Support and Resources

Description of the video:

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Jonathan: All right. So, I know I was told that I could have a little extra time. There we 
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Cecilia: Yes, we're giving you 15 minutes. Look at that. Jonathan: I only have 200 slides, so it shouldn't
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take too long. I'm totally joking, people. I promise. I do not want to go through 200 slides.
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I would not sit through that myself. Anyway, I'm Jonathan Kraeszig. I'm the Director of Youth
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Services with Vocational Rehabilitation. And I get a little extra time because I'm talking about our
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traditional VR services as well as what we call PRE-ETS or Pre-Employment Transition Services,
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but promise not to take too long. So, here's some basic information about the VR or Vocational
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Rehabilitation program. So, we're a state agency. So, we're in all 92 counties uh across the state
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and we work with individuals with all types of disabilities. So, any type of disability at all.
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And everything we do, you might guess from our name, vocational, has to do with assisting an
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individual in achieving their employment goals. So the focus is on employment and it's based on
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an individual's interests, strengths, priorities, needs, all that good stuff. So it's based on what
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you need, what you want, what your interests are. There we go. Oh, it's working. Okay, good. So
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there is some eligibility guidelines for um our traditional Vocational Rehabilitation services.
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This isn't the legalese that I usually use. This is sort of layperson's terms. So, basically,
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you must have some type of a disability that makes it harder for you to find a job or keep a job
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and you need to require some services and there there's a lot that we can provide and I'll get to
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that in a minute. Um, in order to either obtain I guess this isn't a little legalese, isn't it?
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I thought I was on a different um slide. Anyway, uh you must require VR services. In other words,
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there must be something that we can provide, but we have a whole slew of things that we can
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provide to either obtain, retain, um, maintain employment, that kind of thing. So, it can be you
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could already be working and sustain some type of disability. You maybe you're a high school
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student who is graduating and you've never worked at a, you know, um, a job before. Um, all of that,
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um, is part of what we do. So, don't feel like you have to have been working for years. you could
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never have worked at all or you know that kind of thing and you must be able to benefit from VR
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services in terms of an employment outcome. That third one we assume that that's going to be true
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um if the top two are true. If you have some type of a disability that makes it harder for
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you to find a job or keep a job and there's something that we can do that would assist
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you with that. Um so anyone of legal age may submit a referral on behalf of an interested
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individual. So, you can call or get online uh and refer yourself or someone else uh and
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by contacting your local VR office. And I'll get to that in a minute, too, how to contact us. So,
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um oh, I know something I missed here. This is sort of my uh quick version of my my usual thing,
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my usual um slides. So, in terms of eligibility, we do need some documentation of that. So, if you
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have like medical records, psychological records, if you're a student in like high school, um, and
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you have an IEP, um, any of those things will help us determine your eligibility. Um, we can also
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send for medical records if needed. And if none of that's going to work for you, if you don't have
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the medical records or you you suspect that you have a disability or you know someone who does,
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but they've never been tested, they don't know for sure, we can do that for you. We will also
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uh and on on our dime, basically your dime, the taxpayers's dime, um we can assist with testing
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for that, medical testing, um psychological testing, anything that we need to do to help
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determine if you have a disability and it's harder for you to find a job or keep a job. What helps
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speed up this process a little bit is though if if there's any record that you can kind of bring
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with you, that helps sort of move things along. The other thing about eligibility is if that if
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you are on SSDI because of your own disability and that might sound silly to say but sometimes
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people don't know or realize then you are presumed eligible. So um if you could bring like proof of
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SSDI with you that's great. We can always send stuff to Social Security ourselves. So don't let
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any of that stop you from applying. If you don't have those records don't think oh I can't go. I've
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got to wait 'til I get them. No don't worry about it. it just helps. But we can work work uh with
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whatever you've got available. So, um and then in terms of disability, we'll still need to kind
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of get other records just to sort of help figure out what's going to work for you. Um what your,
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you know, your diagnosed disability is, that kind of thing. So, that's eligibility sort of
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in a nutshell. So, let's presume that you're eligible for services. And what happens next
