Employment Link Annual Report 2004-2005

Employment Link had another successful year seeing customer growth and service quality enhancement in a number of areas. Much work was done at the state-level by the Executive Director to expand employment opportunities for people within the developmental disabilities system through his involvement Colorado’s Division for Developmental Disabilities committees. The Executive Director was directly involved with committee recommendations to create a policy statement identifying community employment as the priority outcome for persons served in the state and to set statewide numerical goals to increase the number of people employed during 2005-06. Collaboration has been increased between Employment Link and a variety of organizations that support the expansion of employment opportunities for people with developmental disabilities. Perhaps our most significant collaborative effort has been with the Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council, resulting in the provision of nearly $40,000 to provide best practice employment services training to our staff.

This FY 2004-05 year was considered one of transition for us from a financial perspective. We had strengthened our Denver operations by opening our Denver office during the prior year, and then increased that commitment by hiring a full time manager for Denver operations during FY 2004-05. At the same time that we were adding the above mentioned Denver-related expenses, our primary partner in Boulder County, Imagine!, decreased our revenue by approximately $100,000 as a result of the success we had had in finding employment and maintaining our individuals in their jobs long term. The resulting fiscal mix became a considerable challenge. The potential loss was minimized by carefully controlling expenses and locating additional revenue. The Denver Foundation grant of $15,000, a Kenneth King Foundation grant of $1,500 and re-negotiated rates for our Denver Options-funded services resulting in a 31% per person increase, were primary examples.

Our Boulder Employment Consultant function performed well under trying staffing conditions during FY 2004-05. All staff positions but one turned over during the period and some staff positions had two vacancies during the year. The reasons for this were felt to be circumstantial and staff positions had stabilized considerably going into fiscal 2005-06. Average wages for people served by this function increased from $6.61 to $7.00 and 90% of our employed customers retained their jobs through the period. Job starts declined to 11 compared to 14 the previous year, while job losses increased to 11 from 7 the year before. Finally, program enrollment declined from 73 to 69 during the year.

The Denver Employment Consultant function was characterized by more staff stability than the previous year with only two positions turning over during the year. This resulted in steadily improving efficiency throughout the year resulting in meeting our financial objectives during the final quarter. The wage average for our Denver customers was also up from $6.67 to $6.80. The retention figure for the year was at 60%, up from 47% during the 2003-04 period. Job starts were down to 17 from 23 the previous year, while job losses reduced to 9 compared to 13 for the year prior. Program enrollment in Denver showed a robust gain from 43 to 55 by the years end.

The Boulder Employment Access function also exhibited solid enrollment growth during the year finishing with a service level of 50 customers compared to 45 customers as the year began. The percentage of volunteer work activities increased slightly from 43% to 45%, while the paid work volume remained fairly steady at 10% of program time. Our traditionally high proportion of vocationally-focused activities was maintained during the year at 82% of Employment Access program hours. A new position was budgeted for FY 2005-06 that will focus on identifying and initiating additional paid and volunteer activities for the Employment Access Program.

The Senior Opportunity Source function also experienced some staff instability during early 2004, which improved as the year progressed. A concerning statistic was the increase in base site time for the program moving from 39% in FY 2003-04 to 46% for this period. This trend continued throughout the fiscal year but has recently been reversed. A primary quality issue for this program is time spent in community settings (whose measure is the inverse of the base site statistic) and this measure remained above 50% (54% for the FY 2004-05 year). Volunteer work remained stable at 8% and enrollment for this program decreased from 31 to 29 due to medical issues resulting in the inability of some of our customers to continue in the program.

Employment Link made a significant gain in overall enrollment during FY 2004-05, from 192 to 202 people served. Our quality function was affirmed by earning our second consecutive national CARF accreditation for a three year period (maximum allowed). Our FY 2005-06 best practice project will enhance the quality of our employment services within the Boulder and Denver markets, while the addition of the employment access position should significantly increase the quality of that program. When the above elements are considered in combination with an increased revenue structure within all service areas, Employment Link is positioned to have an even more successful year during the 2005-06 period.