1 1 2 THE OPERATOR: Thank you for holding everyone. We 3 now have Sharon Finney on line. 4 MS. FINNEY: Welcome to today's webcast. I'm 5 Sharon Finney with ILRU. I will be assisting with 6 today's presentation. I would like to take this 7 opportunity to introduce Kenny who is our operator 8 today and he will give you additional instructions on 9 today's teleconference. 10 >> At the conclusion of the presentation, we will 11 be opening the floor for questions. If you would like 12 to ask a question at that time, please press star one. 13 I will turn it back over to you, Sharon. 14 MS. FINNEY: Thank you, Kenny. For those or you 15 who are on the web today, you can e-mail your questions 16 directly by clicking on the link at the bottom of the 17 realone player link or sending them directly to webcast 18 at ILRU.Org. I will receive those questions and voice 19 them to our presenters today. If you should encounter 20 any problems during today's presentation on the web, 21 you may contact our technical support staff at 22 (713)520-0232, extension zero. Now I'm happy to 23 introduce Darryl Jones, program training coordinator 24 for the community living exchange collaborative at 25 ILRU. Good afternoon, Darryl. 2 1 >> Thank you so much, Sharon. Good afternoon, 2 everyone. We are glad you could join us today, Richard 3 Petty who is the director of the exchange at ILRU asked 4 me to send his greetings to everyone and his apologies. 5 He wanted to be here to greet you but unfortunately was 6 called away to jury duty. We have with us today Susan 7 Reinhard, who is the director of the center for state 8 health policy. As you may know, the community living 9 exchange is a collaboration between ILRU and others. 10 Hello, Susan. 11 >> Hi, Darryl. Thank you for that introduction. 12 I had jury duty two weeks ago. Must be something in 13 the air. 14 >> It is something in the air. Welcome to all of 15 our listeners and we are delighted you are able to do 16 this today. We are able to see what some of their work 17 in March at the annual meeting and talk to her there 18 and we are really very pleased so thank you. 19 >> Thanks for being with us, Susan. I now have 20 the privilege of introducing Dee O'Connor who is 21 associate professor and director of the long term care 22 policy you know at this time at the center for health 23 policy and research, University of Massachusetts 24 Medical School. Her unit assisting the Commonwealth of 25 Massachusetts in planning, applied research, data, and 3 1 consensus building related to long term supports for 2 people with disabilities. You can read more about Dee 3 and her colleagues at ILRU.Org. By clicking on the 4 webcast link at the top of the home page and going to 5 the webcast calendar and selecting today's webcast. 6 And now I will turn this over to Dee who will introduce 7 our other presenters to you. Dee? 8 MS. O'CONNOR: This is Dee owe Conner. Thank you 9 for the nice introduction. We are happy to be able to 10 present the work we have been doing in our states to 11 develop a web based way for people with disabilities to 12 find workers and for people who want to be personal 13 assistance workers to find employers through the web. 14 Some of you may have heard about this work through the 15 meeting that Susan referenced or through the conference 16 last fall. We certainly try to find different avenues 17 to let other states know about it because we realize 18 that many states are working on initiatives that try to 19 give workers more control about the work they are 20 seeking and one of the things that is a challenge to 21 them in that is finding that, available workers, so 22 through the course of work that has been happening in 23 Massachusetts over a number of years, there have been 24 some developments happening there that we think is 25 actually of great interest to other states and we would 4 1 love the chance to work with and collaborate with 2 others who might be interested. For the presentation, 3 I'm going to be joined by Jeff Keilson who is on a 4 different line from us. Jeff is actually the master 5 mind behind this concept and we will give you a little 6 bit of background to why the state got interested this 7 that and where we have tried to take the initiative. 8 And then I'll come back on to give you some -- to walk 9 you through what the website contained and how it is 10 being used at this point. I will be also be joined by 11 Cathy Ludlum who is an employer working with us on 12 designing the web and she will come on at the end to 13 give an employer's perspective about this. Just so you 14 all know, also with me in the room here are a couple 15 other critical people who have been part of the work on 16 developing regarding work. When we get to the question 17 and answer time, they will also be available to answer 18 questions. One of those people is Debbie who developed 19 a personal assistance association in Connecticut. I 20 also have with me Eleanor Parker and Don James who are 21 partners in a company called Parker and James 22 Incorporated, who is the developer of the website. 23 There is a group that maintains this project and other 24 activities. They will also be available when we get to 25 that stage, if needed to answer questions. I'm going 5 1 to turn to Jeff Keilson to start us off. 2 MR. KEILSON: We will get into the meat of the 3 website. We started a number of years ago. At that 4 time, I worked for the Department of Mental Retardation 5 in the greater Boston region. We wanted to basically 6 develop a comprehensive recruitment campaign at that 7 time for provider agencies. One of the first things 8 that we did was develop a theme and a website, 9 rewarding work. At that time, you know, initially the 10 website was not very powerful and back then, you know, 11 we really didn't necessarily have a sense on how it 12 would evolve, but over the last few years, it really 13 has evolved into a much more powerful tool in managing 14 the data most critically the data of individuals who 15 have an interest in being direct support individuals or 16 personal assistants and much more powerful in its use 17 as a recruiting tool. Initially four years ago, 18 resumes would come in and they would all be done 19 manually and it was very labor intensive and now one of 20 the most exciting things about the website is how easy 21 it is to manage the data base which Dee will go in in 22 more detail. Certainly we felt and feel more strongly 23 now as we have kind of moved from it being a tool for 24 provider agencies to being used directly by elderlies 25 and people with disabilities is there is a lot of 6 1 advantages to web based recruitment. It increases 2 consumer autonomy and self direction. People have a 3 lot more control, you know, at their fingertips and 4 more support at their fingertips. It allows 5 recruitment resources to be pooled. Part of this is 6 the collaborative effort around recruitment to generate 7 people who are interested in being personal assistants. 