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is that you work with your VR counselor, your Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, and the
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two of you together. and anyone else that you want involved uh come up with what's called an IPE or
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individualized plan for employment. So basically that lists out your vocational goal and it lists
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out the services that are required to help you reach that goal. So it's not like I know this sort
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of looks like on the right that we have a menu of services available to you. We can only do whatever
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is required to help you reach that vocational goal. So we have to be able to tie it to that goal
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and then chances are that we can do it. There's a few limitations there, but there aren't many.
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If we can tie it as a need, as a requirement for you to reach your vocational goal, chances are
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that we can do it and these are just some examples of that. So, diagnostic and evaluation services,
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I've always talked about vocational counseling and guidance. Everybody gets that because you're
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working with um a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor. Home and vehicle modifications. So,
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if you need some assistance with home mods or vehicle mods to help you get ready for work
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uh to get to work and back and forth, that kind of thing. assistive technology services um like
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INDATA was talking about earlier um if you need assistance with um figuring out exactly what sort
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of at stuff you need um or training on that we can do that employment services so job coaching,
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supported employment, post-secondary training so we do um postsecondary so in terms of maybe if
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you need a college degree or vocational training or some type of certification even um we might
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be able to do that and then there's sort of the catchall other vocationally relevant again we
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have to tie it to a vocational goal but if we can chances are that we can do it and there's a lot
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that can possibly apply in there. Uh let's see so referrals this is so I guess Cecilia if I send you
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this you can send it out so people can just click on the links. Cecilia: Absolutely. Jonathan: So
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there's our directory and there's some a cool sort of animated video that talks about everything I'm
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talking about today but probably in a more entertaining form than I'm doing
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So little referral information. So transition from school to work. So before I talk about PRE-ETS,
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let's talk really quickly about this. If you are a high school student, if you have any high
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school students, this is important for you. So each VR office like throughout the state. So we
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have about like 25 offices with 8 to 10 counselors in each one. Um hopefully if we're fully staffed,
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and we're we're pretty fully staffed at this point, they're signed to local high school.
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So they will work with the local high school on transition services. Basically that means that as
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students get closer to graduation um a VR staff will reach out, schools will reach out and we'll
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attend like annual case reviews um that kind of thing to help schools and help students understand
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um sort of the next step um the possible next step in working with VR. Uh contact your local
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VR office to request case conference attendance if your school isn't doing that for you. And then
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there's information- I don't know if it's there we go, I got to move you guys out of the way
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here. Uh, so there's a VR transition from school to work um document that can help you um request
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that service if you would like. So let's move on to Pre-ETS or pre-employment transition services.
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Um this is really more my thing. Although I was a VR counselor for years and a job coach for years.
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Um this is sort of the main thing that I do right now is Pre-ETS. So, it's relatively recent in VR
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history. Um, came about through what's called WIOA or the Work Innovation Opportunity Act, which you
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probably learned about, signed into law in July of 2014. I can't believe it's been 11 years. So,
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basically what it does is requires it really expanded what VR is required to do. I'm running
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out of time. I just kept talking. I'm sorry. Uh, requires VR to set aside federal funds. So, we get
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like 80% federal and 20% state. of that federal funding, 15% of that has to go to PRE-ETS and only
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PRE-ETS. Uh, and we're there, we're spending our 15% on that. And it is for either students who are
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eligible, so they meet all those guidelines that I talked about earlier, or what's called potentially
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eligible. So, you do not have to go through traditional VR to be eligible for PRE-ETS. Uh,
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so that's what sort of really expanded what we're able to do. So, potentially eligible
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means an individual in secondary, so high school or post-secondary educational program. So between
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the ages of 14 through age 22. So up to age 23. And you have to have like a an IEP or a 504 plan
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or another documented disability. And then you're that's it. That's all you need to be eligible for
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pre-employment transition services. So here's our five focus areas. So this is part of WIOA. It says
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we, VR, have to make these five areas available to students with disabilities statewide. They're
