ROUGH EDITED COPY

Client: Institute for Community Inclusion‑UMass Boston 
      Job ID: 685246 
      Job Name: ICI‑Supported Self‑Employment‑(ZOOM) 
      Service: Remote CART
      Date: Thursday October 17, 2019 
      Time: 2:00 PM ‑ 3:00 PM
      Timezone: US/Eastern 

CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY:
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION SERVICES, LLC
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This is being provided in a rough‑draft format.  Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.

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>> Hello every one.  
Welcome to today's Webinar.  Today we will be talking about sparking innovation and supported self employment.  My name is Brittany Mitchell again, and along with me is my colleague Ms. Laura from the institute for community inclusion, and we will be helping to facilitate any questions and answers throughout the Webinar.  
First I will begin by giving you a few tips about using the zoom platform.  We would like this to be as much of an interactive conversation as possible, so if you have any questions or comments, feel free to type them in the chat box using the zoom platform.  There is an icon on your screen that says chat, it is a circle with three dots in the middle.  If you click that, you should be able to type in your questions or concerns.  There should be a blue drop down menu that lists all panelists and attendees.  Be sure to click that option so that every one can see your comments.  
This Webinar will, as I said, address questions as they come up.  So if you ask a question, we will take a second and ask Jeanine the question instead of waiting until the end.  So feel free to type in any questions you may have.  Also, this Webinar is being captioned.  You should see the closed captions on the bottom of your screen, and if not there should be a closed caption button on the bottom of your zoom platform screen that will allows us to see that.  
Without further adieu, I would like to turn it over to Laura who will be helping to facilitate the question and answer session, and also to introduce today's speaker.  
Hello, my name is Laura, I work with the institute for community inclusion.  I will be monitoring the chat box and making sure that Jeanine gets any questions you have for her.  Please feel free to type those in at any point during the presentation.  Without further adieu, I will hand it over to Jeanine and let her introduce herself.  Thank you.  

>> Thank you.  Hi every one, my name is Jeannine and I am with New England business associates.  I have been providing disability employment services for 31 years.  I am super excited today to talk about self employment, because that is one of my favorite things, watching people come up with a concept and them moving on to start their own company.  As Brittany said, feel free to ask questions.  I would rather answer questions as opposed to just reading off my slides.  
We have been providing services since 1983, about 36 years now, we have been supporting individuals with intellectual disabilities find employment in their community.  We work with roughly over 400 people a year throughout central and western Massachusetts and throughout the state of Connecticut.  We're funded through the department of developmental services as well as our Voc. Rehab entities in both states.  We also work with a lot of public school systems for students who are transitioning.  And we're also an employment network through the Social Security administrations ticket to work.  That has allowed us to really support people on a national basis, particularly around supporting self employment.  

