Hello everyone, welcome my name is Joslynn Bigelow behavior specialists and teacher on special assignment for the Clackamas ESD, bringing to you today the supportive employment interview with Austin Robinson, former employment specialist extraordinare and current DD service coordinator, Austin, how's it going?
I'm good. Thank you for that intro. Yes, everyone I'm Austin Robinson, again, as Jocelyn said, former employment specialists, and current service coordinator. So I'm excited to talk about supported employment today,
I feel that you are a wealth of knowledge to speak on supported employment in the state of Oregon. Now, I know there are a lot of big words within this whole topic. So let's unpack the most important ones. Vocational Rehabilitation. What is that?
Yes. So you may have heard the term VR, not virtual reality, but vocational rehabilitation within the field of disability services. And that is what VR means to us. And so it is a government agency and a service that helps people with disabilities find and keep a job. I always like to say the words obtain and maintain a job. And you will work with a vocational rehabilitation counselor, once you get into their services, who will match you to an employment specialist, or sometimes are called job developers, who will help you throughout your entire employment journey. So that's from understanding what you want to do for work, to even maintaining your job with job coaching, if that's something you need, and everything in between. And it's really important to note that Oregon is one of the leading states in Employment First is what they call it, and it's the belief that everyone, regardless of their ability can work. So if you want to work, you should be able to work.
Excellent. Thank you. Alright, so VR. Tell us a little more about what VR offers.
Yeah, so VR offers a lot of different services. So I'll start from the beginning. Let's say you go, you come into VR services, and you don't even know what you want to do. You're like, I just know I want a job. But I don't know what type of job I want. So they have career exploration, which they a job developer can help you understand what type of job you want, what do you want your title to be? What company do you want to work for? What field do you want to work in. And once you know that, you can have a portfolio done with that same job developer or another one if you choose. And what that is, is that is your resume, your cover letter, your reference list your if you want, it can be a disability disclosure letter, if you want to notify the employer, about your disability and any accommodations you may need. It can be a whole lot of different documents, but it's whichever ones you want. And then once you know what you want to do, you have a resume and other documents, that job developer can help you find the job that you want, wherever you want, and doing whatever you want to do. So that is very important. And if you feel like you need some additional assistance or help on the job, they can also provide job coaching, so that someone comes in, and they assist you to make sure that that you understand the responsibilities and you're you're performing those responsibilities as best as you can.
Okay, so a lot of different services. How do I access VR services?
Yes, I always say the best way is, of course, the VR website links right there. But also, if you are in if you're currently in Developmental Disability Services, or at a brokerage, you just need to talk to your service coordinator or your personal agent, and they can directly refer you over to VR. However, you can also go to that VR website, talk to them yourselves and get a referral from there as well. The other thing is, it's completely free for you. So you don't have to pay a dime. And there's no, there's not going to be any retroactive fees, there's not going to be any hidden fees, this is free for you. And they will deem if you are eligible, so they have their own eligibility processes. But of course, if you're with a brokerage or the county DD program, we will send all of that eligibility paperwork over their way.
Excellent. All right. So free to us. Definitely accessible if I already access DD services. Now, some additional questions that inquiring minds have, how will I know if the job developer is right for me?
That is a very good question. Because what if you get a job developer that you're not comfortable with or you feel like you need to change? That is totally fine. So what will happen is your vocational rehabilitation counselor, that VR counselor, will show you a list and give you some options of different job developer companies. You will be able to interview any of them you want or all of them, and you will be able to choose who you want to work with you on getting a job. That's completely up to you.
Okay. And sounds like I have a lot of rights here. But what if I've never had a job to put on a resume? How does that even work?
That's a really great question too. Because being a former employment specialist, myself, I would often come across individuals who had never had a job. And it was my job, to workshop that resume and other documents of your portfolio to share, showcase your skills, to showcase your education, your training, what what you're good at your qualifications, etc. So we can talk to a company about getting you a job, because we all start somewhere, and companies understand that, they're much more understanding than I think that we think they are so. So basically, we all have to start somewhere. And there are a couple different ways that we can go ahead and get you into a job. Even if you've never had one before.