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pretty self-explanatory. Um job exploration counseling- so, interest in inventories, reviewing
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career websites, work-based learning experiences is a biggie because studies show that the more
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work-based learning experiences that students have in high school, and I'm not making this stuff up,
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the better they do um post-high school in terms of successful employment, you know, um and success in
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general. So, paid or non-paid work experiences, volunteer work, job shadows, that kind of thing.
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Counseling on opportunities for enrollment in post-secondary. So looking at post-secondary
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opportunities, could be college or vocational goals, identification of career pathways, looking
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at different sorts of um certifications they might get. Workplace readiness, um so soft skills
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training, writing a resume. This I sort of call our catchall category because it also includes
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independent living skills. um learning how to like hygiene, um getting ready for work in the morning,
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uh being on time to stuff, which I'm still working on personally, but um and then instruction and
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self- advocacy, uh so instruction and self-awareness, disability disclosure,
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when to do that, when to maybe hold back and and wait a little while, requesting accommodations,
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that kind of thing. So those are the five focus areas. We do have those available statewide, and
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I'll get to that in a second on the next slide. So students and youth with disability. So this
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is important because um this is really only for students with disabilities. So age 14 to 22 and
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uh secondary or postsecondary. A youth with a disability is an individual who is 14 through
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age 24 and they may or may not be attending a secondary or postsecondary. So only students
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students with disabilities are eligible for paths. So, if you are not a student, but you're in that
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age range, I would say go ahead and apply for our traditional services that I mentioned at the
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um top of my presentation tonight. So, so this is basically how we do PRE-ETS in the
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state of Indiana. We have 12 contractors throughout the state and they subcontract
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um with other providers throughout the state so that we're in all 92 counties. We're in over 500
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schools. this information that Cecilia will send out that will tell you uh and we can talk about
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that with questions at the end too that tells you um there's a couple of lists. The PRE-ETS
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basics is everything I'm talking about now. And then the other one -whoops let's go back- um
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the provider list tells what counties providers cover, who to contact. So if you're interested,
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that's how you get a hold of somebody to do that working with schools. um real quickly. So
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our contractors are assigned to specific counties and school systems um throughout the state. They
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work with the school staff on identifying students for PRE-ETS. So they work together to figure out
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who makes sense for PRE-ETS in their particular school system. And how they do that is that the
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PRE-ETS sort of saying or mantra is supplement but don't supplant. So a lot of times we'll find that
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schools are doing a great job. Maybe they're they have really great work-based learning
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opportunities for students, but maybe they need to work on workplace readiness. Or maybe they have uh
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a population of students that they really go all out for services, but there's another population
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where maybe they fall a little bit short and they need to strengthen that up a little bit. So,
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that's how they work to determine which students are going to identify and then refer to PRE-ETS.
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That said, don't let that stop you either because all of our providers have and do take students
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even if they're not in sort of that identified population at a school system. We will still work
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with any student who's interested uh in working with PRE-ETS, um whether or not they're part of
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that group. Um so enrolling most providers take referrals from the school system. Uh if you have
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a student you believe would benefit, talk to your school staff or uh about a referral. If you need a
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assistance, contact the provider directly and that listing was a few slides ago or contact the youth
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counselor in your area. So, let me talk about youth counselors really quickly. Yeah, two and a
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half minutes. So, youth counselors, there's 10 of those throughout the state. They're VR staff and
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they're sort of our boots on the ground, if you will. Um because myself and the associate director
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can't uh keep an eye on everything that's going on across all 92 counties and 500 schools and all
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those providers. So they assist locally with um getting people enrolled, working with providers,
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working with our local VR offices. They do all of these things, outreach with local business,
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other service providers. So if you know your youth counselor, you can also contact them. If
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you don't know who they are, either let me know or again you can get online and there's a list
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of youth counselors and what um what counties they serve. So we try to think of everything. We don't
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always succeed, but we do our best. So here's some resources. So the PRE-ETS basics the provider list
