Volume 9, Number 2
November, 2009
Campaign Encourages Employers to "Think Beyond the Label"
By Daniel Lassley, Working Healthy Employment Specialist
Working Healthy has joined with nearly 30 other MIG (Medicaid Infrastructure Grant) state projects to fund the creation and distribution of a national media campaign targeted toward employers. “Think Beyond the Label” is the theme chosen to encourage employers to hire people with disabilities. The campaign’s print advertisements and television commercials will use humor to drive home the fact that all of us are given labels of some sort, however rarely do they prevent us from making positive contributions in the workplace. The campaign will go beyond television, internet, and print advertising and also direct employers to state-specific resources that can assist with the recruitment, retention and promotion of people with disabilities. This will be done through a central web portal that connects to each state’s designated website. Marketing materials from the national campaign are also being made available to the participating states so they can extend the “Think Beyond the Label” brand to local and regional marketing efforts. Kansas will have both a website and toll-free number for employers to contact. Look for the campaign to launch in the spring of 2010. Bookmark the website now:
The following article first appeared in the August 2009 publication of the Area IV Kansas Workforce Center, Workforce Center Scoop, Volume 11, Issue VIII. It is reprinted here with editorial and author permissions. Working Health staff would like to thank the Center for their work and contribution.
"Charles in Charge" - A Testimonial on Charles Scrivener
By Daniel Lassley, Working Healthy Employment Specialist
The collaborative efforts of the Wichita Workforce Center, Working Healthy Program and the Disability Navigator Program have been instrumental in providing Charles Scrivener, who is visually impaired, the opportunity to pursue his goals in the past year. He has been employed with Envision for the past two years.
Charles visited the Workforce Center last year to find out what was available for a person with a disability and quickly found out how willing staff was to help him. He was able to utilize the adaptive technology area where he could use the JAWS program, a software program to assist in helping persons who are blind. In that same time period, the Disability Navigator entered the Workforce Center and a partnership evolved with Charles. Charles was able to serve as a mentor on disability related issues.
The development of the Wichita Area Disability Mentoring Day Committee last year provided Charles the opportunity to become involved as a volunteer and he is now Co-Chair of the upcoming October 21, 2009 event. This event will provide a group of high school students, college students and young adult job seekers a chance to job shadow with a local employer matching their career interest. With the Disability Navigator, Charles also presented at the July 2009 Partners in Policymaking meeting on his experience in utilizing Workforce Center services, Working Healthy program and the Disability Navigator program. He encouraged the group, which included persons with disabilities, school district officials and community service providers, to seek the same type of services he pursued in the past year.
Recently Charles has been chosen by CPRF to be part of the new Americorps program as a Financial Support Services member. He will be learning income tax preparation, disability benefits counseling, financial education and asset development for low income workers, many with disabilities. Jody Voils, Americorps Program Manager stated,
“Charles is a person who has enthusiasm, creativity and the ability to work with people. I believe with his input he will learn how to motivate and help persons to a path to financial freedom.”
Lisa Langley, Working Healthy Benefits Specialist, was instrumental in helping Charles improve his quality of life and continuing career/community volunteer goals by placing him in the WORK program. Charles now has a personal assistant who is able to help him with transportation, reading assistance and the other needs that help balance his life.
Charles commented, “I have been very fortunate to be able to meet people who are concerned about my well-being and want to help me to improve my quality of life-the efforts of Lisa (Working Healthy) and Veronica (Disability Navigator) have totally turned my life around. I also feel very confident walking in the Workforce Center as the staff has been so helpful since my first visit”.
What is Working Healthy
Working Healthy provides Medicaid Coverage.It allows people with disabilities to return to or increase their work effort without losing critical Medicaid coverage. Working Healthy encourages people to work, increase their income and accumulate assets in order to reduce long term reliance on public supports.
What Is WORK?
Personal assistance and other services for consumers eligible for Working Healthy whose functional limitations would make them eligible for the Developmental Disability (DD), Physical Disability (PD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) waivers. WORK is designed to provide eligible enrollees with optimum control of their lives.
Benefits Specialist Corner
This issue features Working Healthy Benefits Specialist Lisa Langley from the Wichita Area SRS office. Lisa has worked for Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services for over 8 years. During this time she gained extensive knowledge of the Medicaid, Food Assistance, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Successful Families and Childcare programs. She worked as a case manager, program trainer, unit supervisor, program director, case reader and now is aWorking Healthy Benefits Specialist. Lisa expresses how much she truly enjoys helping people obtain and maintain independence in her current position. Lisa covers Sedgewick County and can be reached by phone at 316-337-6459 or by emailing Lisa.Langley@srs.ks.gov.
It Astonishes Me To Hear
It astonishes me to hear that some people have never heard of the Working Healthy program. This program has been in existence since July 2002 and one would imagine that after seven years most people in Kansas would have at least heard of it! It is frightening to me when I am out in the community speaking about Working Healthy to have people tell me they did not know that this program was available.
Working Healthy allows people to gain financial independence while providing them with quality health care services. This program is valuable and needs to be known by all who live in Kansas. Through the presentations I give, I have found, that there are individuals who have a disability according to Social Security, are working and who because of their income are responsible for an outrageously high spenddown before their Medicaid takes effect. When I tell these people the money they will save through Working Healthy, it is no wonder, they enroll in Working Healthy. They view me as “wonderful,” but it is not me who is wonderful it’s the program.
Please inform everyone you get a chance to talk to in your daily life about Working Healthy. It is available but people do not know to use it unless they are aware of its existence. With all of us working together we can make this program well-known in our state. Working Healthy will allow so many more people the opportunity to go to work and maintain health coverage at a reasonable cost. - Lisa Langley, Benefits Specialist
Working Healthy is published quarterly by the University of Kansas CRL, Division of Adult Studies and the Kansas Health Policy Authority. Additional copies and copies in alternate formats are available upon request by writing the University of Kansas Division of Adult Studies, Attn: Noelle, 1122 West Campus Rd.. JRP Hall Rm. 517, Lawrence, KS 66045, by phone 785-864-7085, by emailing: >pixie@ku.edu
KU Research Team:
Jean P. Hall, Principal Investigator
Noelle K. Kurth, Project Coordinator and Editor
Shawna Carroll & Emily Fall, Graduate Research Assistant
Emily Tonsfeldt, Student Assistant
Kansas Health Policy Authority:
Mary Ellen O'Brien Wright, Senior Manager
Nancy Scott, Program Manager
Daniel Lassley, Employment Consultant