Commission on Disability & Employment

January 19, 2016: 9:00 AM
Frances Perkins Room, MDOL Commerce Drive, Augusta, ME

State Workforce Board COMMITTEE ON DISABILITY AND EMPLOYMENT January 19, 2016 9:00 AM ? 12:00 PM 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 9:15 CDE Annual Report ? last opportunity for discussion/approval 9:45 Draft WIOA Unified Plan ? Garret Oswald 10:15 Membership update and plan 10:30 Break 10:45 DEI Update ? Peaches Bass 11:30 Upcoming opportunities for CDE to provide feedback: - DVR Public Hearing on State Plan: Monday January 25 from 2 ? 4 - DBVI Public Hearing on State Plan: tomorrow from 3 ? 4 - 1915i Medicaid State Plan Amendment: date pending (January?) - Draft WIOA Unified Plan: open for public comment 2/1/16 ? 2/12/16 11:45 Employment First Update & Vision Quest ? handout, for discussion next meeting 12:00 Adjourn Next Meeting: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 9:00 ? 12:00 Central Maine Commerce Center Frances Perkins Room

COMMITTEE ON DISABILITY AND EMPLOYMENT 01/19/2016 Present: Jennifer Kimble, Jean Coltart, Don Rice, Gayla Dwyer, Peaches Bass, Karen Fraser, Jay Collins Staff: Garret Oswald, Cheryl Moran

Welcome, Review/approve previous meeting(s) minutes • Jennifer Kimble ? opened the meeting with welcomes and introductions. She asked for approval of the November 19, 2015 meeting minutes and if there are any corrections. • Cheryl Moran pointed out corrections to minutes from Peaches: Page 2, under DEI Update: Also noted, there will be an Asset Development Conference next June 2016. Page 2, under Q & A with Presenters: Leticia Huttman. Jennifer pointed out one more minor correction under Presenters MEDO should be MEDOL. Don Rice motioned. Jean Coltart seconded. Minutes approved as written after corrections.

CDE Annual Report ? last opportunity for discussion/approval • Jennifer Kimble ? mentioned that she will add Karen Fraser?s extra input to the report. The 5 Councils, will pull out and include. The draft copy will be complete by Thursday, January 21st and will also circulate to Committee members. Jennifer asked for approval as written after corrections. Don Rice motioned. Jean Coltart seconded. All approved.

Draft WIOA Unified Plan ? Garret Oswald • Garret Oswald ? there will be internal circulation of the draft to the sub-committees and 4 Core Programs when the document is 508 compliant. • Cheryl Moran ? Paul and I are working on the 508 compliant piece. • Garret Oswald -This will give the Committee opportunity to see the Plan and weigh in. On Friday, January 29th, the Plan will be presented to the State Board members at the State Board meeting. Directly, the Plan will go out for a 2 week public comment. You will have one month to provide feedback. We will accept comments any way submitted. The Steering Committee will continue to work on the Plan until the end of the public comment period. The final draft will be submitted to the Governor for signature and sent in. The initial deadline for submission was March 3, 2016 but unofficially, we were told it is now April 1st. The Plan however, will be ready regardless of the deadline. If it is the 1st, this will give us a little more wiggle room. The Unified Plan was built off of a 3 day Workshop. Six Strategic Objectives were developed along with 7-8 filters (A-H). When we put out the Plan for public comment, we will ask to provide number of pages on where to find information. The Plan will be posted to the State Workforce Board (SWB) website when it is officially put out for public comment. It will be accessible in a word document and PDF. Garret feels pages 51-87 is the real guts of the Plan although everything is important. • Karen Fraser ? good overview, table of contents are helpful. VR and DBVI have their own portions/State Plan that will not be included but pieces will be. • Peaches Bass ? stated it will be good to define, ?specific list as viewed as internal? otherwise until accessible (508 compliant) for any reader, this should not be available. Peaches also stated it is important for our System to plan for this kind of stuff. • Jay Collins ? stated Maine CITE provides staff development and training around 508. http://mainecite.org/ • Jennifer Kimble ? asked the Committee to push that agenda. • Peaches Bass ? area of concern ? internal capacity, to not rely on just one person. We need to look at a universal access plan.

