Question

II. Discuss what are, in your opinion, the main lessons learned from the transition pruess focusing on all areas addressed in class (macroeconomic reforms, privatization, institutional/government reform, global integration).

Answer 1

TRANSITION AREAS :

(1).JOBS AND JOB TRAINING

(2).RECREATION AND LEISURE

(3).COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

(4).INDEPENDENT LIVING

(5).POST-SECONDARY/POST SCHOOL PLANNING

(1).JOBS AND JOB TRAINING:

• Students will have the opportunity to focus on skill development in the areas of Workplace Skills and Attitudes, Responsibility, Interacting with Others, Basic Academic Skills, Planning for Success and Computer and Internet Skills. Transition Plus offers a variety of community based settings such as job shadow, volunteer sites, work skill/assessment center, competitive employment and internship. Students are supported by job coaches in some sites and are assigned to a work coordinator as part of their IEP team.
• Most students will be able to complete the job search process with a goal of becoming employed as described in their IEP. Work Seminar classes are a part of most student schedules at Transition Plus and are a requirement if students are competitively employed.
• Seminar topics may include; previous employment history, personal work values, employment interests, job search skills, interviewing skills, dressing for success and accepting employment. Workplace safety, problem solving/conflict management, maintaining positive relationships and learning to accept praise and constructive criticism are important topics that are included in all levels of seminar.

(2).RECREATION AND LEISURE:

• Student-driven Recreation and Leisure groups plan activities in this area. Typically there are activities offered each week. Depending on the level of programming, skill development may focus on Computer and Internet Skills, Basic Academic Skills, Interacting with Others, and Habits of Wellness. Activities such as planning and researching cost comparison and budgeting, reading for understanding, team work/collaboration and problem solving, stress and time management are included in the development of these skill areas.

(3).COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION:

• Because Transition Plus is a community-based program, this transition area tends to appear across many IEP goals and objectives. Some examples of Community Participation may include skill development in the following areas: Interacting with Others, Responsibility, Habits of Wellness, Computer and Internet Skills, Self Advocacy, Community Resources, and Transportation. Activities may include conversing on the phone, making appointments, working on group or personal goals, accepting responsibility for actions, learning the legal system, participating in regular health care, making good choices, internet and e-mail skills, and accessing needed resources.

(4).INDEPENDENT LIVING:

• The goal of Transition Plus is to produce young adults who are as productive and independent as possible. By developing the necessary life skills, graduates of Transition Plus are better equipped to face day-to-day obstacles in independent living. This transition area can include skill development in all areas and must be focused on the IEP goals developed by the team.
• Workplace Skills and Attitudes, Responsibility, Interacting with Others, Basic Academic Skills, Habits of Wellness, Planning for Success, and Computer and Internet Skills all offer important independent living skill development opportunities that will affect the way a young adult transitions to adulthood.
• While it is impossible to list them all, activities offered in this area may include; home safety and maintenance, menu planning and prep, comparison shopping and budgets, consumer skills and banking, employment and income, healthy relationships and choices, self advocacy and community supports, and understanding your disability.

(5).POST-SECONDARY/POST SCHOOL PLANNING:

• Often we equate post-secondary to college or training programs. At Transition Plus, we encourage students and families to look at post-school planning and remember that this plan should be personal to each student. Again, this transition area can include skill development in all areas and must be focused on the IEP goals developed by the team. Workplace Skills and Attitudes, Responsibility, Interacting with Others, Basic Academic Skills, Habits of Wellness, Planning for Success, and Computer and Internet Skills all offer important post school planning opportunities that will affect the way a young adult transitions to adulthood.
• Some post-school planning opportunities that may be available include: Hennepin Technical College Pathways career exploration courses, Post–Secondary Education Options college tuition program, Goodwill training programs, Community Education classes, Day Placement programs such as Opportunity Partners and Choice, Vocational Rehabilitation Services support, Hennepin/Carver County Adult Services support.

Are your focus areas still the right ones for your strategy transition?

If you go through the exercise above and find that you honestly didn’t make much progress towards your vision, then you need to look to your focus areas to see if they’re still relevant and attainable (we’ll look at actual performance in just a moment). Even if you did make progress against your vision statement, revisiting your focus areas is still a great exercise to keep them fresh in people’s minds and to give people a chance to provide input for the (re)formulation of the strategic plan.

Go through each of your focus areas in turn, and walk through the following questions with your team:

• Do we feel as though we still haven’t done all that we can for this focus area (i.e. we’ve not yet ‘finished’ it)?
• Do we feel that the focus area still “stands alone” (i.e. the activities wouldn’t be better off spread out across the other focus areas)?
• Is it still a critical component of delivering our vision statement?
• Do we have the resources (or can we realistically get the resources soon) to tackle this in the next 12 months?

You’re looking for a straight yes on all 4 questions, for all of your focus areas. If you agree ‘no’ on any of the questions, then you should seriously consider dropping or re-modeling this focus area. Question 4 is a little controversial. Just because you can’t do something, that surely doesn’t mean that you should just ignore it and drop it from the list? Ideally no, you would phase your organizational goals so that the far-reaching focus areas only have goals against them when they can be adequately resourced. But, either way, the last thing you want is to be unrealistic about what you can achieve – as this will only serve to demotivate the team and take credibility away from your strategic planning process.

Finally, open up the floor to your team to suggest new focus areas that they want to submit for inclusion in the strategy transition. Now that they’ve worked with the strategic planning framework for at least 12 months, they’ll be better placed than ever to participate in the (re)formulation of the plan. It’s also a great way to build the engagement of team members who will feel much more empowered to deliver against focus areas that they actually helped to design.