Weekly Focus March 4, 2016

An update and information report for doctors who provide consultative exams for OOD’s Division of Disability Determination
Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities

Kevin L. Miller, Executive Director

March 4, 2016

The mission of the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities Agency is to ensure individuals with disabilities achieve quality employment, independence and disability determination outcomes.

What's Inside:

Ohio Insurance Institute Meeting

OII logo

This week I was honored to speak at the Mid-Year meeting of the Ohio Insurance Institute (OII), which is the state trade association for the property and casualty insurance industry.  It was a great opportunity to explain the services OOD provides and how we connect job-ready candidates with Ohio employers.

 

Data from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows the insurance industry provided 132,287 jobs in Ohio in 2012. OII members were very receptive and I look forward to following up on the conversations that began this week as part of our business engagement process. My thanks to Dean Fadel for the invite.


Ohio Transition Conference - The Employment Games

Kristen Helling and Director Miller Transition Conference

On Thursday Kristen Helling (pictured right), VR deputy director, and I had the pleasure of addressing this year’s Ohio Transition Conference participants.

 

We informed them about the transition services offered by OOD. The conference provided participants with high quality, professional development focused on promoting positive post-school outcomes for students with disabilities; including sessions on federal and state updates, special education law, employment programming options, career assessment practices and networking opportunities.

 

Among those in the audience of this two-day conference were special education administrators, intervention specialists, job-training coordinators, service agency providers and parents supporting students through the transition to adulthood process.


OVRC Meeting

Agency staff and I met this week with Annette Lutz and Frank Bragassa, chair and vice-chair of the Ohio Vendors’ Representative Committee (OVRC), to discuss ideas for growing the Business Enterprise Program (BEP). OOD’s Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired (BSVI) and the committee are collaborating on strategies to promote and share information about a career in the BEP with BSVI counselors and consumers. 

 

BSVI has invited Mrs. Lutz and Mr. Bragassa to participate in a panel discussion about the BEP at the May 4th BSVI statewide meeting.  Their participation is to afford counselors the opportunity to learn more about the program from a successful, experienced operator’s perspective. 


Did You Know? March is National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month

 

March is National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, an opportunity to celebrate the many contributions people with developmental disabilities make to our society.


The National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD), Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD), and National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) are partnering to launch the Side-by-Side DD Awareness Month social media campaign.

 

The campaign highlights the many ways in which people with and without developmental disabilities come together to form strong and diverse communities.

 

You can join the Side-by-Side campaign or follow the campaign by using the hashtag #SideBySideDD16 on Twitter and Facebook.

 

National Developmental Disabilities Month

OOD by the Numbers

Vocational Rehabilitation

                                                                              Current        FFY2016

 

Individuals in Job Ready Status:                         3,521            2,936

(For county level information

& map visit our website)

 

Individuals Employed:                                          1,640            2,630

(Employed, not yet successfully closed)

 

Successful Closures:                                                                 3,069

(Employed for over 90 days,

case closed successfully)

 

Disability Determination

(FFY2016 as of 02/26/2016 – Week 22)

 

Applications Received:                                 81,700

 

Determinations:                                              84,923

 

Productivity Per Work Year (PPWY)             374.8

(Total number of cases processed

divided by the number of work years funded)

 


Return to Top