What I Did During My Summer Internship! STEP-UP Leadership 2008 Summer Internship Final Project Madelyn James UIC – Ph.D. Candidate

Summer Internship with Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research The Center’s 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.

Director Fabricio E. Balcazar, Ph.D. Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago Associate Director Yolanda Suárez-Balcazar, Ph.D. Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago Coordinator Tina Ritzler, M.A. Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago 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 CCBMDR Contact Information

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

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

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

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

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

CCBMDR Dissemination Activities 1. 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 2. Researchers’ and practitioners´ guides for effective outreach to minority with disabilities 3. Researchers’ guide for dissemination of relevant information to minority consumers with disabilities 4. Practitioners’ guides for providing culturally competent services to minorities with disabilities

My Summer Projects -Training Attended cultural competency training of VR counselors. a plan of action and changes they would implement in their practices with minority consumers. 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. CCBMDR Cultural Competency training of Illinois Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) counselors CCBMDR Training Director, Celestine Willis MA.,

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. o 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 department’s of human services or mental health. Reviewed state government information online. Called and confirmed the status of cultural competency training at state’s departments of mental health, and human services. The results were inconsistent implementation of cultural competency training and the state department responsible for training varied.

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.

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

My Summer Projects The methodology was mixed method. Each participant’s 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 minute taped phone interview.

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.