[Please stand by for realtime captions]   
   
>> Amy, are you there? 
>> Yes, we are here. 
>> Good morning. Good morning, richer. Good morning Rose. 
>> Richard is in another meeting. He will be here and probably 10 minutes or so. We will start through the presentation so that we can talk in case he gets here late. He will be here by the time he needs to talk. 
>> Great. You guys are all sharing the same presenter in Adobe. There is not an additional number that I need to worry about correct? 
>> Correct. I will change of the slides. Richard and Rose are here in the room. We are good to go with it right now with me having the access. 
>> Terrific. 
>>    [Silence]   
>> [Captioner Standing By]   
>> Mike, it's Donna. 
>> Good morning, Donna. You get the door prize. 
>> [Indiscernible] a little late. 
>> Can you see me? 
>> No, I cannot. Go to the camcorder, the icon and hit the down arrow. You should be able to broadcast from there. 
>> Okay. 
>> There you go. 
>> How is the weather up there? 
>> Don't know. You where rate longsleeved coat and sandals. 
>> That is the way that it's been here too. I like four seasons but in quarters, not on a daily basis. 
>> It's just an odd thing. We have plenty of rain this summer, and we have no snow. 
>> It's coming, apparently. 
>> It seems to skip us and it gets Boston, everything that we get, or supposed to get rather. 
>> Yes. 
>> Everybody got the high winds last week did into? 
>> We did. 
>> That was scary. 
>> Yes. 
>> Let me tell folks that they can sign on. 
>> John, you are on the phone. 
>> Hello, John. 
>> Good morning. 
>> I will go on mute so you do not hear my GPS. 
>> Okay. 
>> The morning. 
>> I am going to hit the record button. Are you ready, Amy?   
>> Yes, we are ready. 
>> Great. I am going to hit the record button. 
>> I want to say, good morning, everyone. I hope you had a great weekend. I know that there are some folks that are going to be joining us that are not part of the Task F orce, so I will just quickly go through just a couple of small items regarding the work of the Task Force, and then we will proceed to talk a bit about housekeeping and introduce the presenters. And TDB, National Center on deaf blindness, are transition, one of our focus is but the big focus this year has been on the young adults with additional disabilities. Why is that? The majority of the young adults with deaf blindness who have disabilities represent physical and/or intellectual disabilities, was other things as well. The big thing is we all know within our group that we are considered to be a low-incidence population. There is approximately 9000 school age kids, ages birth through 21. 40% of those kids represent young adults who are deaf blind. The work ahead of us is to write the recommendations for the dB networks called the 50 states, and family organizations which have been The Network, as well as the disability field. Todo that, we needed to pull your expertise, and that we needed to conduct interviews across the country to inform our thinking in a number of areas. Model transition programs, partnerships, interagency collaboration, Technical A ssistance, so that the combination or in part would yield for us information about effective Systemic outcomes. We have an opportunity today to add some federal policy to our capacity tree, if you will. I am excited to invite and have Amy Gonzales, Richard Davis and Rose Warner from Office of Disability Employment Policy. Before I turn it over to Amy and Rose -- Rose and richer, I want to start with housekeeping. You can post your questions inside the Chat Box. There is also for those not using the Adobe room but around phones, star 6 will mute and unmute phones. I am asking though for this particular meeting that we allow Amy and her troop to go too their presentation. We well do our best to keep up with the questions in the chat box. If you've got questions on the phone, jot them down. We will then circle back to you as well. The only other thing that I have is after they're presentation and your questions, there will be some really quick where we are at, and next steps for this group. I will stop talking and I will invite Amy Gonzales to start us o ff -- Amy Gonzalez what will start us off with what I believe will be a wonderful presentation.   
>> Thank you for the introduction, Mike, and thanks for having us here to present at this meeting today. What I am going to do is start off giving a really brief overview about what we do and we will then take a deeper dive into Employment First, along with providing some specific State examples of some policy outcomes that the State have achieved with training and technical assistance. We will then open it up for questions. 
>> The Office of Disability Employment Policy is the only nonregulatory Federal Agency that promotes policies and coordinate with employers at all levels of government this could be State, could be federal. Bilingual, of course is to increase workplace success for people with disabilities. That includes yes, adults, and an array of disabilities. We do not just focus on one specific category. It's a broad range. Anyone who has a disability and needs support to work is the role that we play. We were established in 2001 when there was a significant recognition at the federal level for an Agency to develop policies with other stakeholders to ensure that people with disabilities had the opportunity, not only to obtain competitive integrated employment, but to also be able to retain that job. I know that many of you are in the field. One thing that we all know is the first step is helping a person get a job. Secondly, ensure they had the proper support to keep that job. We also work on that as well. ODEP is a sub cabinet-level policy Agency within the Department of Labor. Our mission is to develop and influence policies and practices to increase the number and the quality of employment opportunities for people with disabilities. We are talking about moving up the career ladder, being able to get an increase in pay, or get additional tasks. It's not just about getting a job in keeping that. It's about supporting people with disabilities to continue to achieve their goals within an Agency, whether that be and that same respective field, or to branch out and obtained a job within another sector another type of field. Our vision is a world in which people with disabilities have unlimited employment opportunities, because we believe that people with disabilities bring so many abilities to the table. And really ensuring that employers and other partners at the Federal Government and at the State level see that wonderful potential, and how people with disabilities can significantly contribute too the workplace. 
>> Okay, next slide. 
>> It is blank. Mike, can you see the content of the slide? We cannot see the content on our end. 
>> It looks like if I click again, the next piece of your document is going to come up. 
>> It's animated. 
>> Thank you. Keep clicking all the way through. 
>> Thanks. Employment First is framework for systems change centered on the premise that all individuals are capable of full participation in Competitive Integrated Employment and community life. I will stop there and clearly define what competitive integrated employment means. You can absolutely go to the workforce integration opportunity ACT II refer to the specific content in the law, but what we are talking about is an individual that is employed in the community that receives minimum wage that has the opportunity to engage with their peers, coworkers, and other individuals that do not have disabilities. We're not talking about any type of segregated or sheltered e nvironment. We're not talking about group employment, or any wages that are lower than the minimum wage level. As mentioned earlier, we do focus on cross-disability. We touch people with physical disabilities, mental health challenges, intellectual mental health disabilities, PDI, and array, deaf-blind, and array of disabilities. Again, we focus on youth and adults with disabilities. It really doesn't matter your age or your disability. If your State has a desire to shape and structure services to focus on integration, we are touching the population. 
>> Through the Employment First philosophy, we work with publicly financed systems to help them restructure their policies, their delivery practices and reimbursement structures to reflect competitive integrated employment. This is the first a preferred option. It's more particularly with those states that are providing community-based services, mental health services through maybe mental health agencies. There are other State agencies that provide services that are institutions, and also a lot of individuals in the education system that we see see some type of segregated services. It's really supporting Vocational Rehabilitation.intellectual developmental disabilities, the Medicaid system, mental health. I am missing one. 