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is here and then there's that youth counselor list that I just talked about updated as of that date
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is incorrect. It is it is more up to date than that. I just need to change the title on that. So
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that's basically it. This is a quick summary. I've got two minutes but you I think you've got it all.
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State agency competitive employment work with all types of disabilities. Contact your local office.
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PRE-ETS students only with disabilities 14 to 22. Uh if interested, contact me,
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your youth counselor, the local school system. If you run into any issues with any of that,
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contact me. I will get back to you immediately if at all possible, but pretty quickly nonetheless.
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I'm good at that. Everybody will tell you. So, um these are just some quick interesting I think um
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uh data. Uh if you have to cut me off, Mike, that's fine. This is just some extra interesting
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stuff in my last minute and a half. So these are the activities that we provided in state
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2024. Mike: You're good. Jonathan: So uh so these are so this is like multiple students.
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So a student can receive obviously more than one activity and more than one of these activities. So
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you can you'll see that workplace readiness is our biggie. 64,000 sessions completed in state
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fiscal year '24. The next biggest uh that I'm kind of glad to see is job exploration. Very important.
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Almost 25,000. I'd really honestly like to see work-based learning increase a little bit and
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we're working on some ideas for that because again I think that's the biggest one. That's
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the one that's most important. 24,000 kind of coming up uh bring it up the rear uh if you
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will is postsecondary counseling 10,000. Um and I think sometimes our providers don't realize what
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all can fit into that category. So we're working on some extra training for them too. The stipend
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is interesting that came about a couple of years ago where we can actually in certain
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circumstances pay students to do some work-based learning activities. Here's our outcomes um for
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students and youth with disabilities through you can see at the bottom state fiscal year '23 '24
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and '25. These are the average hourly wages for anyone closed successfully
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uh in that age range. So I think this might be 14 through 24. So average wage was $14 bucks an hour
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23 um 23 hours a week. Dual enrollment: So before you you cut me off I hear the music playing. Very
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important. You can be in both at the exact same time. So, if you are getting closer to graduation
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um and you need assistance in traditional VR and actually finding a job rather than just getting
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ready for a job, enroll even if you're already in PRE-ETS. You don't have to do one and then the
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other. You can do both of them at the exact same time. I can't emphasize that enough because there
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seems to be still a lot of confusion statewide over that. Or if you are enrolled in PRE-ETS and
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you need maybe more comprehensive assessment because PRE-ETS is a little bit limited in
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what they can do. we're not allowed to do sort of assist of technology or job coaching, but
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if you enroll in VR and we get a plan in place, then we can do that and we can help you in paths
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uh through some of those services. So, it is available when you're in both and you can do
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both at once. Here's some cool success stories that when you get these get sent out, I'll let
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you read them. Um these are from students who have been enrolled in both and they started in PRE-ETS,
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moved into onto VR, had both at the same time for a little while. Uh Emily works as a junior graphic
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designer, local marketing firm. True firm. True story. Uh and then Michael utilized PRE-ETS for
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social skills and he uh in it doesn't say, let's see, was part of his VR counselor. He works at a
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tech company in data entry and IT support. Student started in PRE-ETS, moved from PRE-ETS to VR,
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had both at the same time for a while. They kind of worked together to figure out what they could
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do in either one. And he's a success story now. Again, more information on how to contact us. That
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leads to our website. Contact me or that PRE-ETS uh um email that actually also goes to me and some
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other people, too. So, you can do that for any PRE-ETS questions you have. This is super cool.
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These are four videos that another contractor helped us put together. An introduction...
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introduction to PRE-ETS, PRE-ETS and VR, post-secondary information and some success
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stories. These are kids at the South Bend airport. I don't know if it was last summer or the summer
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before. They tend to do it every summer where they have a work-based learning activity. So,
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these students get to go inside an airplane, learn about all the different jobs at an airport
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and in an airline. Uh, very cool thing that one of the many cool things that we're doing
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in PRE-ETS. You could tell I really love this program. Can't you look at that? I've got eight
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seconds. You can scan that QR code. Um, and that will help you. That'll take you to our website
18:59
and that's another way that you can apply. Lots of different opportunities and options to apply.

