Colorado State Rehabilitation Council

Full Council Meeting

June 7, 2018 Meeting Minutes

Location: Colorado Center for the Blind 2233 West Shepperd Avenue Littleton, CO 80120

Date/Time: Thursday, June 7, 2018 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Present: Amy Smith, SRC; Robert Lawhead, CDDC; Anna French, Rep. of Disability Law Colorado; Lee Wheeler-Berliner, Director, CWDC; Augusta Klimek, Policy and State Plan Specialist, DVR; Steve Anton, Director, DVR; Bonnie Martinez, EA to DVR Director; Katie Oliver, Rep. of, CDE; Steve Heidenreich, Rep. of SILC

Present by phone: Beth Schaffner, Rep. of Parent or Guarding of a person with a disability; Marilee Boylan, Rep. of Business Industry and Labor; Olivia Pilcher, Advocate Disability Law Colorado (GJ)

Absent: Susan Richardson, Representative of Community Rehabilitation Program; Jason Rurup, Rep. of Business Industry & Labor; Joseph Scarantino, Rep. of Business, Industry & Labor

Guests: Dan Berk, Colorado Center for the Blind; David Nosberg, General Public

GREETINGS

REMARKS FROM COUNCIL CHAIR – AMY SMITH

Amy stated that she has had difficulties these past couple of weeks with the administrative process of chairing the State Rehabilitation Council and the transitioning stage of losing the administrative positon that Joelle had.

She explained that she has always been on the other side of the administrative process and considers herself to be a creative and visionary person who had an administrative assistant to help her out with her calendars, meetings and other functions due to her executive functioning issues.

She expressed her appreciation and all of the support and kindness that she has received from everyone including the State, other members of the Council, as well as Joelle.

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It recently occurred to her that there are many bureaucracy and administrative issues but we are working together on common goals and complicated issues that have to deal with other humans.

This week, Amy attended an advocacy training sponsored by Empowered Colorado for individuals in the community that may not know what advocacy means. Amy and her son are taking the training and she expressed her joy with the training and watching new individuals working together to support their community through advocacy work.

One of the issues they discussed at the training was the importance of recognizing personal victories and how it is really important. It deals with difficulties and barriers and so, her idea for this meeting was to have a different approach to Introductions.

INTRODUCTIONS

Amy asked everyone to introduce themselves and to talk about one thing this week or recently that they have accomplished or have done in their job or private life that they are proud of so that the Board can also celebrate this with them.

AS Stated that she is a brand new DVR client which she is excited about. She is also proud because last year she learned that she had heart failure and was able to find a health plan called Silver Sneakers where she started exercising more and found out this week that her heart is now back to baseline.

BL Has a son who is 22 years old who experiences Down syndrome and today he will be meeting with his first DVR counselor in Longmont. He is hoping to be able to make this appointment with his son because his son is looking forward to the world of work. Bob is proud because he usually takes the bus to work but today he drove his car and since he didn’t have to take the bus, he decided to take several of his son’s large works of photography to his office where he will be able to display them all together on a wall in his office.

AF Handles DVR client complaints against the agency and has recently resolved two cases for clients so they can move forward. She stated that although that is her job, her clients always feel good when that happens so she is very happy that she was able to get them resolved.

LWB His moment of the week is that he is now the new Director of CWDC. This is fairly new position for him because last week he was the Assistant Director. The previous Director is transitioning away from the CWDC and will be leaving at the end of July so Lee has been promoted. When the previous Director leaves at the end of July, Sam Walker, the CDLE Executive Director, will also serve as the Managing Director for the CWDC.

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AK Doesn’t have a big celebration this week but has had a lot of lingering things on her to do list that she has been able to check off this week.

DB Works for the Colorado Center of the Blind and is excited about their Summer Program. He specified that there are 25 teenagers and 10 younger students between 5-9 years old who will also be arriving tomorrow. Several of the student trainers have also been here for the past week.

SA The big event and also a big honor for him was at the end of last week he was asked to be the Honorary Race Co-Director of the 6 Dot Dash (5k race) which is sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind to raise awareness and funds for braille literacy and blindness skills training. The race will begin at the Colorado Center for the Blind on Sunday, June 24th. For anyone interested in registering, attending, or watching the race, you can find more details at the NFB website at (6 DASH.com).

DN He is not a current council member but has applied to be one. His big win for the week is that he bought his mother a big bunch of Iris’s and put them in her yard.

BM No recent events but last month, went out of the Country to Japan and Thailand and had many fun adventures including riding an elephant.

SH Is excited about putting together SILC’s first Youth Leadership Forum and stated that it is going very well. Yesterday he had a meeting with the Vice President of Operations of King Scoopers and discussed the possibility of receiving funds from them for the YLF. He also wanted to see if they would allow him put his upcoming book, Run to Win, which is coming out in September, on their shelves.

KC Will be in Washington State next week and she is also planning a Families at the 4Front of Technology conference. She is attending the Washington Community Summit next week, where there will be about 1000 individuals from Oregon and Washington in attendance. The topic for both events will be about employment and technology. Right now she is focused on both of the events as well as about her Mom, who had hip replacement surgery and now has knee problems.

OP Is not a member of the Council but has thanked the Council for letting her attend. She has been traveling a lot and it feels like an accomplishment for her to be traveling all over the State and meeting with clients and resolving issues.

KC The Families at the 4Front of Technology will be held in Glenwood Springs and they will have scholarships available for locals if they want to attend. This is a two day conference with one day being with the Coleman Foundation learning about technology around smart homes and various other things with Alice Ferrar. The next day will include a whole variety of things for individuals, families and providers around technology and disability. You can find more information at (Families4Front.org).

AS Was able to attend the conference last year and was blown away because she never attached the idea of technology to behavioral health. The changes in the work field because

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of technology are huge and she is glad that we are thinking about that. She stressed that technology along with supported employment make this an important conference to attend.

BS Has been designated by the Executive Director of PEAK to represent her at the SRC. Beth has been involved with the SRC for quite some time. She has two things that she is proud of: First, she is proud of her son, who is an adult, with a disability. He has been in the process of starting his own business for about 10 years now and he is just about in the final stages of completion. He has been creating projects with his Dad which he will be able to sell with some assistance. Secondly, related to her work at PEAK, they have a grant from the VRSA to provide information and training to youth and families of youth with disabilities. She is real excited because in addition to the developing and piloting resources, they also provide technical assistance not only in Colorado but to two additional States in the same region as Colorado. Beth and three other individuals will be attending a meeting in Florida and this will be her first time there. She is always excited to be collaborating to make a difference for youth and parents as the transition becomes a reality for them.

MB Is from Larimer County and also on the EFAP and happy.

APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES

There are no meeting minutes available for the last meeting but Amy does have a recording of them so she will bring those meeting notes to the August meeting for a vote.

REPORT FROM DVR DIRECTOR - STEVE ANTONVR Metrics Overview

Caseload: General VR services continues to remain essentially flat. To illustrate that, he provided data from April 2016, 2017 and 2018. In 2016 the active caseload was 7900, in 2017 the caseload was 8400 and in April 2018, the caseload is about 8300. It is pretty flat; however, where we are starting to see some significant growth on the youth side of things. Not included in these numbers are what we call YP caseloads, or youth that are potentially eligible for services. This comes out of the WIOA. Using these same timeframes, the YP caseloads for April 2016 was 0, April 2017 was 137 and for April 2018 is 918. What we are seeing across the board is a continuing shift for more services, more dollars and more intention to youth.

