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We kicked off our seminar series about "Delivering on the Promise of Employment First for Students with Significant Disabilities" with an important message from Kentucky Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman. Listen to hear more about her insights regarding Employment First:
Seminar Series: Delivering on the Promise of
Employment First for Students with
Significant Disabilities
Over the past two months, HDI has hosted three webinars in collaboration with the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. These webinars aim to support Kentucky school districts in their efforts to create meaningful work experiences leading to competitive integrated employment for students with significant disabilities. The webinars also highlight tools and processes to empower stakeholders in supporting students with significant disabilities in obtaining competitive integrated employment.
We have one webinar left, focused on how schools and VR counselors can engage employers, to be presented on March 3, 2021 | Employer Engagement, so please share with any employers who might be interested. You can register at https://bit.ly/3f0DdjX
If you missed one of the past webinars about "Charting a Course Toward Improved Outcomes," "Student Engagement," or "Family Engagement" and want to catch up, you can find all the resources and recordings by clicking on the button below.
View another Employment First message from Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason E. Glass regarding Employment First and students with significant disabilities:
Professional Family Engagement Module
This free two-hour course is designed to enhance professionals’ (teachers, VR counselors, employment specialists) skills in building partnerships with families around a vision of competitive, integrated employment for their student. The course describes a model for creating that partnership; addresses key concerns and frustrations that families may experience around employment for their student, including the potential impact of working upon SSI benefits; describes strategies for families to help their student build employment skills; and enables professionals to apply family engagement strategies to their own work. State and national resources are also shared in this course.
Updated Family Engagement Module
This free course shows the parents of children with significant disabilities how to start preparing for meaningful employment throughout the school years. We outline what competitive employment means, how to create a vision statement for the future, how to explore and develop works skills and talents, how to address concerns, and what resources you can use to help your child achieve his or her dreams.
Kentucky High School Student on Biden/Harris Transition Team
Read a blog post about the importance of leadership opportunities for youth with disabilities and the standout example of Kentucky high school student and autistic advocate Grayson Kemplin, who was able to contribute his perspective to the Biden/Harris Transition Team. Grayson was also highlighted by the Kentucky Department of Education at their regular meeting on February 3 for his important contribution.
Keep up with the latest employment initiatives for people with disabilities in the Commonwealth of Kentucky by regularly checking the Employment First Kentucky website.
Updated 2021 SSI 101 Video and Infographics
Because the SSI payment and benefit amounts change each year, it's important to stay current on how the changes to those amounts can impact your bottom line. Check out our updated resources for 2021!
Increasing Higher Education Opportunities and Success for Students with Intellectual Disabilities
As you may know, the University of Kentucky (UK) Human Development Institute (HDI) serves as the statewide technical assistance center for supported higher education in Kentucky. In that role, HDI provides technical assistance and support to colleges and universities that have established, or may be interested in establishing a Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary (CTP) program for students with intellectual disabilities (ID). CTPs support students with ID who want to continue academic, career and technical, and independent living instruction at an institution of higher education (IHE) in order to prepare for competitive integrated employment.
In addition to our role of supporting other Kentucky IHEs in these efforts, UK is now in the final stages of developing an application to establish its own CTP! UK’s application will soon be submitted to the U.S. Department of Education. We look forward to sharing more with you in the future and to continuing our partnership to increase higher education opportunities and success for students with ID across the Commonwealth.
Currently, Kentucky has three approved CTPs in operation: Northern Kentucky University, Murray State University, and Bluegrass Community and Technical College.
For more information about CTPs in general, or UK’s proposed CTP, please contact Johnny.Collett@uky.edu or Erin.Fitzgerald@uky.edu.
Inclusive Higher Education Manuscript
We're excited to share that the leadership at HDI, including Kathy Sheppard-Jones, Johnny Collett, Emily Moseley, Phil Rumrill, and Harold Kleinert have recently published an article in the Journal of Rehabilitation about "The inclusive higher education imperative: Promoting long-term postsecondary success for students with intellectual disabilities in the COVID-19 era."
Upcoming Events & News Spotlight
- Watch a recording of an HDI Seminar about Employment and Technology for Aging Workers. Watch here.
- Missed a KY SPIN webinar this year? Watch the recordings here.
- KY SPIN Regional Conferences in February/March/April 2021. Check for more details.
Delivering on the Promise of Employment First for Students with Significant Disabilities, a four-part webinar series designed to support Kentucky school districts in their efforts to create meaningful work experiences leading to competitive integrated employment for students with significant disabilities. The series will present our learning from work with schools, employers, vocational rehabilitation counselors, parents and families, and will include proven tools and processes to support students with significant disabilities in obtaining competitive integrated employment. March 3, 2021 | Employer Engagement | https://bit.ly/3f0DdjX
Resource Highlights
We have so many amazing free resources available at KentuckyWorks to help youth, families, professionals, and employers, and we also created flyers to let you know what resources might be the most helpful for you! Check out all the training modules, infographics, flyers, videos and other resources on the KentuckyWorks resource page!
Blog Ideas?
If you have story ideas that we can share on the KentuckyWorks blog, please send them to Stephanie Meredith at stephanie.meredith@uky.edu
