Planning the Transition to Employment: Tips, Tools, and Strategies

Presented by Dr. Wendy Parent-Johnson, CRC, CESP, Executive Director and Professor, Sonoran University Center for Excellence, University of Arizona; Dr. Laura Owens-Johnson, CESP, Professor, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and President of TransCen, Inc.; and Dr. Richard Parent-Johnson, Senior Research Associate

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Transition is the time for students with and without disabilities to plan and pursue their future post-school goals. What can we do to best prepare all students with the skills, services, and supports they need to become successfully employed? How can we build on the successes of our current activities to explore unique and creative employment opportunities that benefit all students including those with significant support needs? What are ways we can contribute to enhancing adult employment services and making that critically important job match?

This edWebinar describes strategies for exploring passions, engaging employers, customizing the placement process, and facilitating training and support to promote job success. The goal of the presentation is to share practical strategies for preparing students with a wide range of disabilities for employment before or after they graduate. Viewers will learn about the roles and responsibilities of education and adult employment services, best practices for educators to use in teaching students about work and gaining the essential skills that will assist them with becoming gainfully employed, and tools to help educators in planning and implementing effective transition services leading to positive post-school outcomes. By the end of the edWebinar, viewers will:

• Gain an overview of the transition process
• Understand effective transition to employment practices
• Describe strategies and tools for implementing transition to employment services
• Demonstrate knowledge of employment services and supports

This recorded presentation will be of interest to middle and high school teachers, school and district leaders, rehabilitation counselors, and adult vocational personnel.

About the Presenters

Dr. Wendy Parent-Johnson is Executive Director of the Sonoran UCEDD, a Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities and Professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine, College of Medicine at the University of Arizona. She has 37 years’ experience in the areas of supported and customized employment, transition from school to work, and Employment First policy and practice. Additionally, her research, teaching, and grant development has focused on health care transition, health disparities, interdisciplinary health science education, and the integration of health and employment. Dr. Parent-Johnson has conducted presentations and trainings; produced journal articles, book chapters, and other written products; and developed practical tools related to enhancing inclusion, healthcare access, and employment outcomes. She is Editor of the Journal of Rehabilitation and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Dr. Laura Owens-Johnson is currently a professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (UWM) and the president of TransCen, Inc. (TCI). TCI is an organization based in Maryland that provides direct placement services to individuals with disabilities, develops and evaluates new service models through research of evidenced-based practices leading to improved employment outcomes, and provides training and technical assistance to organizations and school districts focusing on the improvement of educational and employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. She founded Creative Employment Opportunities, Inc. (CEO), an employment agency for individuals with disabilities, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1991 and ArtWorks for Milwaukee, a non-profit jobs-training program in the arts for youth with and without disabilities in 2001. She teaches courses focusing on high school inclusion, transition from school to work, and customized employment, and coordinates the Graduate Transition Certificate program at UWM.

Dr. Richard Parent-Johnson retired as a Senior Research Associate in Center for Disabilities in the Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota. Previously he was a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas. His doctorate is in sociology from the University of Kansas. He has been PI or Co-PI on multiple state and federal grants. Recent work focuses on “systems collaboration” and health care transitions for young adults with disabilities, including interprofessional medical education and clinical practice. He co-designed and led USD’s Center for Disabilities TransitionInAction Clinic. He continues to consult in these areas. Other work focused on the iterative design and dissemination of “universal” curricular products and processes that serve transition needs of persons with disabilities [e.g., the Soaring to New Heights curriculum for high school aged students with disabilities]. Dr. Parent-Johnson has particular expertise in ethnographic research and qualitative analysis.

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