>> Medicaid. Sprint-- 
>> Medicaid and I/DD, education, to ensure that persons supported in those systems are receiving integrated employment outcomes. This also focuses on any type of service under community-based service that is like a day type of service. Sometimes persons with disabilities may, as opposed to be able to go into the community to volunteer, or maybe enjoy some time out in the community are in day have, or focused on working on day activities within a center. It's helping the providers to restructure the system to restructure the right to incentivize Competitive Integrated Employment as a 1st  and preferred service disability system. 
>> As mentioned earlier, we define CIE, Competitive Integrated Employment is a scenario where we are being directly paid by an employer. I want to stop right there because we do work with quite a bit of providers across the State that [Indiscernible] has a CIA job, we pay him here. It's not talking about a provider that pays a person supported to be a janitor. It's an employer in the community that sees the talent, the potential that this person has and acknowledges their contributions to the workplace and paste them directly. There is no provider involved other than supporting the individual to get to work and to ensure that they keep their job. Again, the wages have to be at least minimum prevailing our [Indiscernible], and has to be in a typical work setting where the individual has the opportunity to interact with other people that do not have is it -- disabilities. That can be coworkers. That could be customers, S upervisor, staff, or any other type of until or audience that the employer's business with. Again, this individual, if willing, would be provided with the opportunity for job mobility, and preferably be engaged full time. We do acknowledge this is individualized, and there may be people who do not want to work full-time. We are completely supportive of that, so long as the individuals goals and desires are being met. Now, I am going to hand the presentation over to my colleague, Rose Warner. 
>> Take it away. 
>> Thanks, Amy. Good morning, everyone. I am Rose Warner, a policy Advisor here at the office Office of Disability Employment Policy. I have been here for almost two years. Over these two years, I have focused primarily on Employment First State leadership mentoring program. The Employment First State leadership mentoring program was started in October 2012. The main idea is to help states create policy and practice that incentivizes or increases competitive integrated employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. In 2012 we had four states that participated in EFSLMP and they we're washing take a Oregon, Iowa and Tennessee. But now in 2018, we have 13 states that are receiving Technical Assistance, whether that be in the form of a core State or a vision Quest State, which we will go into more in the presentation. All of the states are involved in one way or another through our Community of Practice. The Community of Practice is a LISTSERV for anyone who is interested in disability employment policy. We also have Monthly Webinars. Too give you a case of our webinar topics, our next webinar is on March 14. The topic is self-employment. In addition, the ListServe will have a blog about the webinar that had just taken place. It's an extension of the webinar. Of course, the ListServe will also have opportunities that are coming up as well, and Richard will talk about our provider transformation Webinar Series coming up. 
>> Next slide. 
>> Here you will see Amapa the United States highlighting the states that are involved in the Employment First State leadership mentoring program for this year. In the color red we have our core State. They're Arkansas, District of Columbia, Iowa, Maryland and Pennsylvania. In the Dark Blue we have our vision Quest states and they are Georgia, Illinois and Louisiana. And purple, we have the states that are both vision Quest and core. That is Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Utah. A little Fun Fact, Louisiana is our newest State. They had not participated in Employment First State mentoring program until this year. Typically for our new State, we recommend they only participate in the vision Quest, as opposed to participating in core and Quest.We will go into more detail later about what each State is doing specifically. 
>> Next slide. 
>> I think that makes Employment First State mentoring program is in order to participate, Allstate applicants must have buy-in from six State agencies. Specifically, these include intellectual and developmental disability, Vocational Rehabilitation, workforce investment, mental health, education, and Medicaid. I mentioned that the goal is increasing Employment First, increasing awareness of Employment First got increasing Employment. But how exactly do you get there? The key is system change. In order for systems change to take place, we really do need all six of these partners at the table. 
>> Next slide. 
>> In order for systems change to occur, all three of these boxes on the screen must happen simultaneously. The boxes our policy change, funding alignment, and effective practice dissemination. If one of these is happening without the other two, it just doesn't work at all, no change can actually happen. Let's say there is a policy change in a State, let's say [Indiscernible] task or Executive Order signed, but no one knows about it. If it's not disseminated, how can the change take place? In the same vein, if the policy change is enacted, but there is no funding alignment to go along with the policy change, how do we expect that to happen? Really, it is a balancing act between all three of these buckets which are policy change, funding alignment and dissemination a policy. 
>> Next slide. 
>> Finally, I've been talking about vision Quest. You want to know what is vision Quest. Vision Quest is a time-limited, intensive virtual and onsite policy consulting working groups. Typically a vision Quest workgroup will have three to five states involved. Each State receives about 10 hours of Technical Assistance per month. The Technical Assistance is provided by a Subject Matter Expert who is super knowledgeable about the topic. This year, I work with our mental health and WIOA implementation. In addition, as I said, there are three to five states in each group. Each quarter those three to five states get on the phone to talk about the projects they are working on. Too me, the keyword in Employment First State mentoring program is, mentoring. Vision Quest is a perfect example of where mentoring comes into play. Oftentimes, we will have some states that are more experienced than other states because I said, Louisiana is in their first year. They are learning a lot from states that are more experienced, so, states that are more experienced can be, make sure you had this Partner at the table because if you don't, the policy may not go as smoothly as you hope it will. And likewise, Louisiana can come to the table and say, hey, we are having a real issue with this. A, more advanced states, have you had this issue? How have you solved it? In the collaboration and conversation at the quarterly calls is super helpful for everyone involved. Finally, there is monthly meetings between all of the partners within each vision Quest State. As I said earlier, there are the six State agencies that are required partners. Sometimes states will bring in other partners as well. At least once a month they all meet together to discuss where they are going and what is coming next. Now you understand who is at the table and the structure, but what exactly happens during the nine-month period? It's divided into course. The first quarter is policy analysis. This is where the subject matter expert does an assessment for the State. That might sound kind of boring, but it's not. Not only is the Subject Matter Expert learning about the State policies that already exist, but the various State agencies are also learning about each other's policies that they may not have known existed. In quarter number two, it's all about policy development. During the assessment, usually, one or two policy recommendations rise to the top as the natural direction that the workgroup wants to go. During the policy development stage, it is determined if more partners are needed at the table, and also the form of the policy that is going to be enacted, whether that would be a draft piece of legislation. It may be a draft Executive Order, perhaps a Memorandum of Understanding, or even a pilot program. The third quarter is policy implementation. This is when the policy is enacted. The Subject Matter Expert is there to make sure that the MOU gets signed, for example. Or they are there to make sure the pilot is running smoothly. It really cements the relationship that were built in phase number one and phase number two, and it makes sure the policy achieves the goal that it was made to achieve. 
