This is the first of many publications to document progress of SWTCIE Illinois (IL) that is finishing up the pilot year, Year 2, of the project. We want to first introduce the SWTCIE evaluation team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign so you know who is involved with conducting a high-quality state evaluation of SWTCIE IL:
- Bryan Austin, Ph.D., director of evaluation
- John Kosciulek, Ph.D., professor and project administrator
- Stuart Rumrill, Ph.D., research evaluation specialist
- Chun-Lung Lee, Ph.D., research evaluation specialist and biostatistician
- D. George Strauser, M.S., interagency collaboration specialist
In this initial issue we:
- Articulate the programmatic goals and activities of SWTCIE IL,
- Lay out the SWTCIE IL Evaluation Framework (SIEF) and its importance in relation to assessing key outcomes, and
- Describe how each issue of SIEDUB can be used to inform and improve SWTCIE IL competitive integrated employment (CIE) practices and strategies.
The SIEDUB issues will be short and to the point to increase their usability and relevancy to practice for SWTCIE IL participants and their families, guardians, or support staff and partners who are essential to providing the necessary wrap-around services (Roussos & Fawcett, 2000) for participants to be successful in achieving CIE.
According to the Illinois Department of Human Services,
CIE is work that is performed on a full-time or part-time basis (including self-employment), carries benchmarks related to compensation which ensure that individual pay discrepancies are not solely tied to one's disability status. Wages in CIE must be at or above the (higher of) State or Federal Minimum Wage and not less than what is paid to comparably trained/skilled employees who are not disabled. CIE must also include an individual with a disability maintaining the same eligibility for benefits and advancement as other similarly situated employees. CIE can only occur in a location where the employee interacts with other persons (not including job coaches or other support personnel) who are not individuals with disabilities (Illinois Department of Human Services).
Programmatic Goals and Activities of SWTCIE Illinois
The goal of SWTCIE IL is to increase competitive integrated employment (CIE) jobs obtained by people with disabilities by using an agency and employer partnership model. The SWTCIE IL project has a goal to serve a total of 228 IDHS Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) customers over a five-year period (Oct. 1, 2022 – Sept. 30, 2027); this includes 69 youths (ages 14 to 24), including students, contemplating subminimum wage for the first time and 159 adults (ages 25 and older) currently subminimum wage employees at one of six partner agencies.
Notable programmatic activities and accomplishments during this pilot year, Year 2, of SWTCIE IL (Oc.1, 2023 – Sept. 30, 2024) include:
- Hiring of twelve (12) employment specialists (ESs) across six (6) partner agencies,
- Embedding four (4) community research specialists (CRSs) who provide on-going support to the six partner agencies and ESs and work with local schools to recruit SWTCIE participants,
- Providing training and technical assistance to ESs (e.g., Association of Community Rehabilitation Educators [ACRE] certification training) to provide direct customized/supported employment services to SWTCIE participants,
- Delivering benefits counseling training for CRSs to provide benefits counseling services to SWTCIE participants,
- Initiating strategies such as distributing marketing and communication materials, hosting joint event among partners, and facilitating outreach events to engage key SWTCIE IL stakeholders (e.g., SWTCIE IL Kickoff, SWTCIE IL Workshop, Executive Staff Summit, Executive/Community of Practice), and
- Having already assisted 20 SWTCIE IL participants in getting CIE jobs (Knauf & Lewis, 2024, July).
SWTCIE Illinois Evaluation Framework
The SWTCIE Illinois project evaluation goals are to provide evidence related to:
- Six Primary Constructs of Focus
- Quality of Life
- Interagency Collaboration
- Vocational Rehabilitation Services
- Implementation
- Knowledge Translation
- Sustainability
The SWTCIE IL Evaluation Framework (SIEF) is a guide for evaluating and measuring the project’s performance related to participant engagement with competitive integrated employment (CIE) practices and strategies.
Performance is measured by these Key Outcomes:
- Optimized Participant CIE,
- Increased Participant Community Integration,
- Enhanced Participant Quality of Life, and
- Sustained innovative & collaborative partnership model
For SWTCIE IL evaluation activities, we collect evidence (to better understand the programmatic activities of SWTCIE IL) and data (to better understand relationships between SWTCIE IL services and participant outcomes). During this pilot year, we are developing an infrastructure and process (i.e., how, what, and when) for collecting evidence and data from SWTCIE IL participants and partners necessary to assess the project’s implementation.
We have also initiated data collection activities. Data collection methods include surveys, interviews, focus groups, case studies, DRS WebCM/case file review, and document review. We want to thank you in advance for working with us by engaging in our evaluation activities, as your input is important to being able to conduct an effective evaluation of the SWTCIE IL project. For more detailed information about the SWTCIE IL Evaluation Framework (Kosciulek & Austin, 2023, October), please visit our SWTCIE IL (Evaluation) Website.
How to Use Each SWTCIE Illinois Evaluation Dissemination and Utilization Brief
It is the responsibility of the SWTCIE IL evaluation team to produce data and findings for dissemination to be utilized by SWTCIE IL participants and their families, guardians, support staff, and partners. Therefore, we will be publishing SIEDUBs, disseminating our evaluation findings of the SWTCIE IL project every month, via SWTCIE Connect. The SIEDUBs will be published throughout the duration of the project and will address each of the six constructs of focus (Quality of Life, Interagency Collaboration, Vocational Rehabilitation Services, Implementation, Knowledge Translation, and Sustainability).
In addition, we will produce a comprehensive formative evaluation report (to be used to assess progress) of the pilot year, Year 2, and comprehensive summative evaluation report (to be used to assess overall effectiveness) (Patton, 2008) of the SWTCIE IL project at its conclusion, after Year 5. The SIEDUBs disseminated each month are distinct and focused on SWTCIE IL evaluation activities. We also will publish a quarterly research series called the Vocational Rehabilitation Intellectual Disability Research Series (VRIDRS) focused on the dissemination of relevant research intended to address salient SWTCIE IL issues and provide practical research-informed solutions for service provision and CIE.
We view the monthly dissemination and use of SIEDUBs as an avenue for knowledge translation and will make every effort to ensure evaluation findings are communicated in a fashion that are easy to understand and apply. We believe that our SWTCIE IL evaluation findings can be utilized to improve competitive integrated employment (CIE) practices and strategies to help SWTCIE participants and their partners achieve the key outcomes (i.e., Optimized Participant CIE, Increased Participant Community Integration, Enhanced Participant Quality of Life, and Sustained innovative & collaborative partnership model).
Thank you for reading! Please be on the lookout for the September issue of SIEDUB!
Bibliography
Illinois Department of Human Services. https://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?item=128239
Knauf, J., & Lewis, R. (2024, July). SWTCIE Illinois: Executive Community of Practice. Illinois Institute for Rehabilitation and Employment Research, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL. https://swtcieillinois.ahs.illinois.edu/executive-community-of-practice/
Kosciulek, J. F., & Austin, B. S. (2023, October). SWTCIE Evaluation Framework. From Subminimum Wage to Competitive Integrated Employment for Illinoisans with Disabilities: An Innovative & Collaborative Project Partnership (SWTCIE Illinois). Illinois Institute for Rehabilitation and Employment Research, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL. https://swtcieillinois.ahs.illinois.edu/files/2023/10/SWTCIE-Illinois-Evaluation-Framework-10-09-23-FINAL.pdf
Patton, M. Q. (2008). Utilization-focused evaluation (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Roussos S. T., & Fawcett, S. B. (2000). A review of collaborative partnerships as a strategy for improving community health. Annual Review of Public Health, 21, 369-402.