DD Network Partners and State Agency Reports

Speaker: Kathie Smith, Division , DVRS

Kathie Smith: Hello, everyone. My name is Kathie Smith. and I am the division director for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services here in North Carolina. As a visual description for me, I am a fiftyish age, African American female. I have dark shoulder length hair and I'm wearing a camel colored dress in an office setting. And I'm very happy to be here with you all today regarding the work that VR is doing right now that aligns with the Council. Wow, there is so, so much. As many of you know, our division works to help with uh folks that are from every walk of life from various type of disability groups that are seeking employment and independence in their lives. And a very large part of the community that we work with are folks with developmental and intellectual disabilities. So we have lots of efforts going on that encompass everyone that we serve and those that are specific to the I/DD community, those that rise to the forefront of my mind at the moment uh involve three things. One - I/DD peer mentoring. The council took this on a number of um years ago, I think about a year or two ago, and got it started and we have been able to jump on board and support uh efforts to establish a standard in North Carolina for I/DD peer mentoring. We are joining forces with the Council and with Community Bridges to establish this training and hopefully establish it as an option for folks with I/DD that are working with [Vocational Rehab] as an employment track and milestone for them to achieve. And we are so excited about this new career field that is flourishing across North Carolina and being able to better prepare folks to enter that career field. I also think about the [Subminimum Wage to Competitive Integrated Employment] grant. If you remember that the sub minimum wage to competitive employment grant that the federal government distributed a little over a year ago. DVRS was awarded this grant with the help of several partners. And that grant is now underway, it's called Project Spark. And it is in three different locations across our state at the moment. These entities have just picked up with picking up clients and, and serving folks with a variety of services. We're now able to offer folks with I/DD that are in settings that are not competitive or, or settings that are not integrated, that are uh folks that are wanting to move to another setting. We're able to offer support such as transportation and peer mentoring and counseling and just all types of support around the supported employment service, uh assistance with their benefits with, with Medicaid and understanding how all of that might be affected by work. And that program is just getting off the ground. I think we have about 20 or so initial clients signed up and many, many more to come. But it's exciting to see those wheels begin to turn and folks began to get the services that they need. And last, I'll bring up DB 101 Disability Benefits, 101. This is an online access program that will when it's launched, offer all North Carolinians access to information on how their disability benefits may be or may not be affected by going to work. There'll be calculators there, tutorials and all types of update information uh on um everything from Medicaid to, you know, how will work affect my long term benefits with social security, right? So we have just begun an intensive project to launch this for North Carolina. It is readily available in about seven or eight other states, but VR is excited about bringing it here. We've heard from you, we've heard from, from everyone that we serve really about the importance of being well informed about their benefits. And so it's exciting to see that coming to pass, looking at a a launch of that at the end of 2024. So lots of exciting things going on and so glad to partner with the DD Council.

Kathie Smith: When I look at the coming months. Um and what's coming up soon on the landscape of DVRS and our services to those with I/DD. I think first about our I/DD liaisons, and this was a decision we made last year that we needed to have contacts um out in the field uh that were counselors and we're working cases, but we're also um well trained, well informed about what was going on um in the ID D community in the variety of services that were available to folks and were of interest to folks with I/DD. And by that, um we through that process, we identified our I/DD liaison counselors, those counselors were folks that stepped forward and, and they all were already were with the I/DD community, have some connection there or aspire to work with the I/DD community. And they began to go through some additional training, they're involved in various meetings to make sure that they're remaining updated. Another benefit to having these counselors identified was as new things come out, right? As services are made available such as the Subminimum Wage to Competitive Integrated Employment (SWTCIE) or or Project Spark, that I mentioned before or projects through Inclusion Works. The website that you all have probably seen that the department has put out. But as new opportunities are developed, we have a mechanism to get that information out to the field so that folks that are receiving services can, can obtain that information. And so I think establishing that link has been really important in that point person. Another thing we did along with that is we developed some new tools. And these are tools that are written in Plain Language made, especially for uh folks with I/DD and their family members that are supporting them to help describe our services and, and let people know what things are available in Plain Language. Um so that they can make some decisions and choices about the path they want to take forward and what services they may want to try to access. So both of these things have kind of started in the last few months and we, and we're starting to see some of the benefits of of executing some of those new services.

Kathie Smith: So how can you be involved in the work that we do is the question. I absolutely love this question. So yes, there are ways that you can become involved in the work of DVRS. Number one, share, share with others um the work of VR what you know, that we do. Um And, and make sure that people know that we're a resource to them. Uh If you hear back from someone that they're having difficulty accessing services or, you know, maybe there's been some confusion about um their services or delay in services, encourage them to reach out to the manager of their unit office. Um A lot of times things can be solved right there at the management level. And of course, I'm a part of your Council so you can always come to me as well. But, you know, it's a high priority for us to complete our mission, which is to help people with disabilities reach their goals, of employment and independence. So if we aren't doing that, then we aren't establishing our purpose. And, and, and you know, why are we here if we're not doing that work? So we definitely want to reach as many people as we can. Now, some of you also are or have been members of our state rehab council that is a very direct way that you can participate. Uh very often, we have people that may be cycling off their time on our Council and we're looking for members that care about the work of VR and about the people that we serve, that will be willing to sit in those meetings and kind of hear the struggles that we're having and help us come up with solutions as well as hearing the victories and celebrating with us. When, when we need to, we may be calling on you and saying, would you think about helping us and representing us on the Council? Uh And whenever you can do that, that's a joy as well. But one way that you all soon will be able to participate is in the launch of our new name. Many of you, I'm sure have heard, I've talked about it with all of you that we will be announcing publicly. Our name will be changing from Vocational Rehabilitation Services to the Division of Employment and Independence for People with Disabilities. And we'll be making that formal announcement and launch uh in another month or two. There's a lot of work going on around preparing for that, but we will be doing a lot of celebrating a lot of reaching out. Uh So you will have an opportunity to be a part of that celebration and helping us spread the word of our new and affirming new name. So thank you for asking and yes, there is always a way that you can be a part of the work. Thank you.

Kathie Smith: Ok. How can you contact me for additional information? The easiest way to contact me is always via email and that is at Kathie dot Smith at D-H-H-S dot N-C dot Gov And I will spell that for you. It's Kathie period Smith at dhhs.nc.gov. Thank you.