Jayme Pendergraft >> Good afternoon and welcome to today's Ticket to Work webinar, “Ticket to Work: Supporting Access to Good Jobs for All.” My name is Jayme Pendergraft, and I am the director of communications and outreach for the Ticket Program manager. I'm pleased to now introduce our moderator for today's webinar, Debora L. Wagner. Debora has spent 25 years working with legal services and law school clinical programs. Throughout her career, she's presented on benefits issues including post entitlement and return to work issues for attorneys, vocational rehabilitation professionals, individuals with disabilities and their families. From 2016 to 2022, she led the statewide network of Work Incentives training and technical assistance for benefits planners in Ohio. In December 2021, Debora joined the Cornell staff where she continues to provide work incentives training and technical assistance. Debora, thank you for so much for being with us today. And with that, I will hand it over to you.

Debora L. Wagner >> Thank you, Jayme. It's wonderful to be with you. Soon I'll be introducing Derek Shields, a member of the Ticket to Work team who will present today. Today's topic can help you as you start or choose to expand your path to financial independence through work and accessing good jobs. Each of us is on our own journey, and we hope you can get some information today that will help you on your path to employment. Let's get started by reviewing some of the functions of the webinar platform so that you can interact and get the most information out of today's presentation. First, please know that all attendees will be muted throughout today's webinar. When asked how do you want to join the meeting's audio, please select the system default option. This will enable the sound to be broadcast through your computer. Make sure your speakers are turned on or your headphones are plugged in to access the sound. If you do not have sound capabilities on your computer or prefer to listen by telephone, select the connect with phone audio button on the previous slide and the dial in option. Dial 1-800-832-0736 and then enter the access code 4189148 pound sign. You can also use the join the meeting audio via receive a phone call as shown in the image on the screen and entering the same number and access code. 

Now let's review the Adobe Connect platform. First you will notice different boxes on your screen. The boxes are called pods. We have the presentation pod, and that is where the slide deck appears. That is the largest portion of your screen. Below that is an open space for the placement of the closed captioning pod. The top right corner is the Q&A pod. Below that is the Web Links pod. 
We'll talk about these pods in more detail shortly, but first we want to mention accessibility. Real time captioning is available and is displayed in the captioning pod, which can be placed below the slides. You can show or hide the captioning display and can also choose the text size and text color combinations to best meet your vision preferences. To open closed captioning, select the CC option from the top menu bar. The captioning link can also be accessed in the Web Links pod under the title web captioning. You can also access captioning online in a separate viewing window. The choice is up to you and your preferences. If you're fluent and American Sign Language and would like support during today's webinar, we developed a resource that provides instructions on how to connect with an interpreter through the Federal Communications Commission video relay service. The ASL user guide can be found in the Web Links pod under the title ASL user guide. We are here today to answer questions that you may have about the Ticket to Work program. Please send your questions to us anytime throughout the webinar by typing them into the Q&A pod. We will then direct the questions to our speaker during Q&A portions of the webinar. We will address questions at two different points during the presentation, so please send us your questions, and we'll do our best to answer as many of your questions as possible. Another available resource that we think you will find very useful is the Web Links pod. This pod is in the bottom right of your screen and lists the links to the resources covered in today's webinar. To access these resources, please select the topic of interest and access the resource to learn more. If you are listening by phone and are not logged into the webinar, you may email webinars@choosework.ssa.gov for a list of available resources. Or you may reference your confirmation email for today's webinar to access a list of available resources. Also, please note that Social Security cannot guarantee and is not responsible for the accessibility of external websites. 

Today's webinar is being recorded and a copy of it will be available within two weeks on the Choose Work website at http://bit.ly/WISE_ondemand. This link as well as others can be found in the Web Links pod in the bottom right corner of the screen. It will be titled WISE webinar archives. We hope that everyone has a great experience during today's webinar; however, if you do experience technical difficulties during the webinar, please use the Q&A pod to send a message or email us at webinars@choosework.ssa.gov. As we said, I'll serve as today's moderator. I am not Ray Cebula. I am Debora Wagner. I do work with Ray Cebula, but he couldn't join us today. However, I'm thrilled to be joined by Derek Shields. Derek is the senior development and training manager with the Ticket Program manager and has spent the past 29 years working in the areas of disability, inclusion and employment. He has a master's degree in management and disability services from the University of San Francisco. And in addition to his contributions to the Ticket program, he's also president of FowardWorks Consulting and a cofounder and board advisor of the National Disability Mentoring Coalition. Derek over to you.

Derek Shields >> Debora, thank you so much for setting the stage for today's webinar and your gracious flexibility for being with us today and serving as our moderator. We will have Debora back in a little bit for our Q&A session. We'll have two of them today, so I know some of you have already started sending in questions. We appreciate that, and Debora and I have plenty of time set aside to get to those. 
Well, let's jump into this WISE webinar. Our title today is “Supporting Access to Good Jobs for All,” and we've selected that in connection to October being National Disability Employment Awareness Month. And we want to talk today a little bit about how the Ticket Program can support eligible individuals to get access to those good jobs. And we have today our agenda, it's on the screen. Of course, we'll start by covering what is the Ticket Program, because that is what we're here to do. And then we'll dive into two segments. Good jobs for all, the first one, we'll focus on learn while you work. This is an important area that will cover topics such as internships, apprenticeships, and then we'll switch over to good jobs for all in the federal employment arena. And when we think of good jobs for all in these two sections, our team really wanted to showcase this theme for National Disability Employment Awareness Month, you know, access good jobs for all. The theme helps celebrate the value and talent workers with disabilities and what contributions these workers make to America's workplaces and to our economy. It also reaffirms our commitment to ensuring that workers with disabilities have access to good jobs all the time. This isn't just an October thing, but it's something that we do every month of every year, and that's what the Ticket to Work Program is here to support. 