Sounds I pick a job developer, they can help me fill in those gaps.
Yes.
All right. What if I don't like my job after I get it?
We all have the right to quit. Me, you, Jocelyn. Let's quit tomorrow. No, I'm just kidding, we're not gonna do that. But if you get a job through your job developer, they assist you with getting one and you're like this, this is not what I wanted to do. This isn't what I thought I wanted to do. That's totally fine. You can start from square one if you'd like and start looking at other you know, back into career exploration. What wondering what do I want to do? Again, VR is completely open to that. And you can quit your job, work with that same job developer and reopen your VR case.
Awesome. All right. So really sounds like I get to do what I want to do with my life.
Of course.
So you're talking about best fit individuals doing what they want to do. What is discovery?
Yes, so Discovery is a little different than the than the services that we've talked about. So far, Discovery is actually authorized with your DD Case Manager or brokerage personal agents. So it's not technically through VR. But VR is very supportive and engaged in the process, because often Discovery will lead into a case with VR. So let me just, before I get ahead of myself, let me talk about what Discovery is, it is a one on one process for 90 days, it's kind of like career exploration, I was as I was talking about earlier, but like, Amplified. It is working one on one with a discovery specialist. But sometimes those other called, they can also just be called employment specialists. And they are taking you around to job shadow sites, they're taking you around to do informational interviews with companies that that you might want to work at, with, with people in positions that you might want to have that position someday. They are really talking to you about your skills, your preferences, your interests, and much more, and then taking you into the community so that you fully understand what the perfect job is for you. And, again, it's completed by qualified discovery specialists, they take a lot of training and a lot of courses to be able to do this work. So not only are they employment specialists, but then they take a lot of trainings, and then are they're able to provide the service Discovery, and really hone in on how to best support you in finding out what you're interested in doing for work. And the reason that you should utilize this is because it helps you figure out what you want to do. Not everyone may be able to understand right away what they want to do. I mean, I know for the longest time I did not know, and this service could have greatly helped me. But again, this service is authorized through your Developmental Disabilities Program or your brokerage. So if you don't have access to that, you can go the VR route, and they can do career exploration, and it's a sort sort of similar service.
Excellent. Okay. So things can be tailor made for me. What else can Discovery do to support my employment goals?
Yeah, so I probably got ahead of myself a little bit in that last slide. But yeah, again, your discovery specialist can take you on informational interviews. So let's say that you want to work at let's say Nike, because I know that's a big employer that actually has a huge push to hire more people with disabilities. Let's say you want to go work at Nike. Well, your discovery specialist can work can work with Nike and set up an informational interview or even an employment tour. You can come in and you can Interview a manager or anybody who works there that they'll, of course that they set up and talk with them about what the job is like, how how what they enjoy what they don't enjoy, even, and how a typical day might be like in the workplace. And that could be for any place. So it's a really awesome process, because it is, it's really getting you so close to what you feel like you want to do for a job. And it is definitely on the road to employment, it might be it might be the beginning. Or it could be in the middle. As we said earlier, you have the right to quit your job. So maybe you go back a little bit, but then it's always in order to go even further forward. So it is an incredible service that that you should access.
Wonderful. Thank you. All right, super cool service. How do I access it?
Yes, again, it is a it's completely free. It's just like VR, even though it's not a VR service, it is still completely free. No retroactive fees, no hidden fees, we're not going to ask you to pay a dime of it. And so in order to learn more about it, and how to access this free service, definitely contact your service coordinator or your personal agent, because again, it is through the Developmental Disabilities Program and not Vocational Rehabilitation, but they really work hand in hand. So even if you say were to go into VR services, and identify that actually, I might want to do Discovery instead. That's totally fine. They'll work with you on contacting your service coordinator. You can go through that process, and you can still have a case open with VR and seamlessly transition into it. The other thing is that discovery is a Medicaid funded service through ODDS. So the important thing to know is that you will need to have Medicaid beforehand because that is how you access a majority of the services within the Developmental Disabilities Program.
Okay, good to know. Thank you. And you know what else? And that brings us to the end of our interview. Thank you so much for your time and your expertise in the area of supported employment.