March 2020 Newsletter
Indiana’s “Work to Include” Coalition
Advancing Employment for Individuals with Disabilities
Pat Rogan, Professor, IUPUI School of Education and Co-Director, Work to Include Initiative
Susan Rinne, MPA and Co-Director, Work to Include Initiative
Get the key updates in this month's newsletter.
We hope to provide this information to you monthly to keep you up to date on what local planning teams are doing and to let you know about additional resources and ways you can provide your voice in policymaking activities in Indiana.
Employment First Plan
The Indiana Rehabilitation Commission received over 200 comments on the Employment First Plan after its publication in December. The Commission met and reviewed the comments and incorporated some revisions, accordingly. The plan should be ready for distribution in the next few weeks. Next steps for the plan include: identifying specific actions, timelines and responsibility for each item; establishing an accountability structure to ensure items are completed and funding secured, where necessary, and implementation of an evaluate process to report progress. We promise to share with Coalition members, as soon as possible.
Employer Toolkit Coming
One of the big activities that Work to Include plans this next year is an Employer Awareness Campaign. We brought together a group of people with disabilities and employers in January to help with the development of what we are calling an Employer Leadership Toolkit. The plan is to kick-off the campaign in each of the 11 Work to Include Coalition communities during October 2020 Disability Employment Awareness Month. We hope this then becomes an annual event in the state. We will be sure to share details as the Toolkit is developed.
State as Model Employer
The state of Indiana is one of the largest employers with over 30,000 employees statewide. What if the state of Indiana made a commitment to be a model employer for individuals with disabilities? What if they took a proactive approach to recruiting people for the myriad of professional and entry level people they need right now? Well, the state is in the process of figuring that out. Through a technical assistance grant from the Office of Disability and Employment Policy of the Department of Labor, the state is considering what it will take to ensure it sets goals, provides adequate support, and increases employee representation. Other states, like Ohio, Louisiana, and Montana, have made this commitment and seen a significant increase in the number of people with disabilities employed by the state. This is a great step and Work to Include will be providing support so that we can be sure individuals with disabilities are involved in designing solutions to barriers to state employment.
#INCLUSIONWORKS
Medicaid Waiver Redesign
In January 2020, the Division on Disability and Rehabilitative Services released a concept paper outlining potential changes to the Home and Community Based Services Waiver for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. They are asking for feedback from individuals and families on the information contained in the paper. Work to Include is in the process of developing comments and will share those with you in the coming weeks. For those who want to learn more, the Website with all materials is:
Stakeholder feedback will be accepted until April 17, 2020 and may be submitted the following ways:
At upcoming Building Bridges meetings.
All meetings are 6:00-8:00 p.m. local time:
March 12, 2020: Plymouth Public Library, 201 N Center Street, Plymouth, Ind.
March 23, 2020: Fort Wayne Public Library, 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Ind.
April 2, 2020: Fishers Public Library, 5 Municipal Drive, Fishers, Ind.
Self-Advocates meetings:
Vincennes
Date: March 4, 2020, 4 - 6 p.m.
Location: Vincennes University, Green Activity Center
120 W. Harrison Street, Vincennes, IN 47591New Albany
Date: March 5, 2020, 4 - 6 p.m.
Location: Prosser Career Center,
4202 Charlestown Road, New Albany, IN 47150Indianapolis
Date: March 12, 2020, 4 - 6 p.m.
Location: Ivy Tech 9301 E 59th St., Indianapolis, IN 46216
Rooms: 166 and 168
Email or Survey links are available on the webpage
Medicaid Block Grants
In January, the Trump administration announced it will begin allowing states to apply to “block grant” Medicaid. This is a financing system for Medicaid that allows for the state to use a new capped-funding approach; they have flexibility in how they design these plans and could be exempted from certain Medicaid requirements. For example, the plan would allow states to create a formulary to pick and choose which drugs are covered — normally Medicaid covers all drugs. This methodology has been criticized as a way to restrict eligibility and access to new treatments. While people with disabilities, may be exempted, depending on how it is structured, it could adversely affect them. Advocates should be aware and pay attention to how Indiana Medicaid communicates its intentions.
CHECK US OUT…
Please help get the word out! Go to our Facebook and LinkedIN pages and share them widely. We hope you enjoy the access to employment-related content and are sure others will, too. Thanks!
HAVE AN EMPLOYMENT SUCCESS STORY YOU ARE WANTING TO SHARE?EMAIL SRINNE60@GMAIL.COM. SHORT, SWEET AND A PICTURE WOULD BE WONDERFUL!
Thank you!
For more information please contact our Co-Directors,
Pat Rogan, Professor, IUPUI School of Education at progan@iupui.edu
or
Susan Rinne, MPA at srinne60@gmail.com