So with this in mind, we do have a lot of content to cover, but we'll also come back and wrap it up with putting it all together, how the Ticket Program works and look at the employment service team members, those service providers that are out there that you can reach out to get the services and supports you need to access good jobs. And importantly, what we hope for everybody is the good careers you want too. 
So with that, we're going to jump into what is Ticket to Work. So if you've, if you've been with us before, you've heard us talk about this. If you're new to our WISE webinars, welcome. With this program, Social Security has an opportunity for a free and voluntary program that's available for people ages 18 through 64 who are receiving Social Security disability benefits and went to work. So for those disability benefits, if you're not familiar with them, there's two. There's Social Security Disability Insurance. We call that SSDI. And we also have Supplemental Security Income, SSI. And so that's more of a needs-based program. And disability insurance, SSDI, is an insurance program that people who have worked have a work history have paid into. Two programs, you should be receiving at least one of those benefits, and again be age 18 through 64 and went to work. So if that sounds like you, then the Ticket Program could really be a great fit, and we'll have an opportunity to learn a little bit more about the how the Ticket Program can help and who can assist later on. 

But first, how can the Ticket Program help? It really connects you to these free employment services, and we break them out into four different categories. But each of them have like sublevels of services and supports that are available for you. And I think the first one is really critical, deciding if work is right for you. People are available to give you the information and to help you think through what kind of goals do you have for accessing good work, what kind of goals do you have to potentially transition from benefits to work, and then you'll be able to make that informed decision if work is right for you. The Ticket Program also helps you prepare for work. And somebody might need some educational preparation. Other people may need some more long-term rehabilitative preparation. And the Ticket Program can assist with both of those. And there's some other areas that might be more concerning, and maybe they seem less significant for some, but for others they're really important. And it could be something like updating a resume or perhaps creating your first resume and thinking through about the different experiences you've had. Maybe you had some work in the past. Maybe you had some volunteer experiences, but how do we put your skills and your passions into your portfolio, potentially a resume, that will assist an employer in looking at you as a candidate. So lots of different ways that we can prepare. And then the third category, finding a paid work opportunity. The Employment Networks that we'll talk about a little bit later, they're experts at this. They have relationships with employers, or they can assist with you in your own job search and preparing the resume or practicing and preparing for interviews. And they can point you in the right direction to, in effect, help support employment matches. These Employment Networks are available to assist ticketholders in finding these right job opportunities, good jobs. And we know that there's a lot available out there, and they're prepared to help build that bridge between you and those jobs. And then the last area of the Ticket Program does some great work in is helping you succeed at work. It's one thing to get access to that good job, and it's another thing to enjoy the work experience and to retain and hopefully advance in that work and turning that good job into that good career. So these are four important areas that the Ticket Program can help you with. And if those areas are the types of services and supports that might help you, then we encourage you to consider it. We have a link here, what is Social Security's Ticket to Work Program and also a link to a self-guided tutorial. As Debora said, you can access these materials through the Web Links pod in the bottom corner and you will find that these are at item number seven and number eight. So we encourage you to explore those if you're interested. 

Now this theme supporting good jobs for all keeps coming up, and that's our theme for the month. And we want to talk a little bit about how the Ticket Program isn't a direct hiring program so you're familiar with this. But participating in the program, it's not going to guarantee that you're going to find the job, but they're going to better position you to understand the types of jobs that you're interested in and help you plan with some goal setting. You know, what are our short-term steps? What are our mid-term steps and then what are our long-term steps that we want to have. And this will connect you with more confidence to job search resources and hiring programs that are targeting talent with disabilities. You know, so these Ticket Program service providers that we'll cover later do have job placement expertise, and they do have specialized job placement expertise, meaning working with people with disabilities and employers to build those bridges. So when we think about that accessing good jobs for all, what we're doing is building the bridge between the employers that need diverse talent and eligible ticketholders, like many of you attending today who want those jobs. So the Ticket to Work is here to support you and those employers, and we appreciate your focus with us today. 

Alright, so we're going to jump now from the Ticket Program overview into learning while you work. And this is where we're going to cover these opportunities around internships and apprenticeships. And then as I mentioned, we'll get into federal employment opportunities as well. So some of you may have more confidence with this material. Others may be visiting it for the first time. So we want to make sure we provide some definitions and some examples so all of us could feel more confident with these pathways to work. Internships are usually short-term work opportunities that allow you to gain experience in a job or a field or potentially a career that's of interest to you. This could be also a way to explore a couple of different fields if you might be somebody like me who wasn't really sure what they wanted to do for a job or for a work. An internship is a great opportunity to kind of try something out. Some internships are definitely connected to educational programs and academic credit. So we'll give a couple of examples of those. If you're a current student or a recent graduate, then there's some opportunities that are customized for you with internships. However, it's not limited to that, and I think sometimes when we think of internships, we think of, you know, college students that it might be juniors or seniors. But there are other internships available with business, with government and with nongovernmental organizations like nonprofit organizations. And all of these have different ranges of time. They could be very short, like a month-long period, or you can go to six months or a year period. And importantly, internships offer different pay. They could be paid, they could be unpaid, or they might not have necessarily an hourly rate, but they might provide a stipend, a certain amount for a period of time to offset some costs. So that's our kind of baseline of what internships are. So let's review now with this in mind how might you find an internship if this is something of interest to you as a pathway to work. So we do recommend starting out with chatting with the people you know. So you start with, you know, putting down some goals. You could write these down but knowing your situation. I've been thinking about an internship. This is the length of time that I consider. I can work part time, or I could work full time during that internship period. Do I need to earn money or am I able to do this without earning money. And you put that list together, and then you could reach out to use your network. And we recommend contacting family and friends first and, you know, talking about your ideas and then framing with their help and feedback, some potential career interest areas. If you've always wanted to work in the media and the arts, or if you'd rather work with your hands as it was kind of in a mechanical sector. You know, go through and talk about it a little bit. 

After you've done that, you'll have some more confidence with your description. And then we could encourage you to visit an American Job Center. And here, American Job Centers, we have a link for that in the Web Links pod as well. This is an opportunity. It's at number 10. This is an opportunity to reach out to an organization that's near you. You can talk to them. They have a team of career counselors, and you can explore if you're a younger person, youth programs and summer jobs, or you could talk to them more about specific employers in the specific type of work you're looking to experience through an internship program. So they are ready to assist you at the American Job Centers, and they can assist in understanding how to look for opportunities with employers. And they can help you reach out to employers directly to find out if they have those internship opportunities. And a lot of these business relations specialists working for groups like American Job Centers or other agencies already know because they've been doing this work. So they might be able to point you to some internship opportunities, whether that's to be a paid intern or as a volunteer position. So there are some great ways of doing that through the American Job Centers. But there's also some other ways that you might be less familiar with, and we wanted to draw those to your attention today as well. When we think of resources to find internships, we want you to include the idea of the Workforce Recruitment Program for college students with disabilities. This is a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor in the Office of Disability Employment Policy. They do this jointly actually with the U.S. Department of Defense. And the WRP links college students and recent graduates with disabilities to federal, mostly federal agencies seeking interns. There are some private sector opportunities. But it's a pathway for interns to become permanent employees. So if you are a younger person in college with a disability, the WRP program is a great opportunity for you. Their website is wrp.gov, dot G-O-V. So you can explore their website and see what kind of opportunities they have. We also have a blog post that the team provided, and that is available at item number 11 there. 

