>> Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us today for the Ticket to Work, choosing a service provider that's right for you, Wise Webinar. We're very happy to have you with us today. We currently have about 845 people registered, so keep in mind that as we do the presentation today, we will do our best to answer all of your questions. We will take breaks to answer questions, and we will also answer questions towards the end of the webinar. So with that, we are going to go ahead and get started. And the first thing I want to do is talk about accessing today's webinar. So you can manage your audio using the audio option at the top of your screen. It will look like a microphone or a telephone icon depending on the computer that you're using. All of the attendees will be muted, and we encourage you to attend by choosing listen only from the audio menu, and this will enable the sound to be broadcast through your computer. So please make sure that your speakers are turned on and that your headphones are plugged in. Again, continuing with accessing today's webinar. If you do not have sound capabilities on your computer or if you prefer to listen by phone, you can dial us toll free at 1-800-832-0736. And the access code is 8458462. Continuing with webinar accessibility, real-time captioning is being provided during this webinar. The captions can be found in the captioning pod, which appears just below the slides that are being shown right now. You can also access captioning online, and to do that, you can go to http://www.captionedtext.company/client/event.aspx?Customer ID=846&EventID=3165503. For questions and answers, please use the Q and A pod to submit any questions you have during the webinar, and we will direct the questions accordingly during our question and answer portions. If you are listening by phone and you're not logged into the webinar, you may also ask questions by emailing questions to webinars@choosework.net. Please note that this webinar is being recorded, and the archive will be available within two weeks on the Choose Work website at https://www.choosework.net/webinars-tutorials/webinar-archives.html. If you experience any technical assistance during the webinar, please use our question and answer box to send a message, or you may email webinars@choosework.net. We are very excited. We have a great agenda for you today. I'm your moderate, Nancy Boutot, with NDI Consulting. Our presents are, I'm sorry, Kendra Berry and Tina Skeel from Indiana Works and Sandy Widener from Indiana Vocational Rehabilitation Services. We will do a welcome and introductions. We will talk about exploring your goals, the social security disability benefits and the Ticket to Work Program. We are going to talk about meeting your employment team. We are going to discuss tips for choosing a service provider that's right for you, and we're going to give you some ideas and availability on how to find a ticket to work service provider. We're going to talk about long-term supports, and we're going to offer other resources and then have a question and answer session. Again, we will try to answer questions as we're going throughout the presentation as well. So now let me introduce Kendra, Tina, and Sandy a little bit more. Kendra Berry is the supervising community work incentives coordinator with Indiana Works. She graduated from Purdue with a BA in 2004 and began working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Kendra has also worked as a case manager in a community mental health center. Since 2007, Kendra has been providing benefits counseling to individuals aged 18 to retirement, helping them to understand how working will impact their social security disability benefits and other state and federal benefits they may receive. Tina, Tina Skeel is the director of employment programming at Aspire Indiana and has devoted the last 25 years to promoting employment opportunities for people who have barriers to employment. She is a nationally recognized trainer and consultant in the field of supported employment, and she promotes community integrated employment and being a vital part of supporting at-risk populations. Tina brings with her direct line service, research and program evaluation experience. She has worked to establish and enhance employment programming for individuals with barriers to employment including those with disabilities, criminal histories, and long-term homelessness. Sandy Widener is one of the area supervisors of vocational rehabilitation in Indiana. She started her career within the mental health field working exclusively with individuals in a group home setting and then moved into the realm of service coordination and group instruction in a day service setting. From there she worked with individuals in supported independent living and then onto employment services. She has worked in the field of employment supports for the last 19 years. She has been with vocational rehabilitation for almost nine years. Throughout her employment services career, she has managed employment contracts for various populations, from individuals with disabilities to at-use risk programs, and also individuals who receive public benefits such as temporary assistance for needy families and supplemental nutrition assistance program. We thank you all very, very much for being here today, and with that, I will turn it over to our first speaker, Kendra Berry.

