Starting Your SPIL Planning Early
Presented by Ann McDaniel and Brad Williams on May 28, 2014
>> TIM FUCHS: Good afternoon, everything. This is Tim Fuchs with the National Council on Independent
Living and want to welcome you all to this Webinar, Starting Your SPIL Planning Early. So this Webinar is
being presented by the IL-NET training and technical assistance project and I'll net IL-NET is operated in
a partnership between ILRU, nickel and April with support supported by RSA at the U.S. Department of
Education.
As always we are record being today's call to archive it on I will ru's website. That will be available within
48 hours of the end of the call. And we will break several times during the presentation today to answer
your questions. If you have a question at any point during the call you can type it out in the chat screen
and that's the text box under the list of participants. So type it out, hit enter and you'll see it show up
and we'll go through them in the order that they are asked during the Q&A breaks. If you are on the
telephone, you can press "star pound"rr to indicate you have a question and again we'll unmute your
line during the Q&A break and you can ask your question live on the call.
I don't believe anybody has logged into the CART screen but I'll post that link in the chat right now. I
apologize. We had a change in that link from the confirmation e-mail sent out so that version I just
posted here in the chat is the new version. Of course there is captioning in the Adobe Connect platform
as well but if you want a full screen, full page of the CART captioning, it is available in that third-party
link there.
I'm logged into that chat as well. So if any of you join that or if any of your colleagues join that, you can
type your questions there, too.
Okay. Also you'll want to make sure you have the PowerPoint open. Now of course if you are on the
Webinar it will display automatically and I see many of you are logged in. That's great. If you are only on
the telephone, though, or only on the CART chat or CART screen and you don't have the PowerPoint up,
you'll want to do that. The PowerPoint was attached to the confirmation e-mail you received and if you
don't have that, e-mail me at Tim@ ncil.org. Finally before we start I want to remind you all about the
evaluation form. I know those of you that do these equals frequently are familiar with it. It is really brief.
Doesn't take long but we take them really seriously so if you would take a moment after today's call, just
a minute or two to fill out we would really appreciate it. If you are participating in a group today, that's
great, but please do fill it out individually. We want to know what each of you thinks.
With that we'll get started. I am really pleased to be welcoming back Ann McDaniel and Brad Williams.
Ann and Brad not only are veteran State Independent Living Council directors but also veteran
presenters for the IL-NET so Brad of course is Executive Director of the New York SILC and the Ann of the
west vbling village SILC and both have really robust processes but with differences for the way they
approach their SPIL planning and really enjoyed working with them and I want to thank them for putting
this presentation together.
Without any further ado, I'll turn it over to Ann to get us started. arn?
>> ANN McDANIEL: Ann, are you on mute maybe?
(Silence)
>> ANN McDANIEL: Thank you, Tim. I think I might have been!
I know it may seem very early to be thinking about writing your next state plan because we just submit
one last year about this time but we will try to help you to see why there are things that you could and
should be doing now to begin the process and begin getting ready. So things that you need to consider
as you think about writing your new state plan are who should be involved in writing the SPIL? When
should the process begin? At what points do you need to gather public input or feedback? Who needs to
approve and sign the SPIL? When did you need to submit it to RSA?
Next slide.
So the objectives for this Webinar, just to give you an overview, are that upon completion of this
Webinar or teleconference, you will be able to describe the statutory -- regulatory basis for the
development and submission of the State Plan for Independent Living, describe the benefits of a logical,
organized and systematic approach to preparing the SPIL, identify significant steps, milestones and
deadlines in SPIL development for maximum results, and describe effective practices in SPIL planning
and development that you will hear about from West Virginia and from New York.
Next slide.
So to go back to those initial things to consider. Who should be involved in writing the state plan? Well,
who is required to be involved? The statewide Independent Living Council and the designated state unit.
Who else should be involved? Really everyone who cares about independent living in your state, the
centers for independent living, IL consumers, perhaps other advocates, other interested parties, so by
including all those partners and all the interested parties from the beginning, you get buy-in from
everyone. And you end up with more input and stronger plan.
Next slide.
When should the process begin? Sooner than you may think! We're looking at what you could start
doing now to get ready. You have a lot of deadlines that you have to consider as you are writing your
plan and if you don't consider those from the very beginning, you will miss some of them. First of all, you
have to get public input before you write the plan. So you have got to find a way to do that and manned
sure that happens and still allow time for the rest of the process
(Make sure)
After you have written a draft plan you have to get public feedback on that draft so you have to allow
time for that process to happen.
You also have to get approval from the full SILC before the plan is submitted and approval from the DSU
before the plan is submitted and you have to look at what process is used or could or should be used in
your state to get those approvals. What we do is to get an approval from the full SILC at a full council
meeting so you have to make sure that you have allowed that in your schedule based on when do you
have those meetings? So you make sure you have the opportunity for the council to vote to approve the
plan to be signed by the chairperson. Then you also have to allow the logistical time it takes to secure
the signatures from the chairperson and from the director of your DSU or DSUs if you have more than
one. Practic
While you can certify that you have those signatures, I strongly recommend you actually secure hardcopy signatures prior to checking that box because if anybody asks for it and you have said that you have
it and you can't produce it, that will create a problem for you.
If your chairperson lives on the other side of your state, for example, you have to allow time to secure
that hard-copy signature.
