- E1MN: A State Agency Partnership.
Working together to deliver a more seamless
and timely employment support system.
As a waiver employment service provider,
you have several important responsibilities.
During the Plan phase, you help a person plan for employment
using waiver employment development services.
In rare situations, waiver employment development services
may be used in the Find phase to help a person search for work.
Usually a person will get help from VRS-SSB
and a VRS-SSB employment provider
to search for employment during the Find phase.
Since your responsibility to help plan and search for employment is different
in the Plan and Find phases,
let's look at one phase at a time, starting with the Plan phase.
During the Plan phase, a person gets help
discovering their interests and strengths
and then preparing for a job search.
Waiver employment development services are designed
to support a person in this phase.
When you receive authorization from a wavier case manager
to provide employment development services in the Plan phase.
You should begin by explaining the service activities
and outcomes to the person.
You can use the information in the work toolkit
under Supporting People on Waivers, the Plan section,
to explain those details.
As you prepare to deliver Plan phase support,
become familiar with how to create an employment portfolio
and use the positive summary tool,
which can capture what people learn during the Plan phase.
My Vault also has tools you and the person can use
to create and share an employment portfolio and positive summary.
To get started with employment development services during the Plan phase,
create a plan with the person to discover their interests and strengths.
Generally, this discover process includes a number of activities and experiences,
such as informational interviews, work experiences,
benefits planning, and career education.
If the person received waiver employment expiration services,
be sure to use the information that was learned during those services.
For example, if the person shared during the Engage phase
that they love horses,
it may be helpful to set up some experiences and activities
to further explore the type of work that occurs with and around horses.
Once you and the person have a plan in place to discover interests and strengths,
it's time to execute the plan.
One of the critical responsibilities you have is to set up and support the person
with all the employment development activities and experiences.
A list of the common activities and experiences,
as well as expected outcomes can be found in the work toolkit
under Supporting People on Waivers in the Plan section.
The common activities and experiences include person-centered discovery,
counseling, learning, and goal development,
benefits planning, work experiences,
transportation, assistive technology and accommodations,
and other activities like creating an employment portfolio.
It's critical that the specific activities and experiences you've set up
are tailored to the person.
They should be based on what is already known about the person's interests
and strengths.
In the work toolkit,
under Professional Resources,
you'll find a number of helpful guides and training opportunities
that you can use to build your knowledge and providing activities and experiences
to plan for employment.
There's one more important detail about facilitating activities and experiences.
After each activity and experience,
debrief and document with the person.
When debriefing and documenting,
you should capture important details about the activity or experience.
Make a note of what the person learned,
what worked well for the person,
and what tasks the person shined at doing.
This information will be important to include in the person's positive summary.
After you've completed all the activities and experiences,
help the person reflect on what they learned
and develop preliminary employment goals.
The positive summary is a great tool to help in this reflection.
The goals should be consistent with the interests, strengths,
and conditions for employment that the person identified
through the activities and experiences you set out.
To compile the resources you have developed
to help the person create an employment portfolio
that they can use when they begin job searching during the Find phase.
You can learn more about the employment portfolio
in the waiver employment service provider learning path
under the Responsibility Create an Employment Portfolio.
The final step in the Plan phase is to help the person transition
to Find phase services if the person would like help finding a job.
The majority of the time, the person will receive help from VRS-SSB
for Find phase services.
Given that, as you're getting close to the end of the Plan phase,
you should update the waiver case manager,
identify the most accessible VRS-SSB location,
help the person apply for VRS-SSB services,
and help the person share their employment portfolio
and other important documentation
with VRS-SSB and the waiver case manager.
You can find a list of steps and helpful information
for completing each step in the work toolkit
under Supporting People on Waivers in the Plan and Find phase sections.
Because determining eligibility and priority for VRS-SSB services takes time,
you should help the person apply for VRS-SSB services
at least 30 days before
you think the person will want to start their job search.
This helps ensure a smooth and timely transition.
Now let's look at some important details about the Find phase.
As a reminder, during the Find phase,
the focus is on helping a person find a job and get referred
for long-term employment support services.
VRS-SSB staff and VRS-SSB employment services providers
take the lead role providing services during the Find phase.
Given that, unless you are dually enrolled as a VRS-SSB employment service provider,
you will not deliver waiver employment development services during this phase,
except in three rare situations,
such as the person being ineligible for VRS or SSB services.
The rare situations are listed
in the CBSM Guidance for employment services authorization.
You should review the guidance in the CBSM
anytime you receive a referral for Find phase employment development services.
That wraps up this overview on providing services
to plan and search for employment.
As you saw in this video, and you'll see in other videos,
by collaborating with other professionals,
you're helping to achieve the shared vision.
Together, we will work to align our systems
so that people who are on an HCBS disability waiver
get seamless and timely supports to make informed choices
and meet competitive, integrated employment goals.