Employment First

Employment First comes from inside Oregon's Employment First program. Its subject is the plumbing of disability employment: who authorizes what, which trainings exist, and how people with intellectual and developmental disabilities end up in community jobs. Episodes open with the same short line naming that goal and pointing to iWorkWeSucceed.org. After that, the talk is conversational and courteous. Angela Yeager, Communications Officer with Employment First, introduces guests and asks the questions in several episodes. Acacia McGuire-Anderson, the Statewide Employment First Coordinator, leads the COMPASS project discussion and joins the one on National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The COMPASS conversation shows how technical the show will get. It frames the project as an ODDS system change meant to make services more person-centered, then gets down to rules: a solo Day Support Activities service must be fully one-to-one and in the community, and one-to-one support inside a group goes through the exception process. The message to case management entities is plain: request the exception as before, and ODDS staff handle the modifiers on the back end. The rest is just as practical. Allison Enriquez, a policy analyst with ODDS, and Sheila Barker of the provider agency Edwards Center explain benefits counseling offered through ODDS and the Work Incentives Network. They also cover why services coordinators and personal agents might authorize it for someone worried about how working could affect their benefits. Enriquez also appears with Sally Simich, an education specialist, on supported decision making. The show presents it as an alternative to guardianship that lets people make choices with help from people they trust. Gene Rada, Training Coordinator and Policy Analyst with ODDS, runs through training for employment professionals, including a supported employment curriculum from Elsevier's College of Employment Services that was eventually opened to PSW job coaches. For National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Kim Alejo of Vocational Rehabilitation and Morgan Rincon of the Oregon Commission for the Blind talk about a Tuesday webinar series, including a session called 'Workforce Recovery Powered by Inclusion'. Then there is Rachel. She is a 28-year-old teacher assistant at Cadence Academy Preschool in Portland, and her team, including her mother, joins her to talk about the job where she found her passion working with babies. Her mother recalls earlier jobs of eight to ten hours a week and says twenty hours once seemed almost unthinkable. Now the job is the focus of Rachel's life. One speaker closes by crediting Rachel with improving their own practice. For a first listen, that episode is the easiest way in. The COMPASS, benefits counseling and training episodes carry the detail that matters to anyone authorizing or delivering services. Links to approved counselor lists, trainings and webinar registration are promised alongside episodes. In some episodes, a spot for ImpactOregon.Careers, a site listing jobs working with people with developmental disabilities, runs partway through.