>> Thank you, Nancy. It is great to join everyone today, and we are going to start off talking about exploring your work goals. You joined this presentation so you're already thinking about how going to back to work is going to impact your life and what options you have. So what are your work goals? There are some specific questions that you should keep in mind as you are thinking about what it is that you would like to do and what kind of assistance you need in reaching those goals. The first question is what type of work do I like to do. Are you looking for a job that is seated? Are you looking for a job that's going to be outdoors? It's really important to know what you like in order to know what kind of job to look for. I am not an outdoorsy person. It would not be a good idea for me to look for removing snow or gardening, things like that. So think about what you like. What are your interests? Do you enjoy spending time outdoors? Do you enjoy looking at details and trying to figure out how things work? The more that you enjoy something, the more you're going to enjoy your job. And that's the goal of all of these programs. Is not just to help you find a job to go to day to day but to help you find a career in something that you're going to enjoy and want to do. What kind of job do you want right now? The job that you're looking for for the current immediate future could be really different from the job that you want five years from now. And it's really important to think about that because a lot of other things come into play for long-term jobs. The job you want right now may be just to get you out of your house and get you back into the community and interacting with people. Maybe that's what's most important now. Five years from now, maybe you'll be thinking about something like doing a job that needs a degree or any job that maybe needs some specialized training. So it's important to think about what you want to do now versus what do you want to do five years from now. Some other questions to consider are what are your long-term career goals. For those of you that are on the younger end, maybe you'll be thinking about what do you want to do 20 years from now. Are you looking to get your foot in the door in a specific field? We're going to talk today about a lot of different programs that can help you find a job, but you're going to need to know if you want to look at short term or if you're looking at the long term because the different services like vocational rehabilitation can offer you assistance with finding a job and with education but only one at a time. Another question to ask yourself now is where do I want to work? Do I want to work at home? Do I want to work in an office, outside, etc. A lot people say that they want to work at home, but they're afraid to find jobs that are scams because they've heard a lot of horror stories about, you know, jobs that just aren't real. I know that there is a specific Wise presentation dedicated to government jobs that are work at home. You can find good jobs that are work at home. An awesome example is I currently work at home doing benefits [inaudible]. So those jobs do exist. So you really do need to consider, do you want to work in an office or do you want to be maybe self-employed or work for someone else. You have lots of options out there, and the more you know about what you want to do, the better start you'll have in finding that job. After you get a sense of the kind of job you want, ask yourself these questions. And this is a lot of questions you do not need to write all of these down or memorize them. You will have access to recordings of this presentation, and you can also get assistance with all of these things. So let's go to these questions. Once you've decided the kind of job you want, what type of training or education do you need to reach your goals. If you're looking at, you know, five years from now or even further away, you could definitely be considering something that maybe requires a four-year degree or maybe even more education, and that's okay. You should decide on the goal if it's a good fit for you, and if that means it's a job that requires that education, there is assistance out there to help you with that. Will I need assistance at my workplace? And this could be special equipment, a job coach, or even a special schedule. Depending on what your disability is, it's going to impact the kind of job that you want to do, and that's normal. In my job, I'm helping people understand how working will impact their benefits, and one of the most common questions we hear is, you know, should I tell my employer about my disability, or what if I need to ask for an accommodation? Those things are all okay. So if you do need specialized equipment, you should know that. You should think about it ahead of time. For those who have a visual impairment, a screen reader is a common accommodation and employer can make, and there are lots of resources out there for you to learn about these accommodations and help you understand what is your right, and what's the employer's rights. If you have a particular job in mind, you can bring that in to meet with a job coach in an employment network or a vocational rehabilitation, and that's awesome. But if you're just starting to think about returning to work and you're not quite sure what you would like to do, you can also go meet with a job coach or vocational rehabilitation. Its fine. It doesn't matter where you are in the process. This assistance is there to help you along the way. So whether you have that goal or you know exactly what you want to do, you just need help finding it, or you're just starting, its fine. Do you need help with your resume or interview skills? This is really common, especially if you've been out of the workforce for a little while. Before doing benefits counseling I did job coaching, and the first thing we ever did with anyone, we sat down, and we asked about a resume. And a lot of people don't have resumes because they haven't worked in the near past or they haven't worked at all or they have been raising children. There are a lot of different reasons that people may not have a resume, but you can get help putting one together. You don't have to even have a worked in the past to create a resume. You will learn that there are a lot of different types of resumes, and one of the best ones to look at is a functional resume. And that can take into account volunteering that you've done, raising children, running a family, all of those skills that you pick up day to day just living your life are skills that can go towards doing a job. If you need help with interview skills, that's something that a job coach can assist you with. What they'll do is they will sit at a desk and you'll come in, and you will do a mock interview. I'm sorry, my mouth was dry, and I had to [inaudible] drink, and it was hard to fit that in. But as you are sitting there doing a mock interview, they'll go through, they will ask you common questions that come up during job interviews. If an employer is looking at your resume and they see you haven't worked recently, your job coach can ask you, you know, well I see you haven't worked, can you tell me why that is? And they can give you tips to answering those questions. So it's great to have someone that you can go to and talk to so that you're not as nervous about returning to work. Do I need help to understand how working will affect my benefits? And this is where I come in. I work for the Work Incentive Planning and Assistance project, and we're grant funded through social security to help people understand how work impacts not only social security disability benefits but also Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, HUD, any benefits you may be receiving, and this service is completely free. If you receive SSDI or SSI and are age 14 to retirement, you can have your benefits analyzed so that you can understand how returning to work will impact your benefits. That is one of the most common reasons people don't go to work because they've heard from their mother's sister's cousin's brother's uncle's friend's dog that if they go to work they're going to lose everything. And that's not the case. We will be talking about in just a minute some of the work incentives that are available for you if you return to work. So social security disability benefits and work incentives. We are going to look at the two main types of programs, and they are listed here on the left as SSDI and on the right as SSI. And I'll define them for you in a minute, but it is important to know that they are two very different programs with two very different sets of work incentives. So if you have questions, you can always contact the Ticket to Work helpline, and that phone number and the website will be shared with you throughout the presentation, and get connected with your WIPA project to get benefits counseling. So let's start with SSDI. Social security disability insurance. You could be receiving this if you worked in the past and became disabled, or you became disabled before the age of 22 and are collecting WIPA record. You earn insured status under SSDI by working and paying your taxes. SSDI has some amazing work incentives out there. The first is called a trial work period. For the first nine months that you go to work and earn above a certain amount, and this year it is $870, your SSDI check continues. And the reason being is that this trial work period allows you to see are you able to return to work even though you have a disability. It's a way for you to go and test your workability and have a safety net. So your benefits will continue while you go through that nine-month period. If you're earning less than that amount, your benefits still continue. Another work incentive for SSDI is called subsidies and special conditions. If your employer makes accommodations for you, like if you need extra breaks because of your disability or you have to sit for your whole shift even though all of your other co-workers have to stand, or if you can't do any lifting and all of your other coworkers have to do 25 percent lifting, all of those things would be accommodations that your employer makes for you, and social security will take that into consideration when they're looking at your countable income. So there are some amazing work incentives. The reason I'm just giving you a brief presentation on them is because today's focus is on all of the assistance available to you, and this is just one of them. You should know that there are lots of safety nets for you, and you can get more information about these programs by contacting your [inaudible]. Let's move ono the other main disability program type, and that's SSI or supplemental security income. And this is for those of you who haven't worked in the past or you didn't work close enough to the time that you became disabled, and so you're not receiving SSDI. It's SSI. SSI is very different from SSDI because as soon as you have work earning coming in, your SSI check will lower. There is an easy calculation for this. It is this year's maximum benefit is $735 per month. If you were to go to work and earn around $885 a month, that would be about 30 hours a week, around part-time earnings. Social security is not going to count that whole $885 you earn. First, they subtract off $85 as exclusion and then they only count half. So half of 800 is 400. So of the $885 you earn, social security only counts 400. They subtract that 400 from the $735, and you get 335. And that scares a lot of people because they think, oh my goodness, my SSI check is going to drop, but if you earn $885 plus you're getting $335 in SSI, that's over $1200 a month. Before working you only had the SSI coming in at $735. You can almost double your income by returning to work just part time. It is good to know that social security isn't going to take into account everything you earn, and it allows you to work your way back to work. The other benefit to working while you're on SSI is that you're earning credits to become insured under SSDI. And once you've been receiving SSDI for two years, you become eligible for Medicare, so it's another health insurance available to you in the future. It's good to know about these programs and the different work incentives available so that you know going to work isn't going to cost you to lose everything. Let's talk about the Ticket to Work Program. I've mentioned employment networks, and I've mentioned vocational rehabilitation and the WIPA project, what are all these things? You've already started the journey by joining this presentation and learning about how returning to work will impact your benefits and what the options are available to you. Only you can decide if you want to return to work. No one can make you return to work. When social security first sent out Ticket to Work information years ago, they sent out a ticket, an actual cardboard little ticket, and people thought that it meant social security was forcing them to return to work. That's not the case. Only you can decide if work is the right choice for you. So it's important to know that. Why do people choose to go to work? There are a lot of reasons. One of the most common is that people need more money. They have bills to pay. They have medical bills. Insurance costs a lot, or they just want to have more money to get out of the house and do some fun things. A lot of people want to gain independence. They don't want to have to rely on their family or have to take the bus places or be able to have some money to do things and support themselves. Another common reason is just to meet new people. When you become disabled and especially if you're used to being very active and living a busy life, it is a big change because of how much you're in the house and how much you are alone. So going back to work can get you out of the house and can get you interacting with people again. It is really impression to everyone's well-being to be a part of the community and to feel valued, and work can give you that. Another reason is to learn new skills. Maybe you were injured on your previous job, and you are not going to be able to return to that job. That doesn't mean you can never work again. There are so many different jobs out there, and there's jobs for everyone. So learning some new skills could be a great thing, whether you need education for that or you need some specialized training, that assistance is there for you. There's a lot of reasons that people choose work, and you may have some reasons that we didn't mention, and that's awesome. Whatever your reasons are, it is great that you are taking this step to learn what's out there for you. So what is the Ticket to Work Program. The Ticket to Work Program is a free and voluntary social security program. It offers career development for people age 18 through 64 who receive social security benefits. For those of you on SSI and SSDI, it's for you. You get to choose a job coach to work with through either an employment network or vocational rehabilitation, and you'll be hearing from both Tina with an employment network and Sandy with vocational rehabilitation, and they'll explain to you how that works, but their goal is to help you find a job. They don't get paid until you find a job and you keep it, and I think that's so important for people to understand because they don't just want to place you somewhere where you're not going to be happy. They want you to keep a job and stay there and be happy with it. So if you think back to the beginning of this presentation where I talked about all those questions, think about the job that you want to do, and they will help you find it. When it comes to taking the next step, you're already here. You're participating in this presentation. I'm sure you are writing down or clicking on the different links that you can to visit different websites, but gathering information and resources is key to planning your journey toward employment. The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives can help make your journey a smooth one because the assistance is free. Whether you need benefits counseling or you need assistance creating a resume or you want just general assistance from a job coach in finding a job, all of that assistance is there for you and free. You should take advantage of it. The Ticket to Work help line I mentioned, here is the phone number. You can reach the Ticket to Work help line at 1-866-968-84, or I'm sorry, 7842. And that's, I'm going to repeat it again, 1-866-968-7842, or for TTY, its 1-866-833-2967. You can also visit the website at www.socialsecurity.gov, G, O, V, forward slash work, W, O, R, K. The website is a great resource because you can click on a lot of different topics. You can choose your state. You can see what resources are available in your whole state or in your zip code. You can read articles from other people with disabilities and how they utilize these services. You can even watch videos about people and how using the Ticket to Work and these different resources has helped them change their lives. So I encourage you to call the Ticket to Work help line, to visit the website, and to go forward with figuring out what you would like to do and what will make you happy for the rest of your life. Nancy, I am giving it back to you. I think there's some questions.

