Principle Trainer: Julie Anna Clay, MPH
Co-Trainer: John Sargent, M.Ed., M.B.A

Abstract

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Task Force designed a Best Practices Model by which employers followed equal employment opportunity policies, programs, and practices. The purpose of this project is to replicate the model used by the EEOC Task Force for identifying successful strategies used by VR programs and employers in securing employment for American Indians with disabilities. A Project Advisory Committee (PAC) will be developed to assist in the model replication. The PAC will examine VR and employer practices and programs which promote the employment of American Indians with disabilities.

Purpose

Job accommodation and retention for American Indians with disabilities can be improved through culturally appropriate vocational training. Marshall, Longie, Miller, Cerveny, and Monongye (1994) noted that American Indians with disabilities needed emotional support in order to sustain their job training. People with disabilities are hired with little or no career advancement, yet some employers feel they have met their legal and moral obligations by providing employment to people with disabilities. Most employers are not aware of the different tax incentives, such as the Minimum Wage Waiver Certificate and on-the-job training programs.

Culturally sensitive training for VR programs and prospective employers would resolve many employment barriers faced in employing American Indian and Alaska Natives with disabilities (Nye et al., 1993).

Objectives

• 1.0: Identify the Best Practices in the vocational rehabilitation area of American Indians with disabilities. Activities:
• 1.1 Assemble a team from CANAR, IHS, BIA, tribal VR and other interested parties, to develop a "Best Practices Model."
• 1.2 Develop criteria for the "Best Practices Model."
• 1.3 Develop the nomination forms.
• 1.4 Develop a list of potential judges and invite them to recommend any applicants based on the "Best Practices Model."
• 1.5 The task force will review, score, and select two VR programs (one tribal, one state) 1.6 The selected VR programs will be notified.
• 1.7 Awards for the "Best Practices Model" will be presented at the CANAR Conference on the Employment of American Indians and Alaska Natives with Disabilities.
• 1.8 Profiles of the recipients of the "Best Practices Model" Awards will be placed in the CANAR Monograph and CANAR Newsletter.

Progress to Date

Objective 1.0, Project Activities 1.1-1.4: Completed. A Project Advisory Committee of 14 was assembled from various organizations that serve American Indians or Alaska Natives with disabilities. The committee evaluated and refined the results of a literature review, conducted to reveal VR best practices criteria. The nomination letter and form, complete with six best practices criteria and eleven optional criteria, were finalized in November 2000. On December 15, 2000, over 550 nomination packets were mailed to personnel employed with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service, state and tribal vocational rehabilitation programs, and Alaska Native vocational rehabilitation agencies. The letter requested program managers to submit nominations.

The PAC members agreed to serve as judges for the selection of one tribal and one state model program.

Project Activities 1.5-1.7: Completed. The PAC reviewed, scored, and selected one tribal and one state vocational rehabilitation program from the nominations submitted. The tribal selectee was the Choctaw Vocational Rehabilitation Services Program (Word Format | Acrobat Format) and the state selectee was the Eastern Utah District Division of Rehabilitation Services (Word Format | Acrobat Format). Telephone interviews were held with both directors so that more detail could be elicited about their respective programs, including the unique characteristics that set them apart from other programs and made them "model programs."

Each program director was formally recognized and awarded a plaque at the CANAR conference in Seattle, Washington on December 11, 2001.

Project Activity 1.8: In Progress. Two articles will be published in the Summer 2002 CANAR newsletter: one article will describe the nomination, selection, and award process of the project , and one article will profile the Choctaw Vocational Rehabilitation Services Program.

A more in-depth description of the two model VR programs will be written and placed in a future AIRRTC publication. The entire process should be completed by March 2003.

Note: This project has been endorsed by the Consortia of Administrators for Native American Rehabilitation (CANAR).