All of these steps, all these deadlines, take time. So you need to start your process now and build
backwards from when the state plan is due to be submitted to figure out where along the next two
years you will have time to accomplish all of these steps.
Next slide. So other tasks you have to complete that affect the state plan that you could be working on
now that will be important as you write your state plan, assessing consumer satisfaction with the
current state plan. If you are not looking at that as this plan is being implemented, then you're not
informing your next plan based on what appears to be working and what is not working for consumers.
Needs assessment, what needs should be considered when you are writing your next plan? Talking to,
finding a way to communicate with the people with disabilities in your state and the independent living
consumers in your state about what their unmet needs are could be a really critical piece to gathering
information prior to beginning the writing process for your next state plan.
Next would be assessing the effectiveness of your current plan throughout the SPIL planning process.
You know, we end up, because of the way bureaucracy works, we end up beginning the process of
writing a new plan long before the current plan ends so as you are working through that process, you
need to be assessing the effectiveness. That's one of the SILC's jobs is to assess the effectiveness of the
SPIL and implementation of the SPIL.
Use that information to inform your SPIL writing process. Make sure you are connecting that to the
development of your next state plan. All of those things are things you need to begin now. Next slide.
So at what points do you need public input? The rehab act rr requires public input prior to writing the
state plan. That means some kind of public meetings or some other form of gathering input needs to be
conducted before you start writing your plan and in my experience those things take time. We tend to
do public forums or town meetings all around our state before we start writing a plan. Well, it's getting
really close to time to scheduling all of those events. So that we have that part of the process done
before we begin the writing process. It takes time to secure locations and to give notice, et cetera.
The rehab act rr also requires public feedback on the draft of your state plan before it is approved by the
council and the DSU and submitted to RSA. So you have to have a mechanism to do that. We generally
have public meetings and they need to be held and the law requires you have public meetings and they
have to be held with advance notice. Generally, the measuring stick for that is 30 days' notice so people
have adequate notice so you can also make sure you are making all the accommodations that people
need in order to participate in those meetings and give you feedback and that means when your notice
goes out these public meetings will be held, you have to have the draft SPIL available so when people
receive the public notice they can request a copy or have some way to access that draft plan in order to
prepare for the meeting and be able to give you valid comments. Normally we make it available in
whatever format people need and also post it on our website so that people can access that as soon as
they receive the notice of the public meetings.
Then an option to submit written comments should also be offered. If people can't attend meetings but
they want to send comments, xwild that into your process; make sure you have publicized a deadline for
those comments so that all comes back into the partners in the SPIL writing team to be considered
before the draft is finalized and goes to the DSU and the full SILC for approval.
Next slide.
Who needs to approve and sign the plan? The rehab act requires approval by the SILC and the
designated state unit or units. Approval of the SILC should be given by a vote at a full SILC meeting and
needs to be reflected in your minutes that it was discussed, motion made and approval given and then
the DSU should have some process of their own for determining approval of the state plan.
Once it's approved it must be signed by the chairperson of the SILC and the director of the DSU or DSUs
and the signatures must be secured prior to submission of the SPIL to RSA.
Next slide.
So when do you need to submit the state plan to RSA?
The SPIL has to be submitted to RSA on their online MIS pwhi June 30th of 2016
(By)
And the submission has to include verification of the signatures and the person who actually inputs the
information into the MIS must have a passcode from RSA to do so and you need to allow time for that.
You need to secure your passcode in advance of sitting down to submit the plan and it's a periodically
require your passcodeupdated so if you are going in at the last minute to submit your plan and your
passcode is not valid that can give you a lot more headaches than you need to be dealing with. Make
sure you allow time in case that update is required when you try to sign in. Do that in advance so you
know you have a valid passcode when you are ready to actually start submitting your plan.
Next slide.
All this takes time. Work backward from that submission deadline of June 30th, 2016. Determine
deadlines for all these required steps. Make yourself out a timeline that everything that needs to be
done and what your deadline is for each one of those tasks and start earlier than you think you need to,
because there willunanticipated delays. Things happen. Someone gets sick. Someone is not at a meeting
that you need them to be at. All kinds of hiccups wilt happen along the way so you want to make sure
you have allowed time in the timeline to make adjustments for that.
Next slide.
Questions and answers. Tim, you are up.
>> TIM FUCHS: Thanks, Ann. So as I mentioned, if you have questions, type them in the chat or you can
press "star pound"to indicate you have a question on the phone.
(Silence)
I see a couple people typing. We'll give folks a chance to type their questions. This is a smaller call today
so just about like 15 SILCs or so connected so if you have a question, don't be shy.
We will have Q&A breaks later in the call. We have one scheduled and I think we may add a second, too,
so if you have questions don't be shy and if you don't, no problem. We'll break again later. Here is a
question from germane O'Connell who asks: How do you do your town forums prior to the plan being
written? Ask formal questions? Just let folks tell you what they need?"
>> ANN McDANIEL: Actually we have done them several different ways, germane, in West Virginia over
the years and the different plans we've developed. We have had facilitated conversations where we ask
specific questions and where we have actually small group work happen at the town forums to give
people an opportunity to talk amongst themselves and come up with ideas identifying issues, proposing
solutions, and we have had meetings where we basically say this is what the plan has to address, tell us
what you think needs to be in there. And had a much less structured way of doing it.