Case Closures: In terms of successful caseload closures and comparing them from last year to this year, we are essentially even. This time last year, these numbers were accumulated through the Federal Fiscal year which ends in September. Last year 2017 we were at 1182, this year 2018 we are at 1166 so basically, the same. The good news is we are seeing a pretty strong growth in average wages from these successful case closures. In 2016 the

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accumulated average was $11.77, in 2017 it jumped up to $13.23, and in 2018 it is about $13.60. That is good news for all of us so keep in mind that it is an average which means we have a pretty big range and as we all know. Eventually we will be reporting median wages based on the new WIOA requirements and are baselining that now. When we get closer and when the report becomes official, we’ll take time to do an informative session and then present the data.

VR Finances: Happy to report that there were no financial issues from the funding standpoint. As far as the Federal or State in terms of spending our budget and having sufficient funding to operate; we are in really good shape right now. The number that we all focus on is what we are spending on case services.

Case services: Last State Fiscal Year (SFY) in 2017, we spent $13.9 million and we are not finished with the SFY for 2018 which ends at the end of June. We are going to be coming in at about $13.7 or $13.8 million for 2018 (SFY), so we will maintain spending even though we have seen a slight decline in our caseloads.

Reorganization of VR: We have implemented the re-organization in VR that we talked about in our last meeting and now the real work begins.

From my perspective while all points of the reorganization are important, the most important part is creating the Strategic Planning and Continuous Improvement Unit of our organization which is headed by Krista Dann and Augusta is also a part of that unit. Why it is most important is because it is a dedication of resources to much more intentionally put a strong linkage between our VR Strategic Planning, our VR annual Operating Plan and our combined State Plan. We made good efforts at it but we didn’t have a dedication of resources to ensure those strong linkages.

The other reason that it is important is that we have a whole list of recommendations coming out of EFAP which we agreed to last year. This organization will give us the resources necessary and we have plans to get those implemented so they will not get lost in the rush of everything else we have to do.

Lastly, concluding my report and the things that are on my watch list include:

1. The application rate and the size of our caseload. 2. The SRC support - Although I’m going to tip my hat to Lee and the Executive

Committee and for Bonnie and Augusta because what you all will hear at the later parts of this meeting are some good steps that they’ve made going forward. It is still on my watch list and I am going to make sure that whatever is agreed upon has my full support and satisfaction to the SRC.

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3. Staff turnover primarily at the counselor level - Recently we have had a significant slowdown in the turnover but it is still on my watch list because it affects a lot of things. Number one in my mind is the quality of the services we provide.

BOARD DISCUSSIONS

LWB On client services, you referenced $13.9 million, does that include personnel costs for counselors?

SA That does not include staff costs at all. If you look at the PNL, we have a separate line for staff costs, a separate line for what we call operating costs, which is the costs for keeping an office open and a separate line for client services. What goes in the client service line is only money we have expended for services for our clients.

KC Can you provide us with a breakdown on what the $13 million dollars went to and for what types of services?

SA I don’t have it with me but it is something that I can certainly provide in the future.

KC It would certainly be interesting and I am curious to see how much the counselors spend on technology that people might need and how much we spend on job development and job coaching services. It would be really helpful information for the EFAP.

SA I’ll talk to our data people because we capture all of that information.

KC That would be awesome and I am glad that the youth programs are coming along.

SA It presents an interesting challenge for us because with WIOA emphasis on youth and especially with the 15% set aside requirement. From a Management stand point and quality of assurance stand point, we need to make sure that we maintain a balance between youth services and adult services.

KC Do you have any concerns about the Federal Level? Are there any things that are happening from the Department of Labor?

SA I don’t have any concerns at this time but I will refer that question to Augusta or Lee. Augusta, is there anything concerning that you or Lee see?

AK Nothing at this time that is concerning, but there is some Legislation that has been introduced and in looking at the definition of competitive and integrated employment that they are going to watch. That is the only thing from a Federal level that might have any impact.

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AF What is the substance surrounding competitive and integrated employment? Is there clarification?

AK The legislation is looking at making changes to expand the definition. Ability One has strongly advocated about how it’s currently defined. It specifically calls out Ability One as not being competitive, integrated employment. The legislation is looking at expanding the definition a little further on competitive integration employment. Bob, I’m assuming you have been following it too . . .

BL HR56-58 seems to expand the definition of competitive, integrated employment so much that everything becomes competitive integrated employment.

KC Are those enclaves being considered?

BL Sheltered workshops say that they are competitive integrated employment. There’s been a lot of pressure from advocacy groups and the Ability One people who mostly do enclaves and would also do some sheltered work in those contracts. Federal Government contracts are one piece of it, but the other piece are sometimes the agencies themselves, the community rehab programs that are still doing sheltered work and enclaves and sometimes family members and sometimes self-advocates even saying that they believe that they should have the choice to be segregated or congregated and that they want to see the definition expanded accordingly.

AF Nothing stops them from making that choice.

BL That’s right, nothing stops them from making that choice but the funding from VR is what will not be available to them with the current definition. It is pretty hot and controversial right now.

AK None of the Ability One contracts in Colorado are sheltered workshops. They are fairly integrated and are usually stand-alone positions within a Federal contract so they’re more integrated in Colorado than what they look like in some parts of the country.

KC There are still some enclaves going on in other certain fifth worlds.

AK Enclaves are still going on, but those are not typically Ability One contracts. From the Ability One perspective, we are not accepting Ability One closures right now. In Colorado, they are more inclusive than in other parts of the country but it still opens the door. It’s pretty broad the way that it’s written, but right now, it’s in early draft, so who knows what will happen as we move forward, but there’s a lot of opportunity for it die on the vine or for it to be adjusted.

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DB I am not part of the council, but I can’t help but feel that there’s a push back against the National Federation of the Blind’s effort and we have a bill to end sub-minimum wage altogether, but I clearly see what’s going on.

AK I’m not sure that the draft addresses wages at all for this particular legislation. They are not suggesting in this legislation anyway that competitive should allow for sub-minimum wages for VR to support that employment, but it is looking at that question of integrated and competitive in the sense that whether it is on the competitive labor market or through Ability One contract which is not available.

BL The interesting thing is that the current definition doesn’t, by definition, eliminate Ability One contracts. If people employed in the Ability One contracts and if those positions fall under the various guidance that is put out as far as being in a competitive wage and having ongoing interaction with non-disabled co-workers in the same way that anybody in the position would. Those could be considered if they at the disbursed sights where the people have the same opportunity to interact with other non-disability people in the workplace and then they could fall under that definition. I believe that the majority of Ability One contracts are groups of people and probably would not fulfill that definition of having the same opportunity to interact with non-disabled co-workers as any other worker. That’s what they’re hung up on I believe.

AK The opportunity for advancement is the other piece.

BL We shall see. The latest we have in Washington is that it is not going anywhere with this. There are a variety of national groups that are trying to persuade additional co-sponsors to come on to 5658. Whether they will be successful or not, I don’t know.

AK There is a sponsor from Colorado though, Tiptin.

SH I have a question for Steve. The 15% for youth that we are required to do, my understanding is that we’ve met that and in fact, we are doing a little bit more than that. That references that we are trying to have a balance between youth and non-youth. Do you know how much we are doing for youth as far as a percentage of dollars?

SA Do you mean what our spending against the set aside is?

SH Yes.

SA Augusta, we just looked at that and I don’t recall, do you?

AK Specifically for pre-employment transition services which of course, is not all of our youth funding. That’s those specific 5 services, we are on track for the 15% for the Federal Fiscal

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Year. I would need to pull up the report to have the exact figure but we are tracking and are right on track for the pre-employment transition.

SH Would SWAP also qualify?

SA Only a portion of SWAP qualifies.

AK We do include the pre-employment transition services that they provide in that 15% and that is a significant portion of the 15%.

BL Is that is the only portion of SWAP that qualifies for that set aside?