8 And with that, it assists individual employers with 9 disabilities to locate workers from an expanded pool of 10 workers. While there are some people that have their 11 own natural network of support and can access family, 12 friends and others, there are a lot of people with 13 disabilities that either initially or certainly over 14 time need assistance in terms of the recruitment. It 15 enables employers to work at workers in other states 16 where they want to relocate or travel. That is one of 17 the exciting things to us in terms of potential of a 18 data base that can be sorted right now we are working 19 on sorting it by zip code so there are a number of 20 states involved, people can access people who might be 21 interested in approximating personal assistances when 22 they travel. It enables potential workers to get their 23 applications to a much broader network of employers 24 because all the employers have access to the data base. 25 And certainly, as I said, it increases the potential 7 1 for multistate collaboration which I'll get into a 2 little. I don't have the slides in front of me so -- 3 are you moving the slide, or are people just go doing 4 it? 5 >> Let me interject there that those people 6 looking to use the slides should go to the website. I 7 meant to say that up front. Probably most people know 8 how to do this and I'm fairly new to it. If you didn't 9 get the instructions this morning, you would go to 10 www.ilru.org. And, Jeff, that then accesses the power 11 point for us so that people actually click the slides 12 themselves. You are on the slide that you just 13 described about advantages and people can then move on 14 to the next one. 15 MR. KEILSON: Okay. Great. We have the website 16 www.ilru.org, and a lot of that is tied to the 17 marketing materials that we have developed that all 18 lead people either directly to the website or to an 800 19 number that they can get their application that someone 20 is answering the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a 21 week. The application can be filled out through the 22 800 number or the website. We have found a majority of 23 the people are using the 800 number to fill out the 24 application. One of the powerful things here is either 25 way the information goes to that common data base. So 8 1 clearly what we identified four years ago was that 2 obviously there was a significant problem in the 3 recruitment of direct support professionals at the 4 time. And certainly one that is going to become more 5 and more significant in the future. Our intent was to 6 try to develop a foundation that could be built on as 7 we look ahead and as new initiatives get implemented so 8 our feeling was that the website is one of those key 9 pieces of that foundation. As there is maybe some 10 positive recruitment to try to attract more and more 11 people like retirees or others, people who want a new 12 career, all the information through the website gets on 13 the data base. So that is what our intent was. And as 14 an easy way to manage the data. Part of our campaign 15 initially -- and this is one of the things that is 16 critical, it started in Massachusetts with rewarding 17 work campaign that was provided on providers and we had 18 a number of strategies in terms of marketing to try to 19 get potential direct support professionals and personal 20 assistants into that data base. Either through the 21 website or through the call center. About nine months 22 ago, we started talking that it made sense now to 23 really take it to the next exciting logical step, which 24 is to redesign the website so people with disabilities 25 could use it directly and access that data base to help 9 1 people hire personal assistants and that's when they 2 had discussions within the other New England states to 3 see what the interest was. Certainly a lot of 4 marketing materials overlapped for example Connecticut 5 and Massachusetts so there is a way to really maximize 6 the resources. Right now in talking with both New 7 Jersey and Connecticut, we are talking about using the 8 same 800 number, the same website, a lot of the same 9 materials so there is a lot of cost savings in doing 10 that in terms of the expansion not only to New England 11 but if other states are interested in using the website 12 and for exam bell the call center as a foundation. So 13 the -- you can register directly, either through the 14 website or the 800 number. The call center is 15 available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We felt 16 it was important that there would be a live person 17 answering the phone at all times. We have gotten 18 people who maybe are interested in moving to 19 Massachusetts and so forth so the cost is pretty 20 minimal but it ensures that that is done. And the call 21 center has a script and a application so you gather the 22 same information as someone on the site and applying 23 directly. They get assistance from a variety of 24 different places. We have started working with people 25 who would be available to offer that assistance. 10 1 Certainly some people do it themselves and other people 2 will need various levels of support. The other thing, 3 I will end with this, is part of the discussion is also 4 the potential expanded use to elders or we have had 5 some discussions with the multiple sclerosis society, 6 people who need assistance in identifying personal 7 assistants. Interestingly enough, last week I got a 8 call from -- five calls from different families. One 9 was a daughter whose mother has psychiatric 10 instabilities, lives in Massachusetts, who has a house, 11 and she lives out of the state, and was looking for how 12 she could get assistance and identify someone who can 13 maybe move in with the mother. A call with someone 14 whose uncle lives in mass clue sets, has a house, needs 15 someone to live with people. A mother with a daughter 16 with autism who was trying to set her up in her own 17 house. There is a lot of potential in using this to 18 help connect people who need to hire personal 19 assistants with people who are interested in being 20 personal assistants. That is a quick overview, and I 21 will turn it back to Dee. 22 MS. O'CONNOR: I will walk you through the web 23 site and some of the major components of it. If you 24 are looking at the slide presentation, you will see the 25 next slide starts out by saying some people with lucky 11 1 enough to love their work. That is the theme of the 2 rewarding work campaign developed by parker and James 3 with input from groups and other mechanisms and was the 4 theme of the original campaign. As we started talking 5 about expanding this campaign to individual employers, 6 the group that we consulted with, steering committee 7 felt it was appropriate and fitting to keep using it. 8 So when you come to this first page, you see a section 9 on the left that says, you know, following up that 10 question, why not you? We're looking for people who 11 want to work with individuals who need support to help 12 them lead full and rewarding lives. It lets people 13 know that full time and part time positions are now 14 available and currently, it refers to being available 15 throughout New England. And then the way the structure 16 of the website works right now, people can indicate 17 whether they are interested in working with agencies in 18 Massachusetts or if they are interested in working with 19 individuals directly. The focus of this presentation 20 will be on those people who want to work directly with 21 individuals, employers, people with disabilities who 22 hire their own workers but wanted you to know on the 23 site, because it originally started with local provider 24 agencies within Massachusetts, we do have the capacity 25 for this site to actually help workers to find 12 1 employers in either way. 2 Then from that front page, people can click the 3 next line which says fill out an application, so if a 4 person is looking for work, they can actually fill out 5 the application and we will get to that in a second. 