>> Thank you very much, Kendra. Yes, we did have several questions that came in while you were speaking. Thank you. The first is an individual who isn't sure what they want to do and would just like a little more guidance on how that person gets linked up with a job coach.

>> That's is a great question. It is fine if you have no idea what you want to do. I think a lot of people don't want to return to the same field. And when you contact the Ticket to Work help line or you visit the website, and you choose an employment network, a vocational rehabilitation, that's going to be your first step. But choosing an agency to work with, they're going to set up an appoint with you, and then they're going to talk to you. They're going to ask you, what's your disability. You know, give us all your background information and your name, address, social security, and then they're going to ask you what you want to do. And if you don't know, that's fine. There's lots of resources they can offer you. There is interest testing, and that's where you'll take a series of tests that just ask do you like color? Do you enjoy details? Do you like typing? That will help maybe narrow down some fields for you or give you some suggestions of things that you would like. So the first step is going to be finding an agency and choosing an agency to work with, and I know Tina and Sandy will talk some more about that coming up.

>> Great. Thank you very much, Kendra. And another question is you mentioned SSDI and getting Medicare after two years. Would that happen even if I'm under 65 years old?

>> It does. When you're receiving SSDI for a disability, once you have been eligible for 24 months or two years, you become eligible for Medicare, and that is a whole other presentation of itself, but it is a form of insurance. There are three main parts that most people talk about. You'll have hospital insurance, part A, the doctor's insurance, which is part B, and has a cost associated, and then there's part D, which is the prescription program. And the reason I mention it is just because health insurance is so important to returning to work, and I think it's important to know that whether you have Medicare or Medicaid, going to work won't cause you to lose that health insurance. And your WIPA projects can talk to you more about your specific case.

>> Wonderful. Thank you. And we have another question, which is, I have gaps in my resume. How should I talk about gaps in my employment history when meeting with an employer?

>> This is when you will do some mock interviews, and the job coach, I use the phrase job coach because it rarely does apply to both employment network as a position of the employee and to vocational rehabilitation because they'll connect you with a local agency that has job coaches. But your job coach will help you to answer those questions because depending on why you have gaps, it's going to be a different nature. Some people could have gaps because they were raising a family. Maybe they're a single parent, and they had no other choice. Some of you will have gaps because of your disability. Maybe you were hospitalized for a long period or it just took so much out of you to get with the doctors [inaudible] prescriptions. There's a lot of reasons, so depending on what your reason is, it's going to depend on the answer, but getting with the job coach and getting these classes started, they'll be able to help you to answer those questions. So don't feel like you're alone. Most people have those questions.

>> Wonderful. And then one more, and I'm going to then move us on, but this question came in that said you mentioned that Ticket to Work is free and that benefits counseling is free. Is that available at my local social security office?

>> If it's not at your local social security office, the Ticket to Work program, if you visit the website, it's going to give you a visual breakdown of all of the programs available in your state and [inaudible]. The WIPA projects are grant funded through social security, so they are required to maintain a security clearance in order to access information about your benefits, but they're not at social security offices. The [inaudible] will access by calling the Ticket to Work help line, and they'll get you connected with the WIPA projects or by visiting socialsecurity.gov/work website and a lot of the WIPA projects have websites. The benefits counseling is completely free to you, and the benefit of having it done is you'll learn exactly what happens to your specific benefits and what work incentives are available to you.

>> Wonderful. Thank you so much, Kendra. We are going to continue, and we are going to pass it on to Tina.