>> Next slide. 
>> The mentoring program is all about systems change, would now like no other time that we can remember is really a time for systems change. There have been Department of Justice lawsuit for unnecessary segregation of persons with disabilities in Oregon, Rhode Island, and also in Mississippi. The Mississippi one had to do with mental health-related [Indiscernible] segregation of persons with disability. WIOA is opening so many doors, especially for collaboration with the State needed to make their unified State plan, with integrated employment. Also encouraging states to [Indiscernible] their resources. The only way that can happen is if the State agencies are really talking to one another. Again, goes back to the requirement of the Employment First State program, having buy-in from all six State agencies. The HCBS final settings rule, the individual is getting community-based services must be integrated. Finally, the Department of Justice statement that is:  Application of the integration mandate of Title II issued at the end of October 2016. I am sure my colleagues at the table can even think of more examples of how the time is right for systems change. But for now, I am going to pass it to bite colleague, Richard Davis to go into more what they are doing with the Employment First mentoring program. 
>> As Rose mentioned, I would talk about the to the different types of technical different -- assistance we offer. First is State and secondly vision Quest work even though they are policy oriented and focused, as Rose mentioned, to be a course that is a bit of a bigger commitment. When I said applies they need to get signed commitment letters for the six agencies I/DD, workforce, health, [Indiscernible] and VR. Reason being we well do broad systems change work on the State level. A lot of times State will submit letters from the Governor staying there is statewide by them. We want Employment First and are committed to Epic these are the states where working in with FY20 eight who are core states that in parentheses, it talks about their area of focus. We give states options. When they put out the implications we say here is the TA we have Subject Matter Expert saying, that if your State is looking to take action on this, we can help take action. Orchids all is working on employment engagement. District of Columbia is capacity building. Iowa is capacity building. Maryland taking on capacity building a provider transportation. Michigan and Missouri are both working on capacity building. I will talk about to do categories and a second. Ohio is doing capacity building a provider transformation. Pennsylvania, employer engagement a provider transformation. Tennessee, employer engagement a provider transformation. You talk is doing capacity building a provider transformation. About a transformation is our most popular from. We have subject matter experts who had transitioned large formally facility based types of provider models into entirely competitive community-based employment services. We usually, for example, in Arkansas, they wanted to do what we call a provider transformation Boot Camp where we sent in some of our SMEs, Subject Matter Expert. We sent in SMEs to the State. They organized a big miniconference with a lot of their providers, even some who were resistant to change. Some more like, the State is given us free TA. We will come in and see what you had to talk about, maybe take away some good ideas, whether we agree with the entire concept of Employment First or not. These bookends have been successful because what it ends up doing is to get their ideas out there. You get the idea messaging of Employment First out there. It gives folks resources they need in order to start thinking about systems change begin to even make the first step of, I learned something at the conference and the Boot Camp that even if I'm not ready to do a full sweeping in my facility commitment, we could at least take some of the ideas on a customized employment and start moving A2 folks in the community. We can start training staff on some on some of the best practices we did not know about. Step-by-step, we start to see the transformation happen. You are planting seeds in some cases that start to go. The beauty of it in states like Tennessee where they also focused on provider transformation, there was a providers who initially said, we work with ASME and get the back. But we are not ready to close the workshop. Once they got the training for the staff, they were on their own like, this is what we need to do. We know what to do and do not need the workshop anymore. A lot of them were moving away from the segregated facility based model. Once they have the tools in hand and knew how to do it, they are great success stories. Anaya-- Iowa where the State VR Agency, the first year they wanted to focus on capacity building to better to a more folks on customized employment. In the first year they trained seven providers and had about 14 placement in customized. The next year he jumped to over 400 consumers replaced. In the third year, an additional 700 people were placed into competitive jobs, and a large portion of those were through the customized employment strategies they were taught. It's building on the additional seeds planted, expanding and scaling that. Employer engagement, a lot of SMEs will focus on effective strategies to get employers to the table, to get them knowledgeable about the issue. As well if I give someone a job and they need supports, what our creative approaches to that? Use of technology, iPads cover things like time management or even video, and that we have folks go in and work with them on technology ideas on employer engagement. Lastly, capacity building is a big area. Especially after the Workforce Innovation opportunity act came out, there was an Advisory Committee on increasing competitive integrated employer been the put out a final report with recommendations. The biggest one was that they said in order for Competitive Integrated Employment to increase, the biggest need is capacity building. They're needs more training, more folks to know about the practice to help folks with the most significant disabilities get into competitive jobs. We tried to work with states on statewide needs. The policy change it needs. A lot of that falls under the umbrella of capacity building. Again, the beauty as we have all six systems with key points of contact in higher positions of leadership with decision-making authority that are making the change, sitting at the table, at the meetings, really working on the State what commitment. That's a snapshot of the core State TA.What they are working on this year. The next slide will talk about vision Quest. Vision Quest is not as big of a commitment as the court -- course ADA. It's more targeted. A lot of it is virtual TA. It grew out of some states saying they needed help with policy direction on a few issues. We usually try to tailor to what is happening each year. In previous years we had it on HCBS settings role. We've added on WIOA implementation, and helping the State change of plans. We adapted from when states express a need to work on mental health services. We were piloting one this year on veterans issues. We are flexible. The beauty of vision Quest is because it's more virtual in n ature, we can adapt it very easily. We encourage State if it's the first year, get feet wet, learn about the structure, and also if they only had two or three agencies that are engaged, that gives them a year to get engaged in the three minimum to be a course they. As it Rose mentioned, a lot are doing both core State projects and vision Quest for Georgia is working on mental health. Illinois, mental health. Louisiana WIOA, Michigan WIOA, Missouri, mental health and employment, Ohio Ohio WIOA, Tennessee mental health and employment, Utah mental health and employment. They have regularly quarterly calls. They are each assigned Subject Matter Expert's doing in-depth work specific too they're State cost a policies and structures. They're also sharing ideas and is the mentoring piece of the program, Employment First State mentoring program. The states come together. They share what is happening. They share ideas. They share challenges. They work for those things t ogether. The SMEs are also able to share what strategies are working for them. A lot of times if someone has developed a strong template for a draft MOU, or an Executive Order or a piece of legislation, or any kind of Cooperative Agreement, the State share the information and adapted too they're State funding structures and policies. We found it has been very beneficial in moving policy. As Rose mentioned got in a three-phase schedule so that it's moving things on a timeline that gets results back and efficiently. We have had a lot of success with vision Quest. They put out a manual and we see the potential beyond the Employment First, for any kind of policy need. We have a vision Quest manual guide you can download that breaks down the structure and the key aspects that have been most helpful. Moving to the next slide. 