Alright, so that's for college students. There's another program called Entry Point, and this one's been around for years as well. If you're interested in STEM or the sciences, really encourage you to look at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences internship program. It is again for students with disabilities. That ranges from undergraduate up to much higher levels, including doctoral programs. But these are agencies that are looking for individuals studying science, engineering, mathematics and computer science. Entry Point, I used to know the leader of the program. It's a fantastic program if you're eligible to get in and receive through the internship introduction to the subject matter area but also kind of the world of STEM work. You know, if you're interested in science, you would be matched up with the scientists, and that person could serve as a mentor as well. So that's another great internship opportunity. We'll start to switch away now from student focused internships to some other opportunities for people who are not students through these two internship resources. We have the Pathways Program and then a website called theidealist.org. These two are kind of cool if you're not familiar with them. Internships in the federal sector sometimes can seem confusing, and we'll talk about federal employment. But the Pathways Program is an employment program for the federal workforce to access. In the past, current students and recent graduates, and this offers opportunities for specific programming that matches kind of educational background with federal agencies. What's really cool is that in the last couple of years, the Pathways Internship Program has changed from a focus only on students and expanded. So just between June and December of this year, all federal agencies that are participating in the Pathways Program, their internship program have expanded to include participants in registered apprenticeship programs. We call those RAPS or R-A-P-S, Job Corps and Peace Corps. So you could be a student, but if you were in a registered apprenticeship program, the Job Corps or the Peace Corps, you're now eligible for the Federal Pathways Internship program too. That allows you to have after 480 hours of an internship position in the federal sector, the agency can now hire you and transition you in as a federal employee. So a cool internship-to-work pathway there. And then the last one here, the Idealist, is a site where you can search for internships based on location, the type of job you're interested, and the type of organization you're seeking. 

So I really love their website. It's easy to navigate. So I went on a search this morning, and I, so I put in there the type of job. They have remote, they have hybrid and then they have on site. Or you could select all and get, you know, a mix of them all. But I was, I put in I was looking for a hybrid internship in Texas, and I found one that they have that's currently open. And it's a six-month internship program focused on the farming and ranch advocacy work being done in Texas. You do need to live in Texas for this internship. And there is some remote work, but you also have the opportunity to go to Austin, to their state capital, and do some advocacy, work. You know, in general, the website has 37 remote internships posted on their site now that I found. And you could do things like social media intern, legal work, marketing and communications, environmental work. It's really across the board, so lots of options. Many are paid. And all of them are going to give you good work experience in a field that you want to explore. So once you have the internship, of course, now it's time to make the most of it. And we have some tips here if you're planning on doing that, the things that we would encourage you to do. Certainly, while you're in an internship asking good questions is a great tactic because it is a learning opportunity, and it's framed that way. So the people that you're working with are there that teach you. And so, we encourage you to explore and discover as much as possible. 

Second, volunteering to take on additional tasks, you know, if it's appropriate. This is paying attention to projects and looking, you know, to get involved in some extra work or to shadow some extra people. So you could try new things and explore different parts of the organization. You know, maybe you'll find something that you weren't familiar with, and that could become your career pathway. Number three, seek constructive criticism. This is a safe place that you can get feedback on your performance. You could also go ask some team members for feedback too, and this would be constructive criticisms in a way. But you know, taking notes from that and looking for ways to improve. Also making new contacts. This is a way of course to expand your network and bring kind of new ties from your network into your weaker connections, and this will make your network stronger through your internship. And fifth, you know, reflecting on your experience. You may have a bit of an exit interview. You can evaluate what you've learned and how you've changed, what new skills you have, and importantly, figure out how to take those learnings and skills and add them to your portfolio or resume. So hopefully your internship can teach you, you know, that the field that you wanted to work in is a great match, but if it isn't and it wasn't the right match, then that's okay too. You learn that through kind of a safe experience, a great way to explore fields and build new skills. As are the next area, apprenticeships. 

So let's turn now, we have a few slides on apprenticeships. And I mentioned these when I was talking about the Federal Pathways Internship Program. I mentioned apprenticeships, and this is a great way to access good jobs too. Apprenticeships are educational programs that combine work with learning and training, and that could be on and off the job. And it's important to know that apprenticeships combine the development of the theoretical knowledge regarding that occupation or a group of occupations with the practical experience that comes with doing the job. It's also a great opportunity to learn with what I would call some top cover. Sometimes we don't take as many risks because we don't want to do something that might not be considered perfect performance. In an apprenticeship, you're aligned with a subject matter expert or a mentor where they're going to allow you to extend yourself into ways that you haven't been able to try before. And that gives you the confidence to expand what you're doing. And when we think of apprenticeships, we are preparing for something, you might not be aware of it, but next month in mid-November, as National Apprenticeship Week. And so, we acknowledged the growth of apprenticeships as a pathway, and the value and benefits that come through apprenticeships might be fantastic matches for many of you. 

When we speak of the value and the benefits, we have some to share to call these out. It is an entry point into an industry and really a safe ramp up, and they're real jobs with paid salaries. In fact, apprenticeships for some people might be the quickest way to paid work because you are paid to learn, I'm sorry, paid to earn while you learn. An apprenticeship offers that flexibility and could be your fastest way to paid work. An experienced worker does mentor you, that provides the kind of the wisdom and transfer of knowledge and skills that we were speaking to earlier. And opportunities may exist to advance in your chosen career. Sometimes people think of internships and apprenticeships as kind of one-time opportunities, but in many of their designs, they're structured so you get in, you get experience, and then you have the opportunity to remain and to advance and to be retained by the employer. So, I mean this might be something that you want to explore. If it sounds like it, then we encourage you to explore the apprenticeships that are available at apprenticeship.gov. This is an online, one stop kind of hub for connecting career seekers with employers, and they also bring in education partners. So, the apprenticeship.gov is from the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. And they bring all of the key partners together with an emphasis on increasing opportunities for talent with disabilities to find apprenticeships. And they are available across all industries, and the program really can show you how employers can find talent and how the talent can find employers. There's an image of the website on the screen. They have something called the Apprenticeship Finder. So if you're a job seeker, you can go through the Apprenticeship Finder to find the employers that have been posting. And then you could apply directly there. 

