New Horizons 2009 Volume 48-3 Summer

7/28/2019 New Horizons 2009 Volume 48-3 Summer

1/4Visit our Web site at www.scvrd.net

H RIZONSSOUTH CAROLINA VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION DEPARTMENT

Summer 2009Volume 48, Number 3 N E W

Youngsters discover strengthsat Youth Leadership Forum

They came not knowing what to expect. They let with new-ound condence,new riends and a strong sense o accomplishment.

Fiteen youngsters with disabilities participated in the 2009 South Carolina Youth

Leadership Forum (YLF) held July 15 at the Wil Lou Gray Opportunity School inWest Columbia and July 16 and 17 at Newberry College.YLF is a career leadership program or high school juniors and seniors between

the ages o 17 and 21 who have leadership potential in both their school and theircommunity. The program ocuses on building sel-esteem, developing personalleadership skills and preparing young adults with disabilities to successullytransition rom school to employment.

Activities began on the ropes course at Wil Lou Gray. The high ropes coursetested individual resolve as the youngsters navigated ropes strung between twotrees 50 eet in the air, rocketed down a zip line and climbed a rock wall.

Teamwork was the goal on the low ropes course as they started with a get-acquainted exercise that required learning names, progressed to building a bridge

between two platorms and helping each other maneuver along cables suspendedbetween several trees, and culminated in guring out how to arrange themselves inbirth-date order without alling o a log.

Sessions at Newberry College ocused on leadership and skill-building activitiesalong with disability-related presentations, including what to expect in college.

The orum is the result o an interagency partnership called Partners inTransition. Members include the S.C. Vocational Rehabilitation Department,the Developmental Disabilities Council, state Department o Education, stateDepartment o Health and Environmental ControlChildrens RehabilitativeServices, the Continuum o Care in the Governors Oce, Proparents, the Centeror Disability Resources at the University o South Carolina, Lexington SchoolDistrict Four, and Midlands Technical College.

Van project a winner ................... 2

VR acilities demonstratesaety pays ................................... 3

Vocational assessmentrole redefned ..............................4

I N S I D E


2/4

New Horizons is published by the South CarolinaVocational Rehabilitation Department (SCVRD),1410 Boston Ave., P.O. Box 15, West Columbia,SC 29171-0015.

The Public Inormation Oce provides allnews and inormation. News materials may bereproduced with credit to New Horizons.

SCVRD distributes New Horizons ree bymail. Subscription requests or changes o addressmay be sent to the Public Inormation Oce atthe above address, telephone (803) 896-6833 ore-mail [email protected]

In accordance with ederal and state laws,SCVRD does not discriminate against any race,color, sex, national origin, age or disability inemployment or in provision o services.

Agency:Derle A. Lowder Sr., chairman, SumterBarbara G. Hollis, secretary, Columbia

H. Lucius Latte, M.D., at-large, AllendaleDr. Roxzanne Breland, Greenville

Timothy W. Evatt, PendletonRhonda J. Presha, Elgin

Alease G. Samuels, WalterboroJoseph A. Thomas, Conway

SCVRD:CommissionerBarbara G. Hollis

EditorSharon H. Kelly

H RIZONS

N E W

2

NEW HORIZONS

SCVRD Ofces:(All numbers have TDD capability.)

Aiken: (803) 641-7630

Anderson: (864) 224-6391)

Beauort: (843) 522-1010

Berkeley-Dorchester (Moncks Corner):(843) 761-6036; (866) 297-6808 (Toll ree)

Camden: (803) 432-1068(866) 206-5280 (Toll ree)

Charleston: (843) 740-1600

Conway: (843) 248-2235Florence: (843) 662-8114

Ganey: (864) 489-9954

Greenville: (864) 297-3066

Greenwood: (864) 229-5827

(866) 443-0162 (Toll ree)

Hartsville: (843) 383-2662

Lancaster: (803) 285-6909

Laurens (Clinton): (864 ) 833-4121(866) 443-0103 (Toll ree)

