10 West Edge Drive
Suite 101
Durham, NH 03824

Phone: 603.862.4320
Fax: 603.862.0555

E-mail

Employment for All

Supporting the Career Goals of Individuals with Disabilities

Description

Series Overview:
This four-part skill-building workshop series provides employment service personnel and others with practical, "how-to" information on assisting individuals with disabilities in reaching their career goals.

Who Should Attend:
This series of workshops is appropriate for job developers, job coaches, employment staff, day program staff, and other administrative staff who are interested in hiring, training, and supporting employees with disabilities.

Sessions:

Building Employer Relationships
Date: Thursday, March 13, 2008
Location: Dion Center Reception Room
Maximizing employment opportunities for consumers requires effective working relationships with community businesses. This workshop explores the process of job development from the initial contact through negotiating job offers and planning for job supports. Topics include using multiple sources of job leads, approaches that promote employer receptivity, analyzing positions to make successful job matches, and how to avoid the two most common job developer mistakes.

Network-Based Job Development
Date: Thursday, April 17, 2008
Location: Dion Center Reception Room
Most employees with and without disabilities obtain their jobs through networking. This workshop presents a step-by-step process for incorporating networking as a central component of job development. Topics include gaining access to the "hidden job market," developing job leads from network contacts, career planning strategies that turn employment barriers into job specifications, and when and how to use references and job try-outs.

Carving, Creating, and Customizing Jobs
Date: Thursday, May 8, 2008
Location: Demoulas Room, Education Center
Having access to only pre-defined employer job openings can be a serious employment barrier for job seekers with significant disabilities. This workshop explores job carving, job creation, and other customized employment alternatives that meet the needs of both the company and the worker. Topics include employer contact methods that uncover customization possibilities, understanding the difference between carving and creating jobs, analyzing a work flow to develop customization proposals, and incorporating assistive technology into job designs.

Natural Supports in the Workplace
Date: Thursday, June 5, 2008
Location: Demoulas Room, Education Center
This workshop presents a series of employment support options that develop and maximize an employer's own resources, allow employment staff to provide support more indirectly and spend less time directly "job coaching," and results in greater employee independence and inclusion in the workplace. Topics include analyzing workplace cultures, using a support planning process with multiple support options, and building the capacity of supervisors and coworkers at a work site.

Co-sponsored by the Nashua Employment for All Project

Series Instructor: David Hagner, Ph.D.

David Hagner, Ph.D., is a certified rehabilitation counselor and Research Professor at the University of New Hampshire. He has over 25 years experience as a trainer and consultant in employment services for individuals with disabilities, with an emphasis on supported employment, developing natural supports and including individuals with significant disabilities in the workforce. Dr. Hagner has directed a number of research and demonstration projects, has authored five books and over 45 chapters, monographs, and journal articles related to vocational rehabilitation and community services, and is a frequent presenter at regional and national conferences. He is also an adjunct instructor at Assumption College in Worcester, MA.

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Picture This!

The Art of Graphic Facilitation

Description

Meetings are Costly
Organizations and groups invest substantial resources (i.e. salaries, time, energy) in bringing people together to accomplish complex collaborative tasks and goals. Often these groups have little more than an agenda to guide them and some charged with taking notes or "meeting minutes." This is a little like hiring a team of carpenters and telling them to "build a house" without providing tools to make the job easier or a blueprint so people can see how parts intersect to form a comprehensive whole.

Graphic Facilitation Adds Value
Graphic Facilitation adds another layer of clarity to communication-a visual language-to help people with diverse ideas, beliefs, and learning styles work and think together. By tightly integrating words with visual images, people can see "...at a glance the key parts of a whole and their relations, thereby allowing a holistic understanding that words alone cannot convey" (Jones, Pierce & Hunter). In fact, the benefits of using visual language to aid comprehension are well-documented. For example, research on visual language in business environments has found that it:

• Produces better problem solving
• Produces higher scores in less time (comprehension and learning)
• Aids decision-making
• Shortens meeting time
• Promotes group consensus
• Is persuasive and makes a better impression

This workshop will offer participants an accelerated learning experience in graphic recording and facilitation. Through a series of structure practice sessions, participants will develop basic skills in using visual language to record the give and take of conversation during meetings. Examples of visual strategic planning and problem solving tools that a facilitator can use to organize information "in the moment" will be demonstrated. Ways to display this information that make it easier for groups to process will also be presented. A developmental model for learning to create or customize tools and visual templates to "meet groups where they are at" will be shared.

Who Should Attend:

• People who spend time in frustrating meetings
• Facilitators who want to expand their toolbox
• Educators interested in learning simple ways to accommodate multiple learning styles
• Counselors, case managers, coaches, and other practitioners involved in guiding people through self-discovery processes

Workshop Agenda:

• Orientation to graphic facilitation
• The building blocks of visual language
• Recording practice
• Organizing information to support group processes
• Graphic Keyboard (Sibbet)
• View templates

Workshop Instructor: Patty Cotton, M.Ed.

Patty Cotton, M.Ed., directs Innovation Facilitators (IF), a new service initiative offering educational programs, facilitation services and professional development related to creative planning, strategic visioning, and consumer and family-directed service designs. IF is dedicated to advancing the standards of excellence in person-centered planning to support the shift from placing people in programs, to creating personalized support arrangements that are highly customized to the unique interests and needs of individuals. Patty works jointly with the Institute on Disability and the Browne Center for experiential learning at UNH to establish IF as a centralized resource for people with disabilities and families to hire an “independent” facilitator to guide them through person-centered planning.

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Methods, Models & Tools

For Facilitating Person-Centered Planning

Description

Methods, Models & Tools is an intensive five-day course, presented by the Institute on Disability and the Browne Center, designed to help develop the competencies needed to facilitate consumer and family-directed career, education and life planning. The course incorporates lecture, role-playing, action learning, and peer support to provide an interactive forum for participants to develop and practice effective group facilitation skills. The curriculum addresses theories of group development, offering experiential methods for process design, questioning and recording skills, and strategic planning. Models of situational leadership, team performance, conflict management and principled negotiation are translated to the context of person-centered futures planning.

Who Should Attend?
This course is appropriate for individuals who have a strong interest in developing the facilitation skills used to support increased or improved group collaboration.

Approved by the NH Chapter NASW for 30 Category I Continuing Education Units for social workers.

Workshop Instructors: Patty Cotton, M.Ed. & Pam McPhee, MSW

Patty Cotton, M.Ed., directs Innovation Facilitators (IF), a new service initiative offering educational programs, facilitation services and professional development related to creative planning, strategic visioning, and consumer and family-directed service designs. Patty works jointly with the Institute on Disability and the Browne Center for experiential learning at UNH to establish IF as a centralized resource for people with disabilities and families to hire an “independent” facilitator to guide them through person-centered planning. Since joining the Institute on Disability in 1989, Patty has coordinated numerous federally funded projects with a particular focus on model demonstration and system-change in adult services.  She has extensive background in process facilitation, service brokering, and the development of natural support strategies.  Patty has authored several publications on person-centered planning and natural supports, and provides training at both the state and national levels.

Pam McPhee, MSW, is a founder and the Director of the Browne Center and is on the faculty of the Outdoor Education Program at the University of New Hampshire. Pam has had a varied career working for Outward Bound, as a school social worker and as an organizational consultant. Her focus is on helping individuals and groups develop their own deliberate culture through inter and intra-personal skill development.

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Getting a Handle on Hoarding

Effective interventions to help individuals who hoard stay in their own homes

Description

Hoarding presents difficult and complex situations for service providers. Individuals who hoard are frequently at risk of losing their housing due to eviction. This interactive workshop will describe clinical disorders and cognitive traits associated with hoarding as well as recent research findings. In addition, the presenter will provide methods and tools for intervening in hoarding issues. Topics to be covered include:

• How to have a productive dialogue with someone about hoarding
• Identifying psychological triggers related to hoarding
• Understanding the psychology behind hoarding
• Practical strategies for working individuals to address the situation
• Case studies with discussion

*Approved by the NH Chapter NASW for 2.5 Category I Continuing Education Credits for Social Workers.