You can do focus groups that are smaller groups of targeted people with specific questions. You can do
just an open meeting and let everybody say what they think or you can do a structured process in a
town meeting or a public forum where you provide questions, you provide structure, you provide small
group work that helps you get the kind of input that is really useful.
What you don't want to have is just people offering lots of complaints or frustration and not ever getting
to potential solutions. Because while the team can work out what they believe would be solutions to
those issues, problems, frustrations, complaints, once that group of public or that conversation was
generated is gone away, you lose the opportunity to get their feedback about those potential solutions
until you are way farther down the line. So if you can do some kind of structured way of allowing people
to talk and brainstorm and really come up with strong, concrete ideas, I should say, about what the state
plan could do to address the things they know are issues, you will end up with stronger input in the long
run.
.
>> TIM FUCHS: Great. Thanks, Ann.
>> ANN McDANIEL: Uh-huh.
>> TIM FUCHS: Looks like we have one question on the phone so we'll get your line unmuted and you
can go ahead.
>> WILL: This is Will Miller from North Carolina. My two questions is how you decide where you will hold
the town meetings, public forums and then secondly how do you sort of direct the conversation or try to
focus the feedback that you get.
>> ANN McDANIEL: Okay. Couple different ways, Will. In terms of determining where to have the public
meetings, we have found -- which is probably not too surprising -- if we have them in the areas where
the centers for Lind EUFG are located, people are really happy. They like it. They are getting what they
need from the center. Don't change anything. Pretty much what we get. You get a little bit of other
information but for the most part people who have access to a center are pretty satisfied. If we get to
the areas of the state where people don't have access to a center, they are frustrated and they know
other people are getting things they can't get and that's what you hear about.
What we try to do is a mix. We have rotated around. We want to make sure we reach as many people as
we can so we try to go to locations that a lot of people can get to, and we do locations that are
connected to or close to the existing centers for independent living and also go to areas where people
do not have full access to a center.
We have a coupe couple programs that are statewide but we have also found the folks in areas where a
center is located are having better access to those statewide programs than the folks in the areas where
there is not a center so we try to make sure we are hitting both of those populations of people.
Then in terms of structuring meetings, there's lots of different ways that you can do that. Consultant are
really good at helping you figure that out. We had worked with consultants for issues and learned some
of the processes that you can use. The technology of participation is one that I think is a good one. It's
an old process but it works really well in terms of if you want people to sit down in groups and actually
work through things together and if you search for that online you'll find it.
Basically you ask questions and then you give them a format in group work to provide you with answers
and you end up with a lot of information.
You can just simply ask questions with regard to what the issues are and then potential solutions to the
problems that those issues create. That's something that your team can sit down and kind of talk about.
What is it that we are trying to find out? What is it that we need to know from the public in order to
address as much as we can in our state plan?
Obviously that has, you have capacity issues. West Virginia gets the smallest amount of money you can
get in Part B which is what the state plan governs. So our capacity to address people's issues and
concerns is not large.
If you get state funding as well, that might help increase capacity but you have to consider that because
you also don't want to go out there and lead people to believe this state plan will solve all the problems
they identify. So you have to think about that as you develop what those questions are in order to guide
the process and facilitate the process of getting the most concrete feedback, input, rather, that you can
get as you go into the process of writing your plan.
>> WILL: Thank you.
>> TIM FUCHS: Great. Thanks, Ann. Okay.
I don't see any other questions pending. Again, we'll sneak in another Q and A session after Ann's profile
of her state profile of the process in a moment and then have another final Q-and-A at the end of the
call so I'll go ahead to slide 12 and turn it back over to you, Ann.
>> ANN McDANIEL: We'll talk a bit about the timeline that we have set up in West Virginia and how we'll
start proceeding from here to get into the development process that we are talking about with you guys
today.
Next slide.
Our SPIL writing team will be formed by February at the latest. We will be having meetings of that team
to lay out the timeline for the whole process, to start talking about what we're going to do to
accomplish the things that we have been talking about today.
Our team includes representatives from the SILC, from the DSU, and from all of the centers for
independent living in our state, because the centers are the ones who actually implement our state
plan. We don't develop a state plan without them at the table. I don't know how you could. I'm not
going to be able to in a valid way put things objectives and activities in a state plan for the centers to
implement if the officers aren't there to say that's doable or that's not doable or we do or do not have
the capacity to do that
(Centers)
Then the team also organizations the public meetings or public forums or whatever process that we end
up using to gather input. Those members of that team also facilitate those public meetings. They're all
involved in that actual meeting process and facilitating what happens at the meeting so they all are
invested in that process. Then we also divide up the work of writing the plan. Who will write what
pieces? Maybe some of the center folks will actually work on goals and objectives. There are pieces
about specific to the DSU and pieces specific to the SILC so we divide up all that work so that everybody
is involved in that process. We consider all public input and feedback in writing and in finalizing the draft
of the plan.
The team then also determines who is going to do the final writing and actual submission online.
Next slide.
We will be gathering public input by July of 2015. So that we have the information we need to start the
writing process. Public meetings or some other forum to gather that input, making sure that input is
statewide and that we are hitting enough area of the state to be hearing from everyone, compiling all
that input being gathered and providing that to the SPIL writing team, and then the team considers the
public input, input from the SILC members, DSU and centers, and then information from the consumer
satisfaction survey and needs assessment that are done in the state.
