At the end of April two new Americorps VISTA members joined the Stronger Together VISTA Project in Northport Alabama. One of the Americorps VISTA members just started on May 17th, 2010 and is from Centreville Bibb County. The VISTA member went to college at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for Community Health Education and graduated in 2009. The two new VISTA members will be helping me work on issues of employment and to get jobs for our clients. Until recently I have been alone working on employment. Now there are three members working on supported employment.
Also there is a new supported employment case manager that is working with us to guide us in developing employment opportunities. The new supported employment case manager just started working with us on May 17th.
The goal is to get as many clients as possible employments from our current list of clients that is about 25 people thus far. The strategies will range from using our standard grant money to get employment, public relations, marketing, and also local currency and or trading systems. By the end of the year we hope to get 25 new jobs for our clients if possible and if we only get from 15 to 20 jobs then it is ok as well.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Americorps VISTA Appreciation Event for Alabama
Last Tuesday and Wednesday I participated in the annual Alabama Americorps VISTA Appreciation Event from Tuesday May 11th to Wednesday May 12th. The event was held in Birmingham Alabama and was at the United Way of Central Alabama's office. Guest speakers attended about social media and also about the meaning of Americorps VISTA members support at this time in our country. Every Americorps VISTA project throughout the state of Alabama was represented at this event. Each Americorps VISTA project got up and told everyone at the event about their project. There was also ample time to do networking at the event as well. There was a volunteering activity on Wednesday with Habitat for Humanity that unfortunately I did not go to.
Job coaching begins
I have begun my job coaching with one of our clients from Tuscaloosa Alabama on this past Monday May 17th. So far we have taken her around the building and gotten her acquainted with where she needs to go for doing the job tasks that she needs to do. We did that on the first day and then went through taking out garbage and doing her employee orientation as well. Also we did some sweeping the first two days that she worked. The third day which was today she picked up garbage outside of our building and swept up outside.
Also I have helped her with her job application and to fill it out properly which she has struggles with. Writing or reading does not come easy to her and I have taught her to read some more words. I expect that she will want to learn to read more as time goes on especially if is to get another job in her life. Our client that is working at our building still goes to the Tuscaloosa ARC but only for half a day for four days and one full day on Fridays. She likes the work that she is doing at our building thus far and I am glad that I am working with her to help her do a good job. It is my first time ever job coaching and it has been good so far. The Ability Alliance of West Alabama had hired her a week ago but now she is working 10 hours a week and four days a week.
Also I have helped her with her job application and to fill it out properly which she has struggles with. Writing or reading does not come easy to her and I have taught her to read some more words. I expect that she will want to learn to read more as time goes on especially if is to get another job in her life. Our client that is working at our building still goes to the Tuscaloosa ARC but only for half a day for four days and one full day on Fridays. She likes the work that she is doing at our building thus far and I am glad that I am working with her to help her do a good job. It is my first time ever job coaching and it has been good so far. The Ability Alliance of West Alabama had hired her a week ago but now she is working 10 hours a week and four days a week.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Meeting with Ala-WIN counselor and Tuscaloosa ARC about job benefits for client
Earlier today I attended a meeting that is a part of the job process for those receiving supplemental security income, and or Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. The meeting was to inform the client that I am job coaching on how her benefits will be affected and or helped by working. The meeting was with a counselor from Ala-WIN(The Alabama Work Incentives Network). Ala-WIN helps supplemental security income recipients and social security disability insurance between the ages of 14 and 64 understand their work options so that they can make good choices about their money and their employment. The Alabama Work Incentives Network is administered by Independent Living Resources of greater Birmingham Incorporated and United Cerebral Palsy of greater Birmingham. Ala-WIN serves 38 Northern and central counties of Alabama while the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services 29 counties in the southern part of the state doing the same work incentives program.
These agencies exist to assist Social Security beneficiaries understand federal and state work incentives. Alsos staff are on site to assist beneficiares in knowing the impact of earned income on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other public benefits that they may receive.
A meeting regarding social security disability insurance and or income is very common when working with people with developmental disabilities. Especially when a client is working a limited amount of hours and or salary which goes up to 423,000 a year. Anything earned over $23,000 is exempt from Ala-WIN and or any disability income program. Shortly after our meeting about the client's benefits we will be starting her first work week on May 9th, 2010 with 12 hours of work a week to start.
These agencies exist to assist Social Security beneficiaries understand federal and state work incentives. Alsos staff are on site to assist beneficiares in knowing the impact of earned income on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other public benefits that they may receive.
