Massachusetts Commission for the Blind
Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB) has partnered with innovative organizations to enhance employment opportunities for visually impaired individuals. Through strategies to engage employers and build collaborative models, the initiative aims to streamline processes for successful job placements and support. Progress includes data integration, forming the VisionWorks Consortium, and transitioning to Aware for improved database management.
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Presentation Transcript
Massachusetts Commission for the Blind Joe Buizon, Employment Services Supervisor Carol Cullins, Employment Services Specialist
JD-VRTAC Project Background MCB has the advantage of working with two non-profit organizations that are nationally recognized innovators in provision of blindness services. Under the JDVRTAC RFP , MCB was looking for strategies to strengthen the partnership with the CRPs, engage and collaborate in a coordinated outreach to employer partners, and build a model of collaboration that highlights and builds on each organization s strength. With MCB s requirements both on the national and state levels, JD-VRTAC aligns perfectly with the agency s strive for a coordinated and systematic approach to successful employment for consumers. Employer partner engagement efforts had been tracked on a spreadsheet by Employment Specialists, thus, MCB had no way of knowing in real-time how involved the business partners were, or which of the business partners have a record of active engagement with consumers who are legally blind, nor which partners are actively engaged with the CRPs and to what extent.
Over the Past Two Years Held brainstorming session with various stakeholders from each organization and the JD-VRTAC team Refined our mission and vision for the collaborative Wrote and signed the Memorandum of Understanding to establish ground rules Used the Annual Job Fair as a platform to introduce VisionWorks Established the VisionWorks Consortium and announced publicly at the 6thAnnual Job Fair All 3 organizations signed the Memorandum of Understanding Purchased database
Fast Forward to Today: Changes implemented Collected, cleaned and merged data Streamlined single points of contact Position VisionWorks Consortium as 3 distinct organizations that function as one with regard to employment opportunities for consumers Job fairs In-services Resume critiquing Mock interview Real interview opportunities Due to financial situation in the Commonwealth, MCB is transitioning from Salesforce to Aware, which is economically more feasible. This is currently in progress.
Data/Information Captured Company Name Address Name of lead contact person within the organization (not necessarily CEO or HR) and his or her contact information Informally which of the VisionWorks organizations owns the contact
Case Study Undergrad Student at Chicago University participated in MCB's summer internship program 5 times Was hired at State Street, a core partner, and stayed at the company for about a year Left to pursue his dream of becoming a professional musician and was unemployed for about 2 years He continued to engage in services from general job seeking, the job fairs, and attended the Perkins Business Partnership meeting along with two other job seekers He gained valuable information about his resume from the employer partners in attendance and made appropriate revisions Shortly after that, he obtained a job experience which led to conversion and he is now working full time again. The meeting Perkins Business Partnership meeting was the spring board to the success