Next slide.
By August of 2015 we will start writing our draft plan and determine who will put all those pieces
together, dividing up the work, gathering the information and other input as needed during the writing
process. We have SPIL writing team meetings as we go along. And every step of the way, everything we
talk about, we reach agreement on it. So that by the time our plan is written, there is not a lot of
controversy over what should or this not be in there because that's been part of the whole writing
process is reaching consensus on the content.
Next slide.
Then by February of 2016 we will have finalized a draft. The first full draft of the plan. Once we have a
first full draft, it should be reviewed by the public, by SILC members, by the DSU, and by the centers for
independent living. So this is the first draft that goes out for public comment. This is the draft that goes
to the council for them to look at before it gets finalized, before we factor in any public comment that
we get. This is the draft that everybody will start really looking at to say this will or won't work. What
about this? Oh, you left out that. Before we end up with a final draft.
Next slide.
Then by April we will have gathered the public comment, the feedback on the draft and we have to have
a plan for how that will happen. We likely will be having public meetings and my screen just went black,
okay. Sorry.
If you can provide a way for people to give you input online, that's always a good way to reach some
folks you might not reach otherwise and then we also have team members gathering input from their
constituencies so the SILC folks gather input from the SILC and the DSU reps gather input from the DSU.
Hopefully the director, because the director is not usually on the team, but clearly needs to be in sync as
the process goes on so that they are not thrown a curve at the end when they are expected to sign
something they didn't realize was in there.
At any rate, any other way you can find to gather public input at this point is what we'll be doing and
then you implement how that will -- how your process will work for doing that. And you provide the
public comment that is received to the SPIL writing team for their final consideration before the
approval draft is finalized.
Next slide.
So the team by May of 2016 will review all of the public comments that have been received. At that
point they consider, do revisions need to be made to our draft based on the public comments? Or do we
want to leave it the way it is or is there something else that we want to do to it? And then incorporate
any kind of revisions that they think are needed based on that public comment or feedback from the
party ners and finalize the plan for the SILC and DSU approval.
Next slide. That draft will go out to the SILC and the DSU folks by May of 2016 to allow them plenty of
time to review it before they are asked to approve it. And we'll ask at this point the DSU and the SILC to
implement their approval process. Next slide.
We will want to have secured that approval by June 1. That's the date of the last full SILC meeting in
West Virginia prior to the date the state plan or the deadline for submitting the state plan. June 1 will be
our last full council meeting so I need my draft in their hands far enough in advance so at the June 1st
council meeting they can vote yes or no. Members review that before they come to the meeting, then at
the meeting they have the opportunity to ask any remaining questions, anything that they have any
concern about or don't understand, and then they will vote on whether or not to approve the plan. At
that point they also need to give their authorization to the SILC chairperson to sign on their behalf to
sign the plan before it is submitted.
Next slide.
And then I try to make sure I have all the signatures secured far in advance so my deadline for this time
will be June 15th because then that gives me a full two weeks after I have signatures to actually be
prepared to start inputting the plan to the RSA MIS so we have to get signatures from the DSU -- from
the SILC chairperson, pardon me, the DSU director and you have to get the DSU for the blind director if
applicable. We don't have a separate agency in West Virginia but I'm aware many states do, so you want
to allow time to get all those signatures and maintain those orange signatures on file. Either in the SILC
office or DSU office, whoever is holding those records.
Next slide.
And then input the state plan into the RSA MIS by June 24th. That is my target date of 2016. Start the
process early because it can take a few days to actually get it in. Allow time for any delays that may
happen. Here is my best advice to you. Do not try to input your state plan on the last day to meet the
deadline to submit it to RSA. That's when the system is the busiest and takes much, much longer and
you are more likely to have problems.
Allow time to do that farther in advance than waiting until the last day.
The signed is still due by June 30th. So if my target is June 24th, even if I have delays I'll have time to get
it in there long before June 30th because I don't want to be trying to do it that day. I know people who
have done that and it always ends up being a problem.
Make sure you allow time in the timeline to get it in days before that due date.
Next slide.
.
>> TIM FUCHS: This is actually where we will see if there are any questions from the audience. Answers
and is this our question point?
>> TIM FUCHS: Yep.
>> ANN McDANIEL: Thank you.
>> TIM FUCHS: That's the end of Ann's profile on West Virginia so we wanted to see if there were
questions. Again, press "star pound" if you are on the phone or you can type your question into the chat
box on the Webinar screen or the CART platform. I'll give you all a moment to do that.
(Pause)
Okay. A question on the phone. Let's start there. Get your line unmuted and go ahead, caller.
(Pause)
>> Hi, guys, just a question, this is Larry from Arizona. One of our big challenges sometimes -- I'm sure
this is true across the country -- is getting the public to show up to offer input and I wonder if you have
any -- you mentioned a few things but do you have any tips or suggestions on ways we might improve
that. Sounds like that's a big component of what you do through every step of this process.
>> ANN McDANIEL: It really is, Larry, and the mantra in West Virginia is "If you feed them, they will
come."
I know that is not always an option but the more aware you can make people aware why you are doing
it and what value their input can have, the more likely you are to get them there.
