Work Experiences in Rural Areas

For youth with disabilities

Ellen Condon, UMT Rural Institute http://ruralinstitute.umt.edu/transition condon@ruralinstitute.umt.edu

(406) 243-4134

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The End Goal of Work Experiences

Placement into a well-matched job with adequate and individualized supports in place upon graduation from high school
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Students who graduate into a paid job, or who have real work experience prior to graduation, are more likely to be employed as adults.
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In order to graduate into a job we need to:

Maximize marketable skill development, Teach the student to be as independent and self-directed as possible, Promote student and family understanding of the youths accommodation & support needs.

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In order to graduate into a job we need to:

Understand their ongoing support needs, Creatively determine how to meet those needs, Inventory existing supports available,

& connect to ALL potential services/supports.

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Employment in your community may look different than it does in a college town.
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Community Membership also looks different in a small town.

Many times youth drive 20 miles to school, Everyone knows everyone else, People with and without disabilities need to be creative to live in rural areas and earn a living, A great place to network, And use social capital!

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Who does your family sell your beef to? Who works on your ranch? Where do you buy your feed? Where do you shop in town? Who does your school do business with? What about members of your school board?

Mine the supply chain and use your connections

Social Capital
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Customized Employment
According to US/DOL: Customized employment means individualizing the employment relationship between employees and employers in ways that meet the needs of both. It is based on an individualized determination of the strengths, needs, and interests of the person with a disability, and is also designed to meet the specific needs of the employer.

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Labor Market Job Development

Customized Job Development

Job openings Employer needs Applicants Compete to determine who is most qualified

Position tailored to the individual and employer Employment proposal replaces application One-of-a-kind position with accommodations and supports built in or negotiated

Two Distinct Approaches

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Labor Market
Is the person ready? What skills does our local labor market need? How do this job seekers skills compare to these job descriptions and openings?

Customized
Do we understand the individuals ideal conditions of employment? What are their contributions? Tasks and skills? Who are their connections?

The questions that you need to ask and answer are different
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Ranching Agriculture Tourism Hunting Home-based business

What do people do for work and income in your town?

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Self-Employment

Types of Employment

Cabinet maker Concrete laborer Contract trucker Accountant Rancher Race horse breeder Teach classes via internet Plumber Sawmill Dog trainer/breeder

Employment might be wage employment or Self-employment: Providing a service, Business within a business, Resource ownership, Contract labor

Florence MT,
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Unmet Workplace Needs: This area focuses on tasks that need to get done but are not getting done in the way the employer would like. It also can include tasks that have not been performed but need to be.

Tasks Better Performed by Others:

This area focuses on aspects of jobs that might better be performed by others at a lower pay grade. This option can directly save money for employers.

Specific Benefit/ Productivity: This area focuses on workplace needs for additional productivity in specific tasks. It must be matched with the job seekers specific competencies.

Employer Needs/Benefits Analysis

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4-H Participating in the family business Raising livestock Moving irrigation pipe Mucking stalls Stacking hay

How do youth in your community gain work experience and learn a work ethic?
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Provide a foundation for the expectation of employment for all students Provide an array of experiences from which specific interests might emerge Provide increasing insight into necessary conditions for success and discrete contributions Provide information to guide curricular content in classrooms

Purpose of Work Experience

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Purpose and intention of Work Experiences evolves as the student gets closer to exit.
Ages13-16: Expose students to work Build the vision that they will/can work Determine interests & preferences
Ages 16-17: Build and expand skills Identify ideal conditions for success
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Purpose and intention of Work Experiences evolves as the student gets closer to exit.
Last year or two of school: Identify ongoing support needs & strategies to meet them

Clarify ideal conditions for success Strive to make the last day of school look no different than the first day after graduation; activities, support providers, routine.
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Types of Work Experiences and Paid Employment

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Volunteering Job Shadowing Service Learning/Internships General Work Experience Matched Work Experience Customized Work Experience
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Marc Gold & Associates

Food bank Senior services Humane society Civic club Volunteer fire department Thrift store Head start Nursing home Hospitals

Non-profits
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Yearbook Sports team management Errands for neighbors Branding and vaccinating Fundraising for a cause

Services within School/Community

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Generic Unpaid Work Experiences

In-school

Grounds Kitchen Office Services to teachers and students

Community-based

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Unpaid work experiences in for-profit business must follow DOL regulations.

While the existence of an employment relationship will not be determined exclusively on the basis of number of hours, as a general rule, each component will not exceed the following limitation during any one school year:

~~ Career exploration 5 hours per job experienced ~~ Career assessment 90 hours per job experienced ~~ Work-related training 120 hours per job experienced

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Resource:
Handbook for Implementing a Comprehensive Work-Based Learning Program According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, Third Edition. Revised, updated, and edited by: David R. Johnson, Carrie Sword, and Barbara Habhegger, February 2005.

The entire handbook can be accessed at http://www.ncset.org/publications/essentialtools/fl sa/default.asp

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Work experience might be assisting a neighbor.

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Self-Employment
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Self-Employment: varmint control, raising birds for sale

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Self-employment: a delivery business based upon the need to be on the go, and involving the task of delivery.

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Mikes work experiences and self-employment were jointly supported by the school, family, VR and WIA.

