Seneca Nation Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation Program

**ENCORE: This podcast was recorded on March 8, 2022 **

Jackie John, VR-Program Manager at the Seneca Nation Training & Employment Resource Center, discusses the mission of the Seneca Nation Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation (TVR) program and the services it provides.

*Show Notes*

• https://sni.org/
• https://sni.org/community-services/terc/
• https://www.facebook.com/senecamedia
• https://twitter.com/TheSenecaNation

Transcript

- This is Katrin with Disability Rights New York. Welcome to our podcast Empire State Of Rights: Closed Captioned. We are here to bring you information on the most relevant topics regarding disability rights and advocacy. Today we welcome Jackie John Seneca Nation Training & Employment Resource Center, VR-Program Manager. She's here to discuss the mission of the Seneca Nation TVR program and the services it provides. Jackie, thank you so much for joining us today.

- Thank you for having me.

- And so Jackie, as we get started, let's start with you and tell us a little bit about yourself.

- Okay. I've been here at the Seneca Nation Vocational Rehabilitation program for probably about seven years, actually was just promoted a year ago to the Program Manager. I was the VR counselor prior to this and I love my job. I like doing what I do. I love helping people. I love helping people who have disabilities become successful.

- You and I have that in common. I always say, I love my job. I love what we do. And it makes such a difference in the work that we do to, doesn't it?

- It sure does. It sure does. Just, even like get a couple of successes, just working on any successes is really important to us.

- Absolutely. And so let's talk about the Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation program. What is its mission and how is it serving the community?

- Okay. we are a funded program under the Department of Education. We have a competitive grant and what we do is we help to bring culturally appropriate services to individuals who have diagnosed disabilities helping them seek employment helping them to remove barriers helping them to work through challenges, to become employed.

- And so you said culturally appropriate. Talk to us about what that means and why that is so crucial to how this program was created.

- It's so very important that we do provide the culturally appropriate services here in the community, because oftentimes the Native Americans they'll rather seek services here on their own territory other than to go off territory. We have a sister program which is ACESS-VR that we mirror, but we can have services that are engaged instinctively for Native Americans, traditional. Maybe they need to learn a little bit more about that. Anything that they would like to learn more about.

- And how did this program originate? As you said, it has ACESS-VR that it mirrors but how did this particular program really come into being there is clearly a need for it, historically when was it created, and why did it originate?

- Let's see. Well, this program here in the community has been here for probably about 20 years. The program in general, under the Department of Education they decided that there was a need for the Native Americans to work together to get gainful employment. So for about 20 years, it's been here but still we feel like we're still a big secret that people don't know what we actually do.

- Well, we are really happy to help spread the word so you're no longer a secret. So thank you so much for coming on and telling us about this and talk about the services that are provided so we can get the information out for you.

- Okay. Well, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the eligibility for our program. First of all, we serve individuals who are members of the state or federally recognized tribes or nations. We also serve people within 20-mile radius of all five territories and five territories that we serve would be the Cattaraugus, territory, Allegany territory Oil Springs territory, Niagara Falls as well as the Buffalo Creek area. So we do serve a large area. We try to reach out to a lot of people but the other eligibility requirement would be you'd have to have a diagnosed disability that causes an impediment to working. And basically what that means is it causes a barrier or a challenge for somebody who normally can just go out and get a job. But then there's somebody that might have a disability which could consist of anything from an emotional or mental health disability, substance abuse disability to physical disability or impairments like as such. So that's basically the criteria for the eligibility that we have but we can provide all kinds of services. We do have VR counseling and guidance which is not a mental health counseling and guidance. It is employment specialist guidance helping people get through job applications resumes, career readiness workshops we can provide work experience. We can also provide any types of trainings. We do a lot of work with the BOCES- Erie1, Erie2, and CA BOCES. So basically, if you came to our program and you had a diagnosis ability, you could be just about anything you wanted to be within your capabilities.

- That's great. And so you're offering support services to really have people follow their dreams of what they wanna be doing and making sure that they're supported to do that, which is invaluable. So thank you for the work that you're doing. And as we talk about the qualifications for someone to come and have services provided do you find that as people are coming in and finding the services that are available to them is the flow of information that's able to be received, not only in the community, but to the people that you're serving? Is that something that you feel also needs to have a little bit more of a boost for us to get out there for you to let us know, let the audience know, about how many people you're able to serve?

- Oh, definitely. I feel like with the past couple years with the pandemic I really feel like that's put a real huge impact on our client caseload and whatever we can do to get our name out there. You know, it's called Training Employment Resource Center we're in that umbrella. But if anybody had any kind of an employment needs trainings, re-trainings they can stop down here and get an application or look us up on we have a Facebook site, we also have sni.org. So yeah, we could really benefit from more people coming in and getting to know a little bit more about our programs.

- Great. And as you said, there was certainly an impact that the pandemic has put on the center. Are you seeing an increase in people who are coming in as it seems that certainly COVID is still here and present? However, a lot of the mandates have shifted. So I do think people are feeling a little bit safer. They feel a little bit more like things are returning to what felt like normal before. Do you see an increase in people coming in as of late maybe in the last couple of months?

- Well, it's starting to pick up a little bit here and there. We have so many job openings around in the local area and I think across the board. It's just been a struggle for everybody that's working in employment services right now. So yeah, I think it's starting to, but I think probably within the next couple months it'll probably pick up more.

- I think so, too. And that's great information to know that you have so many job openings. Often, I think when looking for career services or vocational services, sometimes there's a thought that there really aren't any openings out there. So it's great to know that there's a lot of openings that you're looking to place people so we can get that information out there for you as well. Are there any other current projects or programs that you're working on that you'd like our audience to know about today?

- Well, actually tomorrow we're having a meeting about a community fair, which will be a bunch of our different departments coming together and letting the community see the services that we are providing, and, you know giving a couple little promotional items away and talking up our programs. So that's gonna be coming up. I don't have a date for that yet as like we were on a pause. We just had that pause lifted like within the last month. So there wasn't any activities or anybody gathering more than three people. So I'm looking forward to participating in that. And then we're also so probably going to be working on an open house but still I don't have any dates for anything yet.

- Well, we're looking forward to hearing that information and when the dates are so let us know and we will certainly post that information from our social media as well. Jackie, it was so nice talking to you today. I hope we get to talk again, especially when you have these dates for the events that are happening. And I look forward to seeing what you're doing next.

- Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.

- Empire State of Rights: Closed Captioned has been brought to you by Disability Rights New York, your source for disability rights and advocacy. If you enjoyed our program make sure to subscribe, like and share this post. If there is a subject you would like us to discuss please email podcast@drny.org or comment below. Tune in next Wednesday where we'll bring you more information on disability rights in the state of New York. The Closed Captioned and ASL version of this podcast is available on our YouTube channel. To listen to more Empire State of Rights: Closed Captioned, follow us on Apple podcasts and Spotify.