TRANSITION LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS: INVESTING COMMUNITY IN PLANS TO IMPROVE EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES

Seb Prohn, Ph.D.
Molly Taylor
Partnership for People with Disabilities
Virginia Commonwealth University

This project was supported, in part, by grant number 90DNCE0004-01-00, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201.

TODAY'S WORKSHOP AND PRESENTATION

1. Community involvement in transition
2. What is a Landscape Analysis?
3. Secondary Data Analysis & Review
4. Business Needs
5. Community Conversations
6. Photovoice
7. Takeaways and future steps

WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY'S ROLE IN DEVELOPING EMPLOYMENT SOLUTIONS?

- Businesses
- Community Program Leaders
- Transition Services Providers
- Educators
- Youth and their Families

IS COMMUNITY-ENGAGED RESEARCH IMPORTANT? WHY? WHY NOT?

WHAT IS A LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS?

- Multi-method research approach
- Customized to your research objectives
- Understanding context

DISTINGUISHING COMMUNITY LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS

- Community-based, participatory methods
- Action

PROJECT PEACE: PROMOTING EMPLOYMENT AFTER HIGH SCHOOL THROUGH COMMUNITY EXPERTISE

Our Values:
- Leading our research are people of color and people with disabilities
- Rooting conversations in lived experiences of our community members

Research Methods:
1. Review of secondary data
2. Community Conversations*
3. Photovoice*

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PART 1: SECONDARY DATA REVIEW AND ANALYSIS
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STRATEGIES FOR FINDING SOURCES

1. Build a team of researchers with varying strengths and knowledge
2. Reach out to research and community partners for documents, reports, and papers
3. Look in unexpected places (school division websites, appendices in other reports, etc.)

HOW DOES THIS SET US UP FOR OUR NEXT STEPS?

- Gives an idea of existing resources
- Finding community partners to work with
- Helps us know what questions to ask

CHALLENGES & STRATEGIES

Relevance to Your Community
- Many reports include statewide data
- Literature often doesn't include participants from your community
- Find themes to take away, and think about how they manifest in your community

Synthesis Across Sources
- Several sources spanning decades, not all reporting on the same metrics
- Focus on their conclusions and next steps

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PART 2: BUSINESS NEEDS
========================================

MENDING GAPS IN BUSINESS CONNECTIONS
(Metropolitan Business League: Guide. Connect. Succeed.)

Step 1: Aligned Missions
Step 2: Networking
Step 3: Business Needs
Step 4: Solutions

BUSINESS NEEDS RESULTS

Most frequent barrier to hiring people with IDD:
- Not knowing how to connect

Learning Interests:
- Creating a disability friendly climate
- Improving accessibility
- Developing internships
- Financial and tax incentives

20 employees
Jupiter's rotation period

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PART 3: COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS
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METHOD

1. Recruitment
   a. Who do you ask to participate?
   b. How do you encourage people to register?
2. Format of sessions
   a. What works best for your community?
   b. How do you make participation inclusive and equitable?
3. How do you introduce these conversations?
   a. Centering the voices of youth with IDD and their families
4. Questions to ask
   a. What questions would you want to ask community stakeholders?
5. Evaluations following sessions
   a. Evaluate the efficacy of each conversation
   b. Responses from participants and research team

"I really enjoyed this morning, how we opened up the session with individuals telling their story"

WHAT DO SESSIONS LOOK LIKE?

1. Ice breaker activity
2. Introduction
3. Explaining our objectives
4. Consent discussion
5. Sessions 2, 3, 4... include some member checking
6. Small breakout groups: about 20 min of discussion around 1-2 questions
7. Whole group transition time/break
8. Small breakout groups: change up group members
9. Whole group "harvest"
   a. "What are the best ideas you've heard tonight?"
10. Conclusion - invitation to next session

QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

Barriers to Employment:
- Accessibility
- Lack of Resources
- Attitudes/Mindsets

Solutions for Employment:
- Changing attitudes/mindsets
- Supporting Youth
- Supporting Employers
- Using Technology
- Supporting Educators

QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS (EXAMPLE)

