Welcome!
Please join us via teleconference:
Phone: 866-210-1669
Code: 3381602
Today’s Agenda
• News from the field
• Approaches to plan and measure
your success over the next year
• NextSTEP tools
• National Disability Inclusion
Leadership Development Institute
• Questions? Comments?
What’s Up?
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NSIP news
Request for Stories
Next Month’s call
What’s your news?
The Big Picture
How can you plan for inclusion in a way that is driven
by the needs in your state?
How can you measure progress?
The Cycle
• Identify Strengths and
needs
• Determine Priority
Areas
• Create a Plan
• Implement Your Plan
• Check Your Progress
Identify Strengths and Areas for
Improvement
• The Inclusion Indicators is an umbrella
evaluation tool
• Other tools, such as member surveys and site
accessibility checklists can be used to help you
use the inclusion indicators
• This step will provide you with a baseline for
where your state currently is with it’s efforts
toward inclusion.
Identify Strengths and Areas for
Improvement - Example
Our state used the inclusion indicators to assess our inclusion efforts.
We found that in order to answer the questions, we needed to collect
data and information from our programs.
• members across the state to used the accessibility checklist to assess
their service site.
• Members and volunteers filled out our inclusion survey
• Program directors added inclusion questions to exit interviews and
sent us a summary of comments.
All of this information we gathered not only helped us fill out the
inclusion indicators tool, it encouraged our programs to be thinking
about inclusion and it gave us a more comprehensive picture of where
we were.
Determine Priority Areas and Desired
Outcomes
• Use the data collected in the first step to
identify areas you want to work to improve.
• Determine priority areas by thinking about
legal responsibilities, CNCS priorities, partner
priorities and your commission priorities
• Taking time to strategically determine
priority areas can help you target your efforts
Determine Priority Areas and Desired
Outcomes - Example
The inclusion indicators tool helped us to see that
we needed to address:
• our outreach and recruitment activities because
14% of our state’s population has a disability but
only 6% of our members and volunteers reported
they have a disability,
•our staff needed some training on how to manage
and support members and volunteers and
•our policies needed to be updated.
Determine Priority Areas and Desired
Outcomes - Example
• Priority Area: Outreach and Recruitment
– Outcome: After one year, 10% of members and volunteers serving in national
service programs in our state report they have a disability in our annual
disability survey.
• We picked this outcome because it relates to inclusion indicator 1.e, our
commission’s priority to increase the diversity of our members, and the CNCS
Strategic Plan, Goal 2 to “recruit a diversity of Americans, especially those from
underrepresented populations”. Our partners also identified the need for more
people with disabilities in our state to gain experience and engage in meaningful
ways with their community.
– Outcome: As a result of targeted recruitment of returning veterans with
disabilities, at last 2% of members and volunteers in our state will report that
they are a veteran with a disability.
• We picked this outcome because there are two large military bases in our state and
the inclusion of veterans is a key commission priority. This outcome also aligns with
CNCS’s Goal 2 Priority Measure, “Number of veterans and military families engaged
in providing services through CNCS-supported programs”
Create a Plan
• Work with partners/key stakeholders to create a
plan
• Plans should define: activities, the person
responsible for each activity, a target date for the
completion of each activity and how you’ll know
if an activity has been accomplished.
• A clear plan allows you to collaborate more
effectively with partners, track progress and
make the most of the resources you have
available.
Create a Plan - Example
Once we identified our priority areas and desired
outcomes, our commission worked with the
inclusion team (made up of program staff and
representatives from the disability community) to
develop a strategic plan. We divided into subcommittees, ensuring that each sub committee had
representation from both the national service
community and the disability community. Each subcommittee focused on one priority area. Sub
committee members worked together to ensure
that each action step we added to the plan would
lead directly to one of our identified outcomes.
Create a Plan - Example
For each action step sub committees identified
who was responsible for the step, how the team
will measure the success of this action, and a
target date for completing the action. This
provided us with a framework to track all of the
efforts that were moving us toward the
outcomes we identified.
Implement Your Plan
• Your plan helps coordinate programs staff,
commission staff and local partners
• As you implement your plan, communicate
with your team to track progress, identify
barriers and adjust your plan
• As you implement your plan, periodically
check to ensure you and your team are still
working toward your outcomes
Implement Your Plan
Throughout the year, as we implemented our plan, we
continued to collect feedback and data on our inclusion
efforts. In addition to the internal discussions about the
inclusion team’s progress on our action steps, we also:
•collected evaluations from every training,
•followed up with programs to track application of the
skills gained during the training,
•conducted our annual statewide disability survey of
members and volunteers
•and at the end of the year program directors provided us
with summaries of their members’ comments on
inclusion from their exit interviews.
Check Your Progress and
Share Your Results
• Once you’ve implemented your plan, it’s
important to stop an check your progress
• Use assessment tools to measure where you
are and compare with the baseline
• This step helps you identify and share success
with the field as well as identify new areas to
address throughout the next year.
Check Your Progress and
Share Your Results - Example
At the end of the year, the inclusion team gathered to discuss our progress,
examine the data collected throughout the year and determine how we
wanted to move forward. The data we collected indicated:
•the number of members and volunteers reporting a disability had risen from
6% to 9%
•No member or volunteers responding to the survey reported that they were
a veteran with a disability.
•85% of program staff reported they learned thought the subject matter of
the inclusion trainings was presented effectively, and 80% reported they
planned to apply what they learned during the inclusion trainings
•In follow-up site visits, only 40% of program staff could identify how they had
applied what they learned during the inclusion trainings to their work.
•100% of program staff reported they were aware of the revised reasonable
accommodation policy and had been provided with a copy of the policy.
•90% of members who reported they had requested an accommodation
indicated that they were either “satisfied” or “extremely satisfied” with the
support they received in response to their request.
NextSTEP
Service Works! A Guide to National Service for
Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors
Service Makes Sense! For Students with Disabilities:
National Service Programs as a Stepping Stone to
Employment
Lessons Learned from Project Impact: Community
Service During the Transition to Employment for Youth
With Disabilities
What’s happening in December?
• National Disability Inclusion Leadership
Development Institute
• December 10-11 in Arlington, VA
• Capacity Building and Advanced tracks
We’ll miss you Erin!
So Long, Farewell…