And I'll tell you, I checked it out today. And you know the example that I'll give you is I looked in the Denver, Colorado area. And their finder is a really simple tool to explore. You can put in the location, and then I put in a search within 10 miles of Denver, and I found 13 posts. I was looking for mechanical positions. I just put in the word mechanical, found 13 different apprenticeship posts covering automotive work, carpentry, construction, HVAC and more. And I was like, this is fantastic within 10 miles of a location, a lot of opportunities there in mechanical. Then I looked to 25 miles and away from downtown Denver, and I found two other cool things that I wanted to mention. There's a program in Colorado called Neurodiversity Works. And they're looking to specifically train and place apprentices inside of mechanical work positions, so Neurodiversity Works. And another cool program, an apprenticeship program with an organization called the U.S. Mint just outside of Denver. What a cool way to explore getting inside of the Department of the Treasury through an apprenticeship program. This finder tool will show you a lot of great options, and you don't need to be a student or a recent graduate to be an apprentice. You could be any age and qualify based on the employer and what they're seeking, I know a lot of employers are looking for talent in a market, but they can't find it. And the apprenticeship path is how they're opening up other pathways to in effect grow their next generation of talent. So if you're thinking about it, and I'd encourage you to go look at apprenticeship.gov. That is out on the website. All of these the Entry Point, the Pathways Program, the apprenticeship.gov and the finder, they're all in the Web Links pod. That finder is at item number 17. 
Alright, so we've made it through the internships and the apprenticeships. We talked about the Ticket Program, and now I'm going to share a few ideas around federal employment. And then we're going to break for our first Q&A. That will have an opportunity for you all to keep asking your questions in between now and our break, and then we'll bring Debora back in. 

So what are the benefits of working for the federal sector? You know, federal employees are in almost every kind of job imaginable. They earn very good salaries with a range from entry level to executive and are eligible for high quality medical benefits. And importantly, they're public servants. And the ones that I've worked with over the years have always been very mission focused and feel proud of that public service. The federal government does hire a broad range of people across every field imaginable. We have some list of accounting, public affairs and communications, healthcare, law enforcement, and so on. And there are a number of ways that you can apply for a job with the federal sector. I just wanted to frame if you're not familiar with the federal sector, it is our largest employer. And estimates say around 2.87 million people are civilian employees with the U.S. Federal Government. And they're not exactly sure, but they think that there's tens of thousands of locations that people work in. So if you want to report, you know, somewhere, it's likely federal employment is nearby. Let's look at some ways that you can find these jobs. 
First up is schedule A. If you're a person with a disability, you should know about this because schedule A allows you to apply and compete for federal and government jobs for which you are eligible, of course, and meet the qualifications. But you also need to be eligible for this hiring authority. That's what schedule A is. Schedule A as a hiring authority allows people with disabilities to be hired noncompetitively as an optional pathway to increase employment opportunities for qualified people with disabilities. And you can apply under schedule A for that or the traditional process. Schedule A is for a person who has an intellectual disability, a severe physical disability or a psychiatric disability. And these are all descriptions as provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, along with the Office of Personnel Management. This is a really, I don't know, lesser-known pathway to federal employment for people with disabilities, and I've known many people that have used it successfully over the years. So it's something to be aware of that offers you an exception pathway. And then after a couple of years you have the opportunity to transition into permanent employment. You don't have to take schedule A. That's an option, but you could. 

One way of discovering a federal job is open to a person with a disability is to use this link, USA Jobs. This is the federal government's website to post opportunities. This link is at number 18 in the Web Links pod. There are job announcements out there, and when a job is specifically being targeted for people with disabilities, they'll use a wheelchair icon. And there might be some other categories on the screen we show individuals with disabilities. There’re others like Native Americans, Peace Corps and AmeriCorps and some other special authorities. This is an opportunity for you to filter, and you can also select that filter in that search function, or you can just look at the jobs competitively. So you have different options there. Now I would also say that most civilian jobs are open to any person, including people with disabilities. This is just one advertising path to attract people through USA Jobs. 

So what are the next steps? If you're thinking about federal employment, you know, there's different ways to begin. Of course, we want you to connect through the Ticket Program with the service provider to explore these ideas. But we want you to be aware of them as you explore them with those service providers. The schedule A works like this. You obtain a letter to document your disability. The government requires that. Who can give you that letter? It's a variety of entities that include a medical professional of your choosing, so that could be your primary care doctor. It could be another medical professional. It could also be a service provider like the Ticket Program service providers and Employment Network or a State Vocational Rehabilitation agency. You're going to want to review and update your resume, getting all those knowledge, skills, and abilities, along with your references for the position, you know, relevance in mind. And get all that together. And then if you've looked at USA Jobs where you're really targeting an agency and know what position you're interested in, you could reach out to that agency’s selective placement program coordinator. There's an online directory for this. We have it at item number 19 in the Web Links pod. And you could find by your agency the person at the agency that's driving disability employment. These selective placement program coordinators, it's their job to recruit, hire and accommodate people with disabilities and increase representation of people with disabilities at an agency. So, they are ready to take your resume and find you a hiring manager. So that directory is a fantastic resource if you're looking to build a pathway into a good job in the federal sector. And with that, we've covered the Ticket Program, internships, apprenticeships and possibilities in federal employment, and we've come to our first break. And I'm going to bring Debora back and check in with Debora to see if we have some questions on these topics.

Debora >> Absolutely, Derek. Thank you. That was just wonderful. Somebody asks that they're interested in those internships and apprenticeships that you were talking about. And they want to know if they could actually use the Ticket to Work to help them find an apprenticeship or an internship specifically.