6 If they are a person who hires personal assistants, 7 they can click the next line, which says welcome 8 employers and they can register themselves as an 9 employer. And if they want more information about 10 accessibility, they can click the next line. The 11 underlying message at the bottom of the screen says 12 make your work more than a paycheck by helping people 13 with disabilities live fuller lives. And then there is 14 a section on this front home page that has what we call 15 a slide show. It has a picture of two women in a 16 working relationship and there are arrows that allow 17 you to click to a few more slides. What we have tried 18 to do in the slide show is to give people a perspective 19 about the different kinds of people who might be 20 employing personal assistants and/or people who might 21 be wanting to work in this field. If you are on the 22 actual website, have you the ability to slick those 23 arrows and you will seamen and women, you will see 24 older people and younger people, people with color, 25 people who are white, it tells you about the types of 13 1 people, the types of activities they are involved in in 2 this type of work. Each of the pictures has a small 3 caption beneath it that gives a bit of the message of 4 the photo so it is very accessible to people who have 5 visual impairments that they can understand the message 6 by the caption. They also have the ability to get an 7 text that will describe the actual photo so that they 8 can know even more clearly what is being depicted. So 9 that is on the home page. It is basically a quick view 10 that gives people an indication of how important this 11 work is and the ways to get information about it. If 12 the person then were to click looking for information 13 about personal assistants they would come to a slide 14 that says good rewarding jobs are waiting for you. And 15 this slide then gives them a bit more information about 16 the field of personal assistants. We worked with 17 people in our steering group that included people with 18 disabilities, as well as people working in the field, 19 from throughout New England. We were trying to capture 20 the wide range of work that personal assistants do, 21 indicate that it is people of all ages, so one of the 22 paragraphs says personal assistants are needed by 23 children and adults with disabilities, including 24 elders, who have lost function due to the ageing 25 process. They are usually hired directly by the people 14 1 with whom they work or by their families. And then it 2 describes a little bit about the kind of work that 3 might be done. A PCA works with people with 4 disabilities to help them live more independent lives. 5 This may involve starting early in the morning, so the 6 employer can get ready for work or coming in late in 7 the evening after the employer has been to a concert. 8 In some cases a personal assistant may drive the 9 employee, employer to work and stay with them during 10 the day. 11 And then it gives you an option to go to the next 12 section of the website that says learn why other people 13 like you decided to become personal assistants. So you 14 click on personal assistant there and it gives you even 15 more details about what makes a good personal 16 assistant. It gives people information about the need 17 for reliability and patience. It emphasizes that 18 people with disability need care, respect, affection 19 like anybody else. It gives details about the kind of 20 work they do so make it sure it is not all just fun and 21 going to concerts but can involve personal kinds of 22 assistance with daily living activities and include 23 support for people who have difficulty with memory and 24 judgment and so this was actually a very important 25 section that the employers had suggested to us to make 15 1 sure that they weren't giving people false expectations 2 about the work, that we were giving them a clear 3 indication about the kind of work that might be 4 involved in making sure that people who signed up on 5 the website were people who understood that it was the 6 kind of work they wanted to do. Then on that page, one 7 of the things that I think is one of the best features 8 about this website it has allowed us to put some 9 personal stories and right now we just have two 10 personal stories, but at the bottom, you can click and 11 say to read about Debbie, who is a personal assistant, 12 and you get a story of a person who is a personal 13 assistant and what it means to be a personal assistant 14 and how it is both important in her life, as well as in 15 her employers and then individuals can also click to 16 learn about Cathy and Cathy's story is from the 17 perspective of a person who hires personal assistants 18 and talks about how important these people are in her 19 life and enabling her to grow and expand in her own 20 opportunities. The next slide is -- shows you the 21 actual application that personal assistants would fill 22 out or people looking to do this work so at the top of 23 the slide it says fill out an application, this is 24 basically a picture of what the application looks like 25 on the website. And I won't go through all of the 16 1 details about the items that we ask for. You can 2 always go to the website yourself and look this up. 3 The website address again is web www.ilru.org. In 4 thinking about what items would be on this application, 5 the group was very concerned about making sure that we 6 were putting on items that would help people in the 7 selection process. So there are items that are the 8 kinds of things that people might be looking for in a 9 personal assistant like the ability to drive, the 10 willingness to work mornings, even early mornings, 11 whether the person wants to work full time or part 12 time. Whether the person is fluent in particular kinds 13 of languages. So the slide that you are looking at 14 now, if you are with the presentation, takes you up as 15 far as the basic information of contacting the 16 individual and whether they want to work full time or 17 part time, the next slide gets into some of the 18 additional details of the application, whether they 19 want to work days or evenings, whether they have any 20 particular kinds of experience. In that case we 21 decided to let the person describe in their own words 22 what their experience was like. 23 The thing that is really key about those items on 24 the website is that the website is designed to allow 25 employers to search on any of those items. So it is 17 1 not just that they would be able to get an application 2 that gives them that information but they can use those 3 items to help them select a narrowed group of people. 4 We have currently over 3,000 people who are listed as 5 employers, as potential employees on the website. The 6 number is now closer to 5,000. And obviously if you 7 were a person looking for workers, you don't want to 8 have to look through a list of 5,000 people so this 9 allows you to select based on whether you live. As 10 Jeff said, we are attempting to build in something that 11 sorts by September code. We have up until now had 12 regions within the states that we have used but being 13 able to select by zip code will have greater 14 flexibility. People able to select only the people who 15 dive and people who can speak Spanish if that is a 16 language that a person prefers and being able to use 17 all of those search criteria to find a group of workers 18 that they might want to contact. I want to be very, 19 very clear about this next point. The rewarding work 20 site the way of helping people to find each other. 