A meeting regarding social security disability insurance and or income is very common when working with people with developmental disabilities. Especially when a client is working a limited amount of hours and or salary which goes up to 423,000 a year. Anything earned over $23,000 is exempt from Ala-WIN and or any disability income program. Shortly after our meeting about the client's benefits we will be starting her first work week on May 9th, 2010 with 12 hours of work a week to start.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Job coaching with client
After about a month and a half of working with a client for preparation of a job and for volunteering at the Tuscaloosa Association for Retarded Citizens I am now going to start job coaching on May 9th, 2010. The client is also learning to read as well and I am the one who is teaching her to read from her People First of Alabama hand book and also with an animal picture book that she brings in with her from her appartment to learn new words. I am patient with the client as I help her to pronounce and enunciate words by how the letters sound. It has been a success so far working with this client on the job preparation process and I have gotten to know of her interests and been able to see her skills at cleaning at bathrooms, vacuuming, and dusting desks at the Palk Enterprises and Supported Employment office in Tuscaloosa. She has done well and I have gotten along well with her as well as we have worked from sample job duties hand books over the last month and a half to get her used to what she needs to do when she works at the office of the Ability Alliance of West Alabama. The job hand book has pictures of sweeping, mopping, dusting, taking out the garbage, and shredding paper so that the client can associate the pictures with her job tasks. Yet I am taking it one step further and that is teaching her how to read what I have wrote under the pictures over the time she is working with us so that she can have basic reading skills for the benefit of this job that she will with AAWA and any other jobs she will have in the future. Reading skills are important to have and it is never to late for someone to learn how to read as many would say it is hard for people to start learning to read at an older age but to me that is a defeatist attitude to have about the wisdom of learning and the wisdom of getting older. The job coaching that I will be doing will be around the tasks of sweeping, mopping, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, taking out garbages, and shredding papers amongst the offices at the Ability Alliance of West Alabama. I hope that as others from the Tuscaloosa ARC see that Amanda has a good job that they will want my help in getting jobs for them and or in job preparation for them when they need the help. Therefore the success of this particular client on her job can be a good example for other clients of the Ability Alliance of West Alabama that they too can have a job and be able to work.
Personal Centered Planning Meeting
Last week the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama had a meeting on personal centered planning for the Ability Alliance of West Alabama that I had attended on Wednesday of last week. Personal Centered Planning is a different approach to working with people with intellectual disabilities in regards to care taking and helping them to plan for their futures. Personal Centered Planning is geared around the individual that a case management employee works with regularly and determines the dreams, goals, and aspirations of the client that the client chooses and not the case management employee for the client. The goal of it is to create more interpendence for clients and for them to have the capability of making their own decisions and choices of what kind of job that they want to have, how they choose to spend their money, what kinds of daily activities that they want to participate in, what kinds of foods that they want to eat, and also what friends they want to have. It is all about the client making the choices on a personal level first and then if they request help from their case manager and or staff that works with them then they can indeed have the help that they need.
During this particular meeting on personal centered planning a presenter from Region II Community Services went over what personal centered planning is and how to incorporate within your agency. Another presenter from the Ability Alliance of West Alabama presented on case management changes that are occurring in the state of Alabama and how the AAWA will use the changes to its benefit. Overall the purpose of case management support and personal centered planning is for assistance for clients and also to help clients become active participants in society and even if possible become employed in the workplace and be able to make choices of what kind of work that best suits them.
During this particular meeting on personal centered planning a presenter from Region II Community Services went over what personal centered planning is and how to incorporate within your agency. Another presenter from the Ability Alliance of West Alabama presented on case management changes that are occurring in the state of Alabama and how the AAWA will use the changes to its benefit. Overall the purpose of case management support and personal centered planning is for assistance for clients and also to help clients become active participants in society and even if possible become employed in the workplace and be able to make choices of what kind of work that best suits them.
Al-DAN Conference
Last week I went to the annual Alabama Disability Advocacy Network conference in which speakers talked about what Al-DAN is and what it intends to do. AL-DAN is an advocacy network of individuals with both physical and developmental disabilities who represent themselves before the government in an effort to try to change policies around people with disabilities in the work place and in regards to their activities of daily living. The AL-DAN advocacy network is provided through a grant from the Alabama Council for Developmental Disabilities and is maintained by disability organizations such as the Alabama Centers for Independent Living.
Some of the main objectives that AL-DAN has for the year of 2010 that were discussed at the annual conference that I attended last week were: 1. having regional meetings/trainings 2. statewide summit 3. gubernatorial forum 4. provide information on voting rights, voting registration deadlines and legislative updates concerning people with disabilities 5. to have at least 500 AL-DAN members, at least 10 grassroots disability advocacy organizations with vested interest in disability issues. One of the major issues and an example of effective advocacy presented was a bill about placing $50 fines on vehicles for parking in handicap places and an advocacy group by the name of Disabilities Unlimited was handing out stickers about this advocacy effort that they are working on currently. Disabilities Unlimited is representing this issue with their advocacy group from Walker County Alabama. The Ability Alliance of West Alabama also had an employee Eloise Woods speak at the conference for the election of board advisors in which three people are selected from each county of Alabama to provide assistance to the Board of Directors for AL-DAN on disability issues and for attaining more memberships within AL-DAN as well.
Some of the main objectives that AL-DAN has for the year of 2010 that were discussed at the annual conference that I attended last week were: 1. having regional meetings/trainings 2. statewide summit 3. gubernatorial forum 4. provide information on voting rights, voting registration deadlines and legislative updates concerning people with disabilities 5. to have at least 500 AL-DAN members, at least 10 grassroots disability advocacy organizations with vested interest in disability issues. One of the major issues and an example of effective advocacy presented was a bill about placing $50 fines on vehicles for parking in handicap places and an advocacy group by the name of Disabilities Unlimited was handing out stickers about this advocacy effort that they are working on currently. Disabilities Unlimited is representing this issue with their advocacy group from Walker County Alabama. The Ability Alliance of West Alabama also had an employee Eloise Woods speak at the conference for the election of board advisors in which three people are selected from each county of Alabama to provide assistance to the Board of Directors for AL-DAN on disability issues and for attaining more memberships within AL-DAN as well.
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