Derek >> Thanks, Debora. This is Derek again. So yes, the Ticket to Work service providers, which we'll cover a little bit later, can help you find an internship and apprenticeship. So that is possible. They're not going to directly be a matchmaker. So I'll explain that a little bit more. If you're looking for an internship or an apprenticeship in your area, you might choose to work with a service provider that's in your area. And they are going to have relationships to employers and to internship or apprenticeship program opportunities. They can point you in that direction, or they might introduce you to somebody responsible for the program. But the Ticket Program will not match you into that intern or apprentice role directly. They're a vehicle or a conduit to get there, though, and we would encourage that. 
I'll also mention that if you don't really want to be in your backyard for this internship or apprenticeship experience, but you're okay with a remote opportunity, you could also work with that same local Employment Network. Or you could work with a regional or national one. And they may have the ability to connect you with remote internship or apprenticeship opportunities. So the Ticket Program can help. The service providers can point you in the right direction and the type of apprenticeship or internship might tell you which type of service provider to select or not.

Debora >> Great, Derek, thank you so much. This is Debora again. And some people are saying these are like great opportunities, but they might need some accommodations to do these types of jobs. Can Ticket to Work actually help people request reasonable accommodations in the job.

Derek >> Thanks, Debora. Derek speaking again. Yes, we frequently get the question about, you know, how can I get assistance with reasonable accommodations. And the answer is it's pretty common, and that's for employment opportunities and internship and apprenticeship opportunities. One of the things I love, we'll start with the apprenticeship opportunities. One of the things I love about apprenticeship.gov is all of those certified programs that are listed are through a federal apprenticeship pathway. And they are required to be accessible and required to ensure reasonable accommodations are provided. Just by them participating in that finder portal. So, if you go there, you should know that. They've signed up for it. They've agreed to do it, and the Department of Labor is watching their compliance with it. So you could have some more confidence in disclosing and requesting reasonable accommodations. The service provider through the Ticket Program can help you prepare how to do that. If you've never disclosed your disability and you choose to do that, they could give you tactics that say well for my reasonable accommodation, I will need a flexible work schedule on this day because I have appointments that I need to attend. Or for this internship program, if I'm going to be working at that desk, I need to have a couple peripheral devices because I can't use a standard mouse. So I need to track ball or to be able to use my voice. They'll explain how to walk through, how those reasonable accommodations are connected back to an essential task or to perhaps a medical need that you have. The Ticket Program can help. Always of course, give some shoutouts to the Job Accommodation Network too. If you're unsure about talking to the Ticket Program first, or you just want to get some other ideas, you could always go to jan@askjan.org. They have a new solutions and options tool that's in place that you put in kind of your conditions and the tasks that you want to do, and they'll put forward through their database different solutions for reasonable accommodations. So a lot of resources out there. With the right tools, anyone can work. I'd encourage you to explore how Ticket can help you ask for accommodations.

Debora >> Great. Thank you so much, Derek. This is Debora again. Somebody's asking if they could use an internship as kind of a springboard to finding a permanent full-time job. Is that possible?

Derek >> Thanks, Debora. Derek here again. Yes, definitely. And when we think about access good jobs for all, interning is a fantastic springboard. And I think what we like to do is to ensure when we say that we're also saying that, you know, internships can lead to full time positions. But sometimes they are more associated with college students or recent graduates. So internships and apprenticeships collectively offer pathways to full time positions. So sometimes you know, depending on where you are in life, then you might go one way for an internship, or you might go the other way for an apprenticeship. But with that, you know, sometimes it does take time. You got to get in there. You might have to do these six months of the experience. And then it might not immediately transfer over, but it can lead to full time employment. I would encourage you, if you're in an internship program, well you can explore ones that have that transition opportunity. Debora, you've been in the field for a long time doing employment related work. What kind of experiences have you seen around pathways that from internships or apprenticeships leading to full time jobs?

Debora >> Derek, this is Debora. I actually have a personal story and that is my son is 25 and he is on SSDI. And he just started an apprenticeship this year. He's doing stained glass repair, and he absolutely loves his job. And I think he, for the first time, sees a career path that really excites him and that he's able to do and manage. And it's just wonderful to see him taking this pathway. I've had many other people that I've worked with who have had a lot of success leveraging those internships or using those apprenticeships to explore different career paths and to find something that's the best possible fit and find a career that really brings them joy every day. Alright, Derek, I've got one other question for you. We've got just a couple of minutes left. Does an internship count towards the Trial Work Period. So if somebody's getting paid during their internship and they're on SSDI, could they be using their Trial Work Period months during an internship?

Derek >> This is Derek. Yeah, that's a fantastic question. It doesn't always come up, but whoever's asking, that's a good one. So there is something called Substantial Gainful Activity, and this is a certain level of earnings that we're not going into detail today. But if you are in an internship program and you're making Substantial Gainful Activity during that program, it will count as one of your Trial Work Period months. You know. So, if that's a single month or multiple months, if you make below that SGA level, Substantial Gainful Activity, then it won't count towards that Trial Work Period of nine months. And remember that could be over a long period of time, five years. But it could count if you're making above SGA. That's why we encourage you to talk to your employment team to see the impact of paid work or unpaid work and what might make most sense for you for the short term compares to longer term when you're looking at the broader transition to work. Great question.

Debora >> And one last question for you, Derek. Somebody's interested in those federal jobs that you were talking about with all the great benefits. And they're asking if they have to use schedule A in order to get one of those jobs.

Derek >> This is Derek. The answer is no. You can go in through the standard employment process. Schedule A is available as another option. I will tell you I've known a lot of federal employees who started out under schedule A, had the opportunity to work directly with them. They were hired much more quickly because the hiring manager doesn't have to go through the more complicated standard process. And then the hiring authority was used for that placement. So there are some benefits to it. But if you're a person that's looking at that thing, I prefer not to do that, then as a candidate with a disability, you can certainly go through the traditional employment process. That choice is yours.

Debora >> Derek, this is Debora. Thank you so much. That was so helpful. And at this point, we have answered the questions. So you can continue on.