The other thing we do is to try to find every possible outlelt to reach people. We are going through all
partners, all the agencies that soy people with disabilities. We send them information to share to try to
reach people and we also have, being a rural state, lots of those teeny tiny little weekly newspapers that
everybody gets for free. We have found if we send a press release to all of those little papers they have
a tendency to print exactly what we sent them so we make sure we always communicate with them
about what's coming up and why people need to be there. That's a good way to reach people we might
miss otherwise. But just to try to reach -- reach out to all your potential partners and all the providers
that you can find and ask people to forward it and share it and send the information, both hard copy,
and through the media, and electronically to reach out to as many people as you can. We still will end
up having some meetings with 30 people and other meetings where we have 2. You never know what
you are gonna get. The only people we ask to contact us in advance if they are going to be there are
people who need some kind of accommodation to participate. So we never have a handle on exactly
what or how many people will show up but we just try to use every means that are available to us to
reach out to as many people as we can.
>> TIM FUCHS: Thanks, Ann.
Another question from germane. Germane asks what do you do if your SILC doesn't agree at your
meeting June 1?
>> ANN McDANIEL: One meeting we make sure they have the draft in April is to allow time to address
any concerns they might have. That has not been an issue in the past but if that were to happen, what I
would do is I would not let them leave that meeting until we had a process agreed upon to resolve
whatever it was that was the sticking point for them. Whether it was to give authority to the executive
committee or whether they wanted us to send something back out to them. Do we need a conference
call later? But to agree on what that process will be, before that meeting adjourns so we make sure we
do have approval before we reach the deadline to get the thing signed and submitted.
Does that help, Germaine? Okay.
>> TIM FUCHS: Yep, thanks.
Okay. Great. All right, well, I'll go ahead to slide 23 and turn it over to Brad Williams. Brad?
>> BRAD WILLIAMS: Thanks, Tim. Okay. What I will start going over on some of these next panels is kind
of a snapshot of what represents our second year in the SPIL cycle. So in November, in December, we
start and assess impact of the current SPIL. The SPIL evaluator works with the Executive Director to
develop objectives, evaluation forums based on outcomes and targets for the year. The evaluator
touches base with the chair of each committee to review the process and the committees review the
assigned SPIL objectives in the last quarter of the year on scheduled conference calls.
You are not, like, replicating anything but kind of working in the process. Executive Director helps to
facilitate the process on calls, summarizes comments and sends completed forms to the SPIL evaluator.
Next slide.
Continuing with assessing impact of the current SPIL. In December as an example, this is for what was
objective two and still is for CBVH has now been changed to commission for the blind and the IL fee for
services that we have. We are looking at consumer satisfaction survey subcommittee. That's the
committee of relevance. They are reviewing or reviewed the performance targets and this one, they are
looking at what we had for 350 legally blind consumers receiving commission's IL fee for services and
the information data that was obtained was based on what they had in their central database, 461
individuals received the IL fee for services and in this, they have their network with the blind services
agencies. Part of this objective is to get as many Independent Living Centers to start becoming vendors
of the ILC for services, too, so the outcome was exceeded.
So you look at it from a measurement point of view and say, yes, this is what we set and was it met,
exceeded or not met?
But then you look, you know, you start asking questions. Evaluation is more than just looking at what
you set and how you compare it. You ask the questions. So one person then might respond, well, base
number of 350 shouldincreased to 400. Another person felt well, you know 350 is still reasonable for the
next cycle.
I mean, that's part of evaluation. You use it to ask questions, make decisions, see how you are doing
with the process. As it turns out, we kept it at the same level. I'll give you the additional feedback that in
the next year, we were able to exceed that outcome but then third year the number declined and what
we found out when comparing it to their consumer satisfaction survey information that they did for this
service was that more funding was spent per individual as a service declined and at the same time
impacts increased so it was an interesting tradeoff. Maybe the services did decline and the target wasn't
met but I think that was something good to evaluate and look at. That's part of your he Vietnam
situation process.
Next slide.
Looking at assessing impact of current SPIL. In January, SPIL evaluator reviews results from collective
evaluations, by this time getting them all in and then tabulates results into an initial draft report.
Information related to individual objectives is sent out electronically to the State Plan for Independent
Living Committee Members for the purpose of overall review and final recommendations based on
progress and results in consideration of the next SPIL.
So you're not only looking at performance but you are looking at the impact and making
recommendations based on that for the next state plan. The final recommendations are sent to the SPIL
evaluator and included in a draft report. And the committee gives their feedback into a final report
which is issued and reviewed at the May full council meeting.
A copy of our 2012 SPIL evaluation report is posted at the following link. On the website down there. So
I do want to state overall for SPIL evaluation and the process that if you think about it in a cycle, year
one is kind of like a performance review for the objectives, of course for the previous year; year two is a
performance review and a SPIL formulation input for the upcoming state plan. Year three is
performance review for that previous year but then a three-year look-back and that's the cycle we are
working on.
Next slide.
When we get to February, you can see that the second year is a very challenging year. So we are looking
here to convene a needs assessment committee, NAC. NAC identifies questions to be investigated for
the report. What types of data exist and what has to be obtained by other means. Project -- predicts
time frames for the collection of necessary information to generate the draft and final reports.