Two other little unique things about us.  We identify really as a partner in the Workforce Development system.  We kind of look at that, take that very seriously.  As we're preparing people, helping people enter the Workforce, helping them make career decisions and get the training they need, certainly working with employers and meeting their hiring and retention needs.  And we also identify as part of the economic development system and we're an affiliate member of the Massachusetts community development corporation.  That is important, because we're supporting individuals to start up businesses which obviously brings in tax revenue to our counties, but also opens up other employment options for people looking for work.  
So why support self employment?  So certainly most of us, I'm assuming on the call, have been providing employment services to folks.  Oftentimes ‑‑ you know, sometimes people come with an idea of what they might really want to do for others.  They might not have a sense at all what they want to do.  And so as an agency, we work with people on an individual basis and certainly we're looking at more customized employment for folks.  But for those people who kind of traditional employment isn't working the best for or we haven't found that right fit for, supportive self employment certainly can be an option for those folks.  
So certainly with traditional employment, it relies on a flexible employer and not every one wants to nor can work kind of a rotating schedule or they may not be able to meet a set schedule every day for a variety of health reasons.  Typically employment options for the folks we're looking for are entry level.  They tend to be kind of faced with a lot of coworker turn over and managerial turn over which sometimes creates an over dependency on paid staff.  So those folks that we're serving, when they're in those situations it is not always the best so we might think about self employment as well.  
I want to tell you a quick story of one of the original folks that we were working with when we started to talk about self employment.  And he was a young man who had multiple different jobs when he first was referred to us he worked at friendlies.  He had been referred to us and already had a job.  And within a month of us supporting him, he ended up getting fired because he called the corporate friendly's headquarters and told him that his boss was smuggling arms in from Cuba.  Need less to say they didn't think that was funny and they terminated his employment.  So we worked with him, you know, kind of got a better sense of what he wanted to do for work.  We thought we found the perfect position at a local community college where he could work in the administrative department for the administrative office ‑‑ I'm sorry, for the facilities office on campus.  He worked probably a couple of months, and again he started to find ways to make his employer not so happy.  And then the final straw in which caused his termination was he started drawing faces of his boss with a vampire look.  And he would kind of slip them under his boss's door, so he got terminated.  And so any way, we went through a series of these very traditional jobs that were all based on his strengths and interests, but what we kept finding was once he learned all of his tasks he got bored and he wanted to be promoted.  Although he didn't articulate that to us certainly verbally, but through the pattern of his jobs and then getting bored and finding ways to get terminated if he couldn't get promoted, we decided we should look into self employment opportunities for him.  And he was a phenomenal public speaker and that was really what he wanted to do, was do public speaking and work with some other individuals who happen to have down syndrome.  So he did that work as a self‑employed individual for many, many, many years until he recently retired I want to say about five years ago.  
And through self employment it allowed him ‑‑ I'm sorry, let me go back one.  It allowed us to really pursue his passion.  He was able to keep that job, he was able to kind of do some financial planning, figure out where he wanted to be economically and so he was able to gain economic dependence.  A flexible time schedule is really important for many, many people.  We work with a gentleman who I will talk about a little later in the slide show who has a degenerative medical health issue so he needs the flexibility of time so he can work in the morning if he is feeling well, in the evening if he is feeling well.  None of what he does really depends on a specific time of day, so that flexible time management really allows him to be successful 

Same with traditional employment, it allows them to provide for their community, provides economic growth, and it is a way for people to become self sustaining.  

And self employment certainly is a dream that many, many Americans have had of wanting to own their own business, be their own boss, be their own president although it is not typically thought of as people with disabilities.  Although small business ownership is leading the way for workers in the United States.  
So through supported self employment the what I like to call it, it is way for individuals to again identify those issues, focus on their passion, be flexible with their schedule and really kind of plan on paper and meet those objectives.  So certainly with a team approach people can be very successful business owners and contribute to the economy as many other Americans do.  And when I talk about supported self employment, I will talk about later who really makes up that team.  For all of us, for anyone, when you're starting your own business you rely on others to assist you in those areas that aren't your strengths.  So we're looking for people maybe with finance background, marketing skills, those kinds of things will kind of help to make up a team to provide the services and the resources that someone might not have themselves.  
So some of the common challenges, and actually let me go back real quick.  I want to go back to Adam who was in this slide right there.  The picture of Adam.  
When we met Adam he was in his last year of high school, he was 21 years old.  And because of his health and his kind of diagnoses the school nor his family were really thinking of employment for him.  They wanted Adam to have something to do, they wanted him to get out of the house at least a few days a week, because otherwise he would choose to stay home and really not leave.  So for mom what was really important was making sure he got out of the house.  Adam had no idea what he wanted to do for work, but he loved computers.  And so we kind of convinced him to come to our office a couple of days a week to kind of learn different computer programs.  And he did that, and he enjoyed doing that.  The program he ended up liking the most, however, was web design.  And so for Adam we figured out a way to help him become his own employer and to create a company.  So he is the owner of Wilberham Web Design.  I will provide a link later in the slide show so you can see some of the work he does.  He is a fantastic web designer.  
And we have the pieces around him to help him with what he needs.  So Adam is very skilled at web design.  He makes ‑‑ designs beautiful work, very focused, has great attention to detail.  He does not have finance background, so he needed some help to create a way to keep his books, so we provided that support for him.  And his father has accounting friends who help him certainly with his taxes and those kinds of things.  Our supports have helped him market his business.  Because one of the areas he has a hard time with is kind of reaching out to companies and explaining what he does.  So we are there to provide that support for him when those opportunities arise.  And then the rest of it he does himself.  

