Narrative: d. 2. E.

The Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) values the partnerships that have been developed with private non—profit organizations in Colorado. DVR has developed partnerships at the state and local levels.

Project SEARCH

Project SEARCH is a business-led program and internationally trademarked model that leads to year-round employment in an integrated setting for youth with a variety of developmental disabilities. The vision, direction, and leadership for Project SEARCH is provided by the Children’s Hospital of Cincinnati, where the project began more than twenty years ago. The success of Project SEARCH is dependent upon the active involvement of multiple partners within a community, including business, secondary education, post-secondary education, vocational rehabilitation, community rehabilitation providers, ongoing support agencies, families, and social security. Over the past few years, Project SEARCH has operated in four Colorado communities: Boulder, Aurora, Fort Collins, and Jefferson County. Host business sites include Boulder Community Hospital in Boulder, Children’s Hospital of Colorado in Aurora, Columbine Health Systems in Fort Collins, and University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. DVR is an active partner within Colorado’s Project SEARCH sites and has entered into partnerships with the above-identified agencies to support the success of the program. Through braided resources, DVR collaborates with the multiple Project SEARCH partners to assure the seamless and successful delivery of transition services leading to integrated employment at minimum wage or higher. DVR responsibilities within Project SEARCH vary from site to site, and include program development, employer education and technical assistance, participant referral and selection, assessment, job coaching, transportation training, work experience, job seeking skills training, and job placement assistance. Typically, local Project SEARCH partners enter into a written working agreement to support the success of the program and the young job seekers involved in the program.

PEAK Parent Center

DVR has a longstanding partnership with PEAK Parent Center. PEAK, founded in 1986, is a nonprofit that works to ensure that all people with disabilities are fully included in their neighborhood schools, communities, employment, and all walks of life. PEAK offers an array of free and low cost services to families of children with disabilities and advocates, including self-advocates, across the state. Additionally, PEAK collaborates with education, early childhood, rehabilitation and medical communities to create systems change and offers fee-for-service opportunities, workshops and customized training for school districts, community groups and agencies. DVR acts as a sponsor for PEAK’s annual conference on inclusive education. DVR staff present at PEAK community and online workshops, and PEAK staff present at DVR workshops and training events. For example, historically, DVR, PEAK and the Colorado Department of Education typically collaborate to support the dissemination of transition best practices to educators, families, vocational rehabilitation counselors and community agency staff throughout the state. Within the past year, DVR’s Director of Community Access presented a PEAK-sponsored workshop entitled “Finding Support and Resources for Meaningful Employment”. DVR’s “Achieving Success by Promoting Readiness for Education and Employment” or ASPIRE program contracts with PEAK to provide self-determination and parent training to youth and families involved with the ASPIRE demonstration project. Additionally, a key member of the PEAK leadership staff has maintained longstanding and active membership on the executive committee of the State Rehabilitation Council.

Ability Connection Colorado

For 70 years, Ability Connection Colorado (ACCO) has been providing innovative and exceptional services, helping individuals and families thrive. Building on the legacy established in 1946 by nine mothers who were determined to help their children with disabilities lead productive lives, ACCO today serves 40,000 Coloradans a year by providing inclusive early childhood and charter school education for children of all abilities, pathways to employment for those with developmental and intellectual disabilities, and family support programs that include guardianship and conservatorship services. Additionally, ACCO operates the Colorado Work Incentive Planning and Assistance (WIPA) program and the Colorado Benefit Offset National Demonstration Project (BOND). The WIPA program receives funding from Social Security to provide Social Security Disability Income (SSSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries with no-cost access to work incentives planning and assistance. BOND is a project created to help SSDI beneficiaries return to work through the use of a benefit offset. ACCO is the only nonprofit approved to provide benefit counseling services through the Social Security Administration Program. DVR collaborates extensively with ACCO to implement both the WIPA and BOND programs. DVR partners with ACCO to contractually support the WIPA program’s ongoing and statewide availability of workforce incentive and benefits counseling. DVR and ACCO recently partnered in the BOND project in Colorado and Wyoming, through which DVR provided work incentives counseling, service coordination, and information and referral services to SSDI beneficiaries who are randomly selected and enrolled into BOND

The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. The Salvation Army provides adult rehabilitation, housing, hunger relief, homelessness services, and veterans’ services to individuals. In several local communities in Colorado, DVR partners closely with the local Salvation Army programs. Through these local collaborative endeavors, referrals of individuals with disabilities who are in need of vocational rehabilitation services are made to DVR and referrals from DVR to the Salvation Army are made to obtain emergency services and services DVR is unable to provide.