Preliminary results help to structure facilitation outline. I'll explain later what we call a facilitation
outline and how that works out because it leads into some of the questions you asked earlier.
The fine many needs assessment report helps to prioritize needs during SPIL formulation to what is
actionable in the next state plan.
A needs assessment feeds into this process. Don't just do a needs assessment for the heck of it. It
actually has purpose. Needs assessment also challenges the network to do more by constantly asking: So
what? It provides the basis for systems advocacy and legislative initiatives. Besides its application in the
state plan like in sex shons 1.2 B and 2.1 b, because what you get off your need assessment feed directly
into those sections in the state plan, you know, you want to ask yourself: What are you going to do with
this information? You spent a lot of time on it. When you have the prioritize what can you possibly do?
Well, in New York, it very much identified employment, poverty and earnings gaps for New Yorkers with
disabilities. After we were done with its application to the state plan, we were able to work with the
governor's office, with our network and we're now beginning to work on process disability employment
first policy based on national governor's association better bottom line principles so it can have
application beyond. It can be a significant document. Okay?
So we have a copy of the needs assessment and it's ladies and gentlemened to the website and I just
want to add that I am not a NAC expert. I have a degree in political science and public administration but
I learned about needs assessment committees from an Independent Living Research Utilization course, a
six-week course. I would suggest if this is something you want to learn more about, you check out the I
will ru courses when they come out and maybe they have it or maybe you check the archive because it
was a tremendous course and I participated with our outcome consultant. I also suggest that you don't
recreate the wheel. You check out what other SILCs have. I think we ended up with a decent needs
assessment. It can always be improved but we checked out California's needs assessment and it was a
fantastic needs assessment!
You know, please do that. Next slide.
In May, really getting our state plan, our SPIL committee very active by that point, and they're beginning
to develop outreach materials to obtain state plan feedback. So we're going to start working on facilitate
shown outline which probably in the next slide, don't go to the next slide -- the next slide will discuss it
in detail. You'll want to start developing public hearing notice and locations, get them squared away.
You'll want to start through these same materials to develop Phil focus group packs and then since this
is going to be an educational process
(SPIL)
Not everyone will know what a SILC is or what a state plan is. You want background information or you
keep updated your background information. And you will want something for your written comment
solicitations. Next slide.
By July, you also fit into the process, you want to review at this point your preliminary needs
assessment, your NAC, data. By this time, your committee probably has preliminary findings. Your report
is still going to have to go through drafts and somewhere around September or October you'll finally be
done but you are gonna have your data and findings so you will be able to look at it and come away with
some ideas of what is significant. So you look at that, and you might say, oh, wow, you know, the
employment rate for New Yorkers with disabilities, ages 18 to 64 is only 31.2%, over 40% gap. That is
huge! We got to do something about that. Or you could look at your statewide consume mere
satisfaction survey results and see there's an impact in the specifics for the aging of the baby boomer
population. Say, hmm, that is important, too. You start looking at some of these significant documents
na you-and taking account of them really.
Next slide.
So then you get into September and October for us. That's when you receive feedback on the
formulation of the state plan. Very intense time period for us.
So we start with public hearings and we have at least 3 held geographically disbursed throughout the
state. They are held at SCILs, local centers help to encourage participation we are fortunate because we
have a large network so we are able to rotate around the state and then we just keep track each cycle
where did we have it last? We make sure that we change it around.
(CIL)
We have a network of 40 centers and we are able to move it around and make sure that we always have
it somewhere different each cycle. Okay.
What's also interesting is during the last couple cycles we have like press releases and all this
information and these kits, and because of the centers, you know, it's accessible, they are able to turn
out individuals, they also have contacts with the press. They will sometimes -- sometimes it gets out in
the media and nothing happens or maybe you get a little article here or there or a little spot. But in
watertown, in buffalo, we had like YNN, network news, we've had cameras there and some decent press
coverage, because of the centers and of course you're also subject to the news coverage of the day. So I
mean it's worked out, but the centers have really come through for us by having the geographic
representation as we have had it throughout the state. We rotate it.
Also, to kind of pick up on the earlier questions, we always obtain public input first before we write a
plan because we feel it adds to the legitimacy of the plan. If we wrote the plan first, then it's our ideas.
It's not -- it's not the public's ideas. So we get the input first, you know, we find out the priorities and I'll
tell you the other part of the process based on the statistics and the data from the needs assessment
and anything from consumer satisfaction surveys it drives the process, it's based truly on needs and
priorities.
Next we have targeted focus groups at public events and conferences. So in addition to the IL
community we want to get feedback from non-IL disability stakeholders. Input as strategically scheduled
events and conferences. Fortunately this coincides with September and October when there are an
awful lot of conferences. Maybe self-advocacy association, intellectual developmental communities,
CDPAANYS, consumer directed personal assistance. You have to apply. You have to get into a breakout
session but boy you have an audience right there for you and it's great to get the feedback.
Next slide.
November and October, continuation of feedback for form laition of the SPIL. We are very fortunate to
have a large network but then we encourage SPIL-facilitated focus groups. All centers are encouraged to
assert their local control and provide input by facilitating their own focus groups.