>> All righty, thank you, Nancy, and Kendra, thank you, for that great introduction to the Ticket to Work Program. As you see on this slide, there are several different people we're going to talk about. We're going to take a look at meeting your employment team. These are Ticket to Work providers, and again all of these services are free to you, so there's no cost to you. So let's take a look here. So who can help you achieve your work goals? So let's talk a little bit about it. The Ticket to Work Program offers you a choice of services. So as we saw on that very first slide, there are the employment networks, and as Nancy mentioned earlier, I oversee an employment services program at Aspire that is actually an EN in the state of Indiana. There are also workforce Electrons. There are state vocational rehabilitation services that Sandy is going to talk about here in just a little bit. There are work incentives planning and assistance or WIPA projects, which is what Kendra just introduced, and lastly there is the Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security Benefits, sometimes referred to as PABSS. So let's go onto the next slide. So what is an employment network? An employment network is a private or a public organization that contracts with social security to provide free employment services and supports to people eligible for the Ticket to Work Program. EN services can include a lot of different services, but we have listed out the top four most common services that are provided by employment networks. The first one is career planning. So when you come into the Ticket to Work Program, you will start by developing an individualized plan that will look at your interests and needs and really kind of help identify what type of career you're looking at. As Kendra said earlier, sometimes folks that come into the Ticket to Work Program may not necessarily know exactly what they want to do, and that's where career planning can be extremely helpful. So an employment network might work with you on maybe some inventory such as interest inventories. They might do some job shadowing where you actually go out and watch somebody do a job at a worksite. So there are a lot of different services that can be utilized to have you kind of really check out what types of jobs are out there. The second service that they provide are job leads and job placements. Oftentimes an employment network may have a very special relationship with businesses in your area or in your state. So they actually can help you get in the doors. And once you get a job, there are ongoing employment supports provided. So let's say for instance you may have worked at a place for maybe a couple months or so and the boss decides to change it up a little bit and change your tasks a little bit. That employment network can work with you on addressing any of your concerns or special needs that you might have in that change of a job. So the services don't actually end once you get a job. They are ongoing. And the fourth bullet is benefits counseling. So, yes, we do have the WIPA projects, which are amazing. There are also benefits counselors oftentimes housed within the employment network, so they may actually have somebody on staff that can assist you as well. I think Kendra mentioned the fact that there are a number of work incentives out there so that benefits counselor may help you with access to those actual benefits to the actual work incentives or they might actually help you link up with a WIPA project in your state. They may also help you with things such as turning in pay stubs. Sometimes that is difficult not knowing exactly who, where or when to turn in your particular pay stubs, so benefits counselors can help you with that as well. And again, these are only a few of the services that are provided through employment networks, and you may want to do some additional exploration to kind of see what type of EN provides the services that you're looking for. So let's continue on with what an employment network is. One of the first things that I think is helpful is who does that EN actually typically serve. So some ENs only provide services to their local community. So they may only serve a particular city or a particular county. Others may provide services in one or more states. There are also national employment networks, and they may serve many, many states throughout the United States. So you really want to look at how you want services provided. So do you want to meet with somebody in person or would you rather meet with somebody over the phone or via email or even the web, so nowadays with the use of technology such as Skype and Hangouts and Facetime, a lot of ENs are utilizing those services to help individuals find jobs. So think about what you really would like as far as services and figure out what type of relationship you would like to build with your employment network. So let's go on and talk a little bit about what a workforce EN is, and, Nancy, I want to make sure that you don't want to pause here. Are there any questions specifically about employment networks at this point?

>> Well, actually there are.

>> Okay.

>> So, so thank you. So one of the questions is regarding employment networks, do employment networks provide services to all individuals with disabilities whether or not they're receiving an SSA disability benefit or not?

>> That's a great question. So the Ticket to Work Program is designed for those individuals who are receiving social security and the other criterion that Kendra listed earlier. So if you are not a social security beneficiary but you have a disability, there are also a number of other programs that you could access. For example, we're going to talk a little bit in this next slide interesting is the workforce EN. In our state, we call it the work ones or the workforce development systems within your state. Sometimes you may have heard them called American job centers. Those were available, and Indiana Vocational Rehabilitation is going to be another option, and when Sandy, when it comes up to your slides, I'm going to let you take that, and I hope that answers your question.

>> It does. Of course it generated a couple more, which typically happens, which is great. We've got a very active group listening today. And one of the questions that someone has is, it's a two-parter. Are these services free, and do some ENs actually help people with disabilities find jobs?

>> Both good questions. So, yes, everything that I've talked of and Kendra and Sandy has talked about and Nancy, all of these services are at no cost to you. So there is no cost directly to it, and then the second part of the question, I'm sorry, the second part was, can you repeat that again?

>> The second part is do ENs actually help individuals with disabilities find jobs?

>> Okay. I actually wanted to make sure I heard that correctly. So absolutely. So depending on what you prefer. So let's say I just might need some help getting in the door at a particular business, and I just want to have you make an initial connection with that business. I could work with my employment network to make that initial contact, more like a referral, but many times an employment network will either go, and this again is dependent upon the individual, they may go in and work with you directly to make that relationship with employer for that first contact. They may continue that relationship and have that ongoing, but you really are a team. So if you're working with a really good employment network, they should be working, kind of listening to you, listening to what your needs are, and asking you questions like, so, how would you like to make this first contact with the employer? Would you like to contact them? Would you like me to call and get some initial names for you? Would you like to use me as a reference? So, hopefully that answers your question.

>> It did, and Tina, we've got one more before we turn it over to Sandy, and that is you mentioned an interest inventory. Can you tell the audience what that is?

>> Absolutely. An interest inventory, there are a number of them, there's a number online, a plethora of different inventories online that you can use where they actually go through and look at kind of what your preferences are and then help match you up or give recommendations I should say, give recommendations on types of jobs that might be a good fit based on your personality. There are other types of inventories that might be paper and pen. I know pretty often here in Indiana they use something called Copes, Cops, Caps [phonetic], and what that is is a series of interest inventories, and they actually help guide you to various jobs that you might be interested in and maybe some things that you might not have ever even thought about without having that inventory.

>> Wonderful, Tina, thank you so much. Great information and great answers. Okay. So we are now going to turn it over to Sandy.

