Engage Phase Services
Engage Phase Overview
Employment Exploration Services (EES)
The Engage Phase service’s goal is to help our participants smash barriers, figure out jobs that could work for them, and build on and find their workplace strengths and skills!
During the Engage Phase, we are assisting the individual in making an educated and informed choice in whether competitive (above minimum wage) and community-integrated (jobs within the community, instead of places like sheltered workshops) jobs are the best fit.
We want to address potential barriers to services and address the potential risks and benefits of each choice. We want to enable our participant to gain lived experiences as well about what potential employment options could benefit them through job shadows and informational interviews. This phase must be completed within a year.
This phase is funded by Medicaid waivers (DHS)! The specific service funded in the Engage Phase is Waiver Employment Exploration Services (EES). You will see Waiver Employment Exploration Services on documentation like 6790s & referral forms.
“I've worked at a Day Training and Rehabilitation center near my home since high school. I don't really know what it would be like to work in a job somewhere else in town.”
“I just graduated from a transition program and don’t know if there’s a job out there that will work for me.”
Important Deadline: Engage Phase participants can only be in the Engage Phase for a calendar year.
Engage Phase Services:
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Business Tours
A business tour is a tour of a facility to help your clients gauge if the type of job or company will be a good fit for them.
It is not a job interview, and the objective is not to find job openings. Be sure to send a thank you message after.
They typically last 30 – 45 minutes.
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Informational Interviews
An informational interview is an informal conversation you and your client can have with someone working in an area of interest to your client. It is an effective research tool and is best done after preliminary online research.
It is not a job interview, and the objective is not to find job openings.
They typically last 20 minutes.
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Interest Inventories
An interest inventory is a test that is used to determine a person’s preferences for a certain field or activity.
Completing Interest Inventories is an Engage Phase activity (EES or Employment Exploration Services) only. If you are providing any other service than EES, you can’t provide this.
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Job Shadows
A job shadow is an opportunity for you and your client to observe someone who is working at a place or type of work your client is interested in while they work.
Your client is a fly on the wall and is only observing!
It is not a job interview, and the objective is not to find job openings. Be sure to send a thank you message after.
These typically last 30 minutes to 1 hour.
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Job Try-Outs
Job Try-Out is typically a short-term UNPAID chance for them to do that job (usually 1 – 2 days).
The client will get some instructions from the employers and give the job a go. We're just looking for to assess how the job goes, work habits, and to build experience.
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Self-Guided Tour
A self-guided tour is an opportunity for you and your client to explore a business without coordinating with an employer. These shouldn’t be the main source of business outreach opportunities but can be a great way to build up to one or if an employer is hard to contact.
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Skill Building
The Engage Phase is a great time to build on your client’s strengths and help them discover strengths they may not have know they had! We can offer support in activities from skill building in specific activities to support in internships and volunteer opportunities!
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NO JOB SEARCHING!
We job search in the Find Phase!
Engage Phase FAQs
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We can get creative and customize services to our clients! Just make sure you loop in your supervisor to make sure your creative ideas align with services.
Some creative ideas are:
Roleplaying workplace scenarios with your clients
Taking your clients on self-guided tours of workplaces.
Building specific workplace skills or finding trainings on specific workplace skills for your clients to complete.
Finding day-in-the-life videos of careers
Finding career fairs to accompany your participant on.
Assisting with short-term volunteer experiences
We can’t provide communication with the employer. This just a learning opportunity!
Assisting with short-term internship experiences
We can’t provide communication with the employer. This just a learning opportunity!
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Engage Phase: Engage Phase activities you’ve arranged or completed, current progress towards completing the Engage Phase, and any barriers that you have encountered that have slowed the process down.
Every week by Friday, Great Work team members send a weekly email update to your client’s team giving them an update about how the week has been going, the progress that was made, and any concerns that you have. These should be informative, pertain to your client’s employment journey, and paint a picture of the progress for the week (even if there hasn’t been any). These should always be person-centered and maintain their dignity, even when sharing concerns.
A lot can happen in a week, but emails are more likely to be skipped over if they’re long. Try to fit it into two or three short paragraphs!
Your email updates should include any important people on that person’s team, including case manager, guardian, or any other service providers. Make sure you talk with the individual about whom they would like to be included in the email update!
We should be making meaningful progress each week. However, if you haven’t made any progress for the week, you should highlight why you weren’t able to make progress and what you plan to do next week to continue to make progress!
Engage Phase: Engage Phase activities you’ve arranged or completed, current progress towards completing the Engage Phase, and any barriers that you have encountered that have slowed the process down.
Plan Phase: Plan Phase activities you’ve arranged or completed, current progress towards completing EDS-Plan checklist, and any barriers that you have encountered that have slowed the process down
Find Phase: You will send a PDF report showcasing the placements for the week to the client’s team.