Description of the video:

Description of the video:

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Cecilia: Okay. So, I am going to introduce to you  our first speaker uh which who is Nikol Prieto and 

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uh Nikol I'm going to spotlight you so that you  will be in the recording and Nikol is from INDATA 

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and I will let her further introduce herself and  turn it over to Nikol. Thank you. Nikol: Sounds 

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good. I'm going to start off by telling you guys  I'm working at a transition fair in Mooresville 

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High School. I've got two bouncy houses and a  transition fair in front of me. And I have a 

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basketball game to the right of me. So if if you  hear buzzers or children screaming, that's where 

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I'm at. And if anybody doesn't hear something,  please let me know and I'll I'll repeat myself. Um 

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so thank you for having me. I am Nikol Prieto with  the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads. Um, 

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I represent the Assistive Technology Act grant for  the state of Indiana. Every state and territory is 

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federally funded to have an Assistive Technology  grant and the goals are pretty much the same 

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of all of those um in each state and territory  and that is education and outreach of assistive 

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technology and we do that for through various  education pieces and also allowing people to get 

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their hands on assist of technology. So, I'll  just briefly go over our services and then um 

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I won't be able to stay on this, but feel free to  reach out to me and I'll put my email in the chat 

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and our website. So, if you have any questions  after this, feel free to reach out to me. So, 

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um as far as uh we work statewide, our services  are statewide services. Um the majority of our 

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services are free to anyone in the state of  Indiana. Um when the education piece about 

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assisted technology, we do many things. Um, we do  weekly tech tip videos, uh, where we either show 

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a piece of equipment from our lending library or  I've gone to conferences and met with vendors at 

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different conferences. The last one I just went  to was in Florida. It was the ATIA conference and 

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I go in the vendor hall and I ask folks at their  booth, would you like to do a video, a brief video 

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demonstrating a product? So that way people are up  to date on what's current in the world of assist 

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of technology. Uh, so we do those tech tips on  Monday. We've been doing those for gosh, since 

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about 2010. Um, those all live on our YouTube  channel. They go out on our blog on Monday. Um, 

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so you can go back through years and years of  videos. You can look at them up by playlist. So 

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if you're only interested in um videos that have  to do with hearing loss or vision impairment, 

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you can kind of go through those playlists. But  you can always find those past videos on our 

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YouTube channel. And then on Tuesdays, Wednesdays,  and Thursdays, we write blog posts and it's about 

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services or resources in the assisted technology  field. And then on Fridays we do a podcast. It's 

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called the assisted technology update. Um  and that is with people creating assisted 

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technology and thought leaders and inventors of  that types of assisted technology. We have them 

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on our program and our podcast to find  so they could talk about their product, 

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who it's useful for and how folks can find out  more information. Uh so that's kind of our blog 

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schedule and putting out content. Uh we also do  full day trainings. We do four of those uh per 

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year. Um those are at our facility in Indianapolis  where the 52nd and Keystone area is our facility, 

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but we also stream those live. Um we feed you  really well if you come in person and it's a great 

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networking opportunity. We also offer continuing  education units. Uh so that's a great way to get 

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those whether you're online or in person. You  can qualify for those continuing education units. 

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Uh the topics coming up um are going to be um K  through 12 um is going to be this summer. Uh we 

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have taken over if you guys are familiar with  patents. Uh we have now taken over that grant. 