>> All right, thanks a lot. I appreciate that. You guys have given a lot of good information, so I guess I'll just build on what has already been talked about. So I'm going to talk today about state vocational rehabilitation, and as Nancy said earlier, I'm one of the area supervisors here in the state of Indiana. There are some differences between vocational rehabilitation agencies from state to state at the very bottom of the slide actually. Actually I think it might be on the next slide, on 28, but some of the vocational rehabilitation agencies are combined agencies, and some of those agencies are separated. So depending on what state you live in, if you are an individual who is blind, you may actually go to a separate VR area that only serves individuals who are blind, and they're not a combined agency like ourself. So the services aren't really going to be that different. It's just that each state is slightly different. So let's back up again to, sorry, I lost my mouse there, to 27. Okay. So you can choose to work with your local vocational rehabilitation to assist you with your employment goals. We furnish a variety of services here, and you know, depending on what kind of services you're looking for, and depending on what your vocational goals are, everybody's services is going to, they're going to look slightly different, and I'll kind of break that down here in just a little bit. But the services that would be provided to you as an individual receiving services through VR have to do with training, employment, things like that. Again, we'll go into that in slide 28, but it's all about work. Every single thing that vocational rehabilitation provides to an eligible individual is designed to help that individual reach their employment goals, whatever that employment goal has been determined based on your individual employment plan. So the services are comprehensive, they're individualized. It's really a process where these decisions are driven by client choice. It's designed for functionality to be improved or possibly to restore some functionality in a particular area, but the goal is for gainful employment and for an individual's functional limitations. Now one of the questions that was asked just a little bit ago was if you're not on social security, you know, what options are there. So state vocational rehabilitation is a state federal program that helps people that have physical or mental disabilities to get or keep a job. So we're committed to helping people with disabilities find meaningful careers. So the very first element of the eligibility process is we have to first and foremost determine if you have a disability, a disabling condition. We use the word impairment. Okay. The second part of it is does that impairment interfere with your ability to get or keep a job. Meaning what kind of functional limitations or functions problems you're running into that's keeping you from getting where you need to go in your career. And then we do need to show that you need our assistance to help prepare for or to get or to keep that job. A lot of the services that we provide have to do with what we call retention services, helping you learn strategies if you struggled keeping a job in the past. Maybe we can provide a job coach or an employment specialist, or maybe your vocational rehabilitation counselor can provide some services to help teach you how to work with those difficult coworkers or maybe there's a particular issue that they might be able to work with a behavioral consultant to lessen a person's anxiety so that they feel more comfortable on the job, and you know, they can work in a more comfortable atmosphere in the community. Like I said, it just depends on what each person's impairment is, what they're functional limitations are, and then what steps are going to be needed to take that person from the referral point all the way to now they're working and then we're working towards a successful closure. The eligibility process is going to be determined within 60 days of the date that a person applies. The individuals who are receiving SSDI or SSI have some of that stuff has been done for us because you're not going to be getting social security or supplemental security income if you don't have an already established disability of some kind, and so the word that they like to use is you're presumed eligible. So we don't have to go through some of that initial process. We already know that person has an impairment, and we already know that that person has functional limitations. So that part of it has already been determined for us. What we have to determine is if the person is going to be able to work. And so if you're on social security or you're on SSI and you think, you know, I might want a job, you know. I think I might be able to go back to work, but I'm not sure I can work, then we can do something called a trial work experience, which allows an opportunity for you to go out into the community, try on a few jobs, see what you can do, you know, at no cost to you, no harm, no [inaudible], that kind of thing. See if you, you know, what kind of job you think you might be able to do. Or if you're just not sure, you know, you're ready to be able to go back into the workforce. And so vocational rehabilitation will kind of, we put you in a status that doesn't determine you're eligible. We just kind of say that we are wondering if you can work, and then we could establish if you can or can't at that point in time, and if you can work and you're interested in going back to work, then at that point in time we would proceed with that eligibility process. So once you've been determined eligible in the state of Indiana, we can immediately start providing services. If you live in a state that is under what's called order of selection, you may be in a particular category. There are three categories of order of selection. One is the most significant disabilities, you have significant disabilities, and then category three is you have a disability, but it's a lesser of the two previous categories. Federal law says that if a state is an order of selection, then you have to serve individuals with the most severe disabilities first. And so in some cases if you live in a particular state, you may be put on a waiting list for vocational rehabilitation. You may not. It just depends on the disability and so on and so forth. So I wanted to let you know that like I said, each state is slightly different, but regardless of being on a waiting list or immediately getting services, we'll just proceed into those services. So some of them listed says intensive training, education, rehabilitation, career counseling, job placement assistance, and Kendra's already talked a lot about the benefits counseling. We can actually provide some benefits counseling that's slightly different than going through like Kendra's program here in Indiana, the WIPA, we have what's called a benefit information network where some of our providers are employment services, are employment specialists, are actually certified to do some of those steps with that person so that we can get a comprehensive benefit analysis, and then once that person goes to work, that employment specialist can immediately put some of those things into play and kind of do a strategic plan for each individual. Not every state has that, but that's one of the wonderful things about Indiana is we actually have a lot of options when it comes to that benefits planning and the supports that can be provided for that. The intensive training, that could be something like on-the-job training. It could be a short-term program. Let's say you're interested in doing something in phlebotomy, and there's a 12-week program that you can go to, and that's a viable vocational goal for you. And so it doesn't mean that we're going to send everybody for a four-year college degree, but if your vocational goal was to be let's say a, oh, I don't know, a business manager, and in order to be a business manager you're going to, you know, you're going to need to take some business classes, we may decide, well, two years of business classes would be appropriate for your vocational goal. Or it could be that what's most appropriate is to go all the way up to an MBA. It just depends on that vocational goal and what supports are going to be needed. Those conversations of what that vocational plan for each person is developed with that person's team, that individual, that person's VR counselor, and anybody else that they want to be part of that team. Okay. Rehabilitation options are things like van modifications, home modifications, could be assistive technology devices. It could be a physical [coughing], excuse me, I'm battling a little bit of a cold today. Excuse me. Battling maybe some physical assistance. Could be maybe a short-term counseling that needs to take place, things like that. We talk about the career counseling. You guys have already talked a little bit about career interest surveys, things like that. There's a lot of options that are not just paper and pencil tests or something you can take on the internet. We also can provide some hands-on interest assessment types of activities. It could be that maybe a person might want to be a nurse, but they've never stepped foot in a nursing home, or the only thing in a hospital that they've ever done is sit in an ER waiting room. So they're not sure exactly what a nurse does. We might be able to arrange a job shadow where that individual would job shadow different types of nurses and see maybe if any of them are interesting to them or if there is a type of nursing area that they have no desire to work in. Then it could be, you know, the fact that we more rule out what that person does not want to do, and so, again, we're closely focused on what would be a positive vocational track for them to investigate. We can assist with informational interviews. You could call individuals. Maybe that person is interested in watercraft repair. Well, in Indiana there's not a high demand where I live of watercraft because there's not very many lakes. There is a reservoir close. But let's say that the type of position would really be a better fit for somebody in Florida. There's lots of water around Florida, much more opportunities. So sometimes those vocational goals might lead to a career path that's outside of the state. It could be within the state. And there's just a lot of factors in it, but, you know, we want to make sure that that vocational goal is what that person is interested in doing, what they're aptitude is, what's going to be a good fit, and we're about helping them create a career. We're not just saying okay, you know, the first job that you apply for, if they offer you the job, you have to take it. This is a voluntary career development program that comprehensively looks at a person's strengths and their interests, and we really try to make a good match with what's going to be a good fit. Some of the other things we do that aren't on here that I noticed are small business development. Vocational rehabilitation does from time to time assist individuals in helping create their own small business. So if you're interested in doing something like that, you need to check that out. Some of the other things that have been mentioned are like job coaching. We have some job readiness skills training that we can provide to individuals. Kendra mentioned earlier about resume development. Maybe you're nervous about going through a mock interview. We can assist with that. Again, if there is some kind of a behavioral need, then sometimes we can maybe have a behavioral consultant come in and provide some assistance if there's a particular behavior that needs to be minimized to be able to go to work in a particular environment. So things like that. So I know I'm throwing a lot at you, so I'm going to open it up for questions at this time and see what questions people may have.

