Archived Webinars

Lisa Van Ryn and Michelle Barlow will discuss how their agency addressed the need to improve the quality of adult career and continuing education VR services in New York when traditional agency staff training did not produce the desired results. This webinar is part of a series where members of the NIDILRR-funded RTAC project of VR Program Management present the lessons they've learned through their management initiative.

Esther Bennett from the Washington Division of Vocational Rehabilitation will outline the different approaches the agency is taking to cultivate a work culture that promotes recruitment and retention of a diverse and qualified staff.

The Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts Boston hosts the Job Driven Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center (JD-VRTAC) funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA).

This webinar will describe the demographic and primary disability variations of VR closure in major occupation groups from 2008 to 2012. The speakers will describe the patterns and trends of variations of demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and racial/ ethnic group. In addition, the webinar will present information on primary disability patterns such as sensory/communicative impairments, physical impairments, cognitive impairments, and psychosocial and other mental impairments.

This webinar will describe national VR employment closure patterns by occupation types from years 2008 – 2012. In addition, the speakers will discuss state level variation trends. This information is illustrative of where VR clients have been placed in past labor market opportunities, and can help VR professionals target specific occupations and industries for successful employment.

What is labor market information (LMI)? How can LMI be valuable for vocational rehabilitation (VR) counselors?

The Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts, in collaboration with the Vermont Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (VT DVR) is engaged in an exciting research activity that is seeking to replicate and evaluate a promising model in VR. This is the Vermont Progressive Employment model (VTPE) that focuses on both business relations and VR customers with barriers to employment.

The Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) and the Vermont Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) are pleased to have hosted a webinar, which provided information about Vermont’s Progressive Employment (PE) Model and discussed the opportunity for state VR agencies to engage in a research project aimed at replicating the model using a learning collaborative approach.

The goal of the Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation project was to improve workforce planning.  During the development and implementation of the project the agency was faced with the loss of the agency director and by a time-consuming agency audit. The agency was able to develop a workforce plan and tap into their peer network for support and guidance. This webinar is part of a series where members of the NIDILRR-funded RTAC project of VR Program Management present the lessons they've learned through their management initiative.