AK Yes, because they provide services to students that have a disability as well as to students that are not necessarily pre-employment transition services. If they are doing job placement or job coaching, those are not included in what’s allowable as part of the pre-employment transition services set aside. Those service we cannot count and anything that is provided to someone who is either not enrolled in formal education or who is over the age of 21, then we can’t include that either. SWAP will serve typically through the age of 24.

BL Have you put in any structure in place yet to get the EFAP recommendations actually completed? Is there a dashboard or a measurement put together yet or are certain people responsible for certain parts yet or anything like that?

SA Not yet. That is what’s going to come out of this planning organization that I described earlier.

SH Steve, with the youth, what are the age groups that you serve?

AK Youth would be through age 24. On their 25th birthday, they are not considered youth by definition but for students with disabilities, which is our pre-employment transition services set aside, it requires them to be through 21. Once they hit 22, we can’t use that funding to provide services.

SH Okay, but that is just for the transition part of it?

AK Yes, for that specific budget.

SH How young can they be?

AK 15 years of age.

KC Steve, one final question. I was on the phone for the last meeting so how are things going with Sam? And you were in the position of hiring some people and you were moving things around in the re-organization, did you get that done?

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SA Yes, first off, how things are going with Sam? Really well, in fact, I just had a conversation with him this morning and he and Julie Reiskin had a one-on-one yesterday that he felt very good about. As an outcome of that meeting, he asked me to work with the Governor’s Office to get a proclamation in July recognizing the 28th anniversary of the ADA. He is interested in our work and the people that we serve to a very great degree and I’m pleased to hear that.

KC Me too.

SA In terms of hiring, we really didn’t hire folks for this re-organization. We essentially shuffled people around and probably the most relevant shuffle’s to our group is Krista Dann, who used to run Field Services. Think of all of our DVR Offices throughout the state, they all reported to her through Regional Managers. Krista has been moved from that position to run this policy group that I previously described. Taking Krista’s position is Stacy Evans. Stacy Evans was the Region III, Regional Manager and has been with VR about 14 years. She is kind of a home grown person who started as a Counselor, District Supervisor and has been a Regional Manager for almost three years and has just now been promoted to replace Krista’s position. That position which will be replacing Krista was open for competitive bid within the division and Stacy was successful at that.

KC That’s what I was wondering about. Any ideas on the transition from Joelle and how we’re going to work on supporting? Is that Augusta’s role?

SA There is a section on the Agenda to discuss that information. I think should just wait on that, but all I can say is that a lot of good work has been done on that.

AF Steve have you filled Stacy’s prior position yet?

SA Yes. Kacey Seibert who was previously the Northglenn Supervisor also on Region III, reported to Stacy and that position that Kacey now occupies, was also competitively bid within the division. Interviews will be conducted next week and I will be on the interview panel.

BREAK

CHANGES TO DVR POLICY – AUGUSTA KLIMEK (SEE HANDOUT)

We have a DRAFT document that has all of the changes tracked in it but we did not want to have to print out hundreds of pages that weren’t necessary. I’ll give you some of the quick notes version and of course, feel free to give us comments after this meeting if you have particular areas that you want to go back and actually read how we’ve drafted a particular

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text. A quick run through and some of these will be pretty quick but others will need further discussion so just jump in wherever you have questions.

Introduction: No changes

Chapter 1: There are some quick reference changes to CDLE policies numbers but we just wanted to make sure we are directing people to where the right policy is.

Chapter 2 and Chapter 3: No changes.

Chapter 4: There will be some re-titling in order to align with client basing documents. We have a new client handbook that we give to clients that addresses our appeal process and we wanted to make sure the policy closely aligned with how that’s titled and in the client handbook, they would go back to the policy manual which would have the same language.

Chapter 5-9: No changes.

Chapter 10: One of the things we are recommending and which will also impact rules is to eliminate the financial need analysis for trial work experience. We do a trial work experience when we have somebody for whom we are questioning whether the significance of their disability is so severe that they potentially can’t benefit from services. Trial work experience is how we evaluate that before we make that determination.

We will set them up with realistic work experiences, provide them with the services that are necessary to support them at an environment to see if they are able to make progress. If they make progress, then they are eligible. If they are not able to make progress in that circumstance, then we may determine them ineligible for services.

Currently, when somebody is engaged in a trial work experience, the services attached to that are financial need tested. In most other areas, assessment services don’t require financial need test. While we are allowed to by regulation to do trial work experience and financial need testing, we are thinking that it’s not worthwhile. Part of the rationale for that is that many times, these are individuals that have the most significant disabilities so they are typically receiving Social Security. This means they are exempt from the financial participation anyway. They don’t need to contribute if they are receiving SSI or SSDI. There’s a significant time involved in doing the financial need analysis and there’s not much cost benefit for it in this particular circumstance. All of the services that are being provided are part of the trial work experience and that is an assessment.

A couple of other places that we are recommending is that we remove the requirement for the financial need analysis. These are not assessment services but are instead are areas where the contributions tend to be very infrequent and very low and the cost benefit of

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doing the financial need analysis for these services is negligible. Financial need analysis is one of those areas that we don’t have a lot of clients that need to contribute and the services that they do are typically not these particular services.

What we are recommending is for occupational goods and services that we eliminate the requirement, also for self-employment goods and services, and secondary education. It is added to our policy that we have to put secondary education on plans now. We are adding it as an exclusion but it’s not something that we have really done anyway. We are just making sure that in policy it is really clear that we don’t pay for secondary education therefore, it’s not necessary to do a financial need analysis.

AK Questions about any of this?

KC So, you’re removing the financial need analysis for those services but there is still an assessment. Right?

AK Yes, the services will still be available to clients, we will just eliminate the need for financial analysis. Part of our intention with that is really simplifying the FNA process overall for our clients and for our staff. We are trying to focus on the services that we think are most important like tuition & fees and rehabilitation technology. For a vehicle modification, we want to do a financial need analysis. For other types of technology, we want to make sure that if someone has the financial means on their own, they are not coming to us for purchasing that technology. We are focusing it more on the services that are more critical.

KC Is customized employment part of that process? I worry because I have a daughter that has a significant disability and every rehabilitation counselor told me that she couldn’t work but she has been working since she was 16. We had the letters to prove it and I had to do a lot of convincing that she could work. They kept telling me that she couldn’t. I have a little concern about that process and taking people off too quickly when we have the technology available to us to customize employment based on somebody’s personal genius. It takes time to find that sometimes and are we in a position where we can fund that discovery process because that’s where discovery comes in? I just don’t know where that fits in all of this.

AK Yes, we’re in the process of developing customized employment. We’re working with HCPF, and many providers, as well as community center boards and our Federal technical assistance partners at WINTAC to develop a pilot for customized employment. We’re in the process of developing process, procedure, and fee schedule related to customized employment which will pilot starting this fall in a couple of offices. Once we have that process, how do we coordinate with HCPF, how do we make sure the funding is coordinated between our agency and Medicaid for discovery as well as the job development and

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coaching? Once those pieces are coordinated, then that will roll out statewide and be available statewide. Customized employment, as you probably already know, is in the law and is in regulation now so that is something that we are working towards. And certainly it’s part of and in line with everything that EFAP is recommending and specifically addressed in EFAP. Our work with customized employment and trying to start this pilot now and trying to make sure that we’re working with EFAP.

KC Are you contracting with any experts in that area since it is kind of a specialized area?

AK We will for the training. This is part of why we are working with our technical assistance partners at WINTAC. We have not put out the RFP yet as to who the training entity will be.

KC Will you include the SRC when you send out the RFP?

AK We probably can do that.

KC Some of us have some customized employment experts around the country.

AK Yeah, there are a handful of training entities that would specialize in it, but yes, we absolutely can.

KC That would be great, I think that is wonderful.