>> Thanks Sandy. Several questions coming in about kind of the difference between VR and ENs. So how are they different and how do I know which one to choose to go to?

>> There is, that's a good question. There's so many differences in the different, not every EN is the same. So some employment networks might not do some of the things that vocational rehabilitation would do. Like I know in my area they are very limited, there are a few of the employment networks around here that really just assist an individual after they have gotten a job and they have gotten placed and they've worked there for 90 days, vocational rehabilitation then had to close their case. Then at that point in time they're really there to help just support that person on a long-term basis. So in that case, for that employment network, that's more for just only job retention focus. There are employment networks out there that do exactly what vocational rehabilitation does, but I'm not sure. If a person needed a pretty expensive home modification and a vehicle modification and needed a significant amount of job coaching depending on the type of job and maybe even some really, you know, long-term support up to six or seven, eight months with a job coach on site, most of the employment networks may not be able to provide that level of intensive job or career services or employment services. So at that point in time, usually that person would, when they're working with us that ticket would be assigned to us, and then once the VR case was again closing, then we can transfer that case, or that person actually just calls Maximus I think and then assigns their ticket once were done. Then it's out of use by VR, and then they can assign it to an employment network. The services that we can provide are very, like I said, they're very comprehensive. We can provide very intense services for those individuals, but again, they have a choice that they can go either or, and there are some, there are some places that if they're on a wait list, let's say that state is on order of selection and they don't have very many functional limitations, then they may be able to start with an employment network while they're on a waiting list for VR, and so some of that might go ahead and get, you know, get some training, get some of that stuff done thru the employment network, and then if they're still interested in something that VR would pay for and the employment network would not, then, you know, they could switch the case to VR, get that service, and then get the case closed, and then switch back. So, you know, there is some overlap in services, but really in the state of Indiana, they're not a comparable, you know, we all do the same thing. So most individuals will come through VR, and then after VR they would choose an employment network, and that's typically how it works in Indiana. In other states I'm not exactly sure because, you know, I'm not real familiar with every single employment network that's out there, but some of those services are similar.

>> Great. Thank you. Thank you for clearing that up. So you had mentioned order of section, and we have somebody that says, okay, so VR is in every state, but how do I know is my VR, my state is in an order of selection?

>> That's a good, that's actually a very good question. I have actually tried to find like a master list of who was in order of selection and who was not in order of selection before this presentation, and honestly, I wasn't able to locate that list before this presentation either. I think if anybody had a particular question, you know, I could give you that information. Probably the best bet would be when they call, because they're interested in vocational rehabilitation, they would call and say that they're interested in employment, and that means we would take down some information, and they would become a referral. At that point, that person who's calling in can ask is my state under order of selection or not. It doesn't mean that they wouldn't qualify for services, it just means based on their category, they may be in category one, two or three, and then it depends on what that state is serving. So a state could have been an order of selection, and it basically just means that the state doesn't have enough money to serve every single person that comes through the door. So maybe at the beginning of the budget period they had some money, and so they were not in order of selection, and so the next year they did go into order of selection because it was, you know, a deficit budget year, so they moved into that. But then the next, you know, the following year, maybe they have funds again from the federal government, and so they're back out of order of selection. So it varies from time to time, so it's kind of a dynamic thing. And so the best thing to do is, is just when you call and make an appoint, if you're interested in knowing is it an order of selection state or not, is just to ask at that time of referral.

>> Okay, great. That makes sense. And one last question before we turn it over back to Kendra, and that is VR provides a lot of services, do they help with the cost of transportation to work?

>> Yes, at times. Again, it depends on the individual's employment plan. We call it an IPE. It's an individualized plan for employment, and every service that an individual receives through vocational rehabilitation has to go back to the nature and the scope of that person's job. So if a person needed some assistance right off the bat, let's say they haven't worked in an extensive period of time, and they're going to go to work, and they have a car, and they're able to go to work but without some kind of a paycheck or without some money, a lot of times when you first get a job, you're not going to get your first paycheck until you might have been on that job in some cases up to a month. You would finally get a paycheck. Well, if they don't have the money to get back and forth to work for even that first month, because they don't have any gas money, then it might be reasonable for personal transportation to be a service that's put on that person's plan, and then vocational rehabilitation can see about, you know, a vendor that would be able to provide that or if a person might be able to get reimbursed for that money because they borrowed money from somewhere, you know, the logistics. But we sometimes can help with that. Now, if the person has free bus service in the town that they live in, but they just choose to drive their car because they want to drive their car and they don't want to ride the bus, we probably wouldn't do that because we go with the least cost options. So if there is already a service that would allow that person to get to work at no cost to that person, then VR would not pick up that cost because there's already a lower cost alternative to get to the same end result.

>> Wonderful. Thank you very much, Sandy. Great information, and we are going to now turn it back over to Kendra.

