What I Did During My Summer Internship!

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What I Did During My Summer Internship!

• STEP-UP Leadership 2008 Summer Internship Final
  Project
• Madelyn James
• UIC Ph.D. Candidate

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Summer Internship with Center for Capacity
Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research

• The Centers Mission
• The Center for Capacity Building on Minorities
  with Disabilities Research (CCBMDR) seeks to
  increase the capacity of State Vocational
  Rehabilitation Agencies (VR) and community-based
  organizations (CBOs like Centers for Independent
  Living and/or other agencies serving minorities
  with disabilities) to document the impact of
  their programs and develop culturally competent
  services. The Center is funded by the National
  Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation
  Research (NIDRR). This effort is conducted in
  order to promote positive rehabilitation outcomes
  for minority individuals with disabilities. We
  propose to develop long-term relationships with
  agencies, conduct participatory research and
  demonstration projects, engage in active
  dissemination efforts, and provide state-of-the
  art training and technical assistance to
  professionals and researchers in the field.
• http//www.disabilityempowerment.org/

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CCBMDR Contact Information

• Director
• Fabricio E. Balcazar, Ph.D. Department of
  Disability and Human Development, University of
  Illinois at Chicagoe-mail fabricio_at_uic.edu
• Associate Director
• Yolanda Suárez-Balcazar, Ph.D.Department
  of Occupational Therapy, University of Illinois
  at Chicagoe-mail ysuarez_at_uic.edu
• Coordinator
• Tina Ritzler, M.A.Department of
  Disability and Human Development,University of
  Illinois at Chicagoe-mail tritzler_at_uic.edu

• CCBMDR is located at the Institute on Disability
  and Human Development within the Department of
  Disability and Human Development at the
  University of Illinois at Chicago
• 1640 W. Roosevelt Rd. MC 443
  Chicago IL 60608

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CCBMDR collaborates on several research projects

• Overview of Five Broad Research Projects
• Project A
• A participatory process for building agency
  capacity for conducting program evaluation and
  improve consumer services.
• Agencies will receive technical assistance
  and support services from Center staff to conduct
  participatory evaluations of their programs.
• Contact Person Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar
  ysuarez_at_uic.edu
• http//www.disabilityempowerment.org/

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CCBMDR Research Projects

• Project B
• Racial identity and cultural mistrust as
  psycho-cultural correlates of rehabilitation
  success for minorities with disabilities.
• Center staff will work with VR counselors
  and African American consumers to identify
  positive rehabilitation outcomes for minorities
  with disabilities.
• Contact Person Reginald Alston
  alston_at_uiuc.edu
• http//www.disabilityempowerment.org/.

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CCBMDR Research Projects

• Project C
• Investigating the Intersection of Disability
  and Race in Self Views of Latinos and African
  Americans with Disabilities.
• Center staff will work with minority
  individuals with disabilities to understand the
  intersection of disability and race in their self
  views.
• Contact Person Carol Gill
• cg16_at_uic.edu
• http//www.disabilityempowerment.org/

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CCBMDR Research Projects

• Project D
• Disability determination and provision of
  vocational rehabilitation services How good are
  the tools that are used?
  Center staff will
  review assessment instruments commonly utilized
  in VR to determine eligibility of services.
  Contact Person Brigida Hernandez
  bhernan4_at_depaul.edu
• http//www.disabilityempowerment.org/

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CCBMDR Research Projects

• Project E
• Developing standards for culturally competent
  and linguistically appropriate research.
  
  Center staff will review the literature in order
  to develop a comprehensive synthesis and analysis
  of the current status and gaps in the
  methodologies used in research on minorities and
  disability.
  Contact Person Glenn Fujiura
  gfujiura_at_uic.edu
• http//www.disabilityempowerment.org/

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CCBMDR Dissemination Activities

• Standards for culturally competent and
  linguistically appropriate research with
  minorities with disabilities. Topics include
  getting entry into community settings, sampling,
  research designs, and data collection
  methodologies
• Researchers and practitioners guides for
  effective outreach to minority with disabilities
• Researchers guide for dissemination of relevant
  information to minority consumers with
  disabilities
• Practitioners guides for providing culturally
  competent services to minorities with
  disabilities

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My Summer Projects -Training

• CCBMDR Cultural Competency training of Illinois
  Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) counselors
• CCBMDR Training Director, Celestine Willis MA.,
  willisc_at_uic.edu

• Attended cultural competency training of VR
  counselors.
• Regional offices sent VR counselors to a full day
  of training to increase their knowledge and
  ability to work with ethnically and
  linguistically, diverse VR consumers with
  disabilities. Each regional program completed a
  plan of action and changes they would implement
  in their practices with minority consumers.

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My Summer Projects -Data Collection

• My work this summer focused on data collection of
  CCBMDR training sessions, state training programs
  and of the cultural competency practices of
  Illinois Vocational Rehabilitation counselors.
• Worked on data collection and data
  entry of feedback from cultural competency
  training.
• Organized and summarized data collected from
  trainings.
• Created a template and entered information
• Assisted staff in collecting data on
  the implementation of cultural competency models
  for all 50 state departments of human services
  or mental health.
• Reviewed state government information online.
  Called and confirmed the status of cultural
  competency training at states departments of
  mental health, and human services.
• The results were inconsistent implementation of
  cultural competency training and the state
  department responsible for training varied.

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My Summer Projects - VR What Works Study

• This study was a follow-up of research conducted
  by Dr. Reginald Alston on the variability of VR
  outcomes for minority clients and the feedback
  from Illinois VR counselors after cultural
  competency training.
• The implementation of the study was delayed
  because of IRB requests for additional changes.
• The study participants were VR counselors chosen
  by each regional office supervisor. The
  participants were required to have more than 5
  years of experience as a VR counselor. The sample
  size was approximately 40 counselors.

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My Summer Projects

• 4. VR What Works Study
• Vr counselors signed a consent form that
  indicated
• the study was gathering information regarding
  best practices of Illinois VR counselors
• the participation was strictly voluntary,
• they would not be compensated,
• and their information would remain confidential
• Information would be summarized

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My Summer Projects

• The methodology was mixed method.
• Each participants identity was converted to a
  code number.
• We collected demographic information about the VR
  consumer and the VR counselor.
• We asked several open-ended questions during a 30
  -50 minute taped phone interview.

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My Summer Projects

• I have completed 15 interviews before the
  internship was completed.
• The project is ongoing and I am involved in
  conducting the additional interviews.
• Additional assistance is needed to transcribe the
  taped phone interviews.
• The analysis of the data will begin in late
  September or early October.