Since the inception of the DPN initiative in 2003, DPNs have focused on the coordination of integrated services to job seekers with multiple challenges to employment. With considerable knowledge on resources within the workforce investment system and in the community, DPNs often see the “big picture” or the many pieces needed to form the puzzle. This information brief highlights the use of Integrated Resource Teams, which represent one approach DPNs are using to bring together multiple partners across service systems helping to build teams who work together to combine resources and help job seekers reach employment goals.
This video highlights how the Disability Program Navigators (DPN) facilitated the establishment of an Integrated Resource Team (IRT) within the One-Stop Career Center (Worksource Center, Portland, Oregon) to blend and braid resources around an individual customer with disabilities' employment needs. The IRT brings various partners (private and public, mandated and non-mandated) from a myriad of agencies/organizations (e.g., One Stop Career Center, Vocational Rehabilitation Agency, mental health, developmental disabilities, etc.) across multiple systems to leverage resources, coordinate services/programs, and reduce duplication to better serve the individual customer with a disability and/or multiple employment challenges. The ultimate goal of the IRT is to get the person with a disability a job; not just any job but a quality, non-stereotypical job that provides a living wage, career lattice opportunities, benefits, and reflects the individual’s interests, experience, education/training goals, and desires. This video tells the story of how the IRT approach worked to assist a customer, who is deaf, receive training at his local community college and a paid internship, with the goal of finding a higher paying job.
Integrated Resource Teams (IRT) are bringing together public and private sector representatives at the local One-Stop community level to improve communication and collaboration that results in enhanced coordination of services and supports at an individual level for a job seeker with a disability. An IRT represents one of many options that a local area may be able to use to provide an increased level of support for a job seeker with a disability. This web-seminar walks through a set of IRT frequently asked questions, as well as some specific case scenarios in order to better understand the function of an IRT.
The Navigators act as facilitators to bring together multiple partners in the One-Stop Career Centers to develop an integrated resource team approach with the purpose of blending and braiding resources around an individual customer’s employment needs. This Webinar will highlight how the Oregon DPN project is using the IRT model to develop individual employment plans for job seekers with disabilities, as well as to coordinate resources across the workforce and disability systems to address multiple employment needs. Replication strategies will also be discussed.