AF I think I need some clarification. First of all, did I hear you say that occupational goods and services will be exempt from the FNA process for non-SSI, non SSDI folks?

AK That is what we were thinking.

AF This goes to 10.5 where you say that the SSI, SSDI exemption does not apply to self-employment start-ups. I have a reference of 16.7 in the policy manual where you’re going to apply a principal called economic need to SSI and SSDI participants who want to do self-employment. What does economic need mean?

AK I don’t have the policy manual in front of me but when we are looking at start-up costs, there is no determination in economic need.

AF Does that apply to Tier 1 or Tier 2?

AK The way that the self-employment works for start-up costs is based on the amount of the start-up. If they are over the Tier 1 threshold, then the client contributes anything at a dollar for dollar match. Anything that goes beyond that threshold. The FNA does not apply in any way to those start-up costs. If they have a financial contribution based on the FNA, then that’s applied to the other VR services, not to the start-up costs of their business. The

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clarification in 10.5 related to self-employment is that SSI and SSDI eligibility does not exempt someone from participating in the start-up costs of their business.

AF How do you determine economic need for participants? How do you determine economic need for Item X?

AK The financial need analysis is what we use to determine if someone is able to contribute to the cost of their services.

AF Unless they get disability benefits and then they’re exempt. Does that apply to Tier 1 or Tier 2 or that does make a difference?

AK The FNA does not in any way apply to start-up costs or self-employment.

AF I realize that it doesn’t. I am going by the statement you have on your summary in 10.5. Does it apply that FNA does not apply to start-up. Can you clarify that for me then?

AK Are you feeling that the statement in 10.5 is not clear?

AF No, It is not clear to me.

AK Okay, we can look at how it’s written.

AF But what does that mean? The FNA does not come into play for start-up costs for non-disability beneficiaries. What is the exemption that is not going to apply to SSI or SSDI beneficiaries?

AK Even if somebody receives SSI or SSDI, they have a start-up cost and they are expected to contribute.

AF That was my question, does that apply to Tier 1 or Tier 2 or does that apply to everyone?

AK Tier 1 does not have any contribution requirements.

AF Is this primarily applying to Tier 2?

AK Yes, there is no contribution for Tier 1 regardless if someone has social security or not.

KC A quick follow up on that question. For somebody on SSI or SSDI, their funds are going to generally be limited. If a family member wants to help them start their business, then that could upset the apple card a little bit since there are benefits? Are VR Counselors being trained on how to help these individuals set up an ABLE account so that they can funnel that money into the ABLE account; therefore, not affecting their benefits?

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AK I’m going to say not routinely. We are making sure that counselors have the resources to get individuals connected with the right programs. I would have to check and see whether our self-employment counselors are doing anything different in that regard. I don’t know off of the top of my head how they’re counseling individuals in regards to those accounts.

KC If we’re moving to customized employment which for many people with significant disabilities will be self-employment. And we have got to look at the financial planning for that. In my past history with self-employment and VR which was a long time ago, I found out that the financial management piece was not clear to the counselor or the individual or the family. Often times, people had an opportunity but were too afraid to pursue it because of losing certain benefits. I think that the Medicaid Buy-In too, we’ve really got to beef up the aspect of it. Some of the recommendations that came out of EFAP was to get a better understanding of benefits and to support people on that. I think that partnership going forward and as you guys are moving towards the Strategic Planning process. I think benefits management is more than a referral and we need to work with those groups to give handouts to people and refer them to websites and that probably should be part of the counselor’s packet at some point.

AK Benefits counseling was added as a service category for something that we can purchase. We added rates and a structure over the past 6 months to a year so that we can purchase those. We’ve done some vendor development and certainly there are opportunities as things are happening to increase access for benefits counseling.

KC ABLE counts can be a mixed blessing but for some people I think they can be quite a benefit and particularly in startups. If they have families that have some resources but are a little unclear how to support people. And then that would help the counselor not to spend those resources. Those are just some thoughts.

AK The other piece related to the financial need analysis that VR is recommending is that we actually remove the annual review requirement. This is another one where what we find is that we also have policy that requires that the FNA be reviewed within 45 days of any change to the individual’s financial situation. What we find is that those are the review that result in changes to someone’s potential contribution and not the annual. Those are typically sort of Status Quo and there are no significant changes for the person. So again, it just becomes paperwork, a bureaucratic process that has little value in impacting how services are provided or what people have access to and what they contribute. The recommendation is to get rid of that requirement as well.

We already touched on clarifying about the SSI, SSDI exemption, and the FNA does not apply to self- employment start-up. When we are looking at the types of deductions on the

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FNA, we’ve also clarified that this would include when we are talking about impairment related expenses.

We allowed deductions from someone’s income which would include costs to maintain a service animal and the health and vitality of a service animal. The policy was fine with this before but it just created some confusion and inconsistency across the state.

When somebody has a guide dog or another service animal that is providing a certain function that is critical to the person being safe, we want to make sure that it clear that it is an exemption from the income and the costs to take care of them. In relation to that, we’ve added a definition of a service animal which aligns with the ADA. It is specific to a service animal and not an emotional support animal which is much more fluid and hard to define.

AS Is that defined by the ADA or Colorado Law since Colorado Law has become very restrictive?

AK We have pulled this information from the ADA. The service animal definition includes: dogs and miniature horses, and then of course they would have to be doing a specific function.

Chapter 10: We have an FNA comparable benefit guide and have updated that to reflect all of the changes that were recommended above. Another area of the Financial Need Analysis has been cumbersome for our staff and for our clients as well is the verification requirements. We have in policy that as part of the FNA there needs to be a verification of the individual’s financial status. In policy it provides a few examples of documents right now but it’s in no way a comprehensive list and has been cumbersome for staff and clients. What we have created is a table of the different types of income, different types of deductions, family unit, and what an appropriate verification is for each of those elements to help guide staff better.

Chapter 11: The only change is the removal of reference to the annual review of the FNA

Chapter 12: When we purchase any type of equipment for a client we require that they do a receipt of state ownership, and that the state maintains ownership until the case successfully closes. If the case is not successfully closed, then we have to get that equipment back and if we can, we will re-issue it; however, what we have found is that the process is incredibly time intensive and it is not cost effective. It costs us more to travel and try to collect and re-distribute items and often, the equipment that we get is not easily distributable.

We are working with our finance team to find out what is an appropriate threshold for the amount of time and resources we are spending to maintain state ownership and to retrieve items in cases closed unsuccessfully. The threshold which is consistent with Federal

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guidelines around equipment would be $5,000. What we are recommending is making a change to change that threshold to $5,000. Anything $5,000 or above, we would require a state ownership documentation and we would expect that the equipment is returned to DVR if the case is unsuccessful. That value would still have to be $5,000 or above at the time that we need to re-collect that equipment. This should significantly reduce the burden on our staff from tracking things and it would make it a little bit easier on our clients. This is a little bit of risk, but it is a reasonable risk for the time it takes to track the equipment.

AF There have been over time, a number of people who are homeless who have become DVR clients. And there have been times when a counselor has issued a computer or a cell phone or something that is considered a pricey item. The problem is that the homeless people do not have a way to secure those items from theft. For instance, this goes back to a couple of cases, that I was trying to figure out how to help resolve. While talking to some homeless folks, I asked for their suggestion on how they secure their items under $5,000. The response I received is that they can’t really do that if they are living under a tree in the park. They suggested that for items of value like laptops that DVR could purchase extended warranties so that if something happens, DVR can at least recoup that investment.

AK Our policy already allows for those limits.

AF I don’t know of a counselor who would entertain that thought but I thought I would bring it up here.

