Commission on Disability & Employment

September 17, 2015: 9:00 AM
Frances Perkins Room, MDOL Commerce Dr, Augusta

State Workforce Investment Board COMMITTEE ON DISABILITY AND EMPLOYMENT September 17, 2015 9:00 AM ? 11:30 AM Central Maine Commerce Center 45 Commerce Drive, Augusta Frances Perkins Room Call in: 877-455-0244, Conference code: 2121366385 AGENDA 9:00 Welcome, Review/approve previous meeting(s) minutes 9:10 SWIB/WIOA Update ? Garret Oswald SWIB Structural Changes WIOA Vision/Planning Workshop ? update WIOA Unified Plan (Role for CDE?) 9:40 DEI Update ? Peaches Bass 10:00 Recent Research on PWD and Employment ? discussion RespectAbility publications 10:30 5 Councils? Update Empowerment Forum ? Jenny Ardito Coordinated role of councils ? discussion 11:00 Other Business 1915i Medicaid State Plan Amendment in development Balancing Incentive Program capacity building efforts Next Meeting: Thursday, November 19, 2015 9:00 ? 12:00 Central Maine Commerce Center Frances Perkins Room

Commission on Disability & Employment

September 17, 2015

Present: Jennifer Kimble, Jenny Ardito, Peaches Bass, Jean Coltart, Gayla Dwyer, Karen Fraser, Avery Olmstead (Phone), Rachel Dyer (Phone), Eileen Miazga, Garret Oswald

Absent: Donald Rice, Mel Clarrage, Monica Elwell

Staff: Cheryl Moran

• Jennifer Kimble - opened the meeting with welcomes & introductions. She began addressing previous meeting minutes from 4/17/15 & 5/21/15 and asked correct or change. Jean Coltart stated on the 4/17/15 minutes, her name needed to be added because she did attend. Peaches Bass stated on the 5/21/15 minutes third paragraph, the verbiage crossed out needed to be stricken. Jenny Ardito motioned, Gayla Dwyer seconded. All present voted in favor of approval as written after amended.

SWIB/WIOA Update: • SWIB Structural Changes - Garret Oswald ? stated there will be a structural change with the membership of the State Board. They are working through the appointment process and will be finalized (the WIOA compliant board) on October 2nd at the next SWIB meeting. Garret mentioned Governor Paul LePage will be the opening speaker. He stated that the main function of the SWIB is to assist the Governor with the development of the Strategic Plan. This Board will have robust membership so there will be a robust conversation not primarily focused strictly on WIOA. • Jennifer Kimble pointed out her concern in reference to Page 7, Section B of the RespectAbility Employment First Planning Tool having a Disability Employment Advocate included on the Board. • Garret Oswald stated Commissioner Paquette represents the Department of Labor which administers the Vocational Rehabilitation Programs.
However, it would be great for us to have an Advisory Board where we can add additional members. • WIOA Vision/Planning Workshop-update ? Garret Oswald ? stated the 3 day Workshop draft is the output of what the Steering Committee has been working on all summer. Paul Leparulo is the Project Manager. The Steering Committee will produce a draft document of the Unified State Plan fairly soon but not by the end of September as originally planned, but will by the next CD & E meeting in November. The first draft will be put out for a 2 week public comment period. The final draft based on public comment will be submitted to the Feds by March of 2016. Garret stated the reason why we elected the Unified Plan over the Combined Plan is that we did not want to bite off more than we can chew. As far as the planning process, Garret feels Maine is doing exceptionally well compared to other States. Technology however, will be a challenge; and to make sure the 4 core programs speak to each other as far as technology. • Karen Fraser ? stated there is a lot of activity and pieces to it. • Jean Coltart ? felt the draft report from the 3 day WIOA Vision Workshop is great but feels there still is an uphill battle. • Garret Oswald ? stated the Plan this time is about Maine not about what the Feds want. He mentioned that all the sub-committees will be able to view the first draft. He also recommended taking time on the next meeting?s agenda to discuss the first WIOA draft. • WIOA Unified Plan (Role for CDE?) ? Garret Oswald ? include more partners than the 4 core partners.

DEI Update: Peaches Bass ? Since May 2015, there has been a change in personnel. They were able to hire a new staff person (Eileen Miazga) after briefly being short-staffed. She believes the CareerCenter staff very slowly has been making progress on automatically making referrals to Vocational Rehabilitation when a customer has a disability. She believes this practice has been slowly reduced due to co-enrollment of programs. Re-training of staff and conducting in-depth monitoring will also contribute. WIOA will have policies on how to address customers upon common intake. Jenny Ardito ? likes the idea of front-line staff being educated to know all CareerCenter services so the customer has a choice. Peaches Bass ? Emily, Summer Intern was able to draft new CareerCenter pages on disabilities. We are almost done with Ticket-to-Work. All the old pages will be taken down and replaced with the new. We still not receiving referrals on customers that are on SSDI/SSI exiting Vocational Rehabilitation with employment service case closure. However, one did come through from the Augusta CareerCenter. The customer was better served all around and has returned to the CareerCenter due to collaboration between departments. ADA 25 ? Disability Rights Maine hosted 75 people. Great testimonials! Lives Worth Living film ? very pleased by who attended but not many attended. Kathy Hounsell conducted 12 benefit overview workshops throughout the State related to SSDI/SSI.

Recent Research on PWD and Employment ? discussion/RespectAbility publications: • Jennifer Kimble ? save for next meeting due to time constraints.

5 Councils? Update: • Empowerment Forum ? Jenny Ardito ? Feedback varied in terms of guest Speaker. US Commissioner of Rehabilitation Administration, feedback was good and positive. 100% overwhelmingly liked our Panel (folks with disabilities). Feedback, their personal stories were terrific! Jenny mentioned there was a concern with the number of State Employees that attended than the other Providers. State Employees are not a target audience for this type of Forum. Overall, good feedback and experience. • Coordinated role of councils ? discussion ? Jennifer Kimble ? stated, not really official. Needs to be more formal such as what the group is and what role the council has. They are planning another meeting.

Other Business: • 1915i Medicaid State Plan Amendment in development - Jennifer Kimble ? DHHS is developing an application to amend to the state?s Medicaid State Plan in accordance with rule 1915i. This can allow certain community-based services to be provided that are not allowed under traditional Medicaid rules. Two services in development to be covered by this are employment, utilizing Individualized Placement and Support (IPS) model, and benefits counseling for people with Social Security disability benefits who want to work. It is important that CDE members pay attention to this process and weigh in on this.
• Balancing Incentive Program capacity building efforts ? Jennifer Kimble ? Go to Google for more details to explain what BIP means ? the basic explanation is that the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, under the auspices of the ACA, financially rewarded states that did a good job in reducing institution-based care and increasing community-based care and services. Maine received some funding through this process, and some of it is being used to set the stage and prepare service providers for the focus on employment that 1915i will expect. Some money is being spent to train 100 additional Employment Specialists. Some is also being spent to train 100 (non-employment) disability service providers on Work and Benefits Navigation, which will start January 2016. • Peaches Bass ? final report ? DEI are in the preliminary stages of planning an Assessment Summit which is an event for Service Providers (to put financial capability on their radar) sometime in the Spring 2016.

Next Meeting: Thursday, November 19, 2015, 9:00 ? 12:00, Frances Perkins Room, MDOL Central Maine Commerce Center

Meeting adjourned

Respectfully submitted by Cheryl Moran

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