July 14, July 15, July 21, August 17, August 18

All sessions are Virtual from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Registration Fee: $500 Per Registrant

All registrants will receive access to the course materials

one week prior to the first ACRE training session

To receive a certificate an “ACRE Certificate of

Achievement”, participants must attend all 5 sessions (40 hours of training)

and successfully complete all activities and field-based assignments.

Several field assignments include leading an

employment seeker at your organization through the employment process as taught

in class.

Session 1 (7/14 ) Application of Core Values and Principles of Practice

This session focuses on the history, core values, and

principles of Supported Employment. This includes the rights and

responsibilities of people receiving services, ethical guidelines, and

philosophy of community employment, as well as disability legislation, funding,

regulations, and policies impacting people with disabilities.

Session 2-3 ( 7/15, 7/21 ) Assessment & Career Planning

This 2-day session focuses on individualized assessment and employment/

career planning. Discovery is introduced as the foundation of career

planning and participants will learn how to design and implement a discovery

process for employment seekers. This includes learning how to gather

information about the employment seeker (skills, interests, community

connections, conditions for success) while encouraging the employment seeker’s

active participation and decision-making throughout the career planning process.

Participants will have an opportunity to complete each step of the discovery

process with an employment seeker, learn how to facilitate a

customized employment planning meeting, and develop a vocational profile.

Trainees will learn the basics of self-employment/entrepreneurship, the impact

of wages on disability benefits, the availability of work incentives, and how

to make referrals to other agencies for assistance.

Session 4: ( 8/17 ) Community Research & Job Development

This session provides an overview of customized employment

and uses the information obtained about the employment seeker during the

discovery process to create a Job Development plan. Participants will learn how

to develop relationships with businesses, assist employment seekers with the

job search process, develop employment proposals, understand LEAN process

improvement, and negotiate a win-win job match based on the employment seeker’s

ideal conditions of employment and the needs of a business.

Participants will have an opportunity to complete each step

of the job development process with an employment seeker.

Session 5: (8/18 ) Workplace & Related Supports

This session focuses on developing workplace supports with

an overview of systematic instruction. Participants will learn how to do an

effective job analysis, and implement job training, fading plans, and

strategies for developing comprehensive workplace supports.

Participants will learn creative strategies to ensure the

employee enters the job in the most inclusive manner possible and help them to

maximize their job performance and meet the expectations of the workplace.

Facilitator: Kevin Walker has over 31 years of experience with Penn-Mar

Human Services, and served in various direct support, managerial, and

administrative ​roles before becoming the Director of Business Development.

Kevin spearheaded Penn-Mar’s Employment 1st initiative in

2009, and for the past 8 years has provided training and technical assistance

to like-minded provider organizations . In July of 2020, Kevin assisted with

the development and launch of Penn-Mar’s consulting division.

Kevin is a Certified Workforce Incentives Practitioner and a 2020 graduate

of Leadership Baltimore County. He is a certified ACRE trainer and led in the

development of a Penn-Mar centric ACRE endorsed curriculum.

Kevin has been involved in ACRE projects in California, District of Columbia,

Maryland, Minnesota, and Oklahoma, and is also a curriculum reviewer for ACRE.

Kevin serves as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the U.S. Department of

Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy on the National Expansion of

Employment Opportunities Network (NEON) project and has provided training and

technical assistance to providers in Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland,

Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Washington, for NEON.