AK It would be a rare circumstance that we would purchase something like a laptop for someone who doesn’t have some stability in their housing situation. It needs to be necessary for them to participate in their services, so that is probably a rare occurrence and isn’t directly addressed in policy but policy does allow for a purchase of an extended warranty if that’s necessary.

Related to the State ownership, we have had a couple of past instances in the past year where we have needed to clarify equipment that needs to be licensed and registered in the State and sometimes is self-employment like a trailer or an ATV that has to be licensed and titled to the State. We added some clarification that the State does hold title to those pieces of equipment while the case is open. The client is responsible for the insurance and the title is transferred at the time of successful closure. That’s the piece that has been clarified in policy just to make sure that everyone is on the same page as to how that works.

AF Has DVR bought an ATV for someone?

AK Yes we have, it usually has come up for ranches.

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AF So that’s not considered a vehicle?

AK No, we do not purchase vehicles that are licensed to operate on public thoroughfares.

AK The next several items are related to vehicle modifications. I just wanted to give you a heads up on the modifications for vehicles. What we are finding is that as technology advances, vehicles modifications are more frequent and they are becoming much more costly. We are also seeing repeat requests for vehicle modifications. We appreciate all of the technical modifications and advances in vehicles and making it more reasonable for people to be more independent in their transportation. We also need to make sure that our policy is really clear on what we can and cannot do and under what circumstances. We also need to be clear as to the title that may be to that family member. For leased vehicle or subscription services, we are not going to be doing any modification on those types of vehicles. If there is a lien on those types of vehicles, it will need to be in good standing.

Clarification as well about the client responsibilities for maintenance is a big one. What we are talking about right now is with the vehicle modification, DVR will likely purchase the extended warranty for a period of five years. The equipment which is installed in that vehicle will be covered for only that period of time. The sense is that it would be more cost effective than the potential for folks coming and wanting us to repair something that has been broken. In addition to that requirement, the client needs to be following the required maintenance schedules.

For vehicle modifications, there are typically maintenance schedules where things should be looked at every 6 months or every year. That would be the responsibility of the client and we would have that in policy. If they’re not following the scheduled maintenance and the vehicle was covered because we’ve paid for the extended warranty; if something breaks because they were not compliant with the scheduled maintenance, DVR is not going to pay for those additional costs.

We also sometimes run into an issue if it’s not a new vehicle and it’s a used vehicle. We want to make sure that the vehicle has a reasonable service life expectance before we would commit to a vehicle modification. We need to make sure that the vehicle has gone through a pre-purchase inspection and that anything that needs to be repaired is repaired before we commit to a vehicle modification.

KC Just a side note on that because my daughter has an accessible vehicle and has been in two accidents within the last three months. We have been having been trying to cost out things to see and talk to the insurance about totaling it. Performance mobility will not modify a vehicle that’s over two years old. We are looking at roughly at the cheap end, $28,000 for a vehicle and about $20,000 - $30,000 for the modification. I don’t know where VR fits with

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that but my whole mindset is that it would cost us about $15,000 to fix and it but that is no longer the price. In this process, it would probably be a good idea to get some updated costs because I can see this policy not working. It’s not going to work because you are not going to find people to modify vehicles that are older than a couple of years. I don’t know how that’s going to work but in researching the information for the insurance company, I’ve been told to not un-total the car because of that very issue.

AK We actually have done lots of research and conversations with performance mobility and other vendors that we work with. There are additional pieces related to the maximum amount of mileage for a vehicle that can be modified and those types of things. We don’t assist with the purchase of the vehicle so that’s something that we want to make sure and that’s clear in policy. There’s no change that DVR will not assist with the purchase of the vehicle. I just want to make sure and that’s clear in policy is clear around the parameters of what the vehicle needs to look like. And that’s one of the reasons why. A lot of vendors won’t touch a vehicle that is either a certain age or has too many miles before they put something on it. We are trying to align that policy.

KC We have an 80,000 mile vehicle that happens to be a 2005 so we’re having to go to vintage auto parts to get it because they can’t find parts. It only has 80,000 miles on it. We have had three or four vehicles and the expenses have just exploded. I think it’s tied in part to the Boomers who have the money to purchase a full price vehicle which now goes for $71,000 for a brand new wheelchair accessible vehicle. It is licensed as a luxury vehicle so you get hit with fees and licensing too.

AK Yes, the modified vehicles tend to be a tremendous amount of money.

AS Last year, I was thinking about being a driver for Uber and called DVR to see if I could get a repair to bring my car up cosmetically but the gal that was on the phone laughed at me and said we do not repair cars. I did mention this to Steve but I dropped the ball and never followed up on it. It is not exactly a modification but a support that would have allowed me to be employed a year ago.

AK I will look at the general repair in the policy language but typically we don’t help with general vehicle repair and tires and those types of things which are just part of vehicle ownership. There is a little bit of flexibility in policy where exceptions can be made.

KC If you live in Denver County, you can probably access the mill levy funds to help pay for some of that. If you have a disability, particularly an intellectual developmental disability, there are mill levy fund that will probably pay for that. We were going to look at vehicle modifications through them.

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AK We are looking at the other recommendations that we’re making in reference to vehicle modifications. This will address things like repeat modifications and the types of modifications based on change of status or whether somebody has utilized the service life of modifications. As we continue to refine and finalize this language, we’ll be able to see what that looks like. We are trying to make it pretty comprehensive. Right now the policy is pretty brief and it will probably be significantly expanded to put more parameters around it.

KC I heard that Uber is looking at accessible vehicles so is there anything in VR policy to help pay for Taxi or Uber for work purposes?

AK Yes, we already pay Taxi or Uber, whatever is the cheapest option.

AF Any kind of driver whether Uber or Lyft, the 1099 and how that works, that would be a self-employment plan. With both Uber and Lyft, you can rent vehicles to drive. As part of the self-employment plan, would DVR not be able to support the user for whatever the period is and cover the rental of the vehicle? It is a certain amount a week and if you drive enough then you don’t have to pay but if you don’t drive enough, then you do have to pay. It is not a purchase but in both of those companies they use Hertz.

AK I’m not sure, that is probably something we would address if it came up. I don’t think that would be a policy change based on a hypothetical related to that. We don’t purchase somebody’s office space and that is prohibited currently in policy. The consideration would have to be whether the car is there. I think that is something we would address if it came up.

AF I’ve had a lot of conversations with folks about doing that as a viable alternative due to their disability.

AK I don’t know, so I think we would have to do some research.

We also are looking at some changes regarding residential modifications. Right now we have very brief information about residential modifications. This is something that comes up far less frequently than vehicle modification but we still think that there’s opportunity to clarify policy to make sure we have some increased consistencies. The clarifications here are related to the types of modifications that we would consider the scope of the modification being limited to what is essential for the person to be safe and independently function to the degree necessary for their IPE and the expansion to that being the responsibility of the client.

It would be the same thing in reference to the quality finishes that is if someone is choosing granite counter tops, we are not going to cover the additional costs. The client can choose to do that but we would pay the base level of the essential function to the kitchen. It would

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typically be a one-time service unless there’s been some significant change to the individual’s disability that requires an additional modification. We are not going to modify a property every time a person moves.

Maintenance is another area that policy language is not changing that significantly. What we are really looking at doing is increasing some guidance around how that’s applied. Examples of that would be good in the appendix of the policy by pointing to the MIT Living wage Calculator. It’s an MIT standard to identify housing costs and board costs. We would point people in the same reference that’s is used by each county across the country. It’s a good resource for us to be able to have some consistency there. We are also looking at adding a clarification about short term maintenance. Most of the time when we are doing long term maintenance, someone is going to school in another community so it’s several months. There are some instances when someone is traveling and is paid an assessment for a real short term training so it is only a few weeks or a couple of nights so there’s some guidance there which would point to CDLE’s travel policy where it is Federal per-diem rates, etc.

