VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2
Promise Grant Monthly Newsletter
December 2013
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Contact Information
January Activities
Enrollment Period to Begin in February
Consent Form and Evaluation Approval Make Progress
Case Management Update - New Staff Coming on Board
Steering Committee Member Profile: Cayte Anderson
BPDD Agreement Now in Place
 



Contact Information
Ellie Hartman, 
Project Director
201 E. Washington Ave.
Room H 103
Madison, WI
Phone: 608.261.0215
Email:

 
 


ENROLLMENT PROGRESS

 
 
WEBSITE COMING SOON

 
Call us if you have a group that may be interested in hearing about the grant, recruitment and enrollment, or other aspects of the project. Call 608.261.0050 or email:
for any questions or information requests. 
 
 


January Activities

 






 

Enrollment Period to Begin in February

Recent email from US DOE regarding information from SSA:  

 

We've had some internal discussions with our lawyers and security folks and it looks like getting the lists to the states by 1/15 is somewhat optimistic at this stage. Once we've cleared the template MOU to send to the states (in progress), we'll still need to get the states to agree to the MOUs with the state specific information, then our lawyers will need to clear those documents. In all probability, that will take a few weeks and won't be finished until late January at the earliest.   

 

Once we have the agreements signed and finalized, the people who receive the lists will need to get suitability clearance. We can send them the information they will need to send before the agreements are signed (we're working on preparing that package now) so they can begin gathering the needed documents, but they won't be able to submit anything until the agreements are finalized. This suitability determination can take up to two weeks for non-problem cases. 

 

Additionally, MPR will need about one week to clean the lists before we send them to the states. We've been delaying actually pulling the lists until the last possible moment because we want to maximize the probability that only current SSI recipients are recruited into PROMISE. (We will set up the accounts to transfer the lists when we send out the template MOU, so there should be no delays stemming from that.)

 

So it looks like sometime in mid- to late-February is when the lists will make it to the states. We think the technical assistance and training MPR gives to the states should be as close as possible to when that training will be used, so we think the week of February 11th would be a good time to have comprehensive training on recruitment, enrollment, and random assignment. However, if a state is ready before then, MPR could train them on the random assignment system earlier. 

 

Thanks,

Jeffrey Hemmeter

Social Security Administration

Consent Form and Evaluation Approval Make Progress

Wisconsin-Promise recently submitted a series of recruitment documents to Mathematica and to the Social Security Administration, including a draft recruitment letter, evaluation data requirements, the consent form and the intake form. 

 

The Evaluation workgroup has been working diligently to produce these materials in order to maintain an aggressive schedule. 

 

Wisconsin was informed that it was the 1st PROMISE site to submit the materials, including a process flowchart, outlining the steps SSI youth and families will take to enroll and be referred for services. 

 

The Steering Committee appreciates the hard work and thorough attention to needed data elements that the Evaluation and the Recruitment and Enrollment workgroups have accomplished. 

Case Management Update - New Staff Coming on Board

The Department of Administration has now approved the establishment of 9 new Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors and 5 case coordinators for DVR to hire.  DVR received a great response for its solicitation for volunteers from current VR employees. 

 Click Here for full article

Suzanne Lee, WDA 11 DVR Director has been appointed as Supervisor for PROMISE Grant staff

 

Steering Committee Member Profile: Cayte Anderson
Cayte Anderson, along with Ellie Hartman and Janet Estervig at the DC Promise Grant meeting of October 29, 2013

Catherine Anderson, PhD, CRC serves as Associate Director at the University of Wisconsin-Stout Vocational Rehabilitation Institute and is responsible for supervising research, knowledge translation, operational activities and deliverables, and co-manages budgets totaling over $3 million annually. 

Click Here for full article

 

 

BPDD Agreement Now in Place
Wendi Dawson, DPI Steering Committee member, at recent PROMISE meeting in Washington DC. 
The Wisconsin Promise grant will be initiating a series of agreements with several key state agencies to assist with staff participation and data sharing.  The Board for People with Developmental Disabilities (BPDD) is also being enlisted to serve as the facilitator and convener of the Executive Committee.