So some of the common challenges which you can certainly imagine, you know, the viability of a business idea.  We all have great ideas, but all of them aren't going to be successful businesses.  And so we need a way to make sure that the market is ready for that business.  Obviously the stereotype that individuals with disabilities aren't competent and can't own and run a business, that took us a few years actually to get over the hurdle with convincing a group of people actually who provide services to the general community, it took sometime to get them to realize that people with disabilities can in fact run their own business.  Once we were able to get through that hurdle they have been so supportive and a great resource, but we had to really kind of educate folks around the fact that people with disabilities can in fact be competent business owners, should be competent business owners.  The same that we had to years ago convince employers years ago that hiring people with disabilities made good business sense.  
A successful creation of a business plan can be a challenge, and having a business plan is one of the keys to making sure the business has a plan and can be successful.  Oftentimes people jump into businesses without doing that business plan.  I would recommend against that certainly.  
Fear of losing their disability or government sponsored benefits.  That is something we hear a lot, especially even traditional employment.  When it gets to self employment, it is trickier because they're going based on your taxes as opposed to being able to a weekly or monthly send‑in pay stubs.  
Sometimes it is challenging for people to create a support team because not all people that we may meet and support have a support network around them.  Finding credit and funding can be a challenge.  And having access to committed long term support as needed can also be a challenge.  

So how New England business got started with self employment.  This was back in 2006‑2007 and we were supporting ‑‑ we talked we had just met Adam and we were starting to get to know him.  We were really looking initially for who out there in our local area worked with people to set up their own businesses.  Because what we have always done, New England business associates, looked at the community to see what is available to those in the community, and then how do we support those individuals that have a disability to access those same resources.  What we found with self employment was we couldn't find resources for people.  There was certainly resources available for people in general who wanted to start their own business, but there was no entity who was really providing employment services to people with disabilities.  And so we got a pilot program funded through our council and really the sole purpose of that was to bring the community partners together and talk about the benefits and barriers.  Who was doing it, who was doing it well, where were people stuck, how can we get the momentum going, how can we make sure the service system was really set to provide employment support in opportunities for people who self employment would be a better option for and of more interest to.  

>> Jeannine, somebody asked what is the G‑D council?  

>> I'm sorry, the disability council.  

>> Thank you.  
Yes, they had given us some funding and so we really kind of pulled forums and groups together for about a year and then said let's start a small pilot where we have individuals, no more than ten, who are interested in learning about self employment.  We would provide them with some introduction to self employment and some curriculum around kind of becoming an entrepreneur and what steps you needed to take and what you need and those kinds of things.  Out of the ten who initially applied and were supported, we are still supporting three of those businesses that would have started back in 2007.  But initially it really wasn't to provide self employment support, it was to figure out how to get the supports the way other people receive those supports.  And unfortunately because we weren't able to find those as easily as we thought, we ended up providing those supports ourselves.  

Certainly with self employment it very much matches a person's passions and the talents to the current economic activity while providing team support for a successful venture based on a valid venture business plan.  We will talk about a business plan, but there are many people who certainly start off doing hobby businesses or want to maybe start a business and oftentimes that business plan might be skipped.  And again I would recommend against that really starting with that business plan is key if this is really going to be an employment option for someone.  Certainly if someone does things and they attend craft fairs and those kinds of things and that's what they want of their business, more of a hobby, then certainly they may not need a business plan.  But if this is really going to be their chosen employment then a business plan is really key.  
Tickets and PASS plans are tools that can assist in accumulating assets for implementing and sustaining the business.  And so here are just some resources through Social Security administration.  Now, Social Security administration actively promotes business plan ownership and are very supportive of individuals submitting a plan, a PASS plan, a plan for achieving self support.  That might look like ‑‑ someone might need money to buy ‑‑ we work with a woman who makes beautiful infant blankets and diaper bags.  She needed a PASS plan so she could save up enough money to buy her yarn and the materials that she needed in bulk because it was so much more expensive to buy piecemeal.  Others it might be a piece of equipment, might be a vehicle, you name it.  But they can put that PASS plan into good use to save some of that money, to support their businesses.  