>> As I mentioned earlier, we have states working on score Tate i ssues -- core State issues. One of the areas of focus Rick I mentioned employer, employment engagement and capacity building. We've done a lot on school to work transition. A lot of states have built school to work transition into broader policy change, with education big of the table. State focused on that. We also had a vision Quest specific to transportation. They did not have all of the other runners but in Pennsylvania they want to do do a pilot where they had the State education, I did he system working together. All of that was able to get piloted the vision Quest model. Moving on to the next slide. 
>> When I was talking about provided transportation, we use an evidence-based model based on this business entity called the Baldridge model. We adapted it to be ODEP criteria for performance excellence in Employment First systems change we use at this for the State level for systems change, and the micro Provider level. Our Subject Matter Expert, when they go into work with a provider use this from work to sure that all of the different areas impacted by [Indiscernible] are addressed. There has been attention to each one. Same with our policy Subject Matter Expert, when working with State government agencies, their using the same length to say, okay, look at the chart here. The key areas are engaging leadership up front, leadership buy-in is critical. Even with key people in the middle behind the idea, if leadership is not behind it, it has a hard time getting off the ground moving. Engaging leadership top eating buy-in, getting support for system change is critical. Then pay attention to the center square where it has Strategic Planning, customer focus, operations focus and work for f ocus. We mean is where big on assessment. There is a big initial assessment done that is leading to a plan. What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the organization? Where can we work from that to build a strategic plan? So that it takes the organization in the new direction it wants to go with Competitive Integrated Employment as they focus. The customer focus really is broad. It's not just customer. We adapted from a business model. We use that term, were talking about about all of the individuals that are stakeholders such as individuals, self advocacy organizations, community, e mployers, all of the people the provider is acting with fall under that umbrella. We are talking about how to include them in shaping the process, including their voice for priorities and needs are met. We're not surprising that was something like we are changing everything on you, and what you think? It's more having them involved from start to finish in shaping the change process along the way. The operations a workforce focus, operations is if your operation is an old model that was always on the foundation of certain contracts, or the assumption of a for select -- facility, that sort of thing, how are you looking at changing now? What equipment does your staff need to do community community-based services, where everyone is not going to a building in the same place? Do they need smartphones do they need to do check-in's because most of the work will be done building employment opportunities in the community not housed in one central location at a facility? Same thing with work work focus what are the skills and competencies the workforce needs to work and they get that? Work and they get certification on big employment supports specialists and those kinds of things? What are you looking for in the new workforce you are hiring? What skill set would be of intention to the program? We had this a provider and State level when looking at system change to make sure no part of it is left behind with that, Amy, we will move to the next one. This is a breakdown. When I go to far in- depth on this. This is comparing the State government training needs to provider network training needs. Notice on the stateside it says, policy development. On the provider side it says organizational development. This is how we provide that. There's a lot of similarities. There's a lot in data collection, performance assessment and quality improvement. We're seeing a connection between what is happening at the Provider level has to be synchronized with what is happening at the State level. What is unfortunate is when the State -- when a bunch of providers in a State our friend on things, but then the State policies like Rose was a cup policy practice in funding, they do not incentivize it. It's not fun to properly. Those of us is are not the ones of the providers have the best ability to offer to their constituency. And also for the folks they serve. It's really about finding that balance between State apology change, and provider change at macro and micro level. Keeping it simultaneous and synchronized throughout the entire process. 
>> Next slide. 
>> And at some of the key areas of TA, when talking about provider transformation, this is the framework. We talked about leadership and mission a lineman. For example, one of the providers who works with hundreds of providers, last year we were fortunate. We did a virtual series on w ebinars. Without we would maybe get 10, 20 providers to sign up. We only had it open for one week or two to sign up. We we're slammed with 170 providers giving us commitment letters they would attend all six webinars, giving feedback for evaluations so we can tailor new things for the field. One of the things we learned from some of the stories is leadership and mission alignment is, if you think about a provider, their mission statement and how they view themselves and how the community views of them. For example they said the old Amber was a shield as a protector. People with disabilities are coming here because it is a place. We need to rebrand to rethink our mission because our values changed. We know longer saw ourselves as a safe place where we were segregating people, keeping them in one facility. We wanted to change are image to be in the community. We wanted to be empowering people so they reinvented their logo, Brenda top vision and mission statement. That's a starting point. -- mission and vision. 
>> It's about a vision submission and culture. With that comes funding and c ulture. A lot of time folks are dependent on a funding stream. We need to learn how to diversify. We encourage them to become employment networks to get ticket referrals that involve competitive employment, and numerous other funding opportunities at the State and local level and even Federal Level to look at diversifying, , allowing them the flexibility they need to move in a new direction. Stakeholder engagement and effective communication goes back to the customer piece where they are engaging health advocates, family groups. Any stakeholders in a community impacted by change, how do they stay involved to the entire p rocess? Program and staff development regarding effective practices, again, talking about the new strategies and approaches that will be innovative and get the results of their looking for. Lastly, sustainability. Once the TA timeline finishes, you do not wanted to fall apart because the SME is gone. A big piece of our strategic planning is sustainability in saying, once the SME is pulled out, do you have what you need to keep this new momentum going? With that, I will move on to the next slide. 
>> I think the last one is a bit on capacity building. Capacity building, the states focusing on this, what are they thinking about? A lot is identification of system and organizational core competencies, assessments and gas needed -- gaps in competencies and training needs. Providing the training to SMEs, evaluation of it in the short-term and long-term. As mentioned with Iowa, in the short-term on the first year it looked, we worked with seven providers I got 14 placements. And the Long-Term he jumped to 400 placements the next year, an additional 700 the next year where they were involved. Looking at the short-term, long-term involvement to see where the impact changed the outcomes. Lastly, TA training sustainability is a big piece and continued improvement. One of the things on continued improvement that provider transformation series, as I said, they gave feedback from 175 organizations. This year we are kicking one-off March 15, provided t ransportation -- provider transformation two-point oh. They're in A1 .1, Square one anymore. They are saying we need additional TA in these areas. We listen too their feedback. We're launching a new six part series for the 2182.0, how to take it to the next level, how to scale it up, get better outcomes, new approaches and strategies that can help providers already doing the work even further along on their progress. And I think I'm going to turn it back over to Amy. She is going to talk a bit about some employer engagement focus. 