Membership update and plan • Jennifer Kimble ? announced Avery Olmstead has resigned from the Committee and will be missed. She asked Committee members for suggestions of who they know that they can refer. Preferably not in Labor, as Labor is very well-represented already. Perhaps someone that is receiving DHHS services; although she is opened to all who is interested and committed. We do not have designated rules. Whatever they can bring. • Gayla Dwyer ? stated she knows someone who is Native American that would be a great asset. • Jean Coltart ? felt it is good to have a member who does not work for a specific agency because of being limited of what they can do. • Jennifer Kimble ? membership advertising ? asked Cheryl to check with Garret if there is a way to advertise for membership. • Peaches Bass ? advised if you want to advertise, it needs to be called recruiting.

Plan • Jennifer Kimble ? stated that she wants PWD not seen only as receivers of services. As far as marketing, something similar to the ?what can YOU do? campaign. She would like to invite someone of expertise to strategize. • Garret Oswald ? suggested Hire a Vet Campaign; to explore the similar path of the Nancy Marshall model. Plan to invite a member of the Veterans Committee to the next meeting. The question is why are we looking at one pool of people? • Don Rice ? feels the idea would work especially from working in the field. • Cheryl Moran ? will send an invitation to Steve Wallace, Chair of the Veterans Committee to be a guest speaker at the next Committee Meeting.

DEI Update ? Peaches Bass • Peaches Bass ? announced she has a new hire, Jay Collins. Over the past couple of months, she has been down a staff person. In the current quarter which ends March 31st, they are providing a 2 ? hour service training on ADA at the CareerCenters. Peaches feels the CareerCenters have a little broader picture of some aspects of the law. In reference to job accommodation. Following the next quarter (April through June); there will be a staff and service training (Disability 101). Not sure who the operator will be providing that training. Michael Hotard, with USDOL, was approached by BES administration considering using some of the DEI funding to train CareerCenter staff. At the present time, she is in the middle of modifying the budget which will be submitted sometime before the next CDE meeting. The modifications are: 1) general disability staff training and 2) being able to train one more Certified Worker Services Counselor which is needed for on-going training. There will be a Financial Capability Asset Summit on June 7th in Augusta. This Summit targets service providers in Oxford, Franklin, Androscoggin, Somerset and Kennebec Counties so they will be committed in helping PWD to achieve financial wellness, economic stability and a good credit score. Peaches is sending a weekly email to CareerCenter staff making sure they are aware of credit check laws. Employers are encouraged not to conduct credit checks due to possible lawsuit of discrimination to certain groups. • Jennifer Kimble ? announced Maine Medical Center Vocational Services? Benefit Counselors will be conducting six sessions of Work and Benefits Navigation Training from January through June to disability service providers in Maine.
• Peaches Bass ? stated they still are not getting ?partnership plus? referrals from VR. Folks can be referred if they are receiving benefits whether their case is closed or not. VR may not have a full understanding of the Ticket-to-Work program. Or a complete disconnect and lack of understanding of the Ticket-to-Work program outside of VR. We do not have (the State as an employer) a central accommodation fund. She also is concerned about documents that are sent out to staff that are not accessible. • Jennifer Kimble ? asked, what are larger companies outside of the state doing where lessons could be learned (the State). • Jean Coltart ? suggested the Committee could push to make sure the employee in a lead position really is qualified for the position. • Jennifer Kimble ? it has been 10 years since the last executive order so now is a good time to look at where have we come and what do we still need to do. • Peaches Bass ? suggested take the original executive order and ask for a progress report or ask for a brand new task force because it is so old. We should have a trained staff person in HR that is specifically trained for PWD. Peaches stated she will send out the documents to Committee members. • Jennifer Kimble ? stated we should see those documents, send to the group and vote by email but will check with Garret first.

Upcoming opportunities for CDE to provide feedback:  DVR Public Hearing on State Plan: Monday January 25 from 2-4  DBVI Public Hearing on State Plan: tomorrow from 3-4  1915i Medicaid State Plan Amendment: date pending (January?) Jennifer Kimble ? supposed to be a way for employment services to be provided to Medicaid recipients and for Medicaid to be billed.  Draft WIOA Unified Plan: open for public comment 2/1/16-2/12/16

Employment First Update & Vision Quest ? handout, for discussion next meeting • Jennifer Kimble ? The first 20 pages of the Vision Quest report focuses nationwide, the remaining pages drill down on Maine information. Please review for discussion in next meeting.

Adjourn • Jennifer Kimble ? stated she will be in touch between meetings around the model employer information.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by Cheryl Moran

Attachments