Derek >> Thank you, Debora. And yeah, folks keep submitting your questions. I'm going to go through some more content, but then Debora and I have another eight to 10 minutes set aside for more questions before we wrap up today. But with that, we're going to go to that next section, what we called putting it all together, how the Ticket to Work program helps. And we do look forward to diving into this because we've been mentioning the Ticket Program and the service providers. Well, this gives us a little bit more time to speak directly to what the program does through that employment team. So here we have how Ticket to Work works for you. And when we think about accessing good jobs, it's important to have some programs and team members to assist because it might not always be easy, and we want those supports to be there. Ticket to Work will connect you with the free employment services. Remember those four things we went through to decide if working is right, for preparing for work, for finding the job and then for maintaining success or job retention in advancement in jobs and careers. So the Ticket Program can do that and stay with you from before work, transition to work and then ongoing work. And that really provides that employment team. Again, let's reiterate that the program is available for, you know, Ticket eligible people. And that eligibility is everyone that's 18 through 64 that's receiving the Social Security disability benefits, Social Security Disability Insurance or the Supplemental Security Income. You have to be receiving one or both, and those benefits, because of a disability that will create that eligibility to participate in the program. And I mentioned it before, it is free. It's also voluntary. And, you know, Debora and I work with Ray, and Ray will sometimes say, you know, work isn't for everyone. And the disability standard is a challenging one to get. And if you're considering work, you can talk to a Ticket service provider and you can explore the idea of work. And then if it comes back and you make the decision that work isn't right for you right now or work isn't right for me because… then you've explored that the idea of work, and that's important. For those of you that do choose to use the voluntary program, then those service providers can dive in much more deeply in creating a transition to work plan. And today, we're going to talk about in detail about the Employment Networks and the State Vocational Rehabilitation agencies. 

These are two of the employment team members that are available to you, and they'll provide services and supports, many of which we've been mentioning throughout but we'll go into a little bit more detail now. We call them ENs and VRs for short, but you'll learn a little bit more about each of them. First, we'll look at these Employment Networks or the ENs. They can be private or public organizations. They do have agreements with the Social Security Administration to provide these free employment support services to people who are eligible for the Ticket to Work program. With that, they're, you know, they come in different shapes and sizes. When we say public or private, there's very small organizations that are providing local or regional services to a smaller group. There can be regional entities that are covering several states and have a lot of Ticket to Work participants. And then there's some national ENs that have access to provide remote services to hundreds and thousands of people in some cases. So there's all sorts of different private and public organizations. On the public side, you should know that some of those workforce system entities are part of the Ticket to Work system too. So these are the American Job Center. They are known as workforce ENs. Not all of the workforce system participates in the program, so you might go to an American Job Center, and it is an EN. Or you could go to one and they'll say no, we aren't a Ticket to Work EN, but we can refer you to one if you're interested. And then you could be working with both entities. So it's important to know that they're all different sizes and they can serve, you know, national scope or a local scope. It's really what you prefer. So it's nice that you can determine which type of Employment Network suits you and then you can proceed with that, you know, whether it's a remote based relationship or an in person relationship. 

Specifically, the EN can help you look at services and supports that are designed to move you on a path to financial independence, and you know, through that work experience. And they specifically can dive into some areas that some of us aren't as accustomed to doing. First and foremost, they're going to talk to you after intake, they'll talk to you about creating an individualized work plan. And they'll ask you questions that will be, you know, what are we trying to achieve? How long can it take to achieve that work goal? And that plan will become a bit of an agreement between you and the Employment Network of the things that you're going to do and the things that the Employment Network will do to support you in that transition to work. Some of the things that you agree to might be these other activities. We mentioned writing and reviewing a resume. You know, you can get feedback on how you listed your skills. You could get feedback on an objective statement. That's always helpful. They can prepare you for an interview. If you're going to a specific employer, they may be able to do some role play that allows you to be responding to questions that you'll likely receive. As one of the questions earlier talked about, they can prepare you for how to request reasonable accommodations. They can tell you it's your right, and then they can assist you with how much you need to disclose to say what type of accommodation you need to do in a central job function. And then some of the ENs also provide benefits counseling. So if you're wondering about the impact of work on your benefits, then that Employment Network can answer those questions if they have a certified benefits counselor there. If you're transitioning and working, that Employment Network will be able to refer you to a different organization that has certified benefits counselors that can talk to you about the impact of work on your benefits. So really important. Services that are offered, again, free to those that are between 18 and 64, through 64, and are receiving Social Security disability benefits. 

Alright, so we looked at those important services and supports from the ENs. Let's now transition to mention the State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies. You may have heard of the state VR system. It's all across the country, and in many states they have both a persons with disabilities agency and a separate agency supporting blind individuals. The State VR agencies are made up to provide services of very wide variety to help people with disabilities return to work or enter new lines of work, or for some to enter the workforce for the first time. It's a very mature service system in our country that's supporting thousands and thousands of people. In these states, VR agencies can also include benefits counseling, just like some of those ENs that I mentioned. When you think of the state VR system, they can offer a lot. They might offer some more what we call it traditional vocational rehabilitation. This is more training that allows you to prepare to do certain tasks or prepare to do certain things in the workplace that is fairly robust. It maybe isn't going to be offered through an Employment Network, so a lot of people that work in through the Ticket Program may start with a state VR agency, receive vocational rehabilitation or more long-term training. Perhaps education at a community college to receive the background that they can then bring to the workforce. So if you need to get a degree, an associate's degree from a community college, state VR agency can help with that as an example. 

Once you're done with that, then you can proceed towards your transition to work. And then maybe after VR, work with an EN too. Here's some specific ways VR can help you. They look at those more specific significant services. In some states, that's that intensive training, education and rehabilitation. These in the third bullet on this slide really cover the key areas that you should also know about. Providing career counseling, job placement assistance, as well as counseling about how that work may affect your benefits, disability benefits, but also some other benefits that you might receive. So the VR agencies are well placed for those job counseling and career counseling services. And so you can get the more intensive vocational training. You can get the job placement assistance. And through State Vocational Rehabilitation, then begin your journey towards work. Knowing that there's an employment team out there is different than being able to find them. 