>> Thank you, Richard work as Richard stated earlier, one of the areas of focus under the EFSLMP employer engagement, this is also a ARD of the new administration. This year what we decided to do is focus on some employer focus g roups. Under the EFSLMP program, not only do we have the opportunity to provide states with training and technical assistance, but, we come within our team which is the workforce policy team have the opportunity to identify projects or policy aspects with a team would like to focus on. One of them will be these focus groups. Just a little bit of background information. In 2015, there were two employer focus groups conducted, in three State for a total of six groups. Employers in these focus groups presented both public and private sectors they varied in size. We gathered a pool of Subject Matter Expert's who interviewed these employers, of course course, who were willing, based on The Network some point of contact within the State, who were willing to share information on the benefits of hiring individuals with significant disabilities through job customization. This set of focus groups in 2015 focused on customized employment. Once the data from the interviews was collected, it was compiled and a report was issued. The report basically had some policy specifications and other recommendations for State policymakers and employers, and also those building capacity in states. We are going to build upon the structure of those focus groups. The employers will vary in size, sectors and locations. The State for this year will be Iowa, Utah and Maryland we have a couple of Subject Matter Expert's who are going to interview these employers, but we're going to add additional components. We're going to focus on job customization. But we're also going to focus on the economic advantages that employers believe they receive for hiring people with disabilities and the incentive for employers to hire people with disabilities. We do also plan on issuing a brief or some sort of white paper with the findings, but if maybe we see some compelling data or compelling statistics, we will regroup and decide maybe if we should facilitate a webinar or briefing with the findings. This time there will be one focus group facilitate -- facilitated and recruiting five to nine employers. We also plan to conduct some in-depth follow-up interviews with the employers who are willing. The primary purpose of the follow-up interviews is to gather more information, in the data the employers would be willing to share such as how are the people with discipline ability's you heard gotten a race? Had they moved up in the career ladder? Have you hired more people with disabilities as a result of your experience? What is your overall experience been in hiring people with disabilities? Who is your Point of Contact? Is it a disability service Agency? Those are some of the questions we hope to address in the in-depth interviews. We help the employers will be willing to take the next step in participate. Like I said, with the State we are approaching, the SMEs are going to be focus on a phased approach. We will start with Iowa and the employers to the. One month later we will still work on Maryland. The goal is to finalize the report in August. We are really excited about the potential of these groups and the white paper, and I really do believe we will get some good data, good findings, to help determine next steps for 2019. With that, I will turn it to rows who will focus on school to work transition. 
>> Thanks, Amy. 
>> Over the next three slide you learned about three of the four areas we worked on with regards to core State. You heard about the information, capacity building, and also engagement. Schoolwork is a little bit different because we have done schoolwork with both the core State label, but also the vision Quest label. Just to differentiate the two, for my perspective, what we have done school to work transition under core, they focused on programs, specific school districts are specific schools, when they have worked on transition under vision Quest, they focused on policy development, perhaps MOU. As this slide shows, in my mind, it basically says an overview of the vision Quest framework. Analysis of current policy barriers that may hinder scalability of [Indiscernible]. The assessment. The first bullet is the policy development. Thesecond bullet is the implementation. It's the same regardless of which, vision Quest topics they are talking about. Is my understanding school to work transition is a particular interest to this group. In the next slide I will highlight three concrete examples of policies or pilots that we are extremely proud of through the Employment First stay mentoring program school to work transition program. 
>> The first State is Tennessee. They worked on a school to work transition MOU between six organizations, the Department of intellectual disabilities, Department of Human Services and rehabilitation services, focusing on rehabilitation program, [Indiscernible] disabilities, Department of Labor and workforce development, the Department of Education, and the Department of mental health and substance abuse services. This happened back in 2015, and the goal was to improve services and prepare youth with disabilities to transition from school and integrated employment in the community. The MOU focuses on student age 14 years and over, and aims to ensure all youth with disability leaving secondary education are prepared for the post-secondary training, and/or integrated employment at appropriate for their preferences, interests, skills and abilities. In 2015 back then someone named Amy Gonzalez was a core State lead for the State of Tennessee. We were fortunate to have Amy join our team in September 2016. She can go into more detail than even I can about this. Amy do you have any words you would like to share? 
>> Thank you, rows come for that. The one thing we found when we met at the table to address the development of this MOU was that a lot of the use served to the programs intimacy were falling through the cracks. As soon as they got that diploma after add, we we're hearing there was quite a bit of use not receiving any type of services and so many had a desire to work in the community. We put are heads together and it really focused on, how can we enhance employment outcomes for use with disabilities? How can we ensure that as this individual is it going from another service, that they won't really feel that transition? Some of the things we did in T2 coordinate and enhance the employment outcomes were that I was with the State I/DD Agency. We worked with the via -- Vocational Rehab to have an agreement so that the person with the disability receiving services through either Agency would not have to go back and share all of this additional information, would not have to go back to the intake process and wait for months at a time to be eligible. That coordination was enhanced. We also lived in the Council on Developmental Disabilities. That for us was really strategic. The Council was the overseer of that MOU process, and was charged at assessing annually the effectiveness of that MOU, and whether or not there should be additional partners looped into the table. We really found that helpful in our State because the Council is more of a neutral entity, as most of you know, councils do not serve people with disabilities. They have other types of roles and advocacy. We used at them as neutral party that would convene a lot of the general councils and Commissioners with the higher level, so that the directors and other folks could focus on the meat and potato aspect of the MOUs. Another interesting aspect -- aspect of the MOU was the focus on the realization aspect of the MOU. For us it was important not just to establish the MOU and say, we did it. It was in that analysis that the and counsel facilitated every year, future people were feeling a positive impact as a result of solidifying this MOU. I wanted to add that and share my tidbits of knowledge at the State level, and I -- wanted bit of advice I have to give is, we found a lot of the boots on the ground staff, there wasn't an even Q of everyone knowing. Some intake folks Medicaid new about the MOU. Not all of the VR counselors new that. We acknowledged the first year we needed to do a better job at informing the boots on the ground staff who really could use this as a tool kind of in their toolbox where they were serving people with disabilities. We had to go, at least when I was there to do anything different, to do better outreach and marketing to the lower level staff at each of the departments so that everyone knew, and everyone was on the same page from top-to-bottom about the finalization of the MOU. Okay, rows, I will turn it to you to talk about Michigan. 
>> Thanks, Amy. 
