VRTAC-QM Manager Minute: From Job to Career: How Nebraska VR is Transforming Workforce Advancement

Nebraska VR is on a mission to elevate careers and empower businesses through its innovative Disability Innovation Fund Career Pathways Advancement Project (CPAP 2.0). In this episode, Carol Pankow sits down with Cathy Callaway, Nebraska VR’s Assistant Director, to discuss how the program helps individuals with disabilities advance in high-demand fields like STEM and skilled trades. With over 130 business partners signed on, the initiative is breaking barriers, fostering workforce development, and proving that growth doesn’t stop at job placement—it’s about career progression. Tune in to hear how Nebraska VR is redefining success through strategic partnerships and a dual-customer approach!

 

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Full Transcript:

 

Carol: Listeners, we would like to dedicate this podcast to Mary Eunice Neary. As the different CPAP 2.0 director. Mary played a vital role in this work, but was unable to join us for the recording. In her absence, Cathy Callaway, the interim director, stepped in for the discussion. Sadly, Mary has since passed away, but her impact on Nebraska VR will always be remembered.

 

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Cathy: We look to find those clients that were closed previously in VR and work with them to advance them in their careers, and then in conjunction, we work with businesses to create a business model that we can help businesses work to advance people in their business so that it assists them in their workforce as well. The number of business partners we had a goal in the grant of signing 100, and we're at 130 plus with still a year and a half on the grant to go.

 

^{Intro Voice: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.}

 

Carol: Well, welcome to the manager minute. Joining me in the studio today is Cathy Callaway, Nebraska VR assistant director and interim director of the DIF CPAP 2.0 project. So, Cathy, how are things going in Nebraska?

 

Cathy: Cold right now? Other than that? Very well, though. Very well with the grant.

 

Carol: Excellent. No, it is cold here today, too, in Minnesota. I tell you, we go from 54 degrees down to minus eight. It has been a lot. So for our listeners, three years ago, Nebraska VR received a Disability Innovation Fund grant for the Career Advancement Project, and the Rehab Services Administration funded this initiative and is focused on helping people with disabilities who are eligible for VR services, including those who are previously served and have returned to the program, advance in their careers, and the goal is to help individuals move into high demand, high quality fields like science, technology, engineering and math. Those Stem kind of professions, including computer science, and the initiative also supports entry into career pathways and key industries through programs like pre-apprenticeship, registered apprenticeships and industry recognized apprenticeship programs. And the efforts really designed to help people achieve better jobs with competitive wages, become more financially independent and reduce their reliance on public benefits or state and local support, and promotes independence and full inclusion in their communities. Oh my gosh, that's a bunch. So I know Nebraska has been at this for a bit, so let's dig in and find out what's going on. So Cathy, help our listeners out. Let's start by getting to know you a bit. What's your role and how did you get into VR?

 

Cathy: That's a long story actually. As you mentioned, I'm currently in the assistant director role. I started when the 1992, amendments to the Rehabilitation Act were implemented. In those amendments, the State Rehabilitation Council was created, and I was hired clear back then to work with the State Rehab Council. And then I just kept working with VR. I actually have a business degree, and I kind of started working in the financial area and really was working in the fiscal area when the push to integrate data and program was kind of a thing. And so I started working on integration of fiscal and program and data and all of that. So I worked very closely in both of those areas and kind of just got to know the program side and the fiscal side and the data side, and moved from then the fiscal arena into the program director for quality assurance for a few years. And after that, just two years ago became the assistant director. So kind of had a little bit of a role in everything.

 

Carol: Well, excellent. You're a person that takes after me in my heart with having the fiscal program combined. I might have to tap you for some other things about that, because we often talk in our work about combining fiscal with program and data, and there aren't a lot of places that have people who've done all of that. So good to know. Thanks for that fun fact.

 

Cathy: You're welcome.

 

Carol: So I hear you had a pretty unique situation in Nebraska that made you the perfect fit to apply for this grant. Can you share a little bit about what that was?

 

Cathy: Sure. We applied for the grant in 2016 to 2021, and it was our what we call Career Pathways Advancement Project CPAP 1.0, and it focused specifically on promoting, upskilling and backfilling incumbent workers with disabilities. So that project ended in 2021. And at that time then another DIF project was made available. So we applied and expanded that. We are still looking to upskill and advance workers, but we also then included another component that was related to working with businesses directly. So this grant was kind of a add on to the CPAP 1.0. We actually call this one CPAP 2.0. Yeah it's the similar but it expands into working with the businesses as well.

 

Carol: Well and just for folks, so they know what is CPAP. Can you just tell them...

 

Cathy: Yes, it's career pathways advancement project.

