IMESD and one of its employees, Donna Lowry, recently received the Resiliency Award at the 2024 Annual Vocational Rehabilitation In-Service where the theme was Heart and Vision. This award is for partners who show heart and vision by continuing to work with Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) on behalf of students through the many challenges, changes, uncertainties and new opportunities VR has been undergoing over the last few years.
According to Michelle Markle, M. Ed. Leadership, Youth Manager at the Oregon Department of Human Services VR, IMESD was chosen because of willingness to engage in a new fee-for-service contract for Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS). “We started work on this before any of us knew what this meant. In good partnership, we committed to figuring this out together, and we have,” Markle said. Multnomah ESD also helped pilot the new contract.
Lowry, who works for IMESD as a Transition Network/Pre-ETS Specialist, met with the VR team regularly to provide feedback on proposed process and procedure and to share suggestions on how to make implementation of the contract more successful as it was scaled up statewide. Markle said Lowry attended every event VR offered and was a voice of calm to her peers regarding how implementing this contract was indeed possible, even though it was certainly different from past practice. When other districts asked the Oregon Department of Human Services, “Who is doing this? Is it working? Can I talk to them?” IMESD’s business office staff and special education administrators were willing to be points of contact and reference for how the contract was working. Markle said, “They were honest about challenges and changes, but in the end gave hope and belief to other districts that our partnerships can endure.”
Lowry said that during the new contract process, she thought, “Yes, there’s more oversight, but I still get to do the work I love.”
When presenting the award, Markle stated:
“The impact of IMESD’s willingness to go above and beyond in these ways cannot be understated. It was a risk to engage in this pilot contract, and VR wants to celebrate your heart, vision and resilience in taking the risk so services were not disrupted for students. We are so lucky to have partners like you!”
PHOTO CAPTION
From left: VR Director Keith Ozols, Jodi Johnson of Multnomah ESD and Donna Lowry from IMESD at the awards ceremony.