The ones where they, the public hearings are not at, obviously, and consumers more familiar are more
familiar with their own center and it reduces transportation barriers. This, come pwintd with the public
hearing option, provides solid feedback
(Combined)
Then we have written comments accepted by e-mail, online, fax or letter, mail, electronic format is
certainly emerging as primary. Last SPIL we had over 500 pages of online comment. You should also start
considering SurveyMonkey in some format and expanded distribution via social networking.
Next slide.
Continuing with this same topic. I'll talk about facilitation outline. All modes that I just identified, to
obtain SPIL feedback you utilize this facilitation outline. You are identifying key questions that directly
relate to the state plan and some of the related items like the needs assessment or consumer
satisfaction. All right. And you do this because then that way, like Ann had suggested you are not getting
just some random comments or, you know, you are just at the randomness of what happens at a
particular event. You are going to get consistent feedback that coincides with your state plan and
sections of the state plan.
And it will be consistent whether you are at a public hearing or someone is facilitating their own local
focus group or you are at a breakout session or someone gives you written comment.
Of course there will be the option of "Other."
Someone can give you just their own open comment at the end. But, for instance, like some expert -excerpt used title V 11 part B fund. What do you think are top technical training needs of the statewide
network. What is the best way to increase public awareness about CILs and issues important to people
with disabilities
(Title 7)
Would populations are currently unserved or underserved by network centers and what is the best way
CILs can conduct outreach? What has worked well in your community?
Next slide.
Continuing on this same subject. Again, you can add different sections related to your state plan and
questions so if you want to talk to people about Part C funds, how can your statewide network best use
new title 7 Part C funds, how can your CIL encourage the maintenance and growth of statewide centers?
How can you best address the infusion of short-term federal funds to the network of centers? Seems
like a strange question but not so strange before the stimulus funds came around and people then had
to figure out what to do about that.
But you can add anything related to state plans, anything you think is important, anything that has come
up in your state and then you can consistently get feedback about it. I have put a link to our formulation
materials to our website, so you get a sense of all those things that I talked about, public hearing
notices, background materials, facilitation outline. They can all be referenced at this link.
Next slide.
All right. These next pages emphasize that for us and Ann mentioned this, too, we believe that the SPIL
is a continuous process with overlapping responsibilities. It really doesn't begin and end with the
formulation and development of a state plan and then it's done and you just have three years and then
you start the process over again. It actually is a complete three-year cycle. Okay?
So I have kind of put this process and development time line out here for us to consider. So in year 1.
You conduct statewide consumer satisfaction survey and summarize results in a report. We're actually
doing that right now. It takes the entire year.
October/December: Assess impact of the current state plan and evaluate SPIL objectives.
By May SPIL evaluation report is reviewed and accepted by the full council.
Then you get into year two which is somewhat what we, for the most part what we discussed. You get
into some of the same cycle, October to December you assess impact of current SPIL. Committees
evaluate the SPIL objectives and then January through May because it's a longer process because you
are not only doing performance of the objectives but you are then looking at that to make
recommendations and potential formulation of the upcoming SPIL.
So that process is happening. February through July, you are con vehicle a needs assessment committee,
a NAC, to product preliminary results by July in a report by say September or possibly October.
May, SPIL evaluation report reviewed and accepted by full council
(Convening)
Also in May the SPIL starts the process to develop outreach material to obtain public input starting in
September.
Next slide.
Year two, continued. July, revuling the preliminary NAC results and statewide consumer satisfaction
survey trends for the facilitation outline. . Seeing if you need to make adjustments to that document.
Then September to October, very intensive, you receive public input on the SPIL. By November, certainly
by November, the needs assessment report is viewed and accepted at the full council meeting.
November through December: SPIL committee kind of rolls up their sleeves and reviews the input and
prioritizes, ideprior advertises funding for the state plan. This is a very intensive process. What do is start
off and do a matrix of all public input that comes in, and in an Excel spreadsheet based on the
facilitation outline and based on the input. Then we do needs priorities and we pull that matrix together
so that a trend emerges and the committee has that for their consideration along with the public input.
We start having the marathon sessions with the SPIL committee and it's almost like -- it's a negotiation
really. Until we come down to an agreement. It's almost like a conference committee type agreement
that we settle on and we feel good about, but it's based on the public input and needs and priorities. It's
a very interesting process. Year three kind of goes from December into Jan. We do key elements of the
plan. Sent out for public comment. Make changes accordingly. Let me explain that. If you took the time
to write the whole plan you would be adding a lot more time but rather than taking all boilerplate
information we cherry-pick objectives like the different sections that are very important and that people
react to, because if you, first of all, it's a time-sensitive thing and also you want to have also sections
that people are going to react to acknowledge with the budget and things that you know people will
react to versus the stuff that is more the substance part that is -- that makes up the body of the state
plan. These are sections people tend to react to that are significant and that's who we get input on. Like
this section, that section, there's five or six sections that people react directly to, and the key elements,
this is what people react to. We make adjustments. Then we go back and write the plan. From that, the
SPIL is drafted and sent out to the SILC for a 30-day review and in March the SILC reviews and approves
the state plan and then we go through a March through June technical review process with edits. That's
with the state plan partners and signatures of the SILC chair and DSU directors. Through June and this is
where it gets very similar to what Ann went through so that June, you know, input, final SPIL goes into
the RSA MIS. You do have to transmit the signatures from the different state plan partners as well in a
separate page but, next page.
