Narrative: l. 9.

Project SEARCH

Project Search is a business led program and internationally trademarked model that leads to competitive integrated employment for youth with a variety of developmental disabilities. The success of Project SEARCH is dependent upon the active involvement of multiple partners within a community, including business, secondary education, postsecondary education, vocational rehabilitation, community rehabilitation providers, ongoing support agencies, families, and social security. Currently, Colorado has seven Project SEARCH sites and is exploring opportunities to expand. Host business sites include several locations with UC Health hospitals in Colorado Springs, Highlands Ranch, Denver, and Greeley, as well as sites at Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Community Hospital in Grand Junction, Columbine Health in Fort Collins, and the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Denver. DVR is actively engaged with each of 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, skills training, 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 long-standing partnership with PEAK Parent Center. PEAK Parent Center is Colorado’s federally-designated Parent Training and Information Center, working 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 partners with PEAK for a variety of the workshops and training events they plan and provide each year. A key member of the PEAK leadership staff is an active member of the State Rehabilitation Council.

Colorado Community Centered Boards

Colorado has twenty local community centered boards (CCB), which are non-profit organizations 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. 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 plans for rehabilitation 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 an interagency agreement between DVR and the Office of Behavioral Health (BHA) and contracts with 14 Community Mental Health Centers to provide supported employment services. 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

A variety of private non-profit organizations provide vocational rehabilitation services through DVR under a fee-for-service structure, including:

• 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.
• Easter Seals Colorado. Easterseals provides a variety of employment services to individuals with a range of disabilities. These services through Easterseals focus on individualized employment supports necessary for job seekers to work as independently as possible, including benefits counseling, customized employment, and Individualized Placement and Supports (IPS).
• 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.

DVR utilizes an electronic Vendor Setup Process to ensure providers interested in becoming DVR vendors submit all required documentation, and that the appropriate DVR staff review and approve all potential vendors prior to the delivering any services to the individuals DVR serves. As part of the Vendor Setup Process, providers must provide documentation that they are in compliance with DVR’s Vendor Background Check policy, agree to DVR’s Vendor Guidelines and Standards, and submit all credentials/certifications/etc. required by DVR’s Vendor Standards. The Vendor Setup Process s is designed to ensure all new vendors are qualified to provide quality services to the individuals DVR serves, and to assure adherence to the procurement requirements:

1. That all qualified vendors have the opportunity to compete for business with DVR if they choose;
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

The DVR Vendor Setup Process 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.

Services are purchased based on competitive market rates instead of individual provider costs. Each vendor must complete the DVR Vendor Setup Process Google form to register them as a potential provider of the specific services they are qualified to provide. Subsequent services purchased by DVR are limited to those identified on their Vendor Setup Process documentation and approved by DVR. 

The Vendor Setup Process ensures vendors meet certain minimum qualifications as determined by DVR and agree to abide by the established payment procedures and rates for each service. Registration as a DVR vendor does not obligate vendors to provide services to those that DVR serves nor does it obligate DVR to purchase services from any given vendor. DVR strives to ensure an adequate pool of providers available to meet the needs and allow for the informed choice of all those seeking services from DVR.

Each individual provider is required to submit full Vendor Setup Process documentation to DVR’s administration staff using a Google Form. Administration staff review all submissions to ensure all required documentation is provided, all required signatures are included, and that any service specific certifications and/or credentials are included. Once all paperwork is reviewed and approved, DVR administration staff activates the vendor in DVR’s electronic case management/payment system (AWARE), contacts the vendor to indicate they are available to provide services, and ensures DVR field offices are aware of the new vendor. DVR administration staff maintain a vendor specific, state email account, to which vendors, DVR staff, and other stakeholders can submit questions and request guidance about vendor/vending process related questions.  

DVR believes that the Vendor Setup Process helps 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 have the opportunity to do so and are subject to a consistent set of terms and conditions; and
• Most importantly, the people that DVR serves have a wide range of options to choose from when selecting service providers.