7 minutes
Practice on live work Take this back to one person you already serve.
What you’ll be able to do Identify the practical implication of “Practice on live work” and apply it to one live DHS decision connected to Employment First and Economic Inclusion. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What should happen before the work is locked? Document a next step for Practice on live work: Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed. The course ends when one person who was never asked gets a real offer this week.
From evidence to ordinary work You now have a definition of first, a pattern for how we sideline people, a chair test, two frames, and a six-move loop. This lesson turns that into one person you already serve — not a special “employment project.”
Pick someone you would usually skip: high support, a frozen no, a family veto, a language you have not used. Small and complete beats a strategy deck with no name.
In this lesson Choose one person and run the chair test.
Practice a repair that does not blame them for our skip.
Set a seven-day practice transfer.
Know the job aid and the formal doors you must not skip.
If work was never on the table, that was not a choice. That was a default.
Lesson 1, to take with you Three approaches, used together Fix the next meeting Apply the job aid to one person. Ask, try work in the community, name money, connect, document. Small and complete.
Fix one template The unit’s planning agenda, ISP prompt, or transition checklist. If the template asks about work before other day supports, every future meeting inherits the method.
Fix the culture tell If people who keep asking about jobs are called unrealistic, interrupt it. If filling slots fast is praised as good casework, stop praising it. Culture is what gets applause.
Return to the store. The question is whether the people we serve get this kind of option before we fill something else.
Repair without theater You will have skipped people. Repair is: name the miss, make a real offer now in a language they can use, book the benefits conversation, change the agenda so work comes first from now on, and skip the speech that makes them manage your embarrassment. “We should have asked you about work before we filled the other service. I am asking now. Here is who can help with benefits. You can say no. We will write it down and come back on a date we name.”
Constraints you will hit Time Authorization Partners Urgency theater
Caseloads are real. Many “no time to try work” notes are late starts. When time is short, shorten the loop; do not delete the first question.
Waiver rules, VR eligibility, and 245D licensing are real. They shape how you connect. They do not cancel the offer while you wait on a door.
Providers, schools, counties, and Tribal programs have their own calendars. DHS still sets the tone for the first option in meetings we host. Do not lower the bar because a partner is used to the sideline.
If every opening is an emergency, you are choosing the roster over the person. Write the list. Offer work. Then fill what they actually want.
Seven-day transfer Do these four things in the next seven calendar days. They are small enough to finish and large enough to count as Employment First.
Seven-day list Pick one person you would usually skip. Write a half-page: what work might interest them, what was offered before, what fear sits in the file.
Ask about work first in a language they can use — or schedule the interpreter now.
Name the money: send or sit with DB101 / Disability Hub / a benefits planner, and write the appointment.
Put a review date on any no, and tell your team that filling a day slot before the offer is no longer the applause line.
Principles to keep when the week gets loud The person is not the problem The skipped offer, the unnamed fear, or the convenient slot is. The person who said no, or who never heard the question, gave you information.
The offer has to be real Do not call it choice if work was never on the paper. Brief with dignity instead of a checkbox.
Formal doors are not optional VR, benefits counseling, waiver employment services, and Tribal paths are not “extra comms.” Use the right door.
Review the no or you taught them not to want it What they heard. What they tried. What they chose. When you will ask again. That note is the product.
The room can stay as a support people choose. It cannot be the first option we never named.
The feedback loop Intention → who was offered work → who heard it in a usable way → what they chose → what wage they hold → revision. If you never ask who was offered work, you will congratulate yourselves for programs that only worked for people already close to a job.
Sort these practice moves Ask one skipped person about work in their language.
Choose a category Do this week Use a formal path Do not do Refer for benefits counseling before a payroll start.
Choose a category Do this week Use a formal path Do not do Fill a day-program slot so you do not “lose it,” then mention jobs next year.
Choose a category Do this week Use a formal path Do not do Put a review date on a no.
Choose a category Do this week Use a formal path Do not do Tell a family their culture means work is off the table.
Choose a category Do this week Use a formal path Do not do Check matches Reset “Not ready” is often “we are not ready to support them.”
Lesson 2, to take with you What to do next Open the First-Option Job Aid and keep it beside your next planning meeting. This course is original One DHS instructional content for staff practice. For VR, waiver authorization, benefits counseling, and Tribal consultation, use those formal doors. This is not a substitute for them.
You have finished the six lessons when you complete the checks and open the job aid. The work is the next person you ask.
Put this lesson to work What you can change You control whether practice on live work changes a live DHS process connected to Employment First and Economic Inclusion or remains information on a page.
What to watch for The team completes the learning, keeps the same default, assigns no owner, and never checks who carries the burden.
Your next step Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Carry this forward Take this back to one person you already serve.
You control whether practice on live work changes a live DHS process connected to Employment First and Economic Inclusion or remains information on a page.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Completion is shown by a scenario decision, a knowledge-check response, a completed sort and a saved one-minute commitment.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Reset this lesson
Previous lesson Back to course Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