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Patents is very much like um the Endata project is  and we talk about our services um but it is for K 

3:51

through 12 kindergarten through 12th grade. Um so  we now have that pro that grant um also and that 

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is called Atlas ATLAS. Uh so we're going to do a  full day training um about that one in March. Uh 

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it's March 13th. Uh we're going to do assist of  technology and brain injury. So the topics are 

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always varied. Um and we usually do four to five  per year. You can always find information on our 

4:15

website and it is eastersteek.com at easter seals  teec.com. That's where you'll always find that 

4:24

information. Registration is mandatory for those  trainings, but they are free to attend. Again, 

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they're streamed live if you can't come in person.  Um, so that's a lot of the ways that we're getting 

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out information about assist of technology. And  then the second goal is to get people's hands 

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on assist of technology and we do that through  various programs. We have an equipment lending 

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library where we have about 3,000 different  devices in our library that can be checked out 

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for free. So, if you need an iPad loaded up with  apps, you can have it loaded up with augmented 

4:56

communication apps or vision apps. Um, you can  borrow those iPads or computer with software or 

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augmentative communication devices, um, personal  listening devices, you name it. Every disability, 

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every type of device, um, you can borrow just  like it would be checking out a book of a library, 

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you can borrow it from our program. If you live in  the Indianapolis area, we ask for you to come pick 

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that up there and um, drop it off of our location.  But if you do live outside of the Indianapolis 

5:22

area, we can ship those to you for free. Um, so  what that program is for is to help people make 

5:29

educated decisions on if the equipment is right  for them. A lot of times assisted technology is 

5:34

unfortunately not considered medically necessary.  So they this gives people the opportunity to 

5:39

get their hands on a try. This isn't typically  stuff you can find in a Target or a Walmart. Um, 

5:44

so specialized equipment where you want to try it  out and make sure it's the right one. could also 

5:49

be what's the right one for you. Kind of like car  shopping. Do you like a Chevy or a Ford? Do you 

5:54

think about something like a CCTV, which is the  largest magnification of print for someone? Maybe 

5:59

you want to try different sizes. Maybe you want  to try different brands with different features. 

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Do you want it to have speech to text? How big  do you want the font to be increased to? So, 

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it's just a great way to make an educated choice  in the equipment that you're going to purchase. 

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Um, it's also a great program for people who  are using a device and it breaks and they need 

6:20

to send that off for repair. So, that's another  great opportunity. If you don't know where to 

6:25

begin at all, what might be helpful for you, we do  have someone that does device demonstrations. Uh, 

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he will travel anywhere in the state and he will  come out and bring out equipment to you and spend 

6:36

about 20 minutes with you showing you these are  the basic features, here are some of the different 

6:40

things that might help with that solution. Uh so  you just call and say we're struggling with this 

6:44

task. He recommends some different devices. And  then he can also bring them out and show those 

6:49

off to you. And then if there's something you like  from that, you can then borrow that for free from

7:01

ideas of what's helpful if you don't even know  where to begin. Um thank you so much. Um you can 

7:05

see our equipment lending library online. So you  can just go in there and explore all that we have. 

7:10

You can either search for something in the toolbar  that you want specifically if you know what that 

7:15

device is or you can go in by a different topic.  So if you want to just look at vision equipment, 

7:20

just type the vision impairment in there and  then just scroll through all those and see 

7:24

all the equipment we have which will give  you a really good idea of all the things 

7:28

that we have in there. Um so that's a lot of  getting your hands on that type of equipment. 

