Contact
Amber Eisfeld, Board MemberMN APSE
651-252-5242
mnapse@gmail.com
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Webinar Sessions
Can't attend all of the live presentations? No problem! All conference registrants will receive a link to a recording of each session after the session is complete.
The Minnesota Association of People Supporting Employment First (MN APSE) is an action-oriented organization. We exist to bring people together to raise expectations so that people with disabilities can be employed and contribute; and assume their roles and responsibilities as citizens in their communities.
The MN APSE 2021 Virtual Conference will take place throughout the month of October 2021. Sessions will be held live at 12 pm on every Tuesday and Thursday in October, except October 28. Each session will be recorded, and the recording link will be sent to all registrants following the presentation so that those who cannot attend live can access the session. The information, tools, and resources shared at conference sessions may be useful to organizational leaders, state agency employees, program managers, direct support professionals, people with disabilities and their families, case managers and work coordinators, among others.
Tuesday, October 5, 12-1 p.m.
Keynote Address: Working for a Good Life
Maya Cox, Public Consulting Group, National APSE Vice President
Employment, for most of us, is an integral part of living our good life. While the vision and trajectory to a good life looks different for each of us, many of us also have common threads. Many of us wish to have valued roles, do things we enjoy, and share time with people we care about. In this session, Maya Cox will discuss how employment specialists play pivotal roles in the lives of individuals with disabilities reaching their good life in many ways, like breaking the cycle of poverty, improving mental health, and finding new valued roles and relationships. Truly, work can propel us all forward. This session will discuss the opportunity to leverage both professional skills, and our individual life experience, relationships, and perspective. By honoring and valuing both our common threads, as well as the things that make us different, we work together to work for a good life.
Thursday, October 7, 12-1 p.m.
The Employment of Youth with Disabilities in Bhutan: What We Learned and How It can be Applied to Support the Employment of Young Adults with Disabilities Minnesota
Brian Abery, Renata Tiche, & Matt Schuelka, University of Minnesota – Institute on Community Integration
Until recently, youth and young adults with disabilities in Bhutan have been considered by the national government to be economically inactive. The assumption has been made that they will never work. The factors underlying these assumptions are multifaceted and have to do with both cultural belief systems and attitudes about people with disabilities. The University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration in collaboration with the University of Birmingham (U.K.), and Royal Thimphu College recently conducted the first national survey or youth employment in Bhutan interviewing over 200 individuals with disabilities and representatives from thirty-five employers across the country. Several interventions were subsequently piloted to support inclusive employment including the training and support of professionals to serve in the role of employment specialists and the use of microgrants to support social entrepreneurship activities. This presentation will review the results of the initial employment surveys, the impact of interventions, and discuss how what has been learned can be applied to support the employment of youth with disabilities in Minnesota and the U.S.
Tuesday, October 12, 12-1 p.m.
Using Charting the LifeCourse™ to Assist Individuals Plan for The Life They Want
Carrie Jakober, MN Department of Human Services, Abbie Wells-Herzog, MN Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS), & Ann Macheledt, MN VRS
Charting the LifeCourse™ is a simple easy to use person and family centered framework that helps individuals and their families explore employment, articulate a vision and plan for the life they want. These principles and tools help to organize ideas and goals, as well as problem-solve, navigate and advocate for supports. We will focus this session on how we can better support individuals with disabilities and their families to communicate their wants (and don't wants) in planning for employment by using the Charting the LifeCourse -Life Trajectory Tool.
Thursday, October 14, 12-1 p.m.
"All People Are Employable"
Dominique Berg, STEP Inc.
The presentation will share real realities, struggles, and rewards to building a good and solid team within an organization that is very rural. It will share success stories of every part of employment from Individual Employment, Customized Employment, and Self Employment, as well. The presentation will also show that the key success to employment is communication, communication, communication at all times with clients, teams and employers.
Tuesday, October 19, 12-1 p.m.
Cultural Capitalism: How Work Defines Worth
Alli Strong-Martin and Ashley Oolman, Lifeworks
Despite recent widespread recognition of inequity, disability services organizations continue to lag behind in many community conversations focused on addressing root causes of de-humanization and marginalization. What cultural norms are stopping us from removing the barriers that uphold bias and maintain stigma around disability? In the individualistic, productivity-centric United States, we too often prioritize and rank the workforce based on ability to uphold the social status quo rooted in ableism, while contributing to a socioeconomic system that has never worked for everyone. To truly advance employment for all, discussions about dignity in the workplace must include intentional disruption changing the way that we value people overall. This session will explore how cultural capitalism has impacted the way we understand human value, confront problematic social norms, and offer alternatives to co-creating a new normal. Join us as we come together with participants to challenge ableist and capitalist thought, and counteract problematic perceptions of disability and work. Together, we will reimagine the future of workplaces and disability-inclusive employment, as we seek to shift nonprofit organizational culture.
Thursday, October 21, 12-1 p.m.
Straight Talk about the Americans with Disabilities Act for Transition Personnel
Ann Deschamps, TransCen, Inc.
Though the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed over 30 years ago, many young adults with disabilities do not understand the law and how it affects them. Transition personnel and employment specialists are in an ideal position to provide critical information on the ADA to youth transitioning to postsecondary life focusing on talking about disability to employers and reasonable accommodations. Join this 60 minute session to learn the answers to these questions and more: • What do young people with disabilities need to know about reasonable accommodation? • What are the differences between the ADA, IDEA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and how do these differences effect the transition process? • Is customized employment considered a reasonable accommodation? - When is the best time for a person to talk to their employer about their disability? • What happens when a young adult doesn’t want to talk about his/her disability to the employer? • What do parents of transitioning youth need to know about the ADA? Simple exercises and helpful tools addressing disclosure and requesting accommodations in the workplace will be provided.
Tuesday, October 26, 12-1 p.m.
Demystifying Difference: How Understanding the Whole Person Impacts Employment for People with Disabilities
Pabalelo (Pabs) Tshane, Dungarvin
This presentation will attempt to demonstrate how different markers of identity such as age, gender, sexual orientation, type of disability, race, religion, culture and social status can intersect to increase barriers to employment for people with disabilities, thus further marginalizing them. These different identities play significant roles in determining how people experience the world, how they’re treated, what kind of jobs they might get, what types of opportunities they are afforded as well as challenges they may face. If disability employment practitioners take the time to educate themselves about the different identities of people – in the same way that they learn about their diagnoses and ‘risk prevention’ – they can position themselves to become better advocates of difference. This kind of approach which celebrates and productively engages our differences can in turn improve results: more jobs for more people with disabilities. As Maya Angelou writes, “when ou know better, you do better.”
Conference Rates
Member Rate: $60.00
Non-Member Rate- $80.00
"Conference registrants will receive a link via email to attend each session the morning the session is being held."