>> We're looking to have Amy having the experience of a core State lead and coming to help us facilitate the program. It's been incredibly valuable. Michigan also had a MOU they signed in 2016. They had the six partners at the table that was required. [Indiscernible] funding but their MOU was a little bit different than Tennessee's. They focused on age 16 to 21, and who were receiving either IDEA services or 504 services. Within the MOU they defined integrated competitive employment. They stated very clearly that their presumption everyone can be employed in competitive integrated employment. One of the statements from that MOU that really stood out to me was the preparation for Competitive Integrated Employment to take place throughout [Indiscernible] education. Start young. This is something we should be thinking about freshman, sophomore year. Finally, the incredible thing about this MOU, not only to have the six agencies sign it and be committed to it, but each agencies roles and responsibilities were clearly defined. Do you ever find yourself working on a MOU development, it's very k ey. Utah went a little bit different direction. They had fantastic results. They did a school work pilot on customized employment. At the table they had folks them education, rehabilitation p roviders, The Arc counselors, I/DD Case Managers, in the workforce counselors. All of these individuals received customized employment training. They conducted monthly meeting with all of the partners and SMEs. Each pilot area there were five students who were post high school and eligible for I/DD and training based services waiver. The goal is that all students exit from high school with paid work experience, [Indiscernible] work, and necessary work. Too get the experience, and the have the job long don't -- lines up [Indiscernible]. They had 10 students, seven were internships and five of those were offered employment after [Indiscernible - low volume]. Through this, they also developed schoolwork transition, customized employment practice. I feel like I'm not doing these pilot justice. If you want to hear more, and here right from the source, we did a webinar on this on March 22, 2017. You can access that webinar at the LEAD Center .org. It was collaboration with the operations of the goal of Agency, cooperation and [Indiscernible] for transition. I tried to give you the best overview that I could, but I put first 10 sources as they are always better. 
>> The next slide is, how can you get involved in the EPs Employment First activities? 
>> I noticed in the chat box, it was a question about how to join the LISTSERV. On the next slide, you will see a link to the LISTSERV. 
>> Next slide. 
>> Right there at the bottom it says consider registering to access free TA training at EFSLMP Community of Practice. If you are interested in getting involved in other ways, there is a wonderful website called the [Indiscernible] website Richard will give an overview of in a few moments. That is a great resource. Also, if your State is one that we mention that is participating, we encourage you to reach out to the core State lead, learn more, specifically, about what the State is doing. In the future, will have application process that usually happens in the fall. If it resonates with you, are you on to get involved with your State, that typically happens in the fall. Hopefully, that answers all of the questions about how you can get involved work. 
>> One thing to add, the announcement for the opportunity come out to the LISTSERV. If you are wondering how to find out, once you sign up for the ListServe, you will receive updates and an e-mail. Stay tuned. 
>> Not only that, but you will also learn about provider transformation webinar that we have been talking so much about and Richard will talk more about that now. 
>> Next slide. 
>> This is the list of some of the provider transformation resources we have. If you work with providers in your community, this is a big part of transformation. We had the agenda for performance excellence. We have an entire technical brief explaining how providers can use that, as well as a provider transformation self-assessment tool because they don't have a's -- is it me that can come out and do a full-blown assessment for them, we have online tools allowing them to do self assessments. HCBS provider survey assessment tools. We launched a tool on the LEAD Center that Amy shared the link of on the most integrated employment door. You can go down any of the different aspects of that and do an assessment. It's a questionnaire that generates a report for you about have you thought about the different aspects of integration in terms of your employment setting. But we will talk more about where to find out that on the drive up site in a moment. Action plans, we've got rate resources with folks who have been on the webinar who have shared hiring tools such as things to look for, checklist, competencies to train folks on such as staff development. Recommendations and trainings they have found. Recently released provider transformation manual. It's over 100 pages. You can use it by module. The chart I earlier showed that showed Strategic Planning workforce operation, there are chapters on each of those. You do not have to read it cover to cover. Any provider looking to do transformation looking for tips on workforce focus, they can pull the module. It's been restructured around the Webinar Series. They do not need to watch all webinars but can watch the webinar on staff development for that. We try to make it user-friendly. Again.as mentioned got on March 15 we will kick off a new provider transformation 2.0 series. Those are recorded and publicly available. We hosted on the drive website so it can be found in one easy place. Going to the next slide, that is the link. It's drive Disability Employment .org. Data and resources to inspire a vision of employment via the LEAD Center. It gives you a big picture of statistics pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau. It talks about U.S. population, population with disabilities, number of percentage of folks employee with disabilities, et cetera. When you go to the tab that says national data, there are over 100 data points. At the bottom of each table there is a link to the source. Whether it's pulled from U.S. Census Bureau, SAMH, Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Wage and Hour Division, if you are a researcher and policy maker and see the table wonder where it's come from the you can jump to the website where the statistics are hosted. We put it in one easy to find a place. State by State you can hover over. Say by Montana, you can open the Montana page. All of the data points will be broken down specific to Montana, where the sources we're pulled from and all the relates to disability employment. Once better health data. Once that are disability, VR outcomes, all in one place. We wanted to use both for policymakers, researchers and advocates to arm them with the data they need so they could share and incorporate it in their conversations and talking points to push for policy change. There is another neat feature will also have tabs for all of your State's Executive orders, legislations, in the grant initiatives their working on, any partnerships happening of the State around disability employment. We have tried to be very thorough. We update it three times per year. It's updated with any resources we are made aware of. Like on the tables, there is a link to the original source cited on the website. You can jump to where the Bill or Executive Order is hosted on your State website, where information about the partnerships and initiatives are happening. Lastly, another neat feature, the WIOA State plans have come out. Every State profile has a WIOA State plan type. Click on it and in addition to be able to download your full State plan which are usually pages long, revenue drop-down category. What is your State plan and stay about [Indiscernible] and you can jump to a dam on score transition. We'll give you bullets, along with citations of the page number where every reference in the State plan is made on the topic. If you are looking on a particular think of we have it on Employment First. We have adults go to work transition. We have it on numerous categories. I encourage you to check it out. There are a lot of advanced search features and comparison tools. You can search the website for keywords are by system. You can do the checkboxes if I had time for a full demo, I am happy to do it on another one if people are interested. There are many need features. You can compare stay data by category. We also announced a subscription tool. So you work a mental health and you want to know what mental health updates are in Missouri, you can check box. I want Missouri specifically any update that come in on mental health updates. You will get an e-mail sent anytime updates are made tagged with that topic area as well. I think that moves us to the end. I have seen some questions through the chat box. We will move to the contact information on the screen and they will talk those start with Q&A. 
>> Thank you, Richard and Rose. We have a couple of questions we already addressed. We talked about how someone can join the will -- LISTSERV. We put the link a few slides before, the contact information and the subscribe. We also talked about how an organization can apply for funding. It was specifically to the Employment First State mentoring program, but if you are curious about other funding opportunities ODEP has you can go to ODEP website and look around the different topics. There will be announcements there. I will be happy to send the link after the presentation is over. 
>> There is an ODEP newsletter, a weekly newsletter that goes up at those also include announcement from other teams. Employment First is our peace of the by an, but depending on what type of funding or grant opportunities you are looking for, those announcements would best be found to the ODEP newsletter. As Amy mentioned, on the ODEP DOL site that will give you announcements and new o pportunities, and the timeframes. 
>> Are the policies inclusive of sustain capacity building or requirements around a service delivery? I will add and let Rose and Richard time in. 