And what that does is it just leverages those Social Security benefits to start the assets to start the business.  Although it can be a little bit cumbersome, again in order to write that PASS plan the business plan has to be completed and submitted.  So again, that plan will be very critical.  It is still a critical compliment to VR as well, having that business plan.  

So in terms of funding, I mentioned ticket to work and PASS plans are used for those people who qualify.  There is a note on here, so certainly that business plan has to be done first.  I have seen some successful businesses really start up using community based day funding, so that funding can be used as people are exploring the self employment option and going through that process to look at their business viability and starting to look at writing the business plan, certainly funding can support that.  
Employment funds for our contract, if people ‑‑ if it meets their employment criteria then those employment services can be used to support people in self employment process.  And our local VR, both statewide and nationally, they may pay for a business plan development, skills training and job coaching.  And again, depending on what that person's goal is for self employment, and what they need.  And I do see a note that came up about C‑B‑D, I'm sorry, that is community based day funding.  
And again, I have seen in many, many states where VR has paid ‑‑ we have not set this up locally.  We decided to fund kind of our services in a different way, but I have seen nationally some organizations partnering with their local VR to do the business plan development.  And sometimes VR will pay for that, because before VR wants to go ahead and approve someone necessarily who was interested in self employment, they may want to know that the business plan is developed and that it is a viable business, and that they have figured out their financial projections.  And so some VRs have been paying for that business plan as a way to kind of recommend further support for folks for self employment.  
Or it might pay for a specific course or some specific training that the person needs prior to starting their business.  

So other things to look into for funding is micro loan programs that exist nationwide.  And it can certainly assist with funding for people who qualify and can afford the payments.  There are many foundations, the abilities fund is one, that can help with grants for self employment as well.  
So the support team.  As I said earlier, creating a support team is really, really important.  And so with that support team, again you really want to look at who is the person, what business are they starting, and what kind of skills do they need for that business to be successful.  And then again, like employment you're looking for people to network with.  For some people it can be family.  Their family is very involved, very supportive.  They want to be a part of setting up this business.  It could be a specific ‑‑ again, somebody I mentioned accounting, so we have worked with accountants we know.  We asked them if they would be willing to volunteer and be part of somebody's team.  And then as that business gets going and the person is successful and they can start to afford to pay for those services, that's great.  But initially we really needed those people to volunteer and be a committed member of the team.  
And so the roles and responsibilities are really just identified and agreed upon based on each individual's specific needs.  

>> Judy asked, are the start up loans specifically for people with disabilities?  

>> No, they're for entrepreneurs.  Anyone who is interested in starting up their own business, there are all sorts of different funding for that.  

>> And I don't know if you mentioned any other resources.  Emmanuel was asking if those resources are only to people with disabilities, or every one.  So most of them are for the general public?  

>> Except the PASS plans.  That is specifically through Social Security.  But certainly the micro loans, bank funding, grant funding is certainly available to anyone interested.  And in fact, a great, great place to start, and this is later in my slide show, is to partner or get to know your small business administration and your local score office because both of those groups are in each community and they're there to work with people who are interested in starting up their own business.  And there is no fee for those services.  So it is a great place to start to get to know them, figure out what services they offer, and how you can pull them in to be a part of that support team.  

>> James just asked what the score office is.  

