. She has spent the last eight years working in Special Education, primarily as a paraprofessional. She has a unique perspective as a parent of a cyber student, which gives her insight into the challenges that students face in such an environment.

Susan Pesavento is the Transition Coordinator for Commonwealth Connections Academy (CCA). She received her Bachelor's Degree in Information System Management from Albright College and spent a year at Widener School of Law. As the first Transition Coordinator for CCA, she has dedicated the last four years to growing the Transition Program and forming statewide community partnerships to assist in this endeavor.

Representing Vocational Rehabilitation:

Lisa Hatz is the State Director of the New Hampshire Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation and has been in her position for four years. She has been with the agency for 11 years and still maintains her certification as a Rehabilitation Counselor. She holds a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling from the University of Iowa.

Rick Walters is District Administrator of the Allentown Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. He has a B.S. in Rehabilitation Education from Penn State and has been providing rehabilitation counseling services since 1977 and began employment with OVR as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor in 1986. He is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor.

Abbie Wells-Herzog is the Autism Specialist at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Vocational Rehabilitation Services. She holds a B.S. in Rehabilitaton Education and a M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Arizona.