Online Courses

Maryland Works is pleased to offer another free member benefit exclusively to our Provider Network & Workforce Network members:  Maryland Works Online Job Coaching 101 Training Course was developed in consultation with nationally renowned subject matter experts, Transcen, with input from DDA, BHA, and DORS. A special thank you goes to the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council for their financial support.

This course was developed as an orientation for new Job Coaches in the state of Maryland. It provides an overview of the history of disability services and how Maryland approaches the expansion of employment through developing new jobs, teaching skills and supporting new employment sites. This self-paced training will let your new staff know what is to be expected of them and will increase their knowledge on how to assist employees with disabilities to help them become and remain successful. This four-module course consists of webinars and PDF copies of PowerPoint slides for downloading along with several activities that engage trainees and allow them to apply those concepts after successfully completing all four modules. Each module concludes with a self-grading quiz and all trainees who successfully complete the four modules will be issued a Certificate of Completion from Maryland Works.

The Online Job Coaching 101 Training consists of four (approx. 1.5-hour) training modules:

• Module 1: Roles and Responsibilities
• Module 2: Teaching New Skills: A Job Coach’s Toolkit
• Module 3: Setting Goals, Measuring Success and Reporting Progress
• Module 4: Stabilization, Encouraging Independence and Fading Coaching Support

If you have an account set up there is no need to create a new one. Once your registration has been received and approved; an email will be sent to you from the email that was provided within 48 hours for access to the online training.

Maryland Works is proud to offer this course at no charge to our Provider Network members to utilize on an as-needed basis. Our goal is to help you build a solid foundation for your new Job Coaches and equip new staff with the knowledge and resources necessary to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities.

Human beings are magnificent creatures. We are brilliant in our capacity to problem solve, reason, and think through challenging situations. As humans we are also flawed. Our experiences and prejudices often interfere with our ethical thinking in a manner that escapes our awareness. In this course we will examine the roadblocks we must overcome to be more ethical in our thinking. We will also explore methods to clarify decision making.

Course Objectives

• Examine cognitive dissonance and explore the role rationalizations play in our decision making
• Understand the rules and complications to ethical thinking that occurs in our profession
• Identify CRC rules as they apply to various decisions
• Practice a new strategy for clarifying decision making

What You May Expect

There are four chapters in this course, each consisting of approximately 30 minutes of course study (individual time will vary). Successful completion of the quiz at the conclusion of the course is required for certification of completion. You will receive 2 CRC ethics credits OR a certificate of completion for completing this course.

What You Will Need

• Commitment and time to complete the course
• A quiet place, free of distraction
• Time for reflection
• Your awesome self

In a perfect world, we would all get along, with everyone demonstrating empathy, compassion, and kindness every day. Unfortunately, this is not realistic and inevitably, we experience interactions with colleagues, employees or managers who behave in ways we label “difficult” or “challenging” or just downright mean.

These interactions, especially when they are regular occurrences, are draining. And what's more, they can interfere with a team's performance, effective communication, morale, retention and more!

This module will explore ways you can recognize and manage destructive behaviors to promote a more productive and harmonious workplace.

Learning Objectives:

1. Defining “difficult”
2. How to recognize these behaviors on your team (some are subtle and you may not even be aware!)
3. Understanding why difficult behaviors exist
4. Learn strategies for managing disruptive behaviors
5. Apply learning through case examples

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Susan Gaillard has worked in the field of Vocational Rehabilitation for over 34 years. For the first half of her career, she provided direct services to consumers with disabilities in various VR Counselor roles in both West Virginia and Virginia, before transitioning to the Virginia State VR agency's Central Office where she worked in a number of specialty program areas, including Supported Employment Program Manager, VR Training Coordinator, and finally retiring after several years as a Talent Development Consultant, straddling the agency's Human Resources and Vocational Rehabilitation Divisions. Her focus in HR was on leadership development for supervisors and managers across the agency, while her focus in the VR Division was on ensuring new VR Counselors, and other front line staff, had the skills and competencies required to perform their complex jobs. Susan has served on Advisory Councils for Rehabilitation Counseling Departments across several universities, including Virginia Commonwealth University, George Washington University and West Virginia University. She has a Masters Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University and is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC).

Susan lives in Richmond, VA with her husband and their dog, Luke. She enjoys spending time with family, reading, and hiking. Her happy place is on the beach, anywhere, anytime!

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities have access to a variety of federal and state programs to help them meet their independent living needs and access employment services. This training will cover current initiatives and legislation that affect services for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities and how they influence the role of the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Counselor.

Course Objectives

• Overview of components of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Home and Community Based Services Medicaid Waiver (HCBS), and Employment First (EF) and how they relate to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities
• How do these initiatives intersect for the person seeking services?
• What does the VR Counselor need to know about these initiatives?
• Ethical considerations for the VR Counselor while working with people accessing services through these initiatives

Employed Individuals with Disabilities Webinar 

The Employed Individuals with Disabilities (EID) Program:  Medicaid (Medical Assistance) for Workers with Disabilities

The Employed Individuals with Disabilities (EID) Program is Maryland’s most powerful incentive for people with disabilities to work.  EID rewards people with disabilities for working by qualifying them for Medicaid (also known as Medical Assistance).  Medicaid covers not only medical services; it also pays for essential services to help people with disabilities live in the community, like personal assistance and mental health care, and some people can get other services like residential support and supported employment.  Medicaid also covers out-of-pocket costs for people on Medicare, which can save them thousands of dollars per year.

EID counters people’s fear of losing benefits when they work.  The program actually provides an EXTRA benefit (Medicaid) to people with disabilities, but ONLY if they work for pay.

The State of Maryland made improvements to EID on January 1, 2024, including eliminating the income limit, not counting a spouse’s resources (assets), not counting any retirement accounts and allowing people enrolled in EID to save money in Independence Accounts that don’t count against the resource limit.  Advocates are urging Maryland legislators to make even more improvements during the 2024 General Assembly session.

This webinar – appropriate for everyone – provides a basic overview of EID and the new improvements for beginners, and explores deeper details about the new rules for experienced professionals.  Recommended for people with disabilities who are working or considering work, Benefits Counselors and professionals who provide employment services.

Facilitator: Michael Dalto is a big, old benefits geek. He has delivered presentations on benefits and work incentives to thousands of people with disabilities, family members, and professionals since 1989. He created state certification for Maryland benefits counselors and provided training and technical assistance for the certification. He oversaw benefits counseling for the PROMISE project, a research grant that served youths who receive SSI and their families. He also consulted with the Institute for Community Inclusion of the University of Massachusetts Boston on the SGA Project, a research effort that tested interventions to support vocational rehabilitation consumers in Kentucky and Minnesota to work their way off Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. He has written training materials about benefits and provided technical assistance to Virginia Commonwealth University's National Training and Data Center. He now consults with Cornell University and the National Association of Blind Merchants.