>> Okay.  So this is no longer the name.  So score is an acronym, and it used to be the senior core of retired executives.  A volunteer group who does all sorts of business training for their community.  They mentor people who are interested in being small business owners.  They provide a lot of volunteer services.  It is no longer called the senior core of retired executives, but the acronym is still score.  They're usually located in the same offices as your small business administration.  That's where ours is.  But if you Google score, it would come up.  
So here are some of the things to keep in mind.  Don't put too much responsibility on one person.  I mentioned how initially that support team, they're predominantly volunteers and so if too much is falling on one person, that team will fall apart.  And so you don't want that.  The other thing that I have seen happen and we have witnessed is I say whose business is it?  Sometimes, particularly ‑‑ well, I guess it happens with families as well as other support staff, people get excited and come up with all sorts of ideas.  So sometimes what initially started out as a business that someone was really interested in providing, gets changed and morphed into what somebody else thinks it should be or wants it to be.  And so as providers and support people, we have to keep that in mind and remember that it is the individual's business.  It is not mom's, it is not dad's, it is that persons.  And we need to make sure that we're respecting what it is that that person wants to provide and not make it morph into something somebody else wants it to be.  
And our service system hasn't really caught up with self employment either.  I mentioned Adam earlier, and because Adam is such a successful web designer and he was earning so much, initially he was no longer eligible for Social Security Disability benefits because he was earning over the substantial gainful activity amount.  And it triggered a review of whether or not he should be continued to be eligible for a waiver, Medicaid waiver.  And that was a concern, because he needs his personal care attendants desperately.  And mom was in a panic, because if he lost that waiver he wouldn't be able to have those personal care attendants.  So it was kind of a dilemma that he made too much money, therefore he kind of seemed like he didn't need services anymore.  And so it was kind of a messy legal thing for a while.  We have to make sure that we're communicating and educating all parties certainly.  
So in the development process of the business plan, we personally do an individual assessment because we want to know what it is that the person is likely going to need for supports initially and in the long term.  We do an assessment on the business idea.  Again, it is that business viability.  We want the make sure that if we support people doing this, that their business idea is a viable plan and that the community in which they live is going to support it.  We identify any kind of tools they need and then we create the business plan.  
We start with the financials.  Not every one does that, and you don't need to do that.  We have found that ‑‑ we used to do the business narrative first, but then when we got to the financial piece people got scared when they started to see that financial piece and so we started doing that piece first so people were kind of well aware of what that was going to look like before we then did the business narrative.  We found that people stayed in the program and their business plan if that financial business piece was out of the way first.  
And we personally use the score template.  So again, the senior core of retired executives.  You can Google it.  There is a business plan format template on their website that is free; anyone can use that.  We use that because we know that local banks respect that template and they're aware of it.  It is almost like the good housekeeping seal of approval.  And then we use that to create a comprehensible and attainable three‑year projection, which includes the following.  Certainly the operation costs, the cash flow, profit and loss and balance sheet.  

These are some ‑‑ I might be able to do that, I don't know.  I didn't try this first, but these are some links to small businesses that have been developed that are very successful that I just put in here.  The first one is a young woman, 'em.  Hopefully the links will work for you, and after the Webinar you can go on and watch these videos.  But she owns her own coffee shop.  She is out in the Midwest.  She has been doing extremely well.  Adam from the web design, I have his link up here so you can see his website and all of the customers he has.  Again, he is a great designer.  Pop in Joes.  A young man again out in rural, I can't remember where, out west.  They are farmers, have been their whole life.  They support their son to have a popcorn business that sold in all of the local grocery stores and fairs.  And so they support him to do that, and that's become his full‑time job.  And then the last one is someone that we serve.  And he has a hot dog cart.  He wanted to own ‑‑ this is an example of whose business is it.  He wanted ‑‑ he said he wanted a restaurant, his family really wanted a restaurant.  What nick really wanted was a hot dog cart, not a restaurant.  So it took some time to really help the family say, no, let's stick to the hot dog cart because that is what Nick wanted to do.  Very successful, and that video is there as well so you can hop on and see Nick with his hot dog cart.  
And then these are just a list of other businesses that we personally supported to get set up and running.  
I went through my PowerPoint super fast, so now certainly questions would be great.  These are some resources for you.  Again, Social Security and the ticket to work if you are an employment network.  That is a way to access some funding.  
One thing I forgot to mention with the business plan being critical, also benefits counseling is critical.  The individual and their family or their guardian or support team, they have to understand what is going to happen to the benefits.  So we make sure that as soon as someone, everybody in our traditional employment, as soon as somebody is getting ready to start work or getting ready to really start looking at starting up their own business, they get benefits counseling.  And then they meet with that benefits counselor regularly throughout the process.  A, it makes sure that people don't have over payments.  It really helps people understand what is going to happen to their benefits so that they're ‑‑ they know that they're aware and can just positively move forward.  
The small business administration, again, each county has one.  They're a great business resource for anyone who is interested in starting up their own business.  So partnering with SBA.  And score, counselors to America's small business.  SBA and score are probably the two resources that we rely on most.  Every one we support who has a business plan or writing a business plan, they have a SCORE counselor or mentor and they have already connected with the SBA.  Most of the folks we serve aren't able to access funding through the SBA, so they need to look at other routes, but they stay connected with them because certainly things change as the business grows and develops.  