Lexington (West Columbia): (803) 896-6333

(866)206-5184 (Toll ree)

Marlboro (Bennettsville): (843) 479-8318(800) 849-4878 (Toll ree)

Oconee-Pickens (Seneca): (864) 882-6669

(866) 313-0082 (Toll ree)

Orangeburg: (803) 534-4939

Richland (Columbia): (803) 782-4239

Rock Hill: (803) 327-7106

Spartanburg: (864) 585-3693

(866) 451-1480 (Toll ree)

Sumter: (803) 469-2960

Walterboro: (843) 538-3116(888) 577-3549 (Toll ree)

Williamsburg (Kingstree): (843) 354-5252

Enabling eligible South Carolinians withdisabilities to prepare or, achieve and

maintain competitive employment

at cost-cutting measures whenBlake took on the van project.

As o September 2008, SCVRDhad 74 van routes plus substitute

drivers, or a total o about 100part-time van drivers.

With support rom center

managers and state oce trainingcenter coordinators, pilots wereheld in Greenwood, Aiken andCharleston during February, Marchand April. Although initially therewas some concern that attendanceat the work training centers wouldall o when the clients didnt haveVR-provided transportation, thatdidnt happen.

We got great eedback rom the

area supervisors, Blake said.The current round began in Julyin Camden, Florence, Anderson,Ganey and Spartanburg.

As the vans are eliminated,State Oce sta is working withthe areas to help clients nd othermeans o transportation and vandrivers nd other jobs.

Todd Blake has developed a planthat not only will save the agency

almost $2 million, it won an awardrom the South Carolina CertiedPublic Manager Program.

Blake, SCVRDsacility management andprocurement director,completed his certiedpublic manager (CPM)training in May. Theprograms goal is todevelop public sector

managers who meeta prescribed set oproessional standards.

Eighteen months ocoursework culminatesin an exam anda project. Blakesproject ocused onthe appropriateness o the agencyproviding transportation to job-readiness training clients and the

implications related to their utureemployment. Out o a class o55, it won the George C. AskewAward, which recognizes the eortso those who have demonstratedexemplary work in completing theirCPM projects.

Nathan Strong is managingpartner o organizationaldevelopment with the state Oceo Human Resources, which

administers and directs the CPMprogram. He said Blakes projectwas selected because it met thecritical criteria or a good CPMproject: it was o measurablebenet to the agency; it contributedto the ulllment o the agencysmission; and it addressed the needso critical customers (clients).

The agency was already looking

Todd Blake, left, receives the Askew award fromFrank Fusco, executive director of the state Budgetand Control Board.

Van project a winner

continued on next page


3/4

3

Summer 2009

From left, staff attorney Jeb Batten, Rock Hill center manager Jon Robinson,Commissioner Barbara Hollis and safety coordinator Neil Lown show off theCommissioners Safety Award.

Winnercontinued from page 2

All around, its a win-win-winsituation.

The clients are more sel-sucient and better prepared oremployment.The agency saves $1.9 millionthat can be used to provideadditional services to clients.Sta workloads or administeringthe van system decrease and thetime can be redirected to servingclients.Blakes project will be in the

running or the national AskewAward in September.

SCVRD acilities demonstrate saety paysSaety is paying o at VR.

An increased ocus on saety hasresulted in a signicant decrease inthe number o client and employeeinjuries and that translates into areduction in insurance premiums.

Insurance companies calculaterates using an experience modieror EMOD, said Neil Lown, SCVRDsaety coordinator. In 2007-08,the statewide average EMOD was1.29. In 2008-09, that has droppedto 1.20. Client trainee injuries aredown rom more than 2 percentin 2006-07 to 1.4 percent in 2007-

08. For the same period, employeeinjuries dropped by halrom 3percent to 1.5 percent.

Saety is denitely a priority,said Commissioner Barbara Hollis.Its important or both clients andsta. Our trends are good as wemove toward a saer environment.

The agencys saety record willsave it about $111,500 this year ininsurance premiums, Lown said.