21 There is no way that they would have the ability to 22 know that the people who put their names on the site or 23 the people who are looking for workers are going to be 24 compatible with one another. We have strong caution in 25 here, specially for employers, this is the beginning of 18 1 their search. They should have their own separate 2 application that asked for additional detail about the 3 things that are important to them. They should have 4 reference checks on the people that they want to work 5 for. If they want to do checks, criminal background 6 checks, those are things that people do externally and 7 that is something that they want to do if they are 8 searching for workers. We try to make sure that people 9 you think so that there are no guarantees that these 10 workers are workers that will be right for them, but 11 rather this is an easy way for them to find some people 12 who are potentially interested in the work to then go 13 through the next stage of finding whether that person 14 is the right fit for them. 15 The next slide shows you the welcome screen for 16 employers. And it doesn't get -- you don't get the 17 disclaimer part which you can get via the website, but 18 it just shows you the simple search function that has 19 been created on the website. We have a couple 20 different search mechanisms. One is to do it in a 21 simple way, by field, for example, so the example you 22 can see on slide nine is that you are looking for 23 someone who has some experience in mental health. You 24 could put any word that you wanted to fill in that 25 blank. This is just an example that we used. In this 19 1 case, the person wanted to search only within central 2 Massachusetts. And then using that search, they will 3 get a list of possible names. We have given you a 4 couple hypothetical names here. You can see visually 5 how this search capacity would work, having identified 6 a search criteria like that, the person would then get 7 a list of names with the dates the person applied and 8 they would then be able to click on that name and get 9 the rest of the person's application so everything the 10 person posts on the website is available to employers. 11 Then the employer has the ability to take into account 12 the other factors the person might have put on their 13 application, and they get their contact information so 14 they can follow up. Another important point, I think, 15 that we would like to make sure people know is that 16 this is a way for people with disabilities to find 17 workers. It is not a way for workers to find people 18 with disabilities. In designing the site, we wanted to 19 be very careful that we weren't setting up some easy 20 mechanism for people to target people with disabilities 21 to be able to search a data base of their names. That 22 is not publicly available but available to employers 23 who register is a list of personal assistants. A 24 couple other things that I would like to mention are 25 that we have started working on some of the next stages 20 1 of development of this to try to think about ways to 2 help people who want to use the website, for instance, 3 in Massachusetts, as Jeff mentioned, we have worked out 4 an arrangement that answers the calls for employers so 5 that people with disabilities are the ones who are 6 answering the calls, helping people who want to get 7 information about how to use the website as an 8 employer. And that's a separate arrangement we have 9 been able to make locally and it is the kind of thing 10 the state might be interested in doing. 11 Two people here with us today, Debbie and Cathy, 12 developed a manual to instruct employers how to use the 13 website and a separate manual to instruct personal 14 assistants how to use the rewarding work website and 15 those we have been able to make copies for within the 16 couple states we had funding to do that. So some of 17 those core components are things that make it -- they 18 can be readily adapted, as well. There are a lot of 19 good development happening here that we are trying to 20 do in collaboration with people with disabilities and 21 people that want to do this kind of work so the website 22 is designed in a way that works for them. Its real 23 purpose is to help them find one another. It is not 24 for any other purpose. I think that is all I will say 25 for now. The last slide in the presentation gives you 21 1 contact information for Jeff Keilson and myself, Dee 2 O'Connor. We would be happy to talk further with any 3 states that want to talk with us but for now let's see 4 if anyone has any questions so there is more we can 5 elaborate on. I'm sorry. Somebody is signalling me in 6 the room that I forgot my segway to Cathy Ludlum to 7 give you an employer's perspective. 8 MS. LUDLUM: This is Cathy Ludlum and I first 9 wanted to say what an exciting thing it has been to be 10 part of the redesigning of the rewarding work website. 11 I think what happened was our group, our subcommittee 12 took something which was already good and just made it 13 a little bit better by creating this element that 14 allows individuals and families who are looking to hire 15 their own support people to be able to do that. 16 Myself, I have been an employer of personal assistants 17 since 1988. So I have been doing it quite a while. 18 And what I have learned, I think, is that there are a 19 lot of really excellent people out there. The trick is 20 trying to find them. And anything that can help make 21 that search easier, I think, is a very worth while 22 endeavor and the rewarding work website allows, as Dee 23 and Jeff have already said, allows us employers more 24 opportunity to look for people that will meet our 25 particular needs. The search functions are very 22 1 exciting because people who have something in 2 particular in mind that they are looking for will be 3 able to put that in as a search criteria and the 4 easiest way to sort through and come up with a possible 5 list of candidates so we are not wasting time with 6 people who might be very good but they may not be the 7 right match or our particular needs at that time. The 8 development of the website involves a lot of things. 9 It involved writing new pieces that explain what a 10 personal assistant is and does. And I think that is 11 good because it is not something that is always been 12 very widely recognized or legitimate. I think it is a 13 very positive development from that stand pointed. And 14 it also gives us an opportunity to look at access to 15 the website for people who are either -- who use screen 16 readers or other devices to make sure that the site 17 would be accessible as much as possible to a lot of 18 different people without straining and difficulty. So 19 that was another piece that we looked at. As well as 20 just thinking through what are people looking for, what 21 are some of the best mechanisms to help employers to 22 find personal assistants and help personal assistants 23 to feel comfortable in putting their information in and 24 having their name on the internet. I think up until 25 fairly recently, a lot of people were frightened to 23 1 have their name and contact information on the net, but 2 I think as technology is advancing and as more and more 3 sites are there to help people find one another, I 4 think that that fear has lessened and one of the things 5 we tried to do in developing this website was to create 6 a way that only people who should be looking at the 7 data would be looking at it. And so as an employer, 8 I'm very thrilled about it and about the opportunity it 9 presents. And as time goes on and more people become a 10 part of this, the results will only get better and more 11 exciting. I look forward to seeing how that develops 12 over the coming months and years. Did I leave anything 13 out? 14 >> You were eloquent and wonderful. We can now 15 turn to questions and see if there are any other things 16 we can elaborate on for you all. 17 THE OPERATOR: If you would like to ask a question 18 from the phone lines, press star one. Our first 19 question comes from Cindy with LILA. 20 >> Yes. I live in Oregon and in Oregon the state 21 pays for a lot of personal assistants for individuals 22 with disabilities and I wondered whether this would 23 still work if it was like a state paid but yet the 24 person with the disability is having to find their own 25 personal assistants often with the state's assistance, 24 1 but it is not always the perfect match. I'm wondering 2 if you have talked to Oregon at all? 3 MS. O'CONNOR: The answer is absolutely yes, this 4 would definitely work in your situation. This is the 5 same situation in Massachusetts. We have a very large 6 personal assistance program that is covered under the 7 Medicaid health program but individuals who want to use 8 that program need to find their own workers. So the 9 state data base is available to folks who want to 10 search it if they are using and getting reimbursed 11 through public programs but it allows individuals who 12 don't have access to a public benefit to use the same 13 data base to identify workers for themselves. And I'm 14 not sure if Oregon has actually ever approached us or 15 if we have heard from them directly. Eleanor, have we? 16 >> This is Eleanor Parker. We heard from some 17 people from Oregon about a year and a half ago and they 18 were talking to us about possibly getting involved and 19 building some kind of a registry. Unfortunately, they 20 didn't continue with the project. They did something, 21 I think. I'm not sure what and I'm not sure what it is 22 they did and I'm not sure even at the point a year and 23 a half ago who it was that we spoke with. But the site 24 itself is really adaptable to be used in any state. 25 The pieces we are working on right now are different 25 1 from what you just saw and what you got out of this web 2 presentation. The next step will have ways of various 3 states becoming involved and having personalized 4 information for that state. 5 >> I will follow up by saying that the states we 6 are directly working with right now aside from 7 Massachusetts are Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and 8 New Jersey, and East Coast emphasis, but following the 9 conference in March, there were another states that 10 include -- Alaska. Kansas. Minnesota. I think this 11 has been about a year plus in development and we are at 12 the stage now where states are beginning to understand 13 what this technology is and how it could possibly be 14 beneficial to them so that is exactly why we wanted to 15 make the information more widely available through the 16 webcast. 17 >> Dee, I have a e-mail question that came in in 18 relation to that. Their question is what can systems 19 change grant tees do to get the word out? 20 >> That is a great question. Some of the states 21 can use some of their money to support this kind of 22 activity. In the case of a couple of the New England 23 states we have used some of our Medicaid infrastructure 24 money to support some of this work. Using real choice 25 dollars for this because it is support that people who 26 1 are hiring personal assistants might need so those who 2 are working on committees within states who have 3 identified this kind of activity as something that they 4 are looking into and I know that a number of states 5 have, might want to have them think about the potential 6 benefits of tying in with the rewarding work campaign 7 as opposed to reworking it on a state by state basis. 8 There is a potential of maximizing all of what we are 9 doing. There are ways of adapting and making things 10 state specific so people might just raise the awareness 11 about the need for this kind of access to information. 12 One of the ways we first learned about how important 13 this issue was to consumers was through the cash and 14 counselling demonstration project where people were 15 finding that they were very successful in getting their 16 care needs met if they had relatives available and if 17 they had to go beyond their network of people, they 18 were having a hard time finding workers so I think that 19 also as some of the states are joining in cash and 20 counselling is beginning to expand, they are looking at 21 the potential ways they can help individuals. CMS has 22 identified this as one of the areas where they want 23 states to be helping people to find back up plans. We 24 put a question on the application specifically about 25 whether people were willing to work on an as-needed 27 1 basis to help identify people willing to be back-up 2 workers so there are a lot of applications within the 3 real grant opportunities to be connecting with this 4 effort. 5 >> Thank you. Kenny, do we have any callers on 6 the line? 7 THE OPERATOR: Yes. Our next question comes from 8 someone from the center for disabilities. 9 >> Yes. My question is: I live in west Virginia. 10 I'm working for the center for disabilities. West 11 Virginia is about ready to launch their own program for 12 people like me who are physically disabled. My 13 particular job at the moment is to design our state's 14 website for that. We want our own website in West 15 Virginia. I forget who it was, but somebody was 16 talking about a way to protect individuals who are 17 looking for employees. They want -- 18 >> I said something in my presentation about the 19 fact that we designed this to be sure that the only 20 people who could get access to information were 21 employers, IE, people with disabilities looking for 22 workers, as opposed to the reverse. The way we have 23 done that is there is a separate -- first of all, you 24 don't search based on employers. There is no 25 application for employers. Employers come in and 28 1 register on the website to be employers and provide 2 their social security number and some other identifying 3 information as a way of making it clear that they 4 really do understand that they are getting access to 5 some pretty sensitive information. There are 6 explanations on the site about where they are 7 certifying that they will only use the information to 8 search for workers to meet their own needs. So the 9 individual with a disability does provide their own 10 information on the website, but only for registration 11 purposes and only for those who are maintaining the 12 website behind the scenes and that's just a 13 verification option for the site to make sure that 14 legitimate people are using the site and if there are 15 any problems, there is a way to identify if someone is 16 misusing the site. But there is nothing publicly 17 available and you can't see the data base of those 18 individuals. There is no one aside from the 19 administrators of the website who has access to that 20 information about the employers looking for workers. 21 >> Can I add to that, Dee? The other thing that I 22 wanted to say is if you consider putting an ad in the 23 paper, or you consider putting a flier up on a bulletin 24 board at the supermarket, you are going to invite phone 25 calls or faxes or whatever method you choose, contact 29 1 from people that you don't know. So my suggestion 2 would be that people use the same strategies with the 3 website that they would in their of their other 4 advertising efforts and that strategy is that would 5 depend on the comfort level of the individual. Some 6 people choose not to give their own phone number, but 7 maybe to give a cell phone number because you can't 8 really figure out where people are from a cell phone. 9 They may choose to interview in a public place rather 10 than in their home at first or they may choose to 11 interview in their home but to have someone else 12 present in another part of the house. I mean, there 13 are a number of different things you can do to protect 14 yourself as an employer and what those specifics are 15 really would vary with the individual. But it is a 16 good idea anytime you are talking to strangers, whether 17 you have them from an ad in the paper or where ever, 18 from the internet, to just exercise reasonable caution 19 in doing that. 20 >> Thank you. Kenny, are there any more questions 21 in the cue? 22 THE OPERATOR: Yes. The first is from Lisa from 23 the school for public health. 24 >> Hello? That was close. It is Lisa Marie. My 25 question is: I'm wondering -- somebody had mentioned 30 1 initially that there was -- it was initially set up 2 just for agencies and then they did some PR work to try 3 and bring in some others, try and bring in the workers 4 and I'm wondering what kind of PR work was done. 5 MS. LUDLUM: I will start quickly and Eleanor can 6 fill in. What we want to do is look at it from a very 7 comprehensive approach. 8 MR. KEILSON: We did, for example, a public 9 service announcement that was sent to all the cable TV 10 companies which -- then they showed it at no cost and a 11 variety of different places and we got a tremendous 12 response from that and that is done on a regular basis. 13 We know it is seen all hours of the day not only 14 because we see it directly but the comments that people 15 make to us. One of the interesting discussions that 16 people had is someone saw it on the Howard stern show 17 and then someone else said it shouldn't be allowed to 18 be seen there and that is actually good because a lot 19 of people watch it and, of course, we were all 20 surprised that the person admitted they watched the 21 show to see the announcement to begin with. That was 22 one tactic. We did direct mail campaign, brochures, 23 posters for supermarkets and libraries. A lot of free 24 publicity that we go from local newspapers that 25 highlighted this particular individual that was written 31 1 up in the local newspaper, so we -- and then 2 advertising in employment guides and a lot of other 3 places so that is part of the pooling of the resources 4 to try to tap into as many ways as we can. We did some 5 very targeted recruitment. Particularly in the city of 6 Boston with not only high schools and vocational 7 schools, but people in their -- what turned out to be 8 their late 30's, early 40's, looking for a career 9 change. Then we tied that to some training we did. So 10 we did a lot of outreach to identify people and we did 11 an eight-week training and there became a pool of 12 people that could be hired. Our feeling is the 13 comprehensive approach to try to not only reach out and 14 identify people, but to try to stimulate people's 15 interests in being personal assistants. The labor 16 force is shrinking over time. The needs are 17 increasing. We feel we have to be more proactive and 18 to try to stimulate people's interest so that is just 19 to touch upon it quickly. 20 >> Jeff, I have a question. What has been the 21 response to far from TPA's to the web registry and how 22 many have actually registered? 23 >> I would like to answer that. This is Eleanor 24 parker. We Vermont the website out for two and a half 25 or three years. In that time about 15,000 applications 32 1 either through the website or through the call center 2 basically by telephone. Last year, we decided to kind 3 of put in a passive list all of the earlier calls and 4 kind of update them so we did a mailing to everybody 5 that had applied to make sure that their addresses were 6 still the same and their contact information was still 7 the same and if they were still interested in working 8 and with the calls we got back, we kept those people 9 and tried to purge the rest of the list so the list we 10 have right now goes back no further than January of 11 2003. It is about a year and a half. In that year and 12 a half, we have 5,000 names. As I said, the time 13 before that, we had approximately 10,000 names up to 14 that. Just to follow on a little bit about what Jeff 15 was just saying in terms of the marketing, we have 16 always worked as kind of a collaborative marketing 17 effort. When we first began, we were working with a 18 steering committee of representatives from the provider 19 agencies at the department of mental retardation in 20 Massachusetts. We work together as a great team 21 identifying places and ways to promote the website in 22 order to find people who are interested in people being 23 direct support workers and personal assistants. 24 Obviously a lot of how we would advertise and how we 25 would promote would be dependent on the amount of 33 1 resources that we have, but because it is a 2 collaborative program, what we find is that the sum is 3 way more than any individual could give. What we can 4 do is working together is so much greater than anyone 5 can do on their own and yet it's a website and a 6 program that can cross state lines. It also can be 7 very specific and you can actually find people, if you 8 can looking for personal assistants on the next street 9 and the website enables you to find them and the 10 marketing program actually enables you to target them. 11 >> Thank you. Kenny? 12 THE OPERATOR: Yes, if you have a question, please 13 press star one. The next question comes from George 14 from Colorado's health care policy. Hello, George? 15 >> We have several questions here. Can you hear 16 us? 17 THE OPERATOR: Yes. Could you identify ourself, 18 please? 19 >> This is Dianne king in the financing office. 20 THE OPERATOR: Go ahead. 21 >> Who funds the 800 number and the marketing? 22 Where do those resources come from? 23 >> from the providers who were originally part of 24 developing the website. We have been starting to work 25 on identifying resources through our representative 34 1 grants to try to provide some on-going funding for 2 that. And the other resource that we are planning from 3 the future is to have this be a self sustaining site so 4 we have begun to talk about a small fee that individual 5 employers would pay to be able to access the data base. 6 I was surprised to find that the once who paid most for 7 that was the individual employers themselves. We were 8 worrying about whether people would afford it and they 9 say we already pay for marketing. It is part of what 10 we have to do. If it is a reasonable and small fee, 11 people would be very likely to be willing to pay it. 12 Right now the agency providers pay a fee on a monthly 13 basis for their use of the site and that supports the 14 site maintenance at this point. 15 >> So you have providers on there, as well? 16 >> the site started as a provider based site in 17 Massachusetts only. So those providers are still part 18 of the campaign and there is a part of the site that 19 people can access there. 