Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Vocational Rehabilitation (Combined or General)
The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Portion of the Unified or Combined State Plan [13] must include the following descriptions and estimates, as required by section 101(a) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by title IV of WIOA:
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[13] Sec. 102(b)(2)(D)(iii) of WIOA
- o. State's Strategies
Describe the required strategies and how the agency will use these strategies to achieve its goals and priorities, support innovation and expansion activities, and overcome any barriers to accessing the VR and the Supported Employment programs (See sections 101(a)(15)(D) and (18)(B) of the Rehabilitation Act and section 427 of the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA)):
- o. State's Strategies
o. 3. The outreach procedures that will be used to identify and serve individuals with disabilities who are minorities, including those with the most significant disabilities, as well as those who have been unserved or underserved by the VR program
Current Narrative:
Through the Comprehensive Statewide Assessment, as identified in Description (j) – Statewide Assessment, CDOR conducts an assessment on the level of its outreach to individuals with disabilities, including those who are minorities, with the most significant disabilities to determine who may be unserved or underserved by the VR program. As part of the current CSA, the CDOR will conduct key informant interviews with subject matters experts to obtain qualitative data about individuals with disabilities in California that are unserved or underserved by the VR Program. The results of the key informant interviews will be aggregated and analyzed, and the results will be shared in the final CSA report set to be released in Fall 2020.
As a result of the previous CSA findings, CDOR is participating in the E3: Educate, Empower, Employ Targeted Communities project (Project E3) to provide technical assistance (TA) to State VR agencies and their partners, to address barriers to VR participation and competitive integrated employment of historically underserved groups of individuals with disabilities. The project is a collaboration of Southern University Baton Rouge, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Stout, University of Kentucky, George Washington University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Employment Resources, Inc. (ERI) and the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation (CSAVR).
Intensive TA will be provided on-site through long-term service delivery relationships with local VR agency personnel and community-based partners in economically disadvantaged communities identified by the VR agencies themselves. Targeted and universal TA will also be provided.
Project E3 activities include knowledge development; targeted community identification by State VR agencies; and intensive, targeted, and universal technical assistance (including information dissemination via a state-of-the-art website, and National-State VR agency forums and meetings).
Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee
The CDOR continues to support its Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee (DIAC) to conduct outreach to unserved and underserved individuals and consumers, and to diversify CDOR employee applicant pools to ensure a diverse workforce in order to meet consumer needs. The DIAC meets quarterly to identify outreach and diversity gaps and determine potential solutions for consideration by CDOR’s Executive Leadership Team.
The DIAC developed a Cultural Competency Training, a diversity and inclusion training with a focus on disability awareness and cultural competency. The training will give staff an opportunity to develop foundational diversity and inclusion knowledge and demonstrate practical ways to implement inclusive behaviors into their work.
The training was piloted in the CDOR San Joaquin District in 2018 and used interactive activities, a multimedia presentation, and experiential learning opportunities to help increase their knowledge in the area of cultural competency, expand their skill base in delivering culturally competent services, and identify behavioral changes that can contribute to a culturally competent work environment. The participants were asked to evaluate the training and serve as a focus group for the development and implementation of future trainings. CDOR’s senior management team experienced the training March 2019 and recommended that it should be rolled out to all CDOR district staff.