Weve been tracking injuriessince 1997-98 and we institutedthe saety program in 1999-2000Lown said. When injuries startedincreasing, we started doing saetyassessments or the area oces.

The Rock Hill Work TrainingCenters attention to saety hasearned it the rst CommissionersSaety Award, which was presentedat the July supervisors meeting.

Center manager Jon Robinson

and his crew had a perect score ontheir saety assessment and reducedthe client trainee injury rate rom sixin 2007-08 to two in 2008-09.

For six o ten years, theexperience modier [or Rock Hill]has been less than one, Lown said.Thats a good sign o a consistentlyhealthy saety program.

The Rock Hill centers premiumwent down almost $2,500 this year.

The Charleston DDS oce alsoreceived a perect score on its saetyassessment this year, Lown said.

He attributed that to an excellentsaety coordinator and a good job ostaying on top o potential violations.

Statewide, employees andclients alike go through saetytraining, which teaches employeesthe importance o saety in theworkplace and clients learn thatsaety is part o a productive workenvironment.

Lown oversees 27 saetycoordinators who, in turn, monitorsaety in all 70 o SCVRDs acilities.

Lown has completed extensive saetytraining with OSHA and each o thecoordinators has completed 10 hourso OSHA training.

Lown monitors violations andaccident occurrences using anagency-wide database. Whenpotential accident trends emerge, heconducts training to prevent similarinjuries.

Supervisors are ultimately

responsible or saety in their acilitiesand saety goals appear on theirperormance appraisals

The Commissioners Saety Awardis based on the centers experiencemodier and the saety assessmentscore.


4/4

4

The South Carolina VocationalRehabilitation Department reportsthat it printed 5,200 copies o thisnewsletter at a cost o $622.80, orabout $.12 a copy.

H RIZONS

N E W

South Carolina VocationalRehabilitation Department1410 Boston AvenuePost Oce Box 15West Columbia, SC 29171-0015

Return Service Requested

Non-protUS Postage

PAIDWest Columbia, SC

Permit No. 255

Vocational assessment role redefnedInormed choice.

In vocational rehabilitation circles,it means empowering clients withenough inormation to successullychoose their vocational path.

It also means providing VR stamembers with enough inormationto ensure that clients go to work in

jobs or careers they can sustain.Thats the goal o the new Voca-

tional ACESassessment and career

exploration specialists role.J.P. Geiman o Oconee-Pickens

came up with the name duringa two-day training in June thatmapped the transition rom careerplanning and employment special-ists to vocational ACES.

Dr. Steve Sligar, director o thegraduate program in vocationalevaluation at East Carolina Univer-sity, provided the training or the rst

day. The second day was devoted toamiliarizing participants with the newworkfow.

For the 34 sta members whoattended, it was total immersion inthe vocational evaluation process,which will provide a logical rame-work or the vocational ACE spe-cialist and a vocational direction orthe client.

Since each client is unique, we

need to gather as much inormationas we can to ensure that our clientscan work to their maximum po-tential, said Linda Lieser, assistantcommissioner or client services.

The assessment explores edu-cation, vocational interests, workhistory, and potential employmentimpediments. Other activities mayinclude an interest inventory, jobshadow or tryout, work evaluation,

aptitude or achievement testing, andnally, career exploration.

Using the results, a recommenda-tion is made to the counselor oremployment coach about an appro-priate vocational objective, plannedservices and placement needs.

Lieser cited a 2003 Institute orRehabilitation Issues study that saidin the 68 percent o the caseswhere recommendations were ol-

lowed, 92 percent o the consumerswere successully placed. In the 32percent o the cases where recom-mendations were not ollowed, only28 percent o the consumers weresuccessully placed.

We have revisited and redenedassessment and our clients willbenet, said Gloria Plotnik, clientservices specialist or vocationalassessment.

New Horizons 2009 Volume 48-3 Summer

Documents

Transcript of New Horizons 2009 Volume 48-3 Summer