>> Short answer, yes, they are. It's not mandatory that states ensure a Sustainability Plan. But what we tried to let the State know is number one, this funding is not going to be lifelong. You need to work on creating an infrastructure to which those capacity building strategies will be sustained. I will give an example because I was doing this in Tennessee. What we did, and this will answer another question. Somebody just ask, what specific strategies our folks looking to enhance employment outcomes? I know in Tennessee a lot of the other Employment First states, State were getting training on customized employment, discovery, individual placement as a poor model, how to ensure that job coaches fade and not lifelong supported by person wasn't really to work individually on their job. Essentially, SMEs come in and train. What some of the states are doing is focusing on the Train-The-Trainer type component. These SMEs will train and will build capacity amongst other staff. Such as Vocational Rehabilitation, I did he systems so those individuals in the State can train and build capacity in a manner that then ODEP's funding again want have to be used year after year for the same type of training. It's about building capacity based on the State structure, on ensuring the capacity building fund is sustainable. Rose as something to add to that. 
>> From my perspective, we have seen some states have stopped a blind for the first State mentoring program, because of the needed to focus on the project they started for Employment First mentoring program. Their Employment First groups that meet monthly to vision Quest or State court TA. 
>> They are in established recognized group, thanks to what we started. We have also found some states, even though they continue to apply, they have had other grant opportunities. One State secured $500,000 from their State legislature funded straight too their Employment First group. We have had other states that have applied for partnership and employment grants. They really learned how to grade and make leverages to resources to sustain the work that they started to Employment First State mentoring program. 
>> A lot of it with upstarts about the first steps that happen around policy, and the states and can find of funding for other things as Rose mentioned got the $500,000, or through [Indiscernible] grants. The thing is, they get the funding after they put things in place through policy. Now they have the infrastructure and need to be able to roll it out. And the opportunities when they put those into the application for the initiatives end up getting awarded and they can roll them out. In Iowa they went from 14 to 700 and placements from year-to-year. That's a will oiled machine operating on its own Epic i nitially, they had SPEs come in and train they also built a provider Community of Practice that builds that competency model. And as Amy said, the train the trainer models. They have all of the internal competence. They do not need to bring an external training anymore. Folks are getting it. It's disseminated and it's in their Community of Practice providers and their all on board with it. I think that is one of the big things we encourage State LEADS in coordinating is think about sustainability. Once you get this, how do you do it Rex. 
>> [Indiscernible] collaborates with University of [Indiscernible] disability. Every State has a you said under the DD act. They are great partners if you can engage them. One of the issues with sustainability is you have somebody leading a project called the backbone and suddenly they change jobs and move to another department and it all gets lost. The U.S. [Indiscernible] can be the storehouse of the knowledge that the State has invested in good training practices then [Indiscernible] can help keep the training model sustained up. I think University of Hawaii, there [Indiscernible] is big partners with the Cooperative Agreement. They are very involved with their states Employment First as well. Also in Tennessee. A lot of the states we work with. When they bring in the [Indiscernible]. The national organization for all you said. That is one of the things I tried to scale with them is getting more engaged in the Employment First statewide efforts. 
>> Onto on to the next question which is, what type of technical assistance to offer in [Indiscernible]? 
>> I will start and let Rose and Richard chime it. We work with the states. We issue funding. Then states can include that component within the Employment First structure. I will go back to Tennessee because that's what we did. We wanted to ensure that we were engaging with families every step of the way, particularly, because we we're encountering a lot of challenges with older family members, who had family members in workshops for 30, 40 years. What the I/DD Agency did partnership with youth Kennedy Center and The Arc, we established parent correlations printed she is divided in three geographical areas which is Western Region, East Region and the region. We developed three parent correlations where we would meet. First we started monthly. They may meet quarterly now. We engaged with families to talk about challenges and brought in guest speakers so that these families we're educated about the State landscape, what's going on in the system. They had a voice and a choice and we're active on the Hill in providing comments to the State plan on providing comments to the home community State-based at waivers. That is how we engaged families in Tennessee. Richard can probably talk about how they engaged families and Iowa. 
>> One of the things about our teams initiatives initiatives is usually the State government applying. One of the big pieces we have is to encourage them to engage family participants as well as advocacy Advocacy Groups so that stakeholders are part of the systems change process. Even though the way are systems targeted is meeting to meet the applications from State government agencies, those agencies are serving individuals and families. We are very big and seen that on the applications as well. 
>> We also had a Community of Practice webinar last spring about family engagement. We had a parent of individuals with disabilities come in and talk about advocacy strategies and the importance of engaging families. From a first-hand perspective about what worked well. That's a way we find engagement. I do remember some states and I cannot remember which ones off of the top of my head, do enlist a family member and their Employment First mentoring program. They meet every month. That's not uncommon that as a family consumer voices are heard. 
>> I will try to get to the last two questions. 
>> Do you find it capacity building Agency providers are requesting the Bill at -- disability-specific strategy to help them be better specific support to individuals seeking employment outcomes? 
>> I was in the main thing we have been doing is many agencies already have employment strategy but we are big on customized because it's adaptable. That assessment is disability-specific. In addition to the disability factors, any other factors about an individual in terms of their strengths, things that may need support, the customized employment approach is a little different from supported employment. Sometimes that's a point of computer. Supported Employment is maybe having a job coach, maybe somebody providing support on-the-job. Customized employment can include aspects but it customizing both the working with the job seeker and the employer to say, these are the strengths, skill sets and interests this person has as an applicant. I can we work as an employer to customize a job that fit they need they had, the community, working along with [Indiscernible], and personalizing the job to that. That factors into the disability-specific approach, because it's all factored in in the customize process and discovery of that kind of thing. I want to jump to squeeze in a few more them. You mention there are economic or other incentives for employers but can you share a little more about what incentives you are referring too? 
>> I am thinking a lot of this, because it varies by State opportunities. Many time SMEs have familiar rarity with other opportunities available at the State level for that they will work with employers to ask is that. Rose, do you have other employee specific ones? 
>> My understanding of the employer focus reps Dementia, one of the areas they're going to be asking employees aback is the work incentive tax wanted to see what extent employers know about this and our using it. There may be some others as well. Unfortunately, Amy had to step out. We may come back to this one. 
>> I'm he to step out for a moment. Once she is back we will revisit that. 
>> Another question, are there training and strategies for disabilities such as blindness? I would say customized is that the approach we use as evidence-based practice. Again, any type of disabilities it has that flexibility in order to tailor to assessing. It's looking at, let's say the type of ability is deaf blindness. Let's say the disability is mental health. Let's say the disability is autism or that type of thing. It's doing an assessment of the person and environment and finding the match. What is the impact of the disability in terms of a person's skills or abilities? What are the needs of the employer? It's looking at strength -based perspective. Looking at the interests someone has in a particular job field, and how can we take the skill set and talents and things are need for the employer and Matt to do that so it has the adaptability. Customized is what we do most of our building around up. 