Keep Phase: Keep Phase email updates should include how is their job going and any concerns that came up. If there are areas of improvement needed, using the sandwich method (positive thing, one challenge, positive thing) can be a great way to introduce those concerns!
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In the Engage Phase, we are helping our clients explore and address barriers and concerns about integrated employment...
Check-in activities should mirror that! We can use check-ins to help address barriers, figure out career paths, and gain comfort in exploring the community for employment.
Engage Phase activities include:
Interest assessments
Career assessments
Skills assessments
Career information
Exploring different jobs
Be creative – Some clients may need more support gaining confidence or exploring and may need to take things slower or a new approach needs to be found.
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Team members typically spend 3 - 4 hours a week meeting with and working on behalf of Engage Phase clients.
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Engage Phase participants are typically met with weekly.
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Some participants may need a little bit more time or a slower build up to partaking in business outreach opportunities.
You can take small steps towards them. For example, you could just stop by a business with a client to check it out and then leave. Then the next time, you can set a goal to ask a question to a worker… and so on and so forth until you build to an outreach oppurtunity!
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One of the goals of Engage Phase services is to get our clients out into the community and explore employment through informational interviews, business tours, job tryouts, and job shadows.
These outreach opportunities can serve as valuable lessons in workplace and interview skills, etiquette, and hygiene.
Experiencing workplaces first hand can help your client achieve an educated choice and may illuminate areas that your client may like or want to stay away from.
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An Engage Phase client moves on to the EDS Plan Phase when their concerns about working in the community and their potential barriers are addressed. They don’t need to have a specific job goal in mind, but should have a general idea.
Their Engage Phase Service Plan must be completed with the requested number of activities completed and documented on it. Send it out for signatures!
An Engage Phase client may decide that working in the community is not a great fit for them. That’s completely okay! Let your supervisor and their case manager know. May sure to ask respectful “Why?” questions to gather a full picture
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We send an updated 6790 to the client’s case manager!
When an individual is changing services, we need to make sure that we include the previous authorization plus the new authorization. For example, if we currently have 200 units of Engage, but the participant wants to move on to EDS-Plan services. Then, we should send over a 6790 that includes:
The previous authorization of 200 units of Engage
Plus, the additional authorization of “X” units of EDS-Plan
Example Scenario
If EES is ending 10/28 and your participant wants to move on to EDS-Plan, the ECM would send a 6790 with EDS Plan starting the first business day after: Monday, 10/31 or you can use Saturday 10/29.
All logging ends in REV on the date the current unit ends on the 6790. If EES ends today on the new 6790, so does the service line in REV.
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We send an updated 6790 to the client’s case manager!
When an individual is changing services, we need to make sure that we include the previous authorization plus the new authorization.
For example, if we currently have 543 units of Engage, but the client recently found a job and needs employment support instead. Then, we should send over a 6790 that includes:
The previous authorization of 543 units of EDS-Plan, ending on the day before they found a job
Plus, the additional authorization of “X” units of ESS beginning on the day they found the job.
Everyone’s employment journey looks different…
Below is an example of what a client’s journey through the Engage Phase may look like.
While barriers may crop up, it’s important to get your participants out into the community to experience firsthand what working in that business is like (unless they are uninterested in that component of EES).
A good general flow is to use interest inventories (like CAREERwise, Traitify, or pictorial inventories) to help you and your participant get a rough idea about what jobs or places of work they may want to explore.
You can then use that information to arrange business outreach opportunities (informational interviews, job shadows, job-tryouts, business tours, or self-guided tours) in the jobs or places of work that interest them.
If your client is especially interested in a specific job or place of work, it’s a great idea to arrange job try-outs to give your participants real-life experience doing it.
Required 245D Meetings
Participants receiving Engage Phase services are funded by Waiver Services.
By 245D Statues, Great Work is required to lead Intake Meetings,45-Day Meetings, and Annual Meetings for all Waiver participants.
The purpose of an Intake Meeting is to go over Great Work’s Intake Paperwork as well as for the GW staff member to discuss how they can best support their client.
The purpose of a 45-Day Meeting is to check the progress made during the first 45 Days and make any adjustments needed.
The purpose of an Annual Meeting is to go over documentation and to ensure Great Work’s services best fit our client’s needs.
6790 Overview
The 6790 is the tool providers use to supply case managers with the information they need to complete authorizations for their clients to receive services from Great Work. The 6790 should reflect the current E1MN phase that the client is in and the number of units (or 15-minute increments) that we anticipate that we will use during a given time-frame.
6790s are only required for Waiver services. Employment Exploration Services (EES), which you provide in the Engage Phase, is a Waiver service. That means you need a 6790!
The E1MN Framework
The Employment First Minnesota Framework (E1MN) is designed to help make sure that Great Work helps our participants explore employment, plan for employment, find a job, and keep a job that is a perfect fit for them! Click below to learn more about each phase:
