The emergence of supported employment can be traced back to the work of Marc Gold, who demonstrated over 50 years ago that through breaking job tasks down to individual steps and identifying methods for prompting and supporting an individual to accomplish each step, individuals with significant disabilities can successfully perform a variety of tasks. At this session's completion, you will understand systematic instruction and how it can be applied as needed to teach individuals how to successfully perform various job tasks. Included in this session will be a discussion of learning theories, and how they are applied in supporting individuals to be successfully employed.

Get an overview of employment service tools for each phase of the employment process. Learn how these tools can be used to incorporate best practices into service delivery and how the tools fit into a sample service flow. Attendees will learn how the tools can be used to foster a person-centered approach, strong communication within the support team, address barriers, and allow individual choice and self-determination to drive the employment process.

Life expectancy for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities has significantly increased over the past several decades. Aging issues can impact various life activities, including work. The good news is that we can use creative and critical thinking, along with current tools and best practices to support older workers in maintaining employment and full participation in the community. This training will provide a review of Employment First principles, as well as how to effectively apply techniques to various employment scenarios for older workers.

This training will cover what policies are, why they are important, and specific policies employment programs should consider having in place to ensure consistent quality and effectiveness. We will break down several policies and how they may affect an employment program. At the end of the training, attendees will have information and knowledge to consider and why a provider agency may want to consider their own policies, what policies they may want to review, update, and additional policies to add.

Strategic networking involves setting goals and considering different techniques to expand our personal and professional networks in a meaningful way. Topics include: a) strategies and connection to quality services and best practice, b) matching personalities to methods, c) action plan and mentoring. Exercises will provide attendees with the opportunity to begin a reflective practice to consider past, present, and future networking efforts including time devoted and analysis, with the goal of increasing your social capital which is essential for robust employment services.