Chapter 16: No changes today as this is another area that is still a work in progress. It is currently being reviewed and drafted around what this could look like. Some changes in regards to the feasibility study for businesses and some recommendations to change how the tiers are structured in order to have more tiers. They currently have a little more discreetness there and making changes to what level is the client contributing to those costs. As this continues to be developed and we have draft language we will make you all aware of that so you can weigh in.

Chapter 17: We missed a little bit of language with our WIOA implementations awhile go that was effective in September 2016. We have been doing this in practice but it hasn’t been in policy so we are just getting it in policy which has a semi-annual and annual review when someone is closed unsuccessfully. We are required to do some follow up to comply with regulations. We will make sure you have clarification of the definition for the comprehensive criteria or what we call the big eight. We will have separate definitions for each of those eight factors.

Appendix D has to do with fraud procedures. If we have a situation with client fraud, we have made a little bit of a reversal where it is in the responsibility of the District Supervisor compared to the Regional Manager. The Regional Manager is now the one who does the quarterly review of those case files for the duration when we have fraud. The Sup 1 will do the issuing authorizations for the first year. That is because they are the ones that have a better handle on the cases and what’s happening on a day to day basis and the authorizations makes more sense.

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Any Other Questions?

SH Is the plan to make these changes and make it available to the public and have them implemented by August 1st?

AK We are hoping to do public comment but August 1st is a tentative deadline so public comment would happen prior to that. If we can get most of these changes ready for public comment within the next week or so, then we would do a public comment period that would probably be open for 30 days and whatever changes we need to make by August 1st implementation. If we can make it happen that quickly or if not, then maybe by August 15th or September 1st.

SH How we will be informed about the public comment?

AK It will be posted on our website and notifications will be sent to all of our stakeholders but we don’t have it scheduled yet. We typically have an in person hearing where you are welcome to come in and we would walk through all of these changes.

SH Will you go to the centers so they can hear what all of the changes are?

AK The centers can potentially join the GoTo meeting that we typically have and they could participate or have their clients participate.

LWB Is there anything in the policy manual now connected to the IPE’s that might create barriers to share information for potential customers before centers?

AK No, there is not. The other thing that I would mention related to public comment and not specifically related to policy change; but would impact rule. Over the past year and before our move to CDLE, we have had an interest in making it a clearer requirement to have a background check. When we moved to CDLE, we are no longer covered under the Vulnerable Persons Act which made it a little bit more difficult to be able to enforce that. What we’re looking at doing is adding to rule requirement that DVR will develop a policy requiring background checks of vendors who have direct contact with clients. We have that statement drafted and will likely include that in this public comment period as well. We have a drafted policy that still needs a little bit of work and isn’t ready yet but that piece doesn’t necessarily need to be ready at the same time. We believe that many of our clients are vulnerable and want to do our due diligence to ensure that the providers who work with them show little risk of their time with their clients.

AS I have a few things to report on the Council update. One thing is that there is some movement on recruiting some new members. I’ve been talking with the Southern Ute Tribe

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who took it to their Council and they wanted to send a representative, but they weren’t able to pull it together to send somebody today. Most likely, we’ll have a representative at the August meeting. I think my son sent a recruitment flyer to his Voc. Rehab Counselor at DVR because he thought that she would be a good candidate. I don’t know what her response was but she has been with DVR for 20 years so she might be a good candidate. That’s all I have to report in terms of recruitment.

Second, I got really confused about who has resigned. I know that Dora mentioned at the last meeting that she was leaving but I don’t know if we have a letter from her. Bing, who I have been including in all of my emails; I also heard that she has resigned so I think what I’d like to do because it is really important to acknowledge folks that have served in this capacity and left. I would really like to write a letter to each one of them personally and thank them for their service and invite them to continue to participate if they want. I am going to keep that on my to-do list to really nail down who has resigned, who is on the current roster and contact and reach out to those folks.

KC Are you going to also include Joelle on that list?

AS Yes, I will. We really don’t have committee reports on the agenda but I know EFAP is moving right along so I have asked Bob and Katherine to talk about what is happening with EFAP right now.

BL EFAP met in April and May with the next meeting on June 19th. Those are public meetings so you don’t have to be a member of the EFAP to attend them. We have formed two committees but we are not absolutely positive how those are going to go. We are talking right now about a policy/data committee to focus in on those two areas. We combined those partially because they are related and also a communication committee. We are still trying to locate Chairs for one of those Committees.

KC I believe am a Communications Chair, right?

BL I don’t know because you haven’t positively confirmed that yet in writing.

KC Okay, well then I am. I will put that in writing.

BL Okay, I think we will have two committees and two chairs now. BL There are two major thrusts that we see going on and we are trying to review all of the

recommendations in those two broad areas from the existing EFAP recommendations that were submitted last November 1st.

After looking at the information we have, we need to determine if we need to modify things and whether there may be other related recommendations. I am hoping that we can

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prioritize recommendations. We weren’t able to do that last year because we were just running as fast as we could to get to our November 1st publication date. We’ve got all of these recommendations but not a whole lot of prioritization. Senate Bill 145 which was not a formal part of EFAP but was related to it. It basically took three of those recommendations from the reports submitted last November 1st 2017 to try and get those to statute and we were successful with that. That was not an EFAP activity even though it was referred to EFAP and we were trying to implement certain EFAP recommendations but they were largely the efforts of the ARC of Larimer, The ARC of Colorado and the Colorado Development Disability Council trying to prioritize at least three of those recommendations.

I hope that as we go through this year we will be able to perhaps further prioritize the recommendations and maybe make recommendations for legislation as we approach November 1st again. Basically, the statute that EFAP is written Senate Bill 16-007 is that we are expected to have an annual process that results in an annual report to the General Assembly. We did that last year but we didn’t have specific legislative recommendations and I am hoping to do that this year and actually focus on with perhaps 3 - 5 recommendations for the legislation session. That’s all I have for now.

Katherine, do you have any clarifying comments?

KC We are just entering into that next phase for the EFAP and there is a substantial amount of work and re-organizing. I think the facilitator that we were able to bring back on will be able to be beneficial to us and that was very helpful to us last time to cement the details and keep us on task. That is a wonderful opportunity for us to continue our momentum. It is going to be an interesting time to see how the different systems begin to implement the recommendations and where we go from here. I am really pleased to see that DVR is incorporating our recommendations into a strategic plan. That’s great but I’m not sure we are seeing that with other agencies yet but I think the folks at HCPF are. We are seeing more of that employment first in all the systems so that is encouraging. For the people participating on the committee, there is a much more cohesive vision of what employment is going to look like in the state and there’s momentum so I think our job is to keep it rolling. That’s our big thing.

BL I meant to close with the most important thing which is the facilitator and whether there may be an update on where that process is because we are already two meetings in and approaching a third meeting. We’re going to be all the way through the year and not have one. It really does help us stay on track and help organize us.

KC It helps with the committee work enormously especially because there is a coordination piece of it. I am volunteering and Bob’s got another job and it is just difficult to keep it all

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rolling without one. With Joelle being gone, we have concerns that we can’t keep up with all of it.

BL And also, Carolee is having to slow down a little bit.

AK We can give a little bit of an update. It is pending and everything has been submitted through our accounting system and waiting for final signatures. There are several layers of approval that have to happen, so it is at the second level right now and as soon as that’s approved, it gets back to our department and then our procurement office takes a final look at everything to issue the actual approval. I’ve been in conversation with Lisa Carlson and she is aware where we are at in the process. The approval process is usually not the hold up and that piece should happen relatively quickly and then we’ll see if procurement requires any adjustments to the SOW.

KC Can we plan on having her here for our August meeting?