And what we wanted to do is to also make sure that if you want to access good jobs for all that you're not doing that in isolation, but that you're doing that with an employment team. You can reach out to get a list of service providers, and you can do that a couple different ways. An EN or a VR could be referred to you by calling the Ticket to Work Help Line. And that's available at 1-866-968-7842 or for TTY users, those are individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, you can reach us at 1-866-833-2967. Those telephone numbers will reach out to our beneficiary support specialists at the Ticket to Work Help Line that are available Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. They will generate a list based on a conversation with you of Employment Networks and VR agencies that will be available to help you. That list will be delivered to you and then you can explore their websites. You can make phone calls to them. You can have conversations and then select the EN that really best fits your goals, and that EN will be able to begin the process with you. If you don't like making the phone call, that you prefer to go online, you could use our Find Help page, and that Find Help page provides a couple of different search options. You could find the link to that in the Web Links pod at item 21. When you go in there, you can do a guided search or a direct search. Under direct search, you would put in something like your ZIP code if you're looking for an EN in your backyard, more local. You can put in services offered. Let's say you're looking for training and education. You could put that in. If you're looking for a certain type of EN that serves a certain type of disability, if you're deaf, you can identify that and place that as the disability type. If you're seeking languages outside of English, you could place that in to filter by the language of your choice. And there's a provider type including the ENs, the workforce ENs and the VR agencies. So we encourage you to use the two options, the Ticket to Work Help Line and the Find Help page and explore those, reach out. 

What's important here is, you know, it's the start. It's to have that conversation or to explore because that will be the first step of getting the employment team members on board, and that will help you on the pathway of accessing the good job that you desire. And when we think about the good jobs that you desire, it is about finding a job. And when you're with an employment service provider, like an Employment Network or a VR agency, we also want you to explore our find a job page. This is on our website, and you can find it at item number 22 in the Web Links pod that will take you to the Choose Work site and the Find a Job page. And there's a lot of resources on this page to help you start or continue a job search. And it's important that you also know that you don't have to wait. If you're interested in looking through this, you're thinking about internships and apprenticeships, you're looking at the Find a Job page, it's going to help you form your ideas. And that you could bring these to the service provider for the conversation about the types of jobs you're looking for and ways to find a job. Excuse me, I just need to take a sip of water. On the page there are some examples, and we brought these out for you today on this next slide. Our Find a Job page has a variety of organizations. There's over 20 of them listed there, and we maintain them. And a couple of them you may be familiar with, and some others, we hope you're not. We'll introduce you to some new ones. Couple on this side, we have Career One Stops, these are like the American Job Centers. And we have LinkedIn. Many of you might be familiar with LinkedIn. Well, there's a list that you can explore, and you'll also find some ones that maybe you have not thought of in a while, like Monster, a large job board that's been around for a long time, or Ability Jobs. And you can go in a direction that you would like to go in and exploring these and getting the tools and kind of insights and then in many of them, the postings of the types of jobs that are out there. I know from talking to folks, if you haven't worked in a little while or you haven't worked before, these are great resources to explore what kind of employers are hiring and how should I be positioning myself. And you might not have all the answers, but you're going to start listing down really good questions. And those questions you could bring in to those employment team members that are ready to help you. So those are some great job search resource examples that we suggest you consider again in the Web Links Pod 21 is the Find Help page and 22 is the resource for Find a Job. They're both at Choose Work, our website, and we would encourage you to explore the Choose Work site. And before we wrap up, we'll share that address again too. Well, now we've covered putting it all together, we've made it through the four sections of the presentation today, and we still have plenty of time for Q&A. So I'm going to ask Debora to come back in and see what kind of questions we've had since we --

Debora >> Hi, Derek, this is Debora. I hear you're needing a drink, so I'm going to ask a question and go ahead and answer it and then I'll ask you the next one just to give your voice a little break. So you said that people had to have SSI or SSDI benefits based on disability in order to use the Ticket to Work. So somebody was asking how can I find out if I'm getting SSI or SSDI based on disability? And the first idea is that you can actually contact Social Security. You can call them. There's a toll-free line for Social Security, it's 1-800-772-1213. Or for TTY users, they can call 1-800-325-0778. And that national number is available from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on weekdays Eastern Time. So you can call and talk to Social Security, and they can give you that information. If you call the Ticket to Work Help Line that Derek told you about, they may also be able to verify that, but they may refer you back to Social Security just to confirm that. But I'm going to tell you, Derek, my favorite way to verify benefits is for people to open on my Social Security account. So they can go to Social Security's website at ssa.gov/myaccount and open up a my Social Security account. And there they'll be able to get a benefits verification letter which will tell them what type of benefit they have exactly and how much they're getting. But they'll also be able to see their wage history information. It also includes the information that used to be mailed to folks that says if you became disabled, how much we would get, how much your dependents would get. What would happen if you died? What have happened when you retire. So there's just so much good information in those my Social Security accounts. And I really encourage people to open one of those. Derek, do you have anything you want to add on that topic, or do you want me to move on to the next question.

Derek >> This is Derek. Thanks, Debora, for the break and for the good information. I don't have anything to add to that. I appreciate you bringing up my SSA accounts. I don't think everyone knows about them and the value that's in there and the access to the information. So I check it about two times a year myself. I'd encourage folks to get one because it could get you access to that benefits information to benefits verification.

Debora >> You know Derek, I, I'm sorry, Derek, it's Debora. I was just going to say I actually check mine every year on my birthday, so, it's easy to remember.
Derek >> Fantastic tip. Love it.

Debora >> So this is Debora. I've got another question for you, Derek. Do I have to use the Ticket to Work Program to find work, or can I just go apply for jobs on my own if I'm on disability. So do you have to use that Ticket to Work?

Derek >> This is Derek. Thanks. You know, the answer, the short answer is no. You don't have to use it. However, before you begin working or right as you begin working, if you're on disability SSDI, or SSI, it's really important to be updating Social Security about your employment status. So if you're going to do that, which you can, you could go apply and get the job on your own. And as you're working, we mentioned the benefits counselors. It would be important to talk to a benefits counselor about the impact of work and income on your benefits, because we don't want you to be surprised. But let's not hold you back either. If you know the type of work you want and you have a pathway to that work, that's important. And some, some of us might not want to have the whole employment team involved. And if that's you, just make sure that you're talking to a benefits counselor about the impact of income on benefits, because there will be an impact. And we want you to have that information as you start working. Not too, not too late down the road.

Debora >> Derek, this is Debora. And I really love your idea of making sure they're working with the benefits counselor because I think making informed choices about work and understanding how it's going to impact your benefits is so important as people make this journey to employment. So thank you. So just for suggesting that. So I've got another question. Somebody wants to know. Do they have to work full time if they want to use the Ticket to Work?

