Narrative: d. 2. O. v.

The District of Columbia Rehabilitation Services Administration continues to add new Community Rehabilitation Programs (CRP) that partner with us to provide an array of vocational rehabilitation services to consumers. As indicated above, the agency doubled the number of evidence based supported employment providers in FY 2015. Additional services available to our consumer through the Human Care agreements include job readiness services, trial work experiences, job placement and benefits analysis and planning. The human care providers are now working collaboratively with the agency’s Business Relations Unit to provide job readiness training and supports to our consumers, and to link consumers to potential employers. The Administration has two staff who work as provider relations specialists, who are responsible for supporting the network of approved CRPs. In addition, DCRSA has two additional staff who serve as quality assurance monitors to identify needs, and maintain and improve their quality. The Administration provides joint training with our Human Care Agreement CRP partners, to ensure that our collaboration yields the desired results in supported employment, job placement, and career assessment services and increased employment outcomes for consumers, particularly those with developmental disabilities and chronic mental illness. This happens, in part, through monthly meetings in addition to other training. In FY 2015, DCRSA established new agreements with all job placement and supported employment providers. These are performance based agreements. Some changes were made in the payment structure in order more closely align payment to the providers with successful employment placements. In addition, we added payment support to supported employment providers to provide Discovery Assessments and Customized Employment. The District is also currently participating in the Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program. As part of the technical assistance that will be provided through this program, technical assistance is being provided to some of our community rehabilitation providers. In addition, our counselors will receive training on how to better engage with providers in partnership to help people with most significant disabilities achieve employment outcomes.