AK I think so, but the goal would be to have her in place by July 1st. The RQS has been submitted so it is somewhere in the Que.

SH I would like to say something about the SILC and Youth Forum. One of the things we will be doing is helping youth to get ready for employment. We will provide opportunities for people to do resumes, mock interviews, cover letters, and we’re hoping to have these youth ready to move into their next place.

KC This is important for people to have a digital or electronic portfolio. We always encourage people to have letters of recommendations from their educators, from any volunteer work they’ve done from their church, and pictures because employers really relate to pictures. There is a lot of stuff online about visual resumes and portfolios. I would encourage that and we should coach young people who more than likely have a social media account at this point on how to make sure that’s a nice and clean social media presence and that they start preparing themselves for looking confident, that their social media presence is confidence based as well as a little bit of interest based. That would be important.

AS My son did a project a couple of years ago with youth around the state where they developed video resumes for the kids with disabilities and it was so powerful.

KC Well, just from these communication challenges or maybe some other barriers; these resume videos are incredibly powerful. They are a nice way to supplement online job applications. I have a couple of stories where people get on the dark hole of the portal but they still bring paper resumes or digital videos and they go in and talk to the secretary or

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the receptionist and ask if they can take a look around and then mention that by the way, here’s my resume. That still works and it’s a combination of those things.

SH We will also be teaching networking because networking is a good way to find your niche.

COUNCIL RESOURCE PLAN – AMY SMITH

The SRC budget covers pretty specific things such as meetings, member expenses, mileage, hotel, and accommodations’ for interpreters as needed. It does not cover the admin support or facilitator. Our council resource plan was due a couple of weeks ago but we have pinned that down exactly, but it is still something that we need to run by this group. We have a specific annual budget and there are some decisions that we need to think about, how that money is spent and how it is allocated. At the moment, we don’t have interpreter expense, but that could change if we get a new member that requires that accommodation. Who would like to talk about the resource plan and our next steps and how should we move that process forward?

LWB Augusta and Steve, there are more questions that I need to follow up with you on our current budget for spending and the conditional that we have available. Can you verify that?

AK Yes, $23,741 was budgeted for this SFY2018 and $14,726 remains to be spent by the end of June.

KC Can we rollover any of that money and are we underspending our budget again?

AK No, we cannot roll the money over and that’s correct regarding the budget?

KC We need to fix that.

AS Does that put us at risk of losing funds if we underspent two years in a row?

AK No, but I did hear back from Joleen Schaake and she indicated that $30,000 was budgeted for SFY2019. $10,000 of that money will be immediately encumbered for the EFAP facilitator which would leave a remaining balance of $20,000 for the Council’s other duties.

SA I wanted to mention that the message I always left with Joelle is yes, the council has a budget and we appreciate the fiscal responsibility that you provided managing those funds. If there is an important program that comes up that is outside of your budget, let’s please talk about it before you walk away from it because we have some contingency funds set up in the VR administrative budget that we can allocate to unbudgeted projects.

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CONFERENCE PLANNING/SUGGESTIONS

KC Here’s a wild idea that came up in EFAP and our training needs are significant in the state. We had discussed last year or the year before about having a conference. What about the idea of an Employment First Conference? Is that something that the SRC might be able to entertain or facilitate? Is that a possibility?

SA I’m open to any recommendations coming from the SRC.

KC Because we were so good at employment and we had regular conferences where we shared best practices. We trained people, we were networking, and we built a contingency of people. I know APSE has been one of them. Bob and I both cut our teeth on APSE in the early years and I still have connections with those people I met 20 years ago. They’re the first people I call if I have questions about employment. I’ve been able to follow their careers and their programs and it’s been a continuous learning experience.

I know conferences kind of got a bad name for a while, but we really get a lot out of it if you run a good conference. We’re finding that out with our Families at the 4Front of Technology conference. We’re in our fourth year now and we didn’t really want to do our fourth year, but this is important and people want this stuff. This is a great chance to collaborate and network and connect. I’m going to propose that we spend some of that money on conferences.

BS I wanted to say that I think that it is a very good idea and if we were to do that if we want to incorporate other groups and if they want to co-sponsors. It is much needed here and I am thinking about the DD council that will be ARC because I have a feeling they would be interested in something like that among other businesses as well.

AS I really support that particularly because we were at an implementation stage and to get the information out and not just to serve providers but families and people with disabilities. I think I would be willing to work really hard on that and throw my weight behind that idea also.

SH I think it’s a good idea. One thing I would like to see us doing is reaching out to employers who want to hire disabled people.

KC We are working on that.

SH There are some companies in Denver that want to take the skills that challenged people have and find a place in the workplace for them.

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KC Just to update you, Steve Gold, who works for Voc. Rehab is attending the Business Outreach Leadership Network conference in Las Vegas.

SA Steve Gold doesn’t work for us anymore.

LWB He works with Worker’s programs and is managing the Disability Employment Initiative which is a multi-year grant from DOL. He is the grant coordinator and works for CDLE with the Division of Workforce Programs and the grant is being implemented by the Pikes Peak Workforce Center, Arapahoe Douglas Works and Worker’s Comp.

KC They are working to build and increase those employer relationships and we have had three meetings with businesses that are interested in becoming a business leadership network through the USB which is apparently going through a re-branding process. I’m sure it will be announced at the conference and they are involved, they want to do something but the challenge that we are having is that we’re getting an inclusion and diversity specialist and what we need are hiring managers. We are working and developing that but I have had several conversations with Steve who is going to work at getting some additional employers to those meetings.

AS Katherine, Is the Business Leadership Network a good place to refer businesses to that show an interest?

KC I think so. I think Steve and I can work on that. We’re still in the infancy and part of it is finding that champion. We have a number of interested businesses but we need that champion that has the decision making authority. Some of the folks that we have are great but we just need a couple of more people to fill it out. I am hoping that we can talk with Sam at some point because he might have a few connections that can help us out too.

AS I do hear from Public Storage that is always complaining that don’t have enough employees. I have mentioned to them a few times to hire people with disabilities but they have said they don’t want to do that.

KC That’s where the United States Business Leadership Network is focused on giving the employers the tools and understanding of how the process works. It is not necessarily for individuals receiving services but it is to get them aware of how to approach the process of reaching out to various employees. Different states do it in different ways but that interviewing process is something that employers can be a part of as well. The BLN has to have a leadership, it can’t be led by the Social Services system or the Human Service system. It’s got to be business led and we’re hoping Steve Gold can help us move in that direction.

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BL I just want to mention that if we were to consider a conference, we would want to go to our EFAP partners, the departments of Education, Human Services, Higher Ed and HCPF to get their buy-in and to get some money too. The way it worked 20 years and why we were successful is because we had a broad support from those agencies and departments within the state government.

KC One of the things we may want to look at is if there’s an interest from this council is that maybe we can look at one of our goals at EFAP is to develop a conference steering committee that could really take on. I am not afraid of conferences because I’ve organized a number of them and they don’t scare me as long as you have good administrative help. There are enough technologies out there that make it pretty efficient and I’ve got contacts at this Washington group. They have around 1000 people coming and they have their stuff down. It’s all technology with them and I just downloaded an App. for their conference and everything is electronic and digitalized from the registration to the hand-outs to the Apps. There are ways to make that a lot more seamless and you can re-invent that so you can have re-occurring conferences. A lot of conference planning is data management.

BS I believe PEAK would be willing to provide assistance and we have a lot of experience with conferences. Our annual conference is usually pretty successful. I wanted to offer our assistance from this end.

AS If we were able to pull together a conference committee right away and then the budget could we re-allocate dollars from this year which needs to be spent?

AK Unfortunately no, because the service will have to be provided.

BL This may be one of the major sub-items under the communication committee.

