Category Archives: News

Using Improv to Teach Advocacy: RTC:Rural Advocacy Skill Building Toolkit now available

RTC:Rural is excited to release the Advocacy Skill Building Toolkit, a new set of resources for Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and others to facilitate workshops to develop the advocacy skills of emerging Independent Living leaders and youth with disabilities.

The Toolkit is a collaboration between BASE, an affiliate of Summit Independent Living in Missoula, MT, the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL), and RTC:Rural staff, and was developed in response to the needs and interests of CILs and other stakeholders.

The Toolkit is available free of charge on the RTC:Rural website.

“We are so excited that we can help get this toolkit in the hands of CILs and others,” said Mary Olson, Director of Training and Technical Assistance for APRIL. “The Independent Living network has been craving tools that can be used with young adults with disabilities. Every time I talk with a CIL, they ask for exactly what this toolkit is offering. With more and more mandates for Independent Living without more funding, I see this tool being used in almost every CIL in the country as a much needed resource.” Continue reading →

State of the Science webinar to feature a panel of experts from the VR field

Our 2017 State of the Science webinar on June 22, 2017 will focus on Effective Rural Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Job Development. In addition to a review of RTC:Rural current research presented by Dr. Catherine Ipsen, the webinar will feature a panel of five experts in rural VR issues from around the country.

The webinar is designed to provide current and pertinent information that will stimulate a rich discussion among participants. Strategies to address VR outcomes will be discussed such as hybrid models that draw upon the strengths of different delivery models and the use of incentives to serve rural areas and “hard cases.”

The webinar is free, but registration is required. Registration for this event is limited and filling up quickly! If you are not able to attend the live webinar, an archive recording will be available after it is complete.

Click here for full details and to register.

Read below to learn more about each panelist. Continue reading →

Mapping Disability and Employment

Improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities requires overcoming persistent rural conditions and barriers

Using data from the American Community Survey, RTC:Rural researchers created three maps to explore disability and employment. The three maps are:

Disability in America: Employment Rates
Disability in America: Unemployment Rates
Disability in America: Out of Labor Force

Full size images of these maps, and further analysis and text description of them, can be found on the RTC:Rural website at this link: Maps of Disability and Employment.

Continue reading →

Showcasing RTC:Rural employment and VR research products

RTC:Rural‘s long running Employment and Vocational Rehabilitation research project explores solutions to assist rural rehabilitation service providers in helping people with disabilities achieve and maintain employment.

Over the last six months we have produced several new tools to help vocational rehabilitation professionals provide their best services. We are also holding a live State of the Science webinar on Effective Rural Vocational Rehabilitation Job Development, to be held June 22, 2017 at 10:00am MDT.

Click the links below for more details on each item: Continue reading →

State of the Science Seminar on Effective Rural Vocational Rehabilitation Job Development, June 22, 2017

banner image for event featuring RTC:Rural logo, background image a of a rural pasture and three images of people at work

Join us on June 22, 2017 at 10:00 am MDT for RTC:Rural’s State of the Science (SOS) webinar exploring how Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) payment models influence the availability of job development services in rural areas. The webinar will help participants understand which models may facilitate better VR outcomes in rural areas, and encourage conversation between VR and providers about how payment models impact job development services.

State Vocational Rehabilitation staff and administrators, researchers and job development providers, and other interested parties are encouraged to participate.

Click here for full details and to register.

Continue reading →

University of Montana and University of Kansas disability researchers contribute to special journal issue

This blog post is adapted from an article written by Allison Crist, University of Kansas

people talking at a farmer's market, including a person using a wheelchair All people deserve the chance to thrive in a community — but for people with disabilities, there are often obstacles to participating.

A new special issue of the Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community explores various aspects of this topic. Dr. Craig Ravesloot at the University of Montana Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities (RTC:Rural) and two researchers at the University of Kansas Research and Training Center on Independent Living (RTC/IL) contributed to the thematic issue, “People with Disabilities and Community Participation.”

According to Glen White, one of the issue’s two guest editors and RTC/IL director, many people with disabilities remain isolated in their communities, despite advances in independent living (which focuses on supports that enable people to live in the community) and deinstitutionalization (which moves people from nursing homes to living in the community).

White said the five studies included in this issue focus on improving the lives of people with existing disabilities and those who are aging into disability. “As researchers in the disability field continue to investigate interventions that reduce barriers and create more opportunities to fully participate, they will positively affect many of the more than 57 million Americans with disabilities,” White said.

Jean Ann Summers, the other guest editor and RTC/IL research director, said the special issue examines community participation from multiple angles.

“We present research that focuses on the characteristics of individuals, like secondary health conditions, that create problems with how people live in a community,” Summers said. “Other articles examine external factors that affect how people with disabilities are able to participate in their communities.”