20 >> the site will continue to be available for 21 provider agencies and individuals. We have actually 22 had information, requests from other states to really 23 maintain it in both ways. 24 >> Another question: My name is Kathy and I'm 25 with the same group. You have mentioned there is a 35 1 call center available for personal assistants who don't 2 use the web. I was wondering if employers with 3 disabilities can also call the one-800 number to 4 register or to do the searches and what other types of 5 accommodations you make for people with disabilities 6 who don't have internet access? 7 >> That is an important question. The call center 8 is for people who want to become employees is 9 specifically that and they use a service that actually 10 just has staff who can make information on the 11 application and they gather that information about 12 people's answers to the various questions on the job 13 application. We realize that for employers with 14 disabilities who are looking to recruit workers that 15 there was a different kind of service that was needed 16 and much more tailored to an individual. So that is 17 where I mentioned that we in Massachusetts had made an 18 arrangement with a local independent living center and 19 they have used their 800 line and we have paid them a 20 small fee to help support the work that they do, but 21 they are in a position whereby phone they can help to 22 explain to people how to use the site. They could 23 actually do a search for someone and send it to them if 24 that was something that was needed. Our hope in the 25 long run -- and we would like to find some resources 36 1 through some of our grants to do that and we have been 2 putting that in some of our proposals -- is to be able 3 to network that across the state. Right now we have 4 one independent living center that uses a state wide 5 toll free line to any employers in part of the state. 6 Ideally you would want to have other centers or other 7 kinds of providers or other local organizations able to 8 help people on a more local basis so there is a place 9 where people can come in and work on a computer. Most 10 of our centers have computer availability for people. 11 We would like to be able to provide them some financial 12 support to help people with this kind of a process. I 13 think most of them see it as part of their jobs anyway 14 as advocates but it would be ideal to support that on a 15 broader basis. There are a lot of different 16 applications that could be done locally. Each state 17 might have its own preferred group that might be in 18 this position but the key is having people who 19 understand the issues, understand the kinds of 20 challenges that people might have in accessing the 21 website, being able to be good listeners and good 22 explainers about how to use the site and maybe in some 23 cases helping the person do it directly. 24 >> This is George, also in Colorado, can you speak 25 as to costs per different states' involvement in this? 37 1 Is there a licensing fee? 2 >> We are actually in the process of trying to 3 work out that kind of arrangement with states. We have 4 worked out licensing fee that pays for only the basic 5 entry to the site but doesn't include any marketing 6 costs. So we're starting to work that out right now 7 with the individual states we are working with. The 8 other thing that I wanted to just add to that, this is 9 Eleanor Parker, Dee had mentioned the fact that the 10 next round of revisions we were doing in the website, 11 we are going to introduce another page so the 12 individual employers are going to be paying for usage 13 of the site. And we're looking at that really to help 14 us make a self-sustaining website for it and a lot of 15 cases those fees will take care of the support work, 16 will take care of the answering service and the kind of 17 day to day -- the work done in the call center and the 18 work that might need to be done with keeping the 19 website in operation and the various maintenance fees. 20 We are looking in getting the states involved now with 21 a licensing fee and then some support for marketing for 22 that specific state for whatever their specific needs 23 are, whether it is for providers, whether it is for 24 individuals, whether it is for both. And then as the 25 site moves along, we are really hoping that the -- what 38 1 we are referring to as the commoners site, the people 2 using the site, will help us in keeping the site in 3 self-sustaining operation. I hope that answered your 4 question. 5 THE OPERATOR: We do have another question in the 6 cue. Would you like to that? This is Mickey. 7 >> My question is, I believe you said that you all 8 served the New England state area. How successful or 9 one of the concerns of applicants, were you doing it 10 strictly on an emergency or for people to find work? 11 At that point in time, how successful was this method 12 versus using, say, other forms familiar like newspaper 13 or flyers or TV ads or whatever? 14 >> Let me start with that and I may turn to 15 Eleanor parker to follow up. I don't think it's an 16 either or situation. The website is a tool for 17 maintaining the information and for enabling employers 18 to search it. It is not designed to be the only way 19 that people get information in. So we recognize that 20 there may not be a large number of personal assistants 21 who have access to the web readily to be able to find 22 this vehicle to actually put their information in, but 23 they may learn about the rewarding work campaign 24 through a radio ad, a television ad, an ad in the 25 newspaper, so the campaign marketing has been much more 39 1 through those media than it has been directly through 2 the website although we have begun to do follow up 3 through the website of getting information out to 4 people. They are very much tied together and I know 5 that other the past couple years of the campaign that 6 parker and James has developed a pretty good sense of 7 where the strongest vehicles have been for where they 8 are most successful in getting workers through the web. 9 I will turn to Eleanor to talk about some of the 10 activities that they have done that they have found 11 particularly successful. 12 >> As Dee said, we do keep track of all of the 13 ways that people are responding. As a matter of fact, 14 we actually track it on a daily basis so on any given 15 day, we know exactly as to how people have responded to 16 the basically campaign. It has turned out over the 17 years. It is a worldwide campaign. We get calls from 18 the website or from the phone center T. call center 19 from literally all over the world. We have gotten 20 calls from Africa, London, from the Philippines, from 21 China. I think from Hong Kong. We have them virtually 22 from everywhere. Obviously the majority of the calls 23 come from where we are planning on advertising and the 24 advertising has been, as Jeff said, a lot of employment 25 type newspapers, then we also will advertise in 40 1 community newspapers which will bring it right to -- or 2 right from the areas where people are living who are 3 working for it because they will advertise in the local 4 community newspapers. We have also done direct mail 5 campaigns that would go to a specific zip codes of the 6 areas of the people looking for personal assistants and 7 direct support. That is why this can be a very 8 localized campaign, whether it is coming from west 9 Virginia, Oregon, Washington state or from any parts of 10 Massachusetts because we can actually tie that marking 11 to any specific areas. People find us on the web 12 because the web is a worldwide tool. I hope that does 13 answer your question. As Dee said, it is not mutually 14 exclusive. The web is merely a tool to enable us to 15 basically register all of the names, but we get those 16 names by using all kinds of marketing. 