KC We have done so much good policy stuff and we need to continue to do that. Now it is getting the word out. It’s really letting people know what’s going on and we’re going to be talking about EFAP and Employment First at our technology conference so that people have an awareness of what that is. That is for families and providers. There is a big difference for those at the EFAP level and those of us at the practitioner level. I talked to the counselor’s about it and they don’t know anything about it. It’s one of those things that we’re going to have to come up with a lot of different ways in which we are going to deliver that medium. Social media is another way because it is sharable information and anything we create has got to be sharable. A conference would be a nice way to invigorate people.

SH I’m just brainstorming, but is there a possibility for the Youth Leadership Forum to provide a service to the Employment First camp we are having coming up in July? We would do the work to prepare everything before then.

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AK You’re wondering about utilizing the remaining funds?

SH That’s what I’m brainstorming about.

AK I don’t know what the service would be when the event doesn’t happen until July. I guess if there was something that the council would want to support, then it’s a possibility.

KC That doesn’t give us a lot of time. Steve, if perhaps you could send us a basic proposal and the expenditures attached to it then we might be able to figure it out. You would have to do it really quickly though.

SH What I’m thinking is putting together something like a video resume before the conference, so that it’s a billable item.

KC How many kids do you have coming to camp?

SH Right now we have 27 that have applied and are registered. This week they are going to choose which students are going to be accepted

KC If you have 27 that applied, how many are you going to select?

SH We are uncertain right now but between 18 and 25 students.

KC Do they have Voc. Rehab Counselors?

SH We will have some people from DVR there.

AK They don’t have to be a DVR client to participate but they could be. If they meet the criteria of a student with a disability, they would potentially not fully apply but if they’re a student with a disability they would be able to access some of that funding.

KC I’m a big fan for these camps. I have been to a number of them and presented at a number of them in other states and even facilitated one here. They are life changing and I would love to see us support but I would like to see a proposal with what you’re going to provide and what the costs would be. I would like to know what the takeaways are. Is everybody going to walk away with a video resume, an understanding of what Voc. Rehab services provide them, are they going to have a written resume? What are the tangibles that people are going to walk away with that we can look at? We would also need an agenda as well and we could throw it out for discussions to see if we can do it. Again, you are going to have to do it quickly.

SH I will because the SILC Committee is very much involved with this. It is our first year and we hope that next year it will be better and better.

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KC Where is going to be?

SH It is going to be at the CSU Campus in Fort Collins. We’ve got a nice dormitory area and each dorm area will have its own bathroom and there are some real positives.

KC That is some really good experience.

SH In one week, the youth are going to learn a lot and it will be a positive experience. We are going to have real business men doing the interviews.

BS Are you going to be using the national model that they are doing in other states as well?

SH Yes, we are following two examples. One from Arizona and one from California. We are going to have three people come up from Arizona to help us with this first year’s YLF.

BS What are the criteria for making a choice from the young people for those that apply? Are there criteria around level of capability, leadership experience or any of those types of things?

SH That is a good question and I don’t know the complete answer on that. What I do know is that we are being sponsored from DD which Joelle is working with and we have some funding from them. What we are trying to do is to get at least 1/3 of our population to be intellectually disabled. That’s our goal and I’m sure we are going to meet that level. In fact, we’ll be way over.

SFY2019 BUDGET

BL Before we leave the resource plan, I just wanted to clarify that we will have $30,000 budgeted and the $10,000 for the facilitator. We thought we had missed the boat on that.

SA You have not missed the boat. Now that you know you have $30,000 as a top line item, start thinking from a budget standpoint how you want to use that. Maybe prepare a brief document, kind of a line item brief description of how much money we would like to use in the coming SFY. Joelle has done this once or twice that I’m aware of on behalf of the SRC so there are some good models out there.

SFY2018 BUDGET RECOMMENDATION

LWH The Executive Committee would like to bring one item forward regarding this year’s budget and the money that does have to be spent before June 30th. The Executive Committee voted to recommend that we send Amy, our Chair, to the Families at the 4Front of Technology and to cover her expenses including travel, per-diem and her

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accommodations while she is there. That was agreed upon by the members of the Executive Committee with Amy and Katherine abstaining from that recommendation and we want to bring that forward to you as a full group for this expense.

KC We can provide a scholarship for her registration fee which is only $30 and we have Alpine Bank, which is sponsoring 10 individuals with disabilities. If you know of anyone on the Western slope that can just show up for the day or both days, we can cover their registration and provide meals for them. We can also sponsor counselors as well. We’d like to get as many people there as we can.

The hotel is $159 per night, so we are looking at about $300 for the hotel and the food is provided so we are looking at a maximum of about $500 and probably much less than that.

A motion was made, seconded and approved to send Amy to the Families at the 4front of Technology with the expectation that she provides a report of what she has learned. Amy and Katherine were abstained from the vote.

Any additional discussions?

COUNCIL ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT AND ORGANIZATIONAL HOME – (SEE PROPOSAL OF JOB DESCRIPTION)

AS We have a revised job description on the screen that everyone can see.

LWB With Joelle’s departure, Bonnie has been providing support and Augusta has been providing subject matter expertise for the SRC. One of things we are talking about is administrative support for the SRC and EFAP. The Workforce already provides support for a few boards and a big chunk of what the SRC needs to be successful already falls within the line of what the Workforce Center already provides. The meeting scheduling and communicating not only to the full SRC council and full EFAP meetings would be done by the project assistant. This person would take on all rolls of support for the EFAP and SRC as well as ensuring that we are in compliance with the open meetings act and being well versed on the Government Statutes around the SRC and what those practices are. The Executive Committee has already reviewed the job description and feels comfortable in moving forward with an MOU. This individual would be a part of Lee’s team but would be reporting to a different supervisor. There are other duties that they will be providing but their priorities will be the SRC and EFAP. This would be the fourth shared staff position within our unit.

SA In fulfilling this position, would this be a posted state position?

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LWB It would be a posted State position that will be listed as a two year limited position. Costs would be shared by the CWDC and DVR. The state source funding that I have is confirmed solidly for two years. I potentially have is an internal candidate who might be interested in this position. If everyone feels good about it and everything is approved today, we would start putting this together and working the formal HR process within CDLE.

SH I think this is a good idea and move that we do this.

BL We, as a SRC, became more functional when Uriel and then Tina started providing support to this group. In the last couple of months, we have come to dependent on that administrative support that Joelle brought to us. The last six or so weeks have been challenging with the SRC. If DVR and CWDC is comfortable with this, I really support this because we are functioning at a much higher level and that can’t work without having some type of support to this group.

A Motion was made, seconded and approved for the administrative support position. Lee Abstained from the vote.

AS For those who want to join us later, an after meeting will take place here after this meeting ends.

RECAP OF ACTION ITEMS

1. The executive committee builds a budget based on the $30,000 and get approval from the SRC.

2. Put together a group of people who are interested in moving forward for the conference. Communications would be a better fit for the conference since it covers a broad scope of items that we would need.

BL Augusta, is there anything we need to do to support the EFAP?

AK Not at this time, I’ll communicate if anything comes up or if any additional information is needed.

AS Augusta, is there a target date that we need to get the budget information to you?

AK I don’t think there needs to be a specific date at this point but I will talk to Keith and Joleen to see if they have a target date in place.

SA I support Augusta’s comments but the budget dollars are locked in so the guiding factor is how quickly does the Council need to see that budget to help guide their spending.

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AS Will be sending out a call to all council members regarding membership participation.

AS Augusta, have you heard anything from the State about our pending member applications?

AK No, I have not. I outreached out to them a couple of weeks ago to let introduce myself and let her know who to contact but I have not received a response back yet.

AS If there is no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

ADJOURN

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