>> As of their listing of Subject Matter Expert for State? 
>> We do not have a public listing of them. Usually, if you wanted to reach out to a particular State, they can let you know which is in the is available. On the [Indiscernible] we have over 50. Off the top of my head I only know the states I am covering. We do have listings, bios, especially if you subscribe to ListServe, any Subject Matter Expert presented and there are a lot there. We have a list of a lot of their bios and backgrounds of the ones that we work with. 
>> Even people who excel a customized employment need help with strategies that work well for people who are deaf blind? 
>> I agree. A comment to that, doesn't just end up with customized employment. A lot of it is also looking at, once you find the employment big variable, what on-the-job support is available. Also finding natural support. What are the things once the person has the put in the door for the job opportunity cost to the have all of the other needs met? That ideally when using customized employment approach correctly, that doesn't get lost the process is once the job has started and at the person has found employment, as Amy said, it's about sustaining, keeping the job. Making sure all of the supports are in place for the person to be successful. 
>> There is a question about employment we want to go back to, Amy. It's about economic. 
>> Some of the economic advantages and incentives we found our hoping to further explore and the employer focus groups that we conduct are that some of the employers have mentioned that they have noticed an increase in revenue or a business with a higher people with disabilities and actively promote the. And and then we have also noticed that employers take advantage of states work opportunity tax credit, so each State, and this is based on the structure of the workforce investment systems stakeholders. But each State has the opportunity to offer employers work tax credits for hiring people with disabilities. Sometimes that there is a certain amount of people you have to h igher. Sometimes there is a certain amount of employees the business has to employ, but basically, there are tax credits for hiring people with disabilities. Those are just a couple of examples that I can get. Like I said a moment ago, we are really hoping to learn more, and to further explore some of those economic advantages and the tax incentives. Now, I think Richard mentioned that we work with some states and providers to become employment networks. Essentially, the funding received through Social Security Ticket to Work program, State or providers have the opportunity to use that funding pretty much for anything. That could be for sustainability. It could be to keep a couple of staff that are on the structured staff to support it would disabilities or to hire them. That is another way that kind of incentive that employers have to higher people with disabilities. When I talk about employment network, again, we can talk about providers who work with employers. We can talk about workforce or a job center who works with employers. We can talk about a State that actually partners as an administrative employer network to work with other entities to help people with disabilities get jobs. And it pretty much, I don't want to go to broad but I can give you guys more information. People, it's present people with individuals there was a disability or Social Security disability income have a ticket they can assigned to a vendor to provide services. Then the vendor receives payments based on the structure in which SSA establishes, they can receive payment for supporting the individual to obtain employment. Those are just some of the incentives in terms of employers that we have seen economic advantages to hiring people with disabilities. 
>> One quick question. How do you changing the the attitudes of employers who may not look for strength, interest or contribution for people with disabilities? Good question. One of the things is you cannot change attitudes -- attitudes the policy hello. One of the things states have done very successful is when you have employers doing that work, hiring folks with disabilities and having success with it, similar with provider provider, peer to prepare -- peer-to-peer network, it's like highlighting them in the community. Invited them in and give them recognition. Hey, we see what you are doing. You are hiring people with disabilities. It's helping your bottom-line. It's helping your workforce. It's improving your culture. To all their attention to that giving them visibility. It catches on with other employers. It's a difficult hurdle that cannot be bridged with policies or incentives alone. It has to be employer to employer, or two. , letting the work work take off. We have seen that be effective and it's anecdotal experience that seems to be one of the ways to change attitudes, visibility around what is happening, drawing attention to it saying, it's working. That demystifies it. It challenges a lot of the assumptions people have. 
>> One of the ways to do that is through videos. We have so many videos about people with disabilities who are employed. In some instances, the employer talks about the advantage of having people with disabilities in their workplace. When employers see those videos, I can only imagine they are inspired and interested. 
>> It's using other employers to be your champions or pioneers who can inspire others to do it. One more example to build on the wonderful examples Richard Andros provided is that I used to be a job Developer all my days at the Kennedy Center at Vocational Rehabilitation. A lot of times we would work with an employer to say, we know your apprehensive. But what if we start hiring one the with a disability? What if we start of there? Most of the time if it was, there will be a job match and the person would have the support and they would Excel. The employer would scratch their head and tell us they wish they would have done it a long time ago. We really wished we would've tried one. And with the one person paving the way, they would hire people with other disabilities. It's a strategy to get employer buy-in and shape of those attitudes. We have about three minutes until 12:30. Do we have any final question anyone would like to ask? Any comments? 
>> For those on the phone and not in the Adobe room, it's star 6 to unmute the phone. 
>>    Going once. Going twice. 
>>    Hello?   
>> Okay, I do not think that we have any questions on the phone. 
>> It sounds good. We appreciate the opportunity. If there are any resources we talked about someone cannot find on the website or that you need, reach out. We are happy to send you anything and everything you need. Would like to thank you guys for the work you are doing. It leads to positive outcomes to people as it pertains to Competitive Integrated Employment. Anything, Richard Andros Rex. 
>> We hope the resources or h elpful. -- Richard and Rose? 
>> All behalf of the NCDB network, we appreciate you attending. Thank you Richard and arrows. 
>> For those on the phone, sit tight. I want to give you one save the date for the next meeting. It is going to be on April 9 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. Jennifer White, a member of this task force will be our presenter. And then also, we will circle back to you. We are working internally Sam and Linda and Ellen and I are working internally on the documents, pulling together the information and the interviews. We got help last week Linda Kok sitting looking at some of the themes. We are getting closer to focusing in on those areas for the recommendation, but we will not be able to move forward with those things until we have you take a look at it. That's coming up also. We will figure out how that might look. Certainly, we will have the meeting on April 9 with Jennifer. The month is going to get pretty full between DB and Summit. I don't want to go to long before we have a conversation about that particular document. I will talk about it internally with the A five folks to see what might be next best to get it out to review it and then have discussion around it. I want to thank everybody for coming. Sam and I lost you and also the captioning. I do apologize. We had some wind here on Friday and it looks like we are just getting some of the effects now. Thank you, everybody, for coming. I will end this session. Anybody on this call that did not have the power points, I have that for you. I looked through the list Rick I got most of you, but I will circle back to you to make sure that you have the information. This particular webinar will go up in the A five and the section where the national task force work is being shared with folks. You will be able to find it there. It will be in transcript form so that you do not have to listen to this particular training again. Thank you, everyone. 
>> Goodbye. 
>> [Event Concluded]   
>> [Event Concluded]