Exploring Diversity in CRPs

1
Exploring Diversity in CRPs

• A presentation to
• The Association of Community Rehabilitation
  Educators (ACRE)
• January 9-10, 2004
• Hotel Monaco, New Orleans, LA

2
(No Transcript)
3
RRI Capacity Building for CRPs

• Project location
• The University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg,
  Texas
• Located in the tip of Texas, only 10 miles from
  US-Mexico border

4
RRI Capacity Building for CRPs

• Enabling legislation
• Section 21 of the Rehabilitation Act
• Objectives
• Identify barriers
• Develop/identify new and innovative solutions
• Disseminate results to a national audience.

5
Section 21 of the Rehabilitation Act

• Patterns of inequitable treatment of minorities
  have been documented in all junctures of the
  vocational rehabilitation process.
• Focuses on traditionally underserved populations

6
Section 21 of the Rehabilitation Act

• These inequities include
• Minorities more often denied acceptance,
• Minorities have more cases closed unsuccessfully,
• Minorities are provided less training,
• Less money, overall, is spent on minority
  consumers of VR services.

7
RRI Capacity Building for CRPs

• Goal
• Increase the capacity of CRPs to serve
  individuals with disabilities from diverse racial
  and ethnic backgrounds.
• Objectives
• Identify barriers by conducting research.
• Identify new and innovative solutions.
• Disseminate results to a national audience.

8
Objective Identify Barriers

• Conduct research to identify barriers to minority
  consumers.
• Use a variety of research methodologies.
• Literature Review
• Qualitative approaches
• Focus groups
• Individual telephone interviews
• Mixed method approaches
• Web-based survey

9
Our Research Activities

• Activities completed
• Focus groups
• CRP staff
• VR personnel
• Consumers (IL center)
• Telephone Interviews
• CRP staff

10
Our Research Activities

• Planned research
• Web-based survey of VR personnel
• Survey or interview of Consumers

11
Focus Groups

• CRP staff
• VR personnel
• Consumers (IL center)

12
CRP Staff Focus Group

• Date Wednesday, June 18, 2003
• Location Dallas, Texas
• Participants 7 CRP Directors from Texas,
  Oklahoma, Louisiana, and California
• Questions asked
• How does the concept of diversity play out in
  your CRP?
• How is it implemented?
• What are you doing to address diversity issues in
  your CRP?

13
CRP Staff Focus Group

• Findings
• Building diversity in CRP staff
• Get out into the community to recruit
  undergraduates and career-changers into the
  rehabilitation field.
• Open up agencies to service learning and student
  internships.
• Diversity training, to be most effective, needs
  to include actual experience and dialogue with
  diverse individuals.

14
CRP Staff Focus Group

• Findings (continued)
• Outreach to diverse consumers
• Get involved with community groups and develop
  trust.
• Get out of the office and go to the consumer.
  You have to go to the housing projects and find
  them. The only thing dangerous about it is NOT
  going.
• Women are more difficult to reach because of the
  burden of raising and family and being a
  caretaker.

15
CRP Staff Focus Group

• Findings (continued)
• Outreach to Hispanic consumers
• The term, disability, does not translate well
  into Spanish language and Hispanic culture.
• Labeling issues Be careful with the word,
  Hispanic. Also, Chicano and Latino.
• Language issues There are many regional
  dialects, all considered Spanish.
• We cant use the same language we grew up with
  with somebody from a different area.

16
VR Personnel Focus Group

• Date Monday, August 18, 2003
• Location San Diego, California
• Participants 5 VR personnel from Texas, Idaho,
  Washington, DC, Arizona, and California.
• Questions asked
• How are diversity issues addressed in CRPs and
  their relationship with VR?
• Can you give examples of things that have worked
  in increasing diversity in these agencies?

17
VR Personnel Focus Group

• Findings
• Many suggestions for improving the VR-CRP
  relationship.
• This relationship varies widely from state to
  state.
• Recommendations
• Develop a CSPD-type training model for CRPs.
• Implement agency-wide diversity training, modeled
  after the National Coalition Building Institute.

18
VR Personnel Focus Group

• Findings
• In one state, a relationship change between VR
  and CRPs helped improve outreach to minority
  consumers
• The decision was made that wed only do business
  with those CRPs that provided the services and
  got the kind of outcomes the we wanted for our
  consumers.

19
Consumer Focus Group

• Date Tuesday, September 30, 2003
• Location Dallas, Texas
• Participants 7 Consumers of an Independent
  Living Center, from diverse racial/ethnic
  backgrounds.
• Questions included the following
• As both a person with a disability and a member
  of a racial/ethnic group, what do you believe is
  essential for a CRP to serve you and others like
  yourself effectively?

20
Consumer Focus Group

• Findings
• Significant barriers to CRP access mentioned by
  consumers
• Transportation
• Expensive and unreliable
• Lack of wheelchair accessibility in restaurants
  and other businesses
• Societal attitudes towards disability (stigma)
• Assumptions being made about you is a real big
  barrier.

21
Consumer Focus Group

• Findings (continued)
• Strategies/recommendations
• More Spanish-speaking CRP staff.
• Better outreach to Hispanic, black, and other
  minority communities.
• Culturally competent CRP staff
• there should be some understanding of both
  ethnic and cultural beliefs.
• Sensitivity training for CRP staff
• from the receptionist on up.
• better respect and more communication.

22
Research in Progress
23
Telephone Interviews

• Dates December 15, 2003 to January 9, 2004.
• Research subjects CRP staff
• Interviewees selected from the training databases
  of the CRP-RCEPs in Regions 2, 6, 9, and 10
• Targeted cities
• Seattle, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Dallas, New
  Orleans, and New York City.
• Sample size
• Goal To interview 10-12 CRP staff in each of the
  6 cities (Total of 60-72 CRP staff)

24
Telephone Interviews

• Questions asked
• How does your agencys mission statement address
  consumers from diverse backgrounds?
• How does your agency encourage minority consumers
  to continue with their rehabilitation services?
• What strategies does your agency use to help
  minority consumers become employed?

25
Telephone Interviews

• Questions (continued)
• How would your describe the diversity of your
  Staff in terms of race and ethnicity?
• Your Consumers?
• Your Community?

26
Telephone Interviews

• Questions (continued)
• How significant are the following barriers to
  building diversity in your agency?
• Language,
• Transportation,
• Technology,
• Cultural mistrust,
• Concepts of time,
• Low expectations of job placement, and
• Lack of knowledge about the rehab process.

27
Telephone Interviews

• Interviews completed as of Jan. 15, 2004
• Seattle 8
• Los Angeles 6
• Albuquerque 7
• Dallas 7
• New Orleans 10
• New York City 7

28
Identifying Best Practice CRPs

• We are seeking nominations from each Region.
• Give us your recommendations!

29
Contact Us

• Rehabilitation Research Initiative
• The University of Texas-Pan American
• Rehab Annex Room 107
• 1201 West University Drive
• Edinburg, TX 78541-2999
• Toll-free 1-866-444-1126
• On the Web www.panam.edu/dept/rehabri/
• Coordinator Joan Reed (joreed_at_panam.edu)
• Secretary Debra Garcia (garciadeb_at_panam.edu)

30
Thank you!
Tom Shefcik, Director
Debra Garcia, Secretary
Joan Reed, Coordinator