Hello, everyone. Welcome. We are here with Toni DePeel Pre Employment Transition Coordinator from PreETS. Toni, how you doing?
I'm great. Thanks for having me today.
We are so excited to talk to you about PreETSPr. So let's start off with what is PreETS?
What is PreETS? So, PreETS is short for pre employment transition services.
Great. And why is the service important to our students?
So this service helps students prepare to get ready for work.
Awesome. And when we talk about our students, we do mean an individual's experiencing a disability?
Yes, students who experience a disability are eligible to receive these services.
Great. And is this something that they have to pay for?
No, it's absolutely free. The State of Oregon pays for this Vocational Rehabilitation. It's totally free.
Oh, that's amazing. And how do they get this free service?
So your teacher would have the information on how to connect you for the service.
Great. And, um, in order to be connected, you have to meet this eligibility criteria, correct?
Yes. So you need to be an Oregon student. And it can be in a lot of different schools, different types of schools, and you have to have a documented disability beyond an IEP of 504. Or you could just have a medical statement that might come from your doctor or counselor.
Students who received this service are between the ages of 14 and 21. Generally, students that are a little bit older asked for the service. And, you know, when you think about age 21, that year that you turned 21, and you're still in school, at the end of that school year in June, that's when your service would cut off. But then we would refer you on to the adult agency vocational rehabilitation, if you're still requesting some help getting ready for work. And that's the key thing is you need to remember that this is all about work, and what you need to do to prepare for it.
Awesome. So PreETS up until you're 21. And then Voc Rehab, VR, post 21.
Yes, exactly.
Okay. And so getting started in this process, there's a referral form.
Yes. So as you can see from this is, it's a blue, you know, fill in the area form, what you need to make sure you include on this form is your name, the school that you belong to the your date of birth, and then there's a number as a secure ID number, you would get that from your teacher. And the form, as you can see on the bottom comes in either English and Spanish. If you need it in a different language, we can help you get that also. And those are links on the bottom of this. Or you can actually use a paper form and then it gets scanned, if you use a paper form, and there's an email on the back of this form that tells you where to send it to.
Great. That's awesome. Thank you so much. And if they don't have access to a scanner, the teacher can send it in for them as well.
Correct. Exactly, exactly. Okay.
All right. So we covered eligibility and starting the referral process. But let's talk about the services that we're looking to apply to what services does PreETS offer?
So there's five areas of services. And under each one of these areas, there's activities that you can do. And we're going to talk a little bit about the activities in a minute. But the five areas is job exploration, work based learning, work readiness, self advocacy, post secondary counseling. And as you can see on this PowerPoint, you can also click on that video later when you have time. And you can even relearn what we're learning today or get some new information about PreETS services.
Great. Thanks for that. So what is job exploration? Tell me about.
Well, it's learning about going to work, what skills you need. And do I like this kind of a job or do I not? So it's just exploring what work is all about.
Well, research project for our students. And okay, so you did your job exploration. Tell me more about work based learning.
So you've done a little bit of job exploration or you have an idea about what kind of job you want. It's getting out there getting out of school, going into your town or your community and trying something, volunteering, or a job shadow or maybe a part time job.
Oh, exciting.
Yeah.
Cool. And all local. How convenient.
Yeah.
All right. And then workplace readiness. You picked a job and you're talking about being ready for it.
So we all know that there's things that we need to know about going to work. Well, maybe I need to work on my eye contact for an interview or maybe do I need to learn how to make a resume? So workplace readiness is a lot of different things. It could be social. It could be how do I get to work on a bus? So it's preparing and getting ready.
Okay. And then the big word, self advocacy, tell me how PreETS supports that.
Speak up for yourself. That's what it's all about learning to tell people what you need and what you want for your life. And, you know, it's okay to say yes, it's okay to say no, but you make the decisions and, you know, learning that it's okay to, to give your opinion to somebody to. So it's really important in life, especially when you have a job, maybe you don't like what's going on, or you want to help somebody it's learning just to give your opinion and speak up.
Yeah, communication is key. Alright, post secondary counseling, the fifth golden aspect of PreETS, tell me more.
Okay, so what's that next step? After you leave your the school that you're used to right? Do you want to go straight to a job? Do you need help getting connected to a service in the community, social security, or developmental disabilities? Or are you going to take a class or go towards, you know, maybe a certificate or even an associate degree at a community college or some type of training center? That's what we help you take a look at is, what's the cost? How do I do that? And who can help me when I'm there?
Wonderful. What a great service. Alright, so I have some follow up questions for you. Okay. So we know the services, we know how to get the referral process started. But what happens after I turn in the form what's next?
So the thing you have to do is just wait, so you have to wait for somebody to contact you. You know, it's not instant, it might take a week or two, but just wait.
Okay, so you're waiting to hear from that PreETS counselor that's assigned to you, and what will that counselor do for our students?
So they're going to contact you either by phone, text, or email, and set up an appointment to talk to you. And at that appointment, you want to make sure that if you want somebody to come with you that that person can come with you to the appointment, and they can meet you in the school, they could meet you at a library, but it's usually a public place. Not usually it always is a public place. And, um, let's see, just talk to you about what kind of services you want out of those categories.
Great. So look at those five categories, see what you need, bring a family member along, because this seems kind of like a holistic approach to the student's future. Right? And when should a student consider starting with PreETS or right? Yes,
So you can make a decision anytime between the ages of 14 and 21. And just remember, we are like pre employment, right? And so when you're ready to get a job, it doesn't matter if you're 14, 17 or 21. Then we can also help refer you to vocational rehabilitation, if you think you need some more help getting that job. But what we do is we do everything prior to getting the job. That's what pre employment is all about.
What a fantastic service available to our students. Toni, thank you so much for collaborating today and so excited to share this with our students.