Employment First Quarterly Meeting - Sept 15, 2017 

This Meeting is open to all Day and Employment Providers through our partnership with The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and the Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program (EFSLMP).  

This all-day meeting is the final meeting in the series that has focused on organizational transformation toward Employment First and Community Integration. Providers should bring their transformation teams and  self-assessments.  This day of planning will focus on creating plans for each organization's next steps in their own journey toward organizational transformation. 

Agenda

Bringing It All Together in Your Transformation Plan

 9:00 – 9:30

Summarize what we have covered to date

9:30 – 10:30 4 agencies presentation and problem-solving session (15 min. each)

1. Describe your agency in detail
2. Share where they are as agencies in the planning and transformation process
3. Share your plans, whatever state of development
4. What is working well?
5. Where they are stuck?

Problem solve with full group on these issues – be sure to ask other participant agencies to share their approaches – reflect on what has been discussed previously in this area

10:30 – 10:45 BREAK

10:45 – 11:15 additional agency presentations and problem-solving sessions

11:15 – 12:00 group activity – transformation problem solving scenarios

12:00 – 1:00 LUNCH

1:00 – 2:00 Resource reallocation

2:00 – 2:30 Effective use of CBDS as a Pathway to Employment

2:30 – 2:45 BREAK

2:45 – 3:45 – Effective use of CBDS as a Pathway to Employment continued

3:45 – 4:00 Wrap-up, discussion and questions 

Presenters: 

Sara Genevieve “Genni” Sasnett  

 Before her retirement in January 2014, Genni was the COO for St. John’s Community Services, a not for profit agency headquartered in the District of Columbia and providing supports to people with disabilities in DC, TN, VA, and PA.  She was a driving force in the transformation of St. John’s from a traditional facility based agency to a 100% facility free one.  She has expertise in community integrated employment and other fully integrated community supports for people with disabilities, systems change and provider transformation as well as decentralized program manag  ement and agency asset reallocation. 

Thomas Wilds

 recently retired after 33 years as CEO/President of St. John’s Community Services, a historical non-profit agency that provides both direct services and advocacy for people with disabilities in the District of Columbia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. With over 45 years in the field, Tom started his career as a back ward attendant at a state school in St. Louis, MO. He has worked with state agencies providing technical assistance to effect state change through the Universities of Texas and Kentucky as well as Howard University, utilizing a variety of federal, state and private funding. He was one of the founding members and president of the provider association in Washington, DC, and has worked closely with a number of state agencies to effect systems change. He has participated in a wide range of interagency efforts addressing class action litigation and legislative efforts that facilitated community inclusion. He was instrumental in growing the St. John’s program from a small private school program to a multi -state community based agency that consisted of eight corporations and eight boards. He grew the agency and led a team of over 900 staff to create 100% community support and opportunities for people of all ages living with disabilities. Under his leadership St. John’s was often requested by government to assist other providers in the transformation of services that were facility based and segregated to fully integrated ones focused on employment and meaningful life in the community.