I am happy to chat with anyone on the phone, that is my contact information.  

>> Terry asked how can the person access the ticket to work funds?  

>> So they need to either receive Social Security Disability income, or Social Security supplemental income, SSI or SSDI.  
They then need to assign their ticket to an employment network through the Social Security administration.  You can find employment networks on choose work website.  My ticket choose work website.  Somebody can connect with them and sign their ticket.  And then they can build their business plan, do a PASS plan and kind of access funding that way.  

>> Lori asked isn't there a way for a small business to use some of the profits to hire staff or lease a van for their work?  

>> Absolutely.  Absolutely.  Those are business expenses.  That is not a problem.  

>> Rebecca asked why don't people usually qualify for funds from SBA?  

>> It has more to do with the amount of money on SBA.  
The small business administration usually provides larger funding.  And oftentimes we're looking for a minute, small amounts of money.  So that's why.  If someone is looking for kind of a greater pot of money, the SBA is a great place to start.  But if you're talking a few hundred, few thousand, SBA isn't really the best choice for that.  Hooking you up either with a local bank or a foundation to get the grant funding would make more sense.  Or a PASS plan.  

>> MASS rehab, do they provide funds?  

>> They used to provide up to $5,000.  That stopped a few years ago.  They ‑‑ and so VR really, MASS rehab, likes the business plan because they want to see that it is a viable plan certainly before giving people money.  I know our local office has stopped giving money.  They'll provide money for supports, but not for actual business, like capital stuff.  But some of the other offices in the state might still provide that.  And some other states definitely provide it.  

>> Do people have any other questions for Jeannine?  

>> Melissa said is the community based funding only for individuals who identify as having a disability?  

>> Yes, that would be through the department of developmental services, their community day based funding.  

>> We work with a lot of people who only have their ticket to work funding and they are not eligible for the developmental services and they have chosen to not necessarily go through VR.  So they will assign their ticket to us and then we will provide the services and the supports they need.  

>> Hi every one.  I'm checking in to see if there are any other questions.  We have one comment from Lori who said she would love to attend a workshop to learn more about business plans.  And Rebecca said A‑R‑C, arc?  I am not sure if that was in reference to something that was mentioned earlier, but Rebecca, if you want to type your question and clarify for us.  She asked what does it stand for?  

>> Arc, was that on my slide?  

>> Did you mention arc as a resource or something?  

>> No.  

>> Well, we can come back to that.  

>> Melissa said are there resources for individuals that decide not to go through VR, and who may not qualify for SSI or SSDI.  

>> That is interesting.  So for people who don't qualify for Social Security for any SSI or SSDI and they don't want to go through VR or DDS, I would start with SCORE, the volunteer group SCORE.  I would start there.  And then I would have support the person to develop their business plan with SCORE, set up a meeting with the SBA just so they have all of the information.  But SCORE can provide that support.  

>> Thank you Jeannine.  We have some more conversation around arc.  Some people thought that may have been what you said in one of your earlier comments.  And people commented that arc is a national organization that provides support and services to people with disabilities, and they have agencies all over the country.  
Thank you for that, Laura.  Judy said do you interface at all with people in self directed services?  