Year three continued June, you have your signed SPIL transmitted to the RSA. Really what it is is a signed
sheet transmitted to RSA through September, you review, negotiate, and have your technical edits of
the SPIL with RSA. As an example when Ann said you have to plan for anything and the unexpected we
started two weeks after July 1st. Then we went through the straightforward stuff and had like three
issues that we were hung up on. We had vacations and Labor Day. We got back at it. September. Then
we had to hammer through those issue and we just barely -- even though we started like the middle of
July we just barely squeaked through by the deadline date when everything was due which was like
September 19th or 20th or whenever that date was. Just in time to get our approved state plan before
the government shut down.
So you have to -- you could even start early but you have to provide for the time because you never
know what will happen. By October, you know, or before, before October you have a new state plan
approved by RSA.
I did put a note in there, and I mentioned this earlier, just wanted to make sure people realized when
you did have, in your third year of evaluation, that the third year is a three-year summary, like a threeyear look-back. But that's kind of the process we've been talking about, it's a continuous process and
really never stops. You are busy, you are formulating, you are developing, you are actually monitoring,
really get into monitoring but monitoring and evaluating the state plan.
So next page.
We can skip that one. That is a repeat.
Q and A.
>> TIM FUCHS: Okay. Great.
Thanks, Brad.
The slide 37 was just a duplicate, folks, sorry, we just skipped.
Slide 38 questions and answers and just as a reminder if you have a question on the phone that's star
pound to ask a question and of course you can type your question in the chat if you are on the Webinar.
While we wait for you all to ask questions, Brad, I'll ask a question Ann actually had. Ann wondered
about your CIL focus groups and she's wondering if you provide the questions or format for those.
>> BRAD WILLIAMS: Yeah, let me go back to my materials. I -- let me give you the exact page. Okay.
Panel 33 at the bottom the link to the nysilc formulation materials is posted at the following link. You'll
find all the materials on there and that will include the facilitation outline and what happens is when we
get to that point and we ask centers to do focus groups, we actually have an e-mail and we send it to
centers and at the beginning, in kind of middle of the process so probably end of August and beginning
of October we remind them and send the same e-mail and we encourage them to do the CIL focus
groups and say here is your packet and you know we describe it, we say use this facilitation outline and
we'll guide the process to please make sure that you, you know, keep track of the feedback and keep it
in Word and transmit it back to us. Maybe identifying the center, the date, number of participants,
those types of things so we have a record of it.
Let's face it, that's what this is. Part of a public hearing process. I think we might even ask them -- it's up
to the CIL. They -- we might even ask them if they care to -- well it's more of a focus group. If they do a
sign-in that is -- that would be preferred but it is up to the CIL. But we really want feedback. If they
identify the date, you know, the number of participants and they keep the record of the feedback to the
CIL facilitation outline, that's golden. That's what we're looking for.
>> TIM FUCHS: Great, thanks, Brad.
Okay. Waiting to see if there are any more questions.
So again we have got 15 minutes left so plenty of time for questions. I'll go back to the Q-and-A slide
here. So again that's star pound rr if you are on the phone or type your question in the chat. .
(Silence)
I remember from the outreach Webinars we did with you last year, you all are fantastic about posting
just about everything from yoyr process on the website. That's really great. If any of you all are looking
for tips and process after the call, the nysilc website is a great resource. Of course you can also access
that training that Brad did along with his colleagues about outreach kind of tangentially related to this
and on I will are you's website. We archive all these. You can access them free of charge just like they
okay khurd you can hear the audio or you can read the transcript and see the PowerPoints as they
happened. So there was a two-partor last year the folks did from New York that was fascinating, along
with just about every other training we have produced together over the last, gosh, at least the ones
that are archived go back longer than ten years.
I'll give you all a few more moments here to type your questions before we wrap up.
(Pause)
Okay. Well, I don't see anyone typing and that's fine. You all did a good job of laying out your plans and
in just a moment I'll give instructions on how to ask questions after the call. We certainly still want to
hear from you. If you think of a question as you begin to work on some of this, we'll certainly still want
to hear from you. And get back to you. I'll go to the next slide here.
This is one method. Ann and Brad have both been kind enough to provide contact information if any of
you have questions going forward. I'd like to add myself, too, to this. So you can reach me as I said at
tim@ ncil.org so that's tim@ ncil.org. If you have question about consent or training programs as a
whole don't hesitate to reach out to me. If I can't answer it I'll pass it along to Ann or Brad.
Whether you think of a question later this afternoon or in six months, please don't hesitate to reach out
to us.
I'll go ahead here to the evaluation slide and this is a live link. So be aware it may take you away from
the Webinar but when the call does conclude if you will click on that, if you are on the Webinar it will
take you to the evaluation form. Like I said it's brief, very easy to complete.
This same link was also in the confirmation e-mail you received the other day and you'll get a little
reminder probably tomorrow with a thanks for participating and the link to this, too.
So please do fill that out. We really do, we take your comments really seriously and always looking to
improve the programs.
Let's see. Just checking one last time to make sure no questions came in. Ann and Brad, wonderful job,
thanks so much for doing this with us today and thanks to all of you for participating. We really
appreciate it and hope to hear from you moving forward. Have a wonderful afternoon and talk to you
soon. Bye-bye