Derek >> This is Derek. No, you don't have to work full time, at least at the start. Remember we said, you know, there's an age range 18 through 64 receiving a benefit from Social Security for disability and a desire to work. At the beginning, when you're trying work, the idea is to test your capacity. And for some people trying work at a part time level is a good test. Over a period of time, though, the program is designed to help you transition from part time work to full time work. And so we are looking to, you know, expand your capacity towards full time work for those that can do that. There might be some that you try and the capacity for work that you have will be limited at to part time, and you'll discover that through the experience. But the objective of the Ticket Program is to have participants reduce and eventually eliminate reliance on benefits. So you'll come out ahead through the program with earning the full time paycheck through work instead of receiving the benefits. But in the beginning, if the capacity test is part time work, that's certainly acceptable. I would encourage you, remember that Individualized Work Plan that we mentioned, when it gets created, I would encourage people who are concerned about part time versus full time work to explore that with one of the team members, case manager at one of the Employment Networks. That's what they're there to do to talk to you about how to try work, how to transition after that from part time to full time and some of the things that the employment team can do to support you. That stuff can be scary for a lot of people. That's what the employment team's there for is to be a bit of your scaffolding. Think about it as you transition into part time and then into full time work, you'd have some scaffolding around you with that employment team to help with how to transition. So I hope that helps. Debora, when you think of people that want to work part time in the Ticket Program, any tips that you would suggest?

Debora >> You know, Derek, honestly, a lot of people when they come to me for Work Incentive planning, they're like, I just want to work part time because I don't want to lose my benefits, right. And when I explain to them all the Work Incentives that are available, all the tools that they can use, they're like, wow, I guess I could work full time and I'd still have, you know, supports that I need. And I show them how they're going to be better off financially and explain how to keep health care that they need and other benefits. It's a really powerful experience, so I think a lot of people come in thinking part time is only what they want to do. But once they try that out and they understand how it impacts their benefits, the world of full-time work looks a lot more interesting to them, and they're willing to give it a chance. So Derek, I've got another question for you. Somebody says I'm working with my State Vocational Rehabilitation agency right now. Can I work with an Employment Network too?

Derek >> Thanks, Debora. Well, and I appreciate your tip from before too. Thanks for this question. It is one that comes up commonly and it's because of, well really the awareness of VR agencies and the great resources that they have. Sometimes people find out about the Ticket Program model later. The answer is yes, you can work with the VR and with an Employment Network or EN too. You just can't do it at the same time. So if you're eligible with the program, how it works is you would have your Ticket with the state VR agency, your Ticket to Work and their services and supports would be in place. And then they would maybe get you that vocational rehabilitation or that more intense educational support services. And then when that ends, they would bring your what would call your services to case closure. So state VR services would be done. And then you could be transitioned to an Employment Network as you're working, and maybe you want a job coach to assist with kind of, well, I've been at work, but I have questions about work, and I need some ongoing services. Or maybe you're going to want to talk about different reasonable accommodations after you start the job. So we call it Partnership plus, and it's a system that allows VRs and ENs to support you consecutively, just not at the same time. So if you don't have a state that has a formal Partnership plus agreement, that's okay, you can still do this. So work with the VR now. After those services are done, transition over to an Employment Network of your choosing and get those ongoing. What I would call kind of job retention and advancement support services that could stay with you, really for a long period of time in employment. So two agencies, both can work together.

Debora >> Thank you so much for explaining that, Derek. That's absolutely wonderful. So I'm going to go ahead and finish us up today. So this is Debora, and let's finish our session. We're almost out of time. So we've learned a lot today during the webinar about supports and how to use the Ticket to find those good jobs. But as you've learned today, the Ticket to Work Program has a variety of service providers and other resources that are ready to answer your questions. And so to get started, we've got some suggestions for you here. First, you can contact the Ticket to Work Help Line. You can call them at 1-866-968-7842. Or for TTY, you can call 1-866-833-2967. That TTY line is a phone number for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and use a text telephone to make and receive their calls. This is available, this Ticket to Work Help Line is available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday. Second, you can visit us at the Ticket to Work website anytime. The website is choosework.ssa.gov. You'll find out more details regarding the topics as covered in today's webinar. And you can access that find help tool that Derek told us about. You can also choose how to connect with us. The important part is you get to make the decision about what's going to work best for you and make that connection. So whatever is going to work for you, we're happy to have you connect with us. 

We also encourage you to connect, you can find us on social media, or you can subscribe to the Choose Work blog and other email updates by visiting the choosework.ssa.gov/contact website. The link also appears in your Web Links pod under Ticket to Work contact information. Next, to get advice and encouragement and read stories about people who've achieved financial independence and help from the Ticket to Work program, you can opt in to receive text messages. If you're interested in receiving text messages from the Ticket Program, please text the word Ticket to number 1-571-489-5292. Now standard messaging rates are going to apply, so keep that in mind. You can always send us an email too at support@choosework.ssa.gov, and we can help you to connect and find those resources. 

Okay, now I know that we've given you a lot of information today, a lot of really good information, but it may be feeling like a little bit overwhelming at this point. So if you're taking notes and you're thinking about the Ticket Program and how it might work for you but you probably still have questions, we want you to consider the Ticket to Work Help Line. This is a great way to start your exploration. Again, there's no wrong door to start, but this is a good way to think about doing it. If you're looking for someone to talk about what might happen if you go to work and who in your area might be able to help you, call the Help Line. Again, they're open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The number again is 866-968-7842 or for those TTY users, you can call 866-833-2967. Just so you guys know, not only can you use the Help Line to connect with Employment Networks, but you could also ask them for referrals to get help with that Work Incentive planning. Remember, Derek talked about getting help and support around benefits counseling, the Ticket to Work helpline can help you with that part of the puzzle too. So you can ask them about referrals and help with work incentive planning specifically, getting that benefits counseling. So thank you so much everyone for being here. It was wonderful to have all of you. Please join us for our next WISE webinar on Wednesday, November 20th from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The topic in November will be Ticket to Work for America's veterans. And I'm pleased. to be the presenter for next month. So Derek and I are going to switch roles. He'll be the moderator, and I'll be the presenter. Registration is now available at choosework.ssa.gov/WISE, or you can call 1866-968-7842 or for TTY users you can call 1-866-833-2967 to register for that webinar. Thank you again for attending today, and this ends today's webinar.