17 >> I will add one other thing to that to say that 18 really the only marketing that has been done has been 19 in Massachusetts at this point. We are looking with 20 several other states as I mentioned to develop the 21 campaign for them and to have them part of the 22 rewarding work effort, but at this point, Connecticut 23 for instance hasn't done any real marketing activities, 24 although they have done a lot of word of mouth 25 information regarding the campaign and people who are 41 1 here from the Connecticut association has done a lot of 2 that kind of networking so there are people who have 3 been connecting to the website in those states. But 4 you need both. You need the availability of the 5 website and you need to then put some resources into 6 some kind of local marketing. 7 >> Thank you all. Kenny, do we have any callers 8 in the queue? 9 THE OPERATOR: We have one. That question comes 10 from Cindy with LILA. 11 >> Yes, I was wondering if you want -- you 12 continue to talk about the call center. But I haven't 13 heard the phone number to the call center. 14 >> It is a toll free number. Anywhere in the 15 United States. It is 888-444-1616. And I will repeat 16 that again. It is (888)444-1616. Dee had mentioned 17 also the URL or the website which is rewardingwork.Org. 18 And the application form personal assistants or direct 19 support work is exactly the same whether the person 20 calls in through the 800 number, we call it an 800 21 number, but actually it is an 888 number, but the 22 website. The application is exactly the same. So the 23 names on the database are the same either way and all 24 calls are posted. Then can be sorted individually 25 through the -- because of the needs of the individuals 42 1 looking for the personal assistant. 2 >> Thank you. Kenny? 3 THE OPERATOR: There are no more questions in the 4 cue at this time. 5 >> Dee, I believe all the calls and the questions 6 that have come in you all pretty much have answered. 7 Is there anything else that you would like to include 8 before we close today? 9 >> Yeah. Let me add one other thing and Cathy may 10 want to say something in closing, as well. We talked 11 about the website and the ability to connect with it 12 directly. I do want -- 13 >> I'm sorry. 14 >> Dee, I'm sorry. 15 >> We hit our mute button a couple times. My 16 apologies. Some states may be in the process of 17 developing their own websites or other types of 18 activities. I did want to point out that one of the 19 things that occurred to us is probably the most -- the 20 greatest potential here for linking across the country 21 is through the data base itself and there may be ways 22 that states will want to piggyback on their own efforts 23 and/or develop a tie in with regarding work but there 24 may be ways of tying in with the data base if they 25 wanted. We started some conversations with groups 43 1 about developing a tool kit that would help give states 2 information about the kinds of things they might like 3 to do in a marketing campaign, whether they choose to 4 work directly with rewardingwork or do it on their own. 5 We have started to think about what the different 6 components of that might be that would be helpful to 7 states. I wanted to give people an awareness that 8 there may be more information coming out in the future 9 to help states think this through. Part of the reasons 10 for getting to the states now is to let you all know is 11 there are ways that we may try to collaborate here that 12 could be wins for all of us across the country. Those 13 of you who have been working on the site have been 14 really excited and feel like we are involved in 15 something that is pretty ground breaking for consumers 16 and people who want to work in personal assistance and 17 this is a real opportunity that we have an ability to 18 really push forward on. 19 MS. LUDLUM: In closing, I had one more thought 20 which may have already been mentioned, but I didn't 21 hear it specifically mentioned so just in case, people 22 a minute ago were asking about the 800 number, the toll 23 free number, and I think it is important to recognize 24 that probably each state -- is it going to be all one? 25 Nevermind then. I thought each state was developing 44 1 its own, but I was mistaken. Nevermind. The only 2 other thing I was going to say is an employer of 3 personal assistant and as the demographics change and 4 more and more people are looking for support they are 5 getting from institutions or just looking to live 6 independently where they might not have had that 7 opportunity before, we're going to continue to need 8 more and more workers and personal assistants to work 9 with different parts of the population, that is 10 growing, as well. I see this as a great opportunity to 11 be able to look forward to people to support folks 12 living in their homes and communities so we can all 13 have fuller lives as it says at the beginning of the 14 website. 15 >> I'm going to add also if Debbie can give you a 16 last comment of a perspective of a personal assistant? 17 >> I just wanted to say that this is a great 18 opportunity for people to learn about the job of a 19 personal assistant. And also to connect with 20 employers. I know I'm the coordinator of the 21 Connecticut association of personal assistants and we 22 do outreach to try to find new personal assistants and 23 we have been frustrated a little bit because we find 24 people who want to be personal assistants and they say, 25 how can I hook up with an employer and now our answer 45 1 is put your name on rewardingwork.Org. This has been a 2 wonderful tool for our association in doing outreach 3 and also a wonderful way that people can hook up with 4 their individual employers. Thank you: 5 >> Thanks to everybody for joining us. Feel free 6 to give us a call or e-mail us for any further 7 information or questions that come to you later on. 8 >> Thank you, Dee, thank you everyone who 9 participated today. For those of you who are on the 10 web and the teleconference, today's presentation will 11 be archived in the webcast section of the ILRU website 12 at www.ilru.org. All of our presentation materials and 13 the link to the website will be there. We would like 14 to have your feedback on today's presentation so please 15 feel free to fill out the presentation form on the 16 presentation page. We also would like to thank our 17 funders, the community living technical assistance 18 exchange at ILRU in connection with others with funding 19 provided by the centers for Medicare and Medicaid 20 services. It is a part of TIRR the institute for 21 rehabilitation and research, a nationally recognized 22 medical rehabilitation facility for persons with 23 disabilities. Those are the views or the presenters 24 and no endorsement of any of the ago I should be 25 inferred. I would like to thank our in house staff, 46 1 Rachel Kesoy and our technical crew, Rob Dickehuth and 2 our captioner Mayra Malone. Thank you for joining us, 3 everyone. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25