Empowerment Through Employment: Stories, Strategies, and Solutions

Recordings from the series Now Available HERE:

Using a Value-Added Approach to Customized Employment 

Presented by: Sara Murphy, Senior Training Associate, TransCen, Inc.

Customized Employment is about creating opportunities in the workforce for people with different skills sets. But for many job developers, asking employers to create a customized position can be intimidating. Why should employers restructure the way they work or tailor a job? How do we work with businesses to identify job opportunities that will address the employer’s needs and match our jobseeker’s skill set? During this webinar, Sara Murphy from TransCen will demonstrate how use a “value-adding” approach (vs. a charitable appeal) to engage with employers. She will discuss how to use Lean process improvement principles to identify business needs, market the idea of Customized Employment and present our job seeker’s skill set in an impactful, effective way. 

Exploring Seamless Transition: A Collaborative Model for Student Success

The vision: Students with disabilities' last day of high school looks like their first day of life in the community. This session highlights Seamless Transition, a model that combines effective inter-agency collaboration, intentional family and employer engagement, and a strong focus on employment into a set of practices that elevates outcomes for students with disabilities. The webinar will offer participants tools and strategies that help clarify interagency roles and responsibilities and facilitate a strengths-based approach to attaining employment outcomes. Additionally, the presentation will feature a brainstorm to identify ways to build statewide capacity to implement components of the model.

Employment First for All: Helping People with Complex Needs Join the Workforce

Abby Cooper and Ellen Condon will combine their years of experience to share their expertise and insights in this exciting presentation about creating and sustaining successful employment outcomes for people with complex needs.

Employment and Self-Employment in Small Towns and Rural Areas

Ashlea Lantz, a nationally recognized policy leader specializing in disability employment and relationship-based job development will discuss the challenges, opportunities, and solutions encountered in creating meaningful employment pathways in small towns. Her presentation will also include lived experience, having supported her sister Em in leaving subminimum wage employment to launch Em’s Coffee Co., a thriving small business that has become a model for rural self-employment success.