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http://employmentfirst georgia.org/Videos.aspx

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Develop a Plan for Each Work Experience

Assessment plan
Site specific Student specific

Training Plan

Site specific Student specific

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Interacting with unfamiliar people

Unexpected information

A plan to teach and assess specific skills

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Assessing: academic skills, problem solving, ability to work independently, to follow directions

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Types of Work Experiences

General work experience

Varied experiences offered to all students

Matched to student interest

Customized to the students ideal conditions for the purpose of gathering information about tasks, skills or validating a condition
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Bitterroot Garden

Bitterroot Humane Society

General Work Experiences

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Tylers Skills and Abilities

Remembers tasks, dates, names, information Has good reading and math skills Initiates tasks that need to be done Highly motivated and willing to work Social and likes to interact with familiar people Thorough Strong work ethic Works quickly Follows instructions Motivated by a paycheck Likes to be helpful

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Asking for assistance Interacting with unfamiliar people Following the methods requested by the workplace Working independently instead of asking for help when he didnt need it Support to work through learning a new task when he found it difficult Walking to and from work

Tylers Support Needs

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Alex in Middle School

Flathead Food Bank Food bank: stocking food, portioning food, newsletter mailings School library: shelving books

In-school newspaper delivery

General Work Experiences in Middle School

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Follows a written list of tasks Files by letter Types data into computer Folds, stuffs envelopes, labels Follows rules Attends to time Learns routes and layouts Measures out food Stocks and organizes shelves

Alexs Skills and Tasks

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Alex does best when he knows what is coming, the schedule, and the length of each activity He learned to manage his own front loading of work information (called in to the food bank) Following work rules- wearing gloves Remembers routes and routines Driven to complete the task Being flexible

Alex: what did we learn about conditions and support needs?

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Response when others dont follow the rules

School library

Response when people are in your way and make it difficult to do your job
Delivering papers throughout the school

Understanding that your work is driven by a specific production amount or time Expand his tasks and marketable skills

Alexs support needs and goals: Work Experience & the IEP
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CDC: filing, organizing, inventory forms, copying and filing forms Reading to children, support person for summer camp Kalispell Public Library

Alexs Matched Experiences: Interests in kids, computers, books

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Expand Task List

Identify Additional Skills

Working with children in the summer program, reading, theater

Computers

Cooking/ food preparation

Editing/ proofreading Numbers/math

Alexs matched work experiences:

The plan for high school

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Tyler collated fact sheets and assembled packets, including placing stickers on the folders, for the Rural Institute Transition Projects.

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Tylers new duties include waiting on customers and running the cash register.

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A matched work experience to discover information about skills, tasks, attributes

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Ian volunteers at the Missoula Food Bank

Ian uses a written checklist to:

Initiate work without a job coach telling me to do so Move from one task to the next Remember the social rules of my work environment
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My Skills:

I have an excellent memory and know where to place items after being shown just once. I remember peoples names. I write my schedule on a calendar months in advance.

Im always enthusiastic about going to work.

I use visual strategies to work independently.
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If you need more information about conditions or tasks, customize a work experience before seeking the paid job

Clarify conditions needed or tasks that could be performed

A Customized Work Experience

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Employers have typically met needs by bundling demands into job descriptions. Job seekers with complex lives often dont have the whole package to offer. Customized Employment allows employers to unbundle demand and to take advantage of discrete competencies.

Unbundling demand
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A Customized Work Experience

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The type & purpose of experiences evolves with the students age:
Age

Focus of Experience

Middle school
Volunteering Job shadow In-school jobs

Purpose
Explore student interests and preferences around work Introduce work as a concept Start task list

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Build Marketable Skills

Clarify Conditions

Build skills and competencies to present to employers within areas of interest

Expand the students task list

Clarify ideal or needed conditions for employment

Purpose of Work Experience

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Assume that everyone can contribute and therefore everyone can work.
Determining how some students will participate is going to require Discovery of who they are and what they can do.
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How are we typically documenting students performance during work experiences?

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Capturing information about students performance:

Observation notes, pictures, video, task list

Work Assessment Summary

http://ruralinstitute.umt.edu/transition/articles.asp

Visual Profile/Portfolio
Narrative Vocational Profile
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How are we sharing information about the students skills, support needs, and experiences with new support staff and adult service providers?

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Observation Notes
Descriptive Non-judgmental Narrative Just the facts

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Features of task observation:

Motivation indicated Supports offered/used General Performance: pace, correctness, consistency, stamina Specific Tasks: what is it, does general performance vary with tasks Connections Concerns
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Observational Notes

Tyler collated the 7 different Social Security Fact sheets and created 30 folders in 20 minutes. Upon completion of this task there were 3 of one of the fact sheets left over while the rest were all gone. Tyler flipped through each of the 30 packets looking for any packet that did not have 1 copy of each of the fact sheets. After checking all 30 he walked to his supervisors office and told her he was done and that he had a few extra fact sheets.
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Indentifying ongoing support needs for after high school & planning to meet those needs
Identification of concrete needs enables the team to brainstorm various ways to meet those needs

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What does he need to be successful?

What will he bring to the job?

Condition

Interest

Clear routine cooking Begin/end to task sports Time & rep to yard work learn new tasks Little down time or A concrete plan for down time No laundry Work hrs coincide with transportation

Contribution

Motivated to work, and complete work Pays attention to quality, cleans up after self Follows patterns Models other people Team player Strength and stamina Likes to be helpful

Wades plan for a position that matches

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What tasks can Wade do?

Who might need them done?

Tasks
Rake, haul dirt, plant, water, dig holes, shovel Fill and replenish supplies Pour to measure, fill containers to prerequisite amount Prearrange/ arrange products Unpackage, package items Sort items Build boxes Stock shelves Hang clothes Clerical tasks

Employers

Food bank and community kitchen to assess safety in the kitchen, eye for detail, independence, look for additional tasks Universal Athletics- unload trucks, hang clothes, sort clothes, enter data

Plan for a position that matches

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The End Goal of Work Experiences

Placement into a well-matched job with adequate and individualized supports in place upon graduation from high school
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