Supporting Employers
  -> Education
  -> Partnerships/Relationships
  -> Mentorship

PRELIMINARY RESULTS CC1

(Diagram of solution themes and their sub-themes)

Supporting youth
  -> Community partnerships
  -> Education
  -> Mentorship

Supporting employers
  -> Partnership/relationships
  -> Education
  -> Mentorship

Supporting educators
  -> Education
  -> Collaboration

Changing attitudes/mindsets
  -> Education
  -> Community partnerships

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

"But important thing is even with disabilities, such as autism ADHD, ADD, you have to stay focused, you have to stay calm, you will get nervous in the interview, but you gotta look at them. You can't take your attention away from the interviewer. Otherwise that's how they know they won't hire you."

"All the complicated stuff that parents have to sort of pretty much run into by mistake because like was pointed out earlier, there's not a centralized place for resources. There's no one, you know, navigation tool or map. And so every family has to like kind of figure these things out for themselves"

PROJECT PEACE: COMMUNITY LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS
(Infographic of Session 1 for Validation)

Barriers
- Barriers are especially prominent for those with the greatest support needs (Virginia Board for People with Disabilities, 2020)
- Our community lacks a consolidated place for transition resources

Transition Services and Agencies
- Virginia DARS
  - Pre-ETS
  - Consumer VR Program
- Virginia DBHDS
- VDOE
- WWRC
  - PERT
  - PREP
- Center on Transition Innovations

Where do we go from here?
- How do we help change the assumption that employment is not an option for those with support needs?
- How do we monitor employee and employer performance and satisfaction?

For more information on agencies, resources, and transition, contact the Project PEACE team at projectpeace@vcu.edu

CHALLENGES & STRATEGIES

IRB Approval
- Communicate with IRB reviewers EARLY
- Consent process: how to recruit a diverse group of participants
- How much time does it take?

Recruitment
- Partnerships and relationships are essential
- Don't be afraid if the sessions are small

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PART 4: PHOTOVOICE
========================================

METHOD

1. Recruitment
   a. Collaborating with community partners
   b. How long is a realistic recruitment timeframe?
2. Format of sessions
   a. 6 sessions total
3. Important things to keep in mind
   a. Making sessions engaging and interactive
   b. Who is leading these sessions?
   c. Is there someone present who youth trust?
4. Questions to ask
   a. What questions would you ask for your community research?

PHOTOVOICE SESSIONS

Session 1: Registration Meeting
- Answering Questions
- Parental Consent

Session 2:
- Project Overview
- Consent Discussion
- Telling Stories

Session 3:
- Camera ethics
- Taking a good storytelling picture

Session 4:
- Taking quality pictures
- SHOWeD Questions
- Introduce Topic 1

Session 5:
- Small Group Discussion (~20 minutes)
- Introduce Topic 2

Session 6:
- Small Group Discussion (~20 minutes)
- Whole Group
- Next Steps of Project

QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS APPROACH

1. Similar to Community Conversations Analysis
2. Start with larger themes as "Code Groups"
3. Inductively code segments into smaller codes
4. Create more specific "subcodes"

CHALLENGES & STRATEGIES

Researcher-Participant Trust
1. Collaborate with community leaders for recruitment
2. Hold live information sessions with participants and parents

Engagement
1. Make training sessions into discussions
2. Ask participants about their interests

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CATERING LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS TO YOUR COMMUNITY
========================================

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHERE TO HOLD GROUP SESSIONS?

- Virtually? In-person?
- How long?
- What time?

OTHER RESEARCH METHODS

1. Virtual Asset Mapping
   a. Where are transition resources in your community?
   b. Are there barriers to accessing these resources?
2. Quantitative Designs
   a. Incorporating evaluation into qualitative research
   b. Community members rating proposed plans
   c. Needs surveys

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS ABOUT CONDUCTING A COMMUNITY LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS?

THANK YOU!

Feel free to reach out and follow along through these platforms:
projectpeace@vcu.edu
smprohn@vcu.edu
taylorml9@vcu.edu
@ProjectPEACE_VA
@projectpeace_va

* This document was converted to plain text from the original document via Claude AI