7:34

We also have an equipment reutilization  program where we give away free computers 

7:39

to folks who live in the state of Indiana and have  a documented disability. Now, our library and our 

7:45

demo services, anyone in the state of Indiana can  use it. You do not have to have a disability or 

7:50

documented disability to use those services. For  the computers that we give away, you do have to 

7:55

have a documented disability. super easy peasy  process that you just fill out an application

8:03

and it could be any kind of documentation from  a healthcare provider very simply just stating 

8:08

your diagnosis on there. Um, but you fill out an  application with us and then you're able to get 

8:12

a computer that has been donated to us and we've  wip wiped the data clean, got it in working order 

8:18

and put Windows software on that for you. Um, so  that is a great program to help people who are in 

8:23

need of a computer to get that in their hands.  Also, if folks want to donate computers to us, 

8:30

um, that's we take in old computers and we make  sure to get them in working order and get them 

8:35

out to folks who need them. And anything we  can't use, we work with tech recyclers to 

8:39

make sure that they don't end up in a landfill  and that they're recycled the right way. Um, 

8:43

so just a great way to get rid of old electronics  and help folks in the meantime in the process. Um, 

8:48

if you do itemize your taxes, we do give you a tax  donation receipt for that. So, you're welcome to, 

8:54

um, drop that off at our facility. Um, and like I  said, we're in the Indianapolis area. And just if 

8:59

you have any questions about that, just please  let me know as well. Or if you need a computer, 

9:05

let me know. Uh, we also sometimes get in  like larger CCTVs and things like that, 

9:10

but it's pretty much computers at this point.  Um, so that's a lot of our services that 

9:14

are kind of the free services. Um, then  there's usually that gap when you, okay, 

9:19

this is great. I found this piece of equipment.  I love it. How do I get it? My insurance isn't 

9:24

going to cover it or it's costly. We then have  a lowinterest bank loan program uh that you can 

9:30

use to purchase that equipment. It's called the  alternative financing program and you can borrow 

9:36

a minimum of $500 with a maximum of $35,000 and  the interest rates right around that 3% mark. 

9:43

They do try to extend the term of those loans too  to make that more helpful, your monthly payment. 

9:48

But it can be used to purchase hearing aids, um  an accessible vehicle, to do home modification, 

9:55

um iPads, uh you name it. Um and sometimes it  can get even very creative. We've had examples of 

10:02

typically putting a fence in someone's yard would  not could constitute as assist of technology, 

10:07

but if you have a child that has alopment issues  um and there's a danger of them going in the yard 

10:12

and and and fleeing from the yard, that possibly  could be considered assisted technology. So, 

10:17

we're always a my time is up. That's a nice little  picture. That's in a nutshell all of our services. 

10:25

If you have any questions, please feel free to  check out our website, to email me, um, or to call 

10:31

me with any questions. Thank you so much, Nikol,  for uh, doing double duty at the transition fair 

10:38

and also at FEAT. We really appreciate you coming.  Thank you for having me. I'll leave my email 

10:43

Description of the video:

0:00
Susan: Lexi is a hard act to follow. So, um I am excited to tell you about accessABILITY. Uh
0:07
accessABILTY is the Center for Independent Living for central Indiana and we uh empower our peers
0:13
with disabilities to lead and control independent lives fully included in community life. So, that's
0:19
what accessABILITY exists for. And if you're not familiar with Centers for Independent Living,
0:24
um it's a little bit of a misnomer. uh it sounds like it's a place where maybe people live and
0:28
that's actually the opposite. We want to help people to live in the community and so we uh have
0:33
a very small office uh and our advocates mostly work with people in their homes or community or
0:38
even virtually and what they do with people is um we provide primary our primary service is
0:45
information and referral. So people call us and we try to connect them with the resources that they
0:50
need or provide information over the phone or or email or some virtual way that we can get them the
0:56
information that they need to move forward to achieve their goals. Um and that we can answer
1:01
calls from anyone anywhere. Uh so it doesn't have to be the person with a disability. It
1:05
doesn't have to be somebody in central Indiana. Um but if we are going further with services beyond
1:11
that information and referral it will be somebody in our service area and we work directly with the
1:16
person with the disability. So we... our consumers are not necessarily the parents of that person or
1:22
um the you know well-meaning aunt or whatever. It is it we are working directly with people
1:28
with disabilities and one of our primary services is peer support because we are over
1:34
75% of our staff and our board are people with disabilities themselves. So we really believe in
1:40
that. Nothing about us without us. And so we provide a peer support. And so that is
1:46
um kind of a mentoring model. It's somebody to walk alongside as you're achieving your goals,
1:51
helping overcome obstacles or barriers um and really just find moving forward with those next
1:56
steps that will uh help you to become or to remain independent. Um we also do some independent living
2:02
skills training. And so that can look different for everybody, but sometimes it comes up when
2:08
somebody has acquired a disability or is becoming independent for the first time and just needs some
2:13
skills to make sure. It could be around money management, um cooking skills, housekeeping, any
2:20
of those kind of independent living skills that uh someone is trying to onboard as they become
2:25
independent. Um and then we do individual and systems advocacy. So, as people with disabilities
2:32
are interacting with other um entities in the community and need an advocate to walk alongside
2:37
them, we we fill that role. And then we also advocate um for uh communitywide or for systems
2:44
to be as helpful as possible for those people with disabilities. And then we also help with
2:49
transitions or uh relocation from nursing homes, for instance. So, if somebody's um transitioning
2:55
out of a nursing home and into community living, we can help with that transition. And also,
3:00
as students are leaving uh high school toward to what's next, whatever their next step is,
3:05
if that's another transition, we can help kind of facilitate those transitions as well. So,
3:10
those are some of the services and I mentioned that we are by people with disabilities for people
3:15
with disabilities. Uh and so, our services can be very individualized. Again, it's goal setting
3:21
and then overcoming whatever barriers or obstacles are preventing someone from achieving those goals.
3:26
One of the things that we do along that line is some uh peer groups as well. Uh so we have uh for
3:34
instance a Dis-Queer support group for people with disabilities and who are in the LGBTQIA spectrum.
3:42
Um, we also have a group for families of visually impaired individuals, a neurodiverse peer support
3:48
group. Um we have several others. Those are all listed on our website and um those are just a
3:56
great opportunity for people to connect with um people with similar interests and we found those
4:00
support groups to be really popular. Um let's see what else. We also we do have a bilingual
4:07
advocate who will be on here for the Thursday night meeting. Um she speaks Spanish, so we uh
4:13
are able to accommodate uh those who speak Spanish with someone that speaks their own language. Uh
4:20
we do serve any age, any disability at any point in life and all of our services are free. Uh the
4:26
only qualification is self-identifying as someone with a disability. So we don't require any medical
4:31
diagnosis or for you to be on a waiver, anything like that. Um it is just self-identification as
4:37
a person with a disability. So if uh anyone is interested in those services then it kind
4:43
of starts with an initial contact. Just give us a call at accessABILITY and I'll make sure
4:47
contact information is in the chat. Um just that initial phone call um and then we'll kind of talk
4:53
through what maybe some of those barriers are and what some of the goals are and then connect with
4:58
resources, provide some additional support and then constantly re-evaluate. Did we achieve any of
5:04
those goals? What else do we need to do? Kind of moving forward with next steps. I mentioned that
5:09
we serve central Indiana. So that includes Marion County and all the counties that touch Marion
5:14
County. Um so it's an 8 county service area. There are other Centers for Independent Living all over
5:21
Indiana. And so if you're looking for another one, you can look up your local just Google your local
5:26
central uh uh center for independent living or feel free reach out to us and we will connect
5:31
you with the one in your area. Um, and I think that's really all I need to touch on while we're
5:38
chatting here. So, I will seed my time back to the next person. Cecilia: Oh, thank you so much,
5:43
Susan. That was fantastic. It is so good to hear about the Centers for Independent Living and
5:48
accessABILITY does so much. So, really appreciate you being here and sharing. Thank you. All right.