Workshop Instructor: Elizabeth Burden, LICSW, MPH

Elizabeth Burden is Senior Clinical Social Worker at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Massachusetts. She provides training and supervision to social work staff, consultation to multi-disciplinary medical teams and discharge planning. She is a Clinical Instructor at Tufts Medical School, and she has presented workshops on hoarding, dementia, delirium, and elder suicide throughout New England.

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Powerful Tools for Caregivers: Class Leader Training

*First Time Offering of Nationally Recognized Program in New England*

Description

This 2-1/2 day training will give participants the knowledge, skills and tools to teach the course, Powerful Tools for Caregivers (PTC). This course, developed by Legacy Caregiver Services in Portland, OR, is a 6-week educational program to provide family caregivers with tools to increase their self-care and confidence. PTC is a nationally recognized train-the-trainer model program, with a scripted curriculum. There are trained PTC Class Leaders in over 20 states and the program has reached 15,000 caregivers nationwide. PTC Class Leaders work in pairs.

Research studies find high rates of depression and anxiety among caregivers and increased vulnerability to health problems. Caregivers frequently cite restriction of personal activities and social life as problems. They often feel they have no control over events, and that feeling of powerlessness has a significant negative impact on caregivers' physical and emotional health.

In the years since the PTC program was conceived a great deal of research, evaluation and revision has been done to ensure its continued value and success. The 6-week PTC class has been shown to have a positive impact on caregiver health for a diverse group of caregivers including rural, ethnic minorities, adult children of aging parents, well-spouses/partners, caregivers at differing stages in their caregiving role, living situations, financial, and educational backgrounds. Data from class participant evaluations indicates:

• Significant improvement in behaviors: increased exercise, use of relaxation techniques, and health self-care
• Improved emotions, including reduced anger, guilt, and depression
• Increased self-confidence in coping with caregiving demands
• Increased use of community services

Who Should Attend:

• Social workers, case managers, and other practitioners who provide support and education programs for family caregivers.
• Educators interested in utilizing an evidence-based program with positive outcomes for caregiver health and self care.
• Staff interested in a nationally recognized train the trainer program complete with scripted curriculum and program materials.
• Health care educators/practitioners who want to enhance their group facilitation skills and offer a program that has reached 15,000 caregivers nationwide.

Accommodations are available at the E.F. Lane Hotel. Please mention that you are with the UNH Institute on Disability and you will receive an overnight rate of $99.00 plus tax. Rooms and rate available until May 23, 2008.

Sponsored by the Administration on Aging, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services, and the Institute on Disability / UCED.

Workshop Instructors: Legacy Caregiver Services, Portland, OR

Legacy Caregiver Services

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The 10th Annual Autism Summer Institute

Emotion, Behavior, and Belonging: New Perspectives on Including Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Differences in Schools and Communities

Description

Supporting successful inclusion of children and youth with ASD by:

• Understanding the emotional experiences of living with ASD
• Interpreting the meaning of behavioral differences
  
• Addressing confusion by teaching the unwritten rules of the social world

Featuring keynote presentations by individuals with ASD, practical strategies, breakout sessions on topical areas such as functional behavioral assessment, bullying, and the role of paraprofessionals, and opportunities to develop specific action plans.

Reserve your seat to take advantage or our early registration discount!

Keynote Presenters

Monday, August 11 - 9:00-10:30am - Amanda Baggs
Tuesday, August 12 - 9:00-10:30am - CarolAnn Edscorn
Wednesday, August 13 - 9:00-10:30am - Ros Blackburn

Presented by

The New Hampshire Resource Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders

In Cooperation With:
Advocates Building Lasting Equality in New Hampshire
Asperger's Association of New England
The Autism National Committee
The Autism Society of New Hampshire
New Hampshire Department of Education
New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Developmental Services
New Hampshire Developmental Disabilities Council
New Hampshire Parent Information Center

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