For example, one study about accessible parking illustrates the way environmental changes can improve the ability of people with disabilities to get out and about. “A community needs to be welcoming and accessible,” Summers said. “This, combined with supportive programs, helps empower people. You need both.” Continue reading →

RTC:Rural Research Associate awarded prestigious research and policy fellowship

Dr. Jennifer Wong, RTC:Rural Research Associate

Dr. Jennifer Wong, RTC:Rural Research Associate, has been awarded a Training Fellowship in Rehabilitation Policy Research with the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Healthy Aging & Physical Disability at the University of Washington (UW). The two-year fellowship consists of a year of rehabilitation research at UW, followed by a year of policy research in Washington, D.C. Wong will join one other postdoctoral researcher to make up the fellowship’s second cohort. The fellowship will begin in October 2017.

Wong completed her dissertation in Experimental Psychology at the University of Montana in December 2016. Her dissertation research contributes to RTC:Rural’s Ecology of Rural Disability project. She has worked with RTC:Rural on various research projects since 2014, and has contributed to RTC:Rural’s Pain Interference Patterns, Person-Environment Fit, Resilience in Community Participation, Decision Support, and Participation in Events research projects. Wong has also contributed to the Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities’ (RIIC) Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) project on rural discharge planning.

Wong was drawn to the fellowship program at UW because of its interdisciplinary nature and its focus on aging, disability, and policy. “This is the only program that does one year of research followed by one year of policy,” she said. “They look at policy research questions, which is something that’s really close to my heart. How do we advocate, how do we move research into policy, and what does that look like?”

During the first year of the fellowship, Wong will be in Seattle, Washington and will work with Dr. Ivan Molton, her future mentor at UW, to outline an individualized research plan for the year. Wong will connect with Dr. Molton over the summer to begin learning about the research currently being carried out by the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at UW and together they will decide what she will focus on during her year at UW. UW is currently conducting a 10-year longitudinal study, said Wong, investigating people living and aging with a long-term physical disability and their related secondary conditions, access to health care, and rehabilitation care. Because of her time at RTC:Rural, Wong would like to continue to work with large datasets. “I’d like to understand how they can be used in a way that advocates for others,” she said. Continue reading →

Telecom Toolbox: A Resource for Job Seekers and Service Providers

Telecom Toolbox is an online resource for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) professionals and clients to support their use of online tools to reach employment goals.

RTC:Rural’s ongoing research on how to improve VR services revealed three areas in which VR agencies could make changes to positively impact client employment outcomes: use of telecommunication strategies, online career development, and understanding of ethical issues in social media and telecommunications use.

Communication

Using telecommunication strategies, such as email, text messaging, video chat, or instant messaging, can help overcome many of the barriers that people with disabilities contend with when it comes to finding employment. These forms of communication can be especially important in rural areas, where opportunities and resources tend to be fewer and far-between. For VR counselors, telecommunication can offer ways to provide services in a timely and cost-efficient manner, and increased communication between counselors and clients has positive impact on employment outcomes.

Online Career Development

In this increasingly digital world, tapping into the plethora of online resources can be a game-changer when it comes to finding employment. However, many VR agencies are not fully utilizing current online job-seeking methods. This happens for a variety of reasons, including a lack of counselor training and a lack of ethical guidance in social media use specific to the VR process.

Ethics

Though telecommunication and social media strategies provide opportunities for VR agencies and clients, they present some unique ethical concerns due to their continually evolving nature. These concerns can leave VR counselors and agencies intimidated or unsure about how to integrate social media into their practice. Adding to this confusion is limited guidance on telecommunication and social media use by professional organizations.

Based on these identified needs for training and guidance, RTC:Rural developed Telecom Toolbox as a resource for both VR counselors and individuals working on their own to find employment. The website is a resource to understand the pros and cons of different social media platforms and how they support job search efforts. It also provides guidance on how to create and manage a professional online profile. Continue reading →

UM undergrad presents Facebook data for RTC:Rural participatory health promotion project

Student pointing to her research poster, in the poster hall at a conference.

Megan Miller presents her poster, which features her work on RTC:Rural’s Healthy Community Living project, on April 28, 2017 as part of the University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research.

On Friday, April 28, 2017, undergraduate student researcher Megan Miller presented a poster titled “Analysis of Factors Contributing to a Facebook Presence” at the 16^th annual University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research. Miller is a junior psychology major at the University of Montana, and completed the project with RTC:Rural for independent research credit during the 2016/2017 school year.

Miller’s research is part of a broader project at RTC:Rural called Healthy Community Living (HCL). She worked closely with the HCL project leaders to develop and carry out her research over the course of the school year. HCL is part of a five year grant to produce an innovative online multi-media health promotion program. Using a participatory curriculum development process, RTC:Rural researchers are working closely with partners at Centers for Independent Living and advisors around the country, as well as individuals with disabilities, to develop and test curriculum material.

A beginning step for Miller was figuring out how to attract followers to the HCL Facebook page, which is being used to engage and involve people with disabilities, community members, and service providers in the creation and refinement of HCL’s health promotion curriculum. Specifically, the HCL Facebook page is a tool to collect input on specific curriculum content, as well as to curate a collection of photographic and video media for inclusion in the online program. Continue reading →

Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities