NEWS
FYI Newsletter
The Indiana Institute's FYI Newsletter is published regularly and includes news, upcoming events, and additional resources valuable to individuals with disabilities, family members, and industry professionals.To subscribe to the Indiana Institute FYI E-Newsletter, simply follow this link and enter your e-mail: Subscribe to FYI Newsletter.
You will receive a confirmation e-mail that you have been added to the Indiana Institute E-Newsletter.
To unsubscribe, please enter your e-mail.
FYI Newsletter September 14, 2009
Quick Scan:
- Aging and End of Life Webinar
- EST Workshop
- IN-APSE 19th Annual Conference
- City's Council for Community Accessibility Seeks Nominees for Annual Awards
- Scaling Up Conversation Continues
- Indiana AdvantAge Initiative Study
- Library Corner
UPCOMING
AGING AND END OF LIFE WEBINAR: The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is sponsoring a monthly webinar series on issues related to aging and end of life. The first webinar titled Key Issues in Healthcare Decision Making and Care at End of Life: How to Use Person-Centered Practices to Support Quality Planning with People with Critical, Chronic and/or Terminal Illnesses will be held on September 16, 2009 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. eastern time. The featured speaker will be Ann Creaney Kingsbury, MPA, Gerontologist. You can register for the webinar and participate on your own computer by linking to the following website for registration information at http://www.aamr.org/content_276.cfm.
EST WORKSHOP: The Indiana Supported Employment Training Team (ISETT) invites you to attend the final Employment Specialist Training Workshops for 2009! EST is designed to provide basic skills training to service providers who have worked as employment specialists for less than one year. To date, EST has certified over 2,500 employment specialists in Indiana.
What do folks have to say about EST... “Speakers were very informative and easy to understand! They gave creative solutions to underlying issues we confront daily in this business.” “The materials provide excellent resources for me to use in doing my job. I am so excited to go home and implement everything I've learned.” And finally, “Hands down the best training and most practical program I've ever attended!”
Attendees learn best practice in job and career development, employment support planning, ecological analysis, follow-along, and emerging industry trends. EST is a six-day training split into two sessions which are held one month apart. An exit test is required for participants seeking certification. Individuals who attend all days of both sessions and successfully complete the exit test receive a competency-based certificate from Indiana University. CEUs and CRUs are available.
Training date and location:
November 3-5 and December 1-3, 2009
Indiana Institute on Disability and Community
Bloomington, IN
Act now and receive a $200.00 per participant discount toward the $300.00 registration fee. For more information or to register, contact Kay Moore at (812) 855-6508 or e-mail moorel@indiana.edu.
IN-APSE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE: IN-APSE will be holding its 19th Annual Conference at the Indianapolis Marriott East in December! Conference highlights include:
Pre-Conference on December 8: Interactive Workshop on Ex-Offenders with Barbara Barnett a Trainer/Consultant with the Supported Employment Consultation and Training Center (SECT)
Two-Day Conference on December 9 and 10: Destination Employment – Pilot Your Career will feature energizing breakout sessions and inspiring keynote presentations. The conference will open with a keynote presentation by Senior Vice President of Distribution and Logistics for Walgreens, Randy Lewis, who will share how the company has set new standards for employing people with disabilities. The conference will conclude on Thursday afternoon with the annual awards banquet and a motivational presentation by Jack McCall who will inspire attendees to rekindle the fires of enthusiasm and recapture the magic of laughter.
This year the two-day conference’s breakout sessions will feature regional experts and have a special tract featuring the Business Leadership Network. Be sure to watch your mail and visit http://www.inapse.org often – registration materials will be available soon!
IN BLOOMINGTON
CITY'S COUNCIL FOR COMMUNITY ACCESSIBILITY SEEKS NOMINEES FOR ANNUAL AWARDS: The City of Bloomington’s Council for Community Accessibility (CCA) is now soliciting nominations for its annual awards ceremony taking place at the end of October.
The awards will recognize individuals, businesses and organizations that make the community more accessible for people with disabilities. The CCA advocates on behalf of people with disabilities, promoting awareness and working to develop solutions to problems of accessibility in the community.
Award categories include:
Kristin Willison Volunteer Service Award
Business Service Award
Professional and Community Service Award
Housing Service Award
Self-Advocacy Award
Mayor’s Award
Nomination forms are available in the Community and Family Resources Department (CFRD) in City Hall, 401 N. Morton Street, Suite 260, or online at www.bloomington.in.gov/cfrd.
The deadline for turning in all nomination forms is Friday, Oct. 2. For information about award nominations or the CCA, contact Craig Brenner, Special Projects Coordinator for CFRD, via e-mail at brennerc@bloomington.in.gov or by phone at (812) 349-3471.
ACROSS THE COURTYARD
SCALING UP CONVERSATION CONTINUES: A couple of week ago, we told you about the work of Dean Fixsen, Co-Director of the National Implementation Research Network and of the State Implementation and Scaling-Up Evidence-Based Practices Center at the Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
Evaluation is an essential component of any major undertaking in education, especially one as complex as the State Implementation and Scaling up of Evidence-based Practices Center. David Mank, Indiana Institute Director, spent time in Denver, Colorado last week as part of a National Evaluation Board assessing the work of the Center and providing recommendations for improvements over the next few years.
Other members of the National Evaluation Board include:
Lynn S. Fuchs, Ph.D.
Nicholas Hobbs Professor of Special Education and Human Development
228 Peabody
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37220
Mark T. Greenberg Ph.D.
Bennett Chair of Prevention Research
Director, Prevention Research Center
HDFS - Henderson Building South Room 109
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Mitchell L. Yell, Ph.D.
Fred and Francis Lester Chair in Teacher Education
University of South Carolina
235-G Wardlaw
Columbia, SC 29208
Additionally, while in Denver, Mank, Rob Horner, Alumni-Knight Professor, Special Education, University of Oregon, George Sugai, Carole J. Neag Chair in Special Education, University of Connecticut, and others met as an External Evaluation Team for the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.
Horner and Sugai are Co-Directors of the Center with David Mank, Rob O’Neill, Professor, Program in Mild/Moderate Disabilities at the University of Utah, Dixie Jordan, PACER Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Gwen Cartledge, Professor in Special Education, The Ohio State University, working as external evaluators.
The TA Center provides schools capacity-building information and technical assistance for identifying, adapting, and sustaining effective school-wide disciplinary practices. The Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports is now having an impact on 10,000 schools across the U.S.
INDIANA ADVANTAGE INITIATIVE STUDY: The Institute’s Center on Aging and Community manages a statewide planning and demonstration grant entitled Partnerships for Lifespan Communities. As part of this project, the Center recently completed the most comprehensive, randomized telephone survey of 5,000 adults 60 and older, ever undertaken in Indiana. The survey utilized planning tools organized around 33 indicators of an elder-friendly community. Results from the survey are being incorporated into planning projects in 16 multi-county areas and five local neighborhoods in Indiana to create livable, lifespan communities for Indiana’s growing senior population.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Today, the Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends project released data that continues to confirm the trend towards later retirement in the U.S. The study reports from a recent nationwide survey, suggesting that the two decade trend towards later retirement is now reinforced by the current slide in the economy and the huge loss of wealth experienced by older persons with the downturn of the stock market. 40% of those working past the median age of retirement (age 62) are postponing their retirement plans because of the recession. Among those aged 50 – 61, 63% report they may have to push back their retirement age.
Some analysts have argued that this significant loss of wealth can be attributed to the massive movement away from defined benefit pension plans towards defined contribution plans, a gain for corporations and a loss for labor. Moreover, while many individuals prefer having the ability to exert personal control over investment portfolios such as 401(k) plans, investment practices have not been wise. The New York Times (9/3/2009) cites a study that “nearly a quarter of Americans ages 56 to 64 had more than 90 percent of their 401(k) balances invested in stocks instead of bonds, against financial advisers’ standard advice for people nearing retirement.”
Other older persons, not in the workforce, affect the overall picture as well. The Indiana AdvantAge Initiative survey, conducted in 2008 by the Center on Aging and Community, Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, found that while 28% of older Hoosiers are working part or full time, if everyone who wanted to work were employed, that percentage would jump to 47%. Of those not currently in the workforce, 186,520 older Hoosiers (19% of those not working) would like to be working for pay.
This large number of older individuals staying in or seeking to re-enter the workforce might be seen by some as a source of inter-generational conflict. In fact, as the Pew study reports, younger people are tending to stay in school longer, postponing their entry into the workforce. People disadvantaged by disability might be facing more competition, however, as perhaps are younger people who have dropped out of the educational system.
One interesting finding of the Pew Study, however, is that it is not the money but the desire to remain productive and engaged with others that is the chief reason for working. So, a community concerned about the issue might see a win/win situation.
If financially secure older persons nearing retirement have opportunities to fully engage in the community through productive volunteer options, they may not be as eager to continue in the workforce, thus providing those openings on the other end for young people and people with disabilities. This would be a “community for a lifetime” in which everyone benefits.
For a report on Indiana’s aging workforce, including the AdvantAge survey data, visit www.workforcewise.com, a project of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce. For questions on the AdvantAge Initiative, contact Phil Stafford at (812) 855-6508 or e-mail staffor@indiana.edu.
LIBRARY CORNER
New Items: The following new materials may be borrowed by Indiana residents from the Center for Disability Information and Referral at the Institute. To check out materials, contact the library at 1-800-437-7924, send e-mail to cedir@indiana.edu, or visit us at 2853 East Tenth Street in Bloomington.
Crooke, P., & Winner, M.G. (2009).Socially curious and curiously Social: A Social Thinking Guideline for Teens & Young adults with Asperger’s, ADHD, PDD-NOS, NVLD, or other Murky Undiagnosed Social Learning Issues. San Jose: Think Social Publishing, Inc.Labosh, K. (2005). The child with autism goes to Florida: Theme park and resort guide tips and ride reviews. East Petersburg, PA: Labosh Publishing.
McCarthy, B., & O’Neill-Blackwell, J. (2007). Hold on, you lost me!: Use learning styles to create training that sticks. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.