>> Thank you so much. There has been so much information on this presentation, so I'm glad that you guys have stuck along with us. Hopefully it has given you a lot of good information. We talked a lot about WIPA and what are Work Incentives Planning and Assistance Projects. These couple slides are just an overview for you. WIPA projects are organizations within your communities that provide free benefits counseling to social security disability beneficiaries to help them make informed choices about work. As I mentioned before, one of the biggest barriers to returning to work is fear that you'll lose your benefits, and the WIPA project is there to help you understand that that is not true and that there are work incentives available to you for what other benefits you're receiving. They offer a range of services to help you understand your options if you choose to pursue work. They aren't just going to give you an amount and send you on your way. They WIPA project is going to verify all the benefits that you receive, find out what your job goal is, how many hours you want to work a week, how much you would like to earn per hour, and put together a report for you. So it will in writing explain to you all of the work incentives and help you to plan moving forward. The WIPAs are staffed by community work incentive coordinators, who provide in-depth counseling about working, earning more money, and how working may affect your benefits. The biggest goal of the WIPA project is to help people understand how to report their earnings, how working will impact everything, and to hopefully help people to avoid getting overpayments. If you've been receiving benefits for even a little while, you may have known someone who ended up with an overpayment, and the WIPA project can help you avoid scary situations like that. The WIPA projects can help you understand the rules of specific work incentives and how they apply to you and to decide whether the Ticket to Work Program is right for you. This is completely optional and up to you. You are the only person who can decide if you want to return to work. And it's just so important to keep that in mind. The WIPA project is a great first step, but you can also choose other steps as your first step. Getting connected with either an employment network or vocational rehabilitation. As they've mentioned there are other ways to get benefits counseling. So you have lots of options. Attending this presentation and learning about those options is awesome. Now what you do with them going forward, completely up to you. WIPA projects can help you to understand the potential benefits of employment as a person who receives disability benefits from social security while dispelling the myths about working. Like for those of you SSI, by going to work you're earning credits to become insured under SSDI, which has better benefits for you. So that's a huge, huge reason to return to work. For those of you on SSDI, the more you work now, the more you'll be eligible to receive in either disability or retirement benefits in the future. And the biggest myth that we are helping to dispel is that going to work will cause you to lose everything. WIPA projects can also help you to analyze how your work and earnings may affect social security disability benefits and of the public benefits, and it is worth talking about the other public benefits because that's a question people have too. There are work incentives associated with SNAP, with HUD housing assistance that you may receive. There are work incentives for Medicare and for Medicaid that allow you to keep your health insurance while you are working. So it's so important for you to know that this information is out there, and it is free for you to gather to help you make the most informed decision you can about returning to work. Understand the services provided by a state VR agency or an EN and how they might fit best with your needs. We can help you look at the list of agencies that provide services to your area and help you choose which one is going to be a good fit for you. As both Tina and Sandy mentioned, some agencies provide all services. Other agencies may not provide all services. So depending on the questions you asked yourself at the beginning of the presentation, maybe there's an agency that's a better fit for you than others, and the WIPA projects can help with that. Nancy, do we have any questions?

>> We have had a couple come in; however, in the interest of time, I want to make sure that we get all of Tina's slides in, so Tina, I'm just going to pass it back onto you.