>> Of course, yes.  Absolutely.  

>> Have you helped any of those people with self employment?  Are you able to use any of those funds the same way you might with maybe those funds?  

>> Yes, it was a bit ago.  We provided employment services to the individuals.  The person that I can think of with the self directed funding, we provided minimal employment services for them to get their business plan done and a little bit of support services.  I think one of the things I didn't say that is really important to remember is because for folks who aren't going to be able to independently run their business, some can, but for those that can't, you don't ever want to help someone start up a business that they need more support than they would need if they were working in traditional employment.  So I am making up a number, but if the department of developmental services will give me six hours for employment services, I don't want to help someone start up a business where they need 40 hours of support, because we won't be able to sustain that.  So be careful about that.  So people in self directed services, again it was minimal like three hours of support over, you know, a week over a certain amount of time.  And then they had their support team already around them.  So for us it was really supporting the development of the plan and being kind of part of the team to kind of keep pushing it forward.  

>> Thank you.  We have one other question from Mary Ann.  She said do you provide any support for those exploring business ideas but who are not yet ready to commit to a particular idea.  For example, some kind of interest inventory exploration?  

>> Yes, we do.  We actually do that for every one that we neat any way, to find out what their interests are.  But we do, you know, kind of ‑‑ it is part of that discovery, figuring out what will really make a difference for someone.  As part of just our financial literacy training, oftentimes we will say let's write a business plan and kind of have people use things they already have.  Like what is your cell phone going to cost, and we develop a business plan like that.  It starts people thinking, and is a way to kind of look at the other interests.  

>> Lori followed up and wanted to clarify if folks can use self directed dollars to help with businesses.  

>> They can, absolutely.  

>> Great.  And Melissa asked if you had any successes when working with VR to get extensions no continue supporting individuals with self employment?  

>> Yes.  I don't want to say it is a tough one, it is making sure that, again, you have that business plan and that you're documenting where people are at and kind of why that extension needs to happen.  So as long as you, again, are sticking to the plan, it was agreed on what the business was going to be, you can get extensions to continue support.  We have been able to get extensions.  

>> And James asked what are self directed dollars?  

>> Someone probably can explain that better than I can.  But if I understood the question when they asked about using the self directed dollars, it is when an individual has ‑‑ their funding source, usually department of developmental services, they allocate a certain dollar amount for funding and that person choose how to use those dollars.  They hire a support staff, or it can be something else they may need, they are allowed to use that funding to make those decisions and have control over those dollars and how they spend them.  

>> Thank you.  We still have a couple more minutes to take any additional questions people have.  
Actually, Melissa just asked a question.  She asked have you worked with the department of transitional assistance?  

>> We have.  They have not funded, well, maybe this year since their models changed, I would have to look into it, but we have worked with some people through the department of transitional assistance.  We supported one person to really go through SCORE and then we just kind of did some support in the background.  And we supported a few people who actually were also eligible for VR but didn't realize that, to go through VR and then get referred to get a business plan.  

>> Excellent.  While we are waiting to see if folks have additional questions, we do have an evaluation for this Webinar.  So before you sign off for the day, if you don't mind taking a couple of minutes and just completing our brief evaluation.  It let's us know how effective we are at these Webinars and it also asks you about things you are interested in hearing about in the future.  For today's session I would like to thank Jeannine so much for her time, for presenting a great Webinar and it seemed like it just really did strike up a conversation amongst all of us.  So thank you every one for joining and attending as well.  Thank you to Laura from IC I for her help in facilitating the questions and answers.  I would also like to mention this is the first Webinar in a series of sparking innovation.  And there will be future Webinars that will be announced on the employment first website.  This Webinar is sponsored by the employment by Massachusetts project, and that website is www DOT employment first M‑A DOT org.  And if you look in the calendar section, we will have some additional Webinars posted there soon for November and December.  And also to touch back on the evaluation, if you are a certified rehabilitation counselor requesting credit, this evaluation is required for you to receive that.  
Thank you all so much for attending.  And I hope you have a great day.  

>> Thank you.