November LEAD On! Newsletter – Customized Employment and Guided Group Discovery: Strategies for Success
Explore two strategies workforce professionals can use to empower jobseekers with disabilities and support businesses to diversify and strengthen workplaces in any industry.
ON TOPIC
Customized Employment and Guided Group Discovery
Customized Employment (CE) is one approach to help jobseekers, including those with disabilities, find jobs that suit them well. It does this by personalizing the relationship between employee and employer to meet the needs of both. This “win-win” approach became a part of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in 2014 as a supported employment strategy.
Discovery is the first step in the CE process. Guided Group Discovery (GGD) is one form of Discovery for people who work well in a group. GGD is a strengths-based, group approach to supporting jobseekers by creating actionable career plans that are accessible to anyone, whether or not they experience challenges or barriers to employment. These career plans are called “Blueprints for Employment.” Each Blueprint outlines information about the jobseeker, their skills, abilities and strengths, their network, and action steps that link jobseekers to potential employers, career types, and support services. While there are other types of “Discovery,” this newsletter will shine a spotlight on GGD.
By using CE and GGD, jobseekers with disabilities can achieve competitive integrated employment .
In this newsletter issue, you will learn about several resources for utilizing CE and GGD, including:
- A brief on customized employment systems innovation
- Success stories at the individual and programmatic level
- Webinars and other resources on utilizing CE and GGD
- A special introduction of a new staff member who brings a history of experience in programs that create partnerships and customize job opportunities
Customized Employment Systems Innovation Brief
While the traditional approach to job seeking suits most people whose skills closely match job requirements, many individuals with barriers to employment find it challenging and frustrating. For six years, the LEAD Center helped various states and systems develop job opportunities for youth and adults with disabilities through CE and Discovery (Guided Group and Self-Guided) pilots. The LEAD Center then gathered feedback from partners in these pilots, including staff and participants from the workforce system, vocational rehabilitation (VR), developmental disability administrations, behavioral health, schools, veteran services, juvenile and adult corrections programs, Centers for Independent Living, and community colleges. Based on this feedback, the LEAD Center created materials and processes to further support successful CE and Discovery (Guided Group and Self-Guided). This brief provides background information about the LEAD Center’s work, discusses new developments in this field, and shares lessons learned along the way.
ON THE GROUND
In 2021, Jhiya Cooper participated in one of the first GGD cohorts in the D.C. Public School (DCPS) system when she joined the program at River Terrace Education Campus’s Workforce Development Center.
GGD allowed Jhiya to create a Blueprint for Employment that focused on her skills, interests, and needs. GGD also helped her build a resume that outlined her past work experience and highlighted her strengths of communication, organization, and work ethic. She found role playing with other GGD participants made her feel more confident about interviews. Through GGD, Jhiya built a portfolio of work she could show to employers during meet-and-greets at different work sites. GGD even empowered her to build her own professional website.
Immediately after completing the program, Jhiya applied to 10 jobs, and she used her Blueprint to talk to potential employers about her past experiences, future professional goals, and job customizations that would allow her to thrive in their workplace. Through her experience in GGD, Jhiya landed an internship in hospitality and then held several paid jobs, including work at a local hardware store, a cruise company, and Marshall’s. Jhiya works closely with her job coach and supervisors to build continued success. In the future, she hopes to pursue her General Educational Development (GED) diploma and barbering license, as well as move into her own apartment and pay all of her bills independently.
In 2018, Toni DePeel, Pre-Employment Transition Service (Pre-ETS) Coordinator, and her small but mighty team at Oregon’s Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agency began a state-wide pilot project around CE and, more specifically, GGD. The team focused on six different areas in the state, partnering with local high schools. The in-person, group-based curriculum asked five main questions of its transition-age students:
- What type of work environment do I want to work in?
- What type of work tasks are my strengths?
- What type of work tasks do I want to do?
- What type of employer do I want to work for?
- What industries might I like to work in?
When the COVID-19 pandemic shifted everything online, Toni and her team had to quickly reimagine the GGD process for remote learning. She helped the students stay engaged by using interactive worksheets and artistic projects that asked students to stretch their imaginations. For example, one activity said, “Draw or write out a description of yourself now. Then, draw or write out a description of your future self. Where will you live? What will you do for work? What things would you want to have?” Students held drawings and writing samples up to the screen to share with the group.
Toni also incorporated videos so students could see different work environments and career options, even when they could not visit in person. To keep things interactive and self-advocacy focused, Toni often encouraged students to think through their strengths and preferences and then share with one another, much like job interviews.
Toni’s creativity and the inherent flexibility of CE enabled Oregon’s program to provide support to young jobseekers with disabilities through the pandemic and it continues to thrive today.
ON CUE
Resource: The Essential Elements of Customized Employment for Universal Application
This guide identifies the essential elements of CE as a guide for the universal application of these elements across service delivery and training providers.
Resource: Customized Employment Works For Veterans Brief
This document introduces several veterans who have proudly served, successfully negotiated the transition into civilian life, and who are productively employed in customized jobs through the assistance of some amazing peers and CE strategies.
Resource: Customized Employment: A Job that I Love (video)
This video describes the importance of Discovery, the first stage in the CE process and the positive impacts of having a customized job for a disabled veteran.
Resource: Customized Employment Works for Veterans: A Win-Win Strategy (video)
This video describes CE from the veteran, service provider, and employer points of view.
Resource: Guided Group Discovery Resources: Introduction and Course, Participant Workbook, & Facilitator Guide
This suite of resources includes a Facilitator Manual, an accompanying PowerPoint slide deck (Introduction and Course), and a Participant Workbook for GGD success.
Resource: Guided Group Discovery Participant Workbook (Online)
This Participant Workbook allows completion of the GGD workbook through a web browser. A Workbook that a user starts can be re-opened to add, edit, or review information at any time through a link sent via email.
Resource: Guided Group Discovery – Veterans Edition – Facilitator Guide
This Facilitator’s Guide trains people to facilitate GGD sessions with veterans, people with disabilities, and/or others who experience barriers to employment.
Resource: Guided Group Discovery – Youth Version – Facilitator Guide & Supplemental Slide Deck
This Facilitator’s Guide trains people to facilitate GGD sessions with youth and young adults with disabilities. Materials include a Facilitator Manual, an accompanying supplemental PowerPoint slide deck, and a Participant Manual.
Partnerships to Support Successful Customized Employment
(July 25, 2023)
This webinar shares how Oregon and the District of Columbia have implemented CE through partnerships involving schools, VR, the workforce system, community employment providers, and more. This webinar also explores applications of GGD, adapted for different populations, as a first step in the CE process.
Customized Employment Funding: Strategies and Solutions
(March 30, 2022)
In this webinar, presenters discuss best approaches for funding CE efforts, available CE funding sources, and the necessary financial considerations in incorporating CE into service offerings. It also offers a rich participant discussion on tangible steps for increasing access to CE funding and an infographic illustrating the history of CE.
ON THE HORIZON
Upcoming Webinar: The Good Jobs Initiative (GJI), Part 2
Longtime LEAD On! readers may recognize the name “Yvonne Wright” from a newsletter published in June 2018. Yvonne was featured for her work in Missouri’s workforce system in which she collaborated with the state’s workforce Equal Opportunity team to develop processes and policy around implementation of Section 188 of WIOA.
The LEAD Center would like to welcome Yvonne as its new Co-Director. Yvonne brings experience with both the VR and workforce systems. She most recently served as Deputy Director with the Missouri’s Division of Workforce Development. Prior to being recruited to join the Division of Workforce Development, she was employed for 25 years with Missouri Vocational Rehabilitation. During her tenure, she served as a VR transition counselor, supervisor, liaison to Centers for Independent living and the Ticket to Work Program, the state workforce development agency and, upon her exit, was Director of the agency’s first business outreach team. Yvonne brings to the LEAD Center her experiences working with both the workforce and VR systems to develop strategies to meet customers where they are at through customizing opportunities that work best for the customer and the employer. Please join us in welcoming Yvonne!