Colorado Community Centered Boards

Colorado has twenty local community centered boards (CCB), which are responsible for the provision of case management services that assist individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities in accessing necessary services and supports to meet their needs. Community centered boards are not-for-profit organizations. Collaboration between DVR and the CCBs is especially evident in DVR’s delivery of supported employment services, discussed in depth elsewhere in this State Plan. Additionally, DVR and CCB partners collaborate to cross-train at the local level and develop referral systems and processes to coordinate individualized client plans for habilitation and vocational rehabilitation that complement one another and eliminate duplication of services.

Community Mental Health Centers

Community Mental Health Center services include psychiatric services, individual and group therapy, peer services, support groups, medication management, intensive case management, educational opportunities and employment services including supported employment. Partnership between DVR and local Mental Health Centers is evidenced through the Mental Health Supported Employment Program, which operates under a formal interagency agreement between DVR and the Colorado Department of Human Service - Office of Behavioral Health (OBH) and involves local level supported employment agreements with twelve (12) Community Mental Health Centers. Services consist of job development, job seeking skills, job coaching, and on-going support. The purpose of this project is to enhance employment opportunities for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness or persons in recovery. The project has resulted in increased integrated employment opportunities for individuals and is discussed in depth elsewhere in this State Plan.

Private Non-Profit Vendors

Private non-profit vocational rehabilitation service providers have been and continue to be a longstanding resource used by DVR to obtain services for DVR clients. Examples of private non-profit vendors with which DVR partners:

• The Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB) The CCB is a world renowned training center located in Littleton, Colorado. The CCB provides innovative teaching techniques and philosophy that has far reaching effects on the lives of individuals with blindness. Services purchased by DVR include: independence training for adults, year round and summer employment, education, and independent living services for youth; college preparation; and senior services.
• Goodwill Industries of Denver and Discover Goodwill Southern and Western Colorado These programs work with both teens and adults to help them get the education and training they need to obtain and sustain meaningful employment and improve their lives. Services purchased by DVR include services offered within Goodwill areas of focus, including: youth career development at the secondary level; job skills training and placement for adults; work options for individuals with disabilities within Goodwill; retail employment; and recycling.
• Bayaud Enterprises Since 1969, Bayaud has changed the lives of thousands of individuals in the Denver community by providing employment training, assessment, coaching, placement, work incentives counseling and retention services. DVR purchases all of these services from Bayaud. Executive level Bayaud staff have long held active membership on the SRC.

Cooperative relationships between DVR and providers of vocational rehabilitation services, including not for profit providers, are formalized through a written Provider Agreement. The Provider Agreement process is designed to assure adherence to three procurement requirements:

1. That all qualified vendors have the opportunity to compete for business with DVR if they choose, and
2. That all vendors will be treated equitably and will be paid for their services in accordance with a standard method of rate setting procedures, and
3. That there will always be a written contract in place when annual expenditures to any vendor reach $25,000, as required by State Law, while assuring continuity of service provision to clients.

This effort has resulted in a consistent structure for establishing working relationships with service providers throughout the state and at the same time helps assure equitable payment across providers for the same types of services at the least possible cost.

Our provider agreement system is market based, meaning that services are purchased based on competitive market rates instead of provider costs. The procedures require a vendor to complete the DVR Provider Agreement form that serves to register them as potential provider of specific services. Subsequent services purchased by DVR are limited to those identified on the agreement for which the vendor is registered.

Execution of the Provider Agreement obligates vendors to meet certain qualifications related to standards that have been developed by DVR for the provision of specific services. Vendors also agree to abide by the established payment procedures and rates for each service DVR might purchase. Registration as a DVR vendor does not obligate vendors to provide services to DVR clients nor does it obligate DVR to purchase services from any given vendor.

Initial approval of the Provider Agreement, once signed by the vendor, is done at the local DVR field office. Approval then goes to DVR’s staff authorized to sign provider agreements under contract waiver H1115. This method encourages the DVR field office and the service provider to establish a strong understanding of each other’s roles and responsibilities in the provision of services to clients. It also puts the responsibility on the DVR field office supervisor to review the agreement for consistency between services offered and appropriate compliance with standards and credentials prior to their approval. Specific services identified on the Individual Plan for Employment are authorized by DVR counselors.

DVR believes that these procedures help ensure that adequate contracting procedures are used and certify that:

• Purchases of services and goods maximize the efficient and effective use of public funds;
• Services and goods will only be purchased from qualified providers;
• All vendors who wish to provide services to DVR clients have the opportunity to do so and are subject to a consistent set of terms and conditions; and
• Most importantly, DVR’s clients will have a wide range of options to choose from when selecting service providers.