Northern VA Autism Employment Collaborative
A Community of Practice
Purpose: To collaborate and capitalize upon the knowledge and resources of a diverse group of stakeholder to develop a shared vision, identify challenges, discuss promising practices, and define future opportunities to expand and enhance employment outcomes of individuals with ASD.
Invited Members: DRS, PRS, Didlake, MVLE, ARC of Northern Virginia, NW Works, Autism Society of America, Commonwealth of Autism, Community Services Board, Loudoun Joblink, Alternative Behaviors, Starfish Savers, JSSA, Behavioral Directions, Fairfax County Public School, Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitative Center
Outcomes of the meeting: Design the future work of the Autism Employment Collaborative to expand and enhance collective strategies.
The design of the Collaborative is communities of practice. Please read this Research Brief for additional information: CoP Research Brief.pdf
Collaborative Tools:
A list-serv has been set up for the collaborative. To use the list-serv, just type in this into your email address and message will be sent to the full group: nvautismemp@hermes.gwu.edu. It has been set up so that when responding to an email generated by the list-serv name, the response only goes to the person sending the original message (to avoid email clutter). Also, the list is set for option subscription, so if a message is sent to folks, they can subscribe.
This wiki has been set up to include information about the Collaborative. This is a collaborative working space where all members can add content, submit comments, design and edit. This is also set up as an open site, but a person is required to set up an account at http://pbworks.com to edit the wiki. It is as simple as providing your email address and creating a password. Once you have this account, you can access and edit the Northern VA Autism Employment Collaborative site located at http://nvautismemployment.pbworks.com/.
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According to Friend & Cook (2010), of all the challenges facing education today, none is as complex and challenging as creating a culture of collaboration. This is true for all services when it comes to educating and supporting an individual on the spectrum. The essential characteristics of collaboration are - it must be voluntary; it requires parity among participants; is based on mutual goals; it depends on shared responsibility for participation and decision making; and there a sharing of resources and accountability for outcomes (Friend & Cook, 2010). Very few could argue against the basic philosophy of collaboration, as the word itself has become a catch phrase in the world we live in today. Ask any employer and collaboration is placed in close proximity to the classic desired traits of being highly organized, creative, detail oriented and having exceptional communication abilities. This is due to the fact that no one person holds all the answers to any particular problem. Considering the complexity of supporting an individual with autism throughout a lifespan, the talents of many are required. With that said, I welcome you all to the Northern Virginia Autism Employment Collaborative - A Community of Practice. William Andrew Clarke
Friend, M., & Cook, L. (2010). Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.
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***TAKE OUR SURVEY ***
Link to Parent Services Survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HB7XNKJ
Link to Parent School Survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HH338KB
UPDATE: April 12, 2011 - so far we have had a response rate of 25%. Keep passing the survey around, the information received will be a benefit to the planning we are doing for needs assessment. Thank you!
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The "notes" from the kickoff meeting have been used to build this wiki. Please click here if you'd like to download a full copy of the notes, along with those members who attended and have been invited to participate: Northern VA Autism Employment Collaborative Kickoff notes 0610.doc
This is a real workspace! Please edit this page, create new pages, and invite others to use this workspace with you. The PBworks Manual and 30-second training videos can help show the Boxing Glove, add videos and invite users.
To Navigate this site:
The Links Below will take you directly to the working sub-groups of the collaborative:
ASD Resource Links
ASD Talk Time
ASD CoP Event
Needs Assessment Group
Comments (19)
Larrie Ellen Randall said
at 5:04 pm on Feb 21, 2011
I intended to create a folder for the Needs assessment and one for the Website Resource Mapping but as you can see I made three needs assessment and the Website Resource Mapping only contains needs assessment. Can someone help. Thanks. I want to add a document to the website mapping in addition to information that Kathleen entered.
William Andrew Clarke said
at 8:24 pm on Feb 24, 2011
I took care of your problem. A new page in Navigation has been created called (Needs Assessment Group). All the information from the other pages was moved here and I deleted the extras. Feel free to edit and update as needed. Thank you. WAC
Larrie Ellen Randall said
at 5:27 pm on Feb 21, 2011
Update on the Website Resource Mapping. Kathleen Fairchild and Robin Moyer have joined with some folks from Autism Society Northern Virginia (ASNV) to continue with the mapping of the website resources. We could use additional help. WE will upload the map and resource spreadsheet from ASNV to use as a basis for resources. This is a very rough draft and includes children's services as well. Once we post it here, we would welcome input on corrections or additional sites to fit into the map. Thanks to all in advance!
jkester@... said
at 11:02 am on Feb 24, 2011
The most recent details regarding the Collaborative CoP event has been posted - please check out details and provide committee feedback. Thanks!
William Andrew Clarke said
at 11:54 am on Feb 24, 2011
Resourse Links have been updated. Please take a moment to review and add any relevant links.
Brandy said
at 3:31 pm on Feb 24, 2011
The 2007 report had good information regarding employment and preparation. Still reading through it, but the highlights are interesting.
espalding@didlake.org said
at 3:52 pm on Feb 25, 2011
Exciting stuff. I'm working on the email to send out the survey to ASD service providers. The draft should be ready by Tuesday.
William Andrew Clarke said
at 4:58 pm on Feb 25, 2011
Thank you Erika! Erika is using Didlake's survey monkey gold account to send the survey. This means survey monkey will analyze the data for us!
Lisa Malone said
at 9:31 am on Feb 26, 2011
Thanks Erika for all the help, I will be getting with Larrie Ellen on converting the surveys on Wiki to our account. If that still seems feesible and a good way to merge the responses into one database.
William Andrew Clarke said
at 8:13 am on Feb 27, 2011
Notes From Meeting with Erika, Lisa and Andrew...
Erika is going to cover the following:
Autism Awareness Month ( I asked Erika to find a logo we could use April is Autism Awareness Month...she is aware of the regs for this stuff)
CoP Autism Conference in June: General description of the event and tenative "Save The Date"
Wiki site information and link
Survey conversion to our Gold Account, the surveys will remain the same so we can manipulate the data with the other folks who have distributed it already.
At this point we would like to amend the surveys on the wiki page to reflect our surveys in our gold account, and then Erika can merge all the data together from wiki and our mass email of the surveys, all of the data will then be going to one account and she can manage better. I am also assuming, based on what she said that all of the final data can be pooled, and analized.
Marie.Bruening@asu.edu said
at 10:21 pm on Feb 27, 2011
Wonderful that you all have a powerful local resource such as this Wiki! Those of us in Arizona are looking at it - such a nice model for others to start for their region and to support professionals and families with great resources and links! Thanks to W. Andrew Clarke for allowing me to visit! Dr. Bruening, Faculty Associate, Arizona State University
Larrie Ellen Randall said
at 9:13 pm on Feb 28, 2011
I have sent a draft letter to Ann Long, Coordinator for FCPS Employment and Transition Services that she can send to school-based Employment and Transition Resource personnel. Please feel free to send this to ETRs in other counties.
THE DEADLINE for surveys to be complete is March 31 so please spread it far and wide!
Larrie Ellen Randall said
at 9:59 pm on Feb 28, 2011
I have sent the information on the survey to all of the parent resource centers in Fairfax, Arlington, Fauquier, Prince Willliam and Loudoun Counties.
William Andrew Clarke said
at 10:40 pm on Feb 28, 2011
Laurrie Ellen: Thank you so much! Please let me know if there is anything I can do.
Lisa Malone said
at 7:26 pm on Mar 10, 2011
Hello all,
We sent the survey out yesterday to roughly 300 folks, and by 9pm last night we had four surveys back. Great News! Hopefully, the numbers will compound as we urged people pass it on! Didlake also sent information regarding the Wiki site and CoP Conference, "Save the Date" and Autism Awareness Month.
Erika has offered to attend the April meeting, (actually Andrew and I volunteered her :) and she agreed ) and we can discuss compiling the data from the surveys.
Thanks for all the help with the survey Erika!
William Andrew Clarke said
at 4:59 pm on Apr 3, 2011
Just a Reminder. Full group meeting this week April 6, 2011 - Fairfax DRS office 10:30am-12:30pm. This will be a full group meeting. Sub-group team leaders please come prepared to present to everyone your teams progress and developments.
William Andrew Clarke said
at 5:11 pm on Apr 3, 2011
From Lee Price: The next TACIDD meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 15, at the Henrico County Community Services Board from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM.
TACID
April 15, 2011
Agenda
1. Welcome and introductions
2. Departmental Updates
a. Creating Opportunities
b. SELN
c. Developments Related to GA Budget
i. New Staff for the ODS
ii. Crisis Stabilization
3. Department of Justice Findings and Process – Heidi Dix
4. DOE Report on Developments With Autism Center for Excellence
5. Lunch
6. Person Centered Thinking – An Interactive Progress Report
7. Adjournment
jkester@... said
at 11:34 am on Apr 8, 2011
Excellent meeting on April 6th! So much is happening with the group - the needs assessment with real data to drive the work of the collaborative; resource mapping; talk time to learn collectively; and plans for the conference. The wiki has been a great tool to build the collaboration and I look forward to working with the group to strengthen the wiki to expand your efforts in the future!
William Andrew Clarke said
at 12:22 pm on Apr 9, 2011
I agree! Very productive meeting. Just as an FYI we have more survey results. Erika reported at the meeting we received 20 completed surveys. We are now up to 50. Our response rate has now increased to 25%! Stay tuned for the data - it's very interesting.
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