>> Okay, and we'll try to get them all in. So let's go onto the next slide. We're going to talk a little bit about protection and advocacy. I mentioned this earlier. Protection and advocacy for beneficiaries for social security, sometimes called PABSS. So the PABSS programs can help people with disabilities who receive social security disability benefits and have a disability-related employment issue. So let's say you may be having some difficulty in the workplace or having problems getting access to maybe an accommodation. Sandy mentioned several of those just a few minutes anything, but really what PABSS is there for is to act as a mediator, to help provide legal support, and to advocate on your behalf for those work-related issues. And the information to assist beneficiaries in resolving those issues related to the concerns. So they really are there to help you, and again there is no cost for their services. What PABSS can provide is also navigating organizations and services to support your efforts to work and protect your rights such as appeal decisions for state vocational rehabilitation agencies or an employment network. Again, if there's an issue, they're there to help navigate that process. They're there to assist with assuring that you have reasonable accommodations for your worksite. For instance, I use a screen reader for my work, and they're vocational rehabilitation was very helpful in securing that. They may also help you with college classes, training courses, or even licensing programs. So you may need some reasonable accommodations to ensure that the training that you're receiving or licensing that you're receiving that you're successful in it. They may also help with other disability-based legal issues that are barriers to employment, and Sandy, you mentioned transportation earlier, I know I get a lot of questions around transportation. Let's talk real quickly about some of the tips for actually choosing that service provider as you remember we talked about employment networks and vocational rehabilitation, so in choosing the right service provider, you want to really take your time. There's no rush to picking that provider. You want to feel confident about your choice, that the employment network or VR service that you're utilizing is really the right choice for you when you're assigning that ticket. Make sure that you understand the effect on work will have on your benefits. I cannot stress this enough. Meeting with the WIPA staff as part of your support team is huge, or a benefits counselor. Talking with an employment network or VR that offers benefits counseling or even contacting that WIPA project in your area. It may be helpful to talk to several employment networks. So really taking the time to call those employment networks, even maybe going and checking out the employment network face to face if you want that personalized service. I personally like to use the internet, get on and google all the different employment networks, and in just a few minutes, I'm going to give you a very special website that lists all those employment networks and will help you hopefully in your decision making. So, again, talk to those employment networks and check them out because my guess is your state probably has several different employment networks that provide services in your area. Also, you want to talk to your state vocational rehabilitation agency as well before you assign your ticket. Again, Sandy kind of alluded to the fact that if you have maybe you need some assistance with some accommodations, for instance, a new wheelchair or some type of assistive technology, they might be the right choice for you. There are also a number of different resources out there that can help you choose the right provider. If you just google choose a provider, there are several different resources out there. So what kind of questions should you ask those prospective providers? Well, one of my favorite things is really to sit down and talk to them about how, first of all, does this employment network, can they tell you about the Ticket to Work? It's one of the best gauges, just asking the question, can you tell me a little bit more about the Ticket to Work. If they can't tell you that, we're probably in a little bit of trouble. Most employment networks should be able to provide a pretty comprehensive overview of the Ticket to Work program and offer good guidance for participating in the Ticket to Work program. Another question that you might really want to ask is do you serve others who have my disability, and for instance, our employment network, the one that I work for, is in a committee mental health center. Our staff receives specialized training to help understand the supports and barriers that might be connected with an individual who's experiencing mental illness and is trying to go back to work. The next question is, what types of jobs have you gotten people in the past? It's a great gauge, especially if you're looking for a specialized employment network that could get you in the door at a particular type of job. For instance, there is an employment network, and I'm sorry I don't know the name of it, but there are employment networks that specialize in truck drivers. So if you're interested in that, you might want to check that out. So let's talk a little bit, I told you, this is kind of the moment that you've been waiting for, which is, whoops, I think I skipped a slide there, sorry. Whoops. I think I skipped a slide, guys. Okay. So, the moment that you've been waiting for, which is how do you pick an employment provider? So this is very, very crucial. It's a specialized website. Some of you have probably already noticed there's a website down here on the bottom that says www.choosework.net/findhelp. This is the website that you're going to utilize. So it's a very simple tool. All you need to do is go to that website. It's going to ask you, there'll be a little section that says find help tool. You get on that. You enter your state, your city, or your zip code, and it will pop up all the providers who offer services in your area. It will identify the services that they offer, the types of disability that they specialize in, what kind of languages are spoken by that particular EN. For instance, there are specialized ENs in California that work specifically with individuals whose first language is Vietnamese. The next thing that I kind of real quickly want to touch on is that you can also call the Ticket to Work help line if you don't have access to the internet. So don't panic if you don't have a computer or you don't feel comfortable using a computer, no problem. There is that particular service that you can just call directly in, and I will give the, actually I think Nancy is going to give you that number here at the very end. So hang on just a couple minutes more. I mentioned earlier the long-term employment supports. The Ticket to Work has a very specialized program in many states that creates a partnership with vocational rehabilitation and the employment network. This particular partnership is called Partnership Plus. If you found help through vocational rehabilitation, so you assigned your ticket to vocational rehabilitation, your case may actually be closed in 90 days, sometimes longer sometimes but typically not before 90 days. Once that case is closed, that does not mean necessarily in those states that have Partnership Plus, that does not mean that your services discontinue. They actually make a connection or a continued support through a local EN. So the VR agency often partners with the employment network that provides job retention services, meaning those long-term services, and they actually create a partnership where you can have long-term supports on the job. So you would go from vocational rehabilitation on to that employment network, and again, this relationship is called Partnership Plus. After VR services have ended, you can assign your ticket to an employment network of your choice. So, as I said earlier, that relationship is already built there with the vocational rehabilitation and employment networks, but you get to choose where you receive those additional services from. Now VR may have an actual list of those potential ENs, but again, I think you just saw a couple slides ago that choose work website, that's where you're going to find that information. So Partnership Plus sets you up for success by providing supports you need at each step of the financial independence. So the last slide that I'm going to cover is just really a nice graphic that outlines that Partnership Plus relationship, and it identifies the steps to self-sufficiency. So if you see in the first step there exploring employment options, and Sandy did a great job talking about all the different options that vocational rehabilitation has and can provide supports to you. So they would help you in the initial phase by helping you find employment, preparing you for the workforce, ensuring that you have benefits counseling, career counseling, and I think Sandy you did a great job identifying that vocational rehabilitation as well as employment networks really is about that career counseling. There's education and training that CN be provided through vocational rehabilitation as well as job search supports. Then once you find a job and you're successfully closed with vocational rehabilitation, you get to choose your employment network, continue to gain experience in your job that employment counseling or benefits counseling continues ongoing. As you get through the processes of employment, you may find that you may need additional job accommodations or job coaching or even other services, and this really is the path to self-sufficiency. So how can an EN help you after you've found work. Once you've found a job, an EN can help you, one, get the accommodations. They can communicate with your employer. They can stay in touch with social security. I mentioned that about actually helping you turn in pay stubs or reporting information. Sometimes an EN just helps keep you organized. And lastly, they can find answers to your questions because going back to work sometimes can be a confusing process, and some of those questions around how benefits affect work can be really complicated. So this is an opportunity to make sure that you get the resources you need. And Nancy, I'm going to bring it back to you.

>> Great, thank you so much. This is wonderful information. We still have several questions coming in, and I think if I get through these next few slides quickly enough we can get in a couple more questions. So thank you all, and we're going to continue with some resources, and one of those is the Ticket to Work beneficiary worksheet. So once you receive a list of service providers by going to the website and by listening to what some of the folks have told you on the phone today, this worksheet may help you when you call, email, or visit either your EN or your vocational rehabilitation office to figure out which one is right for you. So the worksheet gives you a list of questions to ask, which may help you in your decision to assign your ticket, and you can download that worksheet at https://www.choosework.net/library/finding-EN-assigning-your-ticket-worksheet. That's a mouthful. You can also get more information regarding Partnership Plus by getting the Partnership Plus fact sheet by going to https://www.choosework.net/library/partnership-plus. And for more information, you can always call the Ticket to Work help line at 1-866-968-7842 or TTY 1-866-833-2967. And you can also visit www.socialsecurity.gov/work. And please don't forget to connect with us. You can like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/choosework. You can follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/chooseworkssa. We have our YouTube channel, and you could watch some of our Ticket to Work videos at http://www.youtube.com/choosework. And you can also follow us on LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/company/ticket-to-work. And again we can probably fit in one more question, but before that, I just wanted to remind everybody that our next Ticket to Work webinar will be on Wednesday, March 22, 2017, and the time will be from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. eastern time. And you can register online by going to www.choosework.net/wise, or you can call 1-866-968-7842 or for TTY 1-866-833-2967. We want to thank everyone very much. We want to remind you that a survey is going to pop up in a minute. I am going to try to get one question in simply because I think it's a good one, and I believe we have about a minute left. And Kendra, I think this might be a good question for you. You provided a lot of information about the different types of service providers available, what is the best place to start when I'm trying to decide which provider I should choose?

>> I think that there's a few different answers to this question. I think one of the best ways to decide where to go is to contact the Ticket to Work help line. You'll be connected with someone who will gather your information and who can then send you a list of [inaudible] employment networks and vocational rehabilitation, and they can also put you in contact with the WIPA. You can find the information on your own by visiting the choose work website and clicking on your state and putting in your zip code. You can find that information, or you can contact your WIPA agencies directly because they will not only do the benefits analysis for you, but they'll be able to answer questions. They'll gather information and find out what type of work you would like to do and help you to decide what type of agency would be a good fit for you. So a few different answers but lots of information for you.

>> Wonderful, thank you very much. We hope you all were able to get lots of good information today on the webinar. We thank you all for sticking with us. I think we're about a minute behind. Please remember to take our webinar survey. We're very interested in knowing what you think about our webinars. A link is going to pop up after the webinar, or you could visit www.choosework.net/surveys/wise. Thank you all very much. Thank you to our wonderful presenters. We appreciate your time.