 

Carol: Perfect.

 

Cathy: Advancing clients in those career pathways that you mentioned in those STEM areas.

 

Carol: Excellent, thank you. I just know VR is notorious for our acronyms. And then some new people are in there like, I don't know what you're talking about. So give us the big picture. What are you really hoping to accomplish with this project?

 

Cathy: We're hoping to develop a business model under this grant that can be sustainable. And once the grant ends with VR and we look to find those clients that were closed previously in VR and work with them to advance them in their careers. And then in addition to that advancement, whether that's in a new career pathway or in the jobs they're already in, we hope to increase their wages, benefits, maybe their hours, and to help improve their economic self-sufficiency. And then in conjunction, we work with businesses, as I mentioned, to create a business model that we can help businesses work to advance people in their business so that it assists them in their workforce as well.

 

Carol: I love that you're really living into WIOA, you know, the whole dual customer approach.

 

Cathy: Yep.

 

Carol: Now, I know early on when you were introducing this idea to clients, people were thinking you guys were scammers. What was going on with that?

 

Cathy: They were we started out thinking, well, we'll just call back these clients that we closed and talk to them about advancing. And because of the world today, many of them. Yeah. Thought we were scammers and there's no way somebody's going to pay for my training or me to go back to college and advance. So we really had to kind of refine our outreach efforts. We actually moved to sending them a letter with the name of the counselor that they previously worked with and some more about. Remember when you worked with VR and we assisted you. And so we send out those letters first and provide some information about the grant. And then we follow up about a week after the letter goes out with a phone call from someone. So that's really made a difference. They kind of are like, oh yeah, I worked with VR before, I know who you are. And I remember that counselor. So that's made a difference for us in terms of outreach.

 

Carol: Well, good. And hopefully your phone isn't showing up as, um, scam possible scam call.

 

Cathy: Exactly.

 

Carol: So what have been some of your biggest challenges you faced while getting this project off the ground?

 

Cathy: Yeah, I would say probably some of the things we wrote into the grant, maybe we would do a little bit different. We had written into the grant that we would like to sign businesses up, I guess, to make referrals to us. And we've had some resistance in terms of the signing of it isn't obligating them to anything, but they kind of some businesses are reluctant to sign anything. And so we've had some resistance that way. Although we've been able to sign over 130 business plans with businesses to offer referrals to the program. So we would probably do that a little bit different. That's been a challenge, I think training. We hired new staff for the grant and then that, of course, learning the VR process and all that goes with it really took a significant amount of time. So we got behind in serving clients and then retaining, of course, with a grant, your staff realize that it's a grant and it will end. And so some staff that worked on the grant have now taken permanent positions with VR. And so we're kind of a work in progress with the keeping the staffing. And then just as I said, building the trust with clients as we reach out to them. And we've adjusted, as I mentioned earlier, but kind of making sure that adjusting our marketing outreach so they realize we're not a scam.

 

Carol: Well, I know often these projects, you know, you're projecting ahead and you're thinking, okay, I want to do these great things and you create all this in your mind. But typically all of the DIF grants end up evolving in some way a bit from the original plan. And you alluded to this a bit, but I know you guys have had to pivot. And so what have been those ways in which you've pivoted, maybe from what your original intent was in the grant?

 

Cathy: Yeah, we've pivoted a little bit. The grant, we thought we would get a lot of clients that wanted short term training, and a lot of them want to get advanced degrees or get a degree. And those have been taken much longer time than we thought. So there's been just some different thinking about clients that want the more long term degrees or advancing in degrees. We've had to change our marketing materials. We kind of had just generic flyers, and now we've moved to developing specific marketing materials for the businesses that we're going into, which has really helped with their employees. Instead of just seeing this generic flyer, they can say, oh, the company I'm working for, there's opportunities in these areas and I can advance. And it's been very specific to the business, which I think has created some buy in with the employees. I would say we hired a Career Pathways recruiter specifically to work with individuals with more significant disabilities, specifically developmental disabilities, just because that's a whole different group to work with. And so we've kind of hired an expert in that area, which has helped. And then I would say changing because Nebraska is such a rural state, we had identified originally career pathway recruiters to work with specific areas of the state, and we've had to kind of pivot and say, okay, you can work with anybody across the state given Zoom and Adobe Sign and all those things, because it's allowed us then to serve more clients statewide, rather than limiting it to just areas where we have the career pathways recruiters.

 

Carol: Yeah, that really has been amazing, especially for states that have more rural sections. You do like we do in Minnesota as well, you know, and the whole ability to serve people remotely is amazing or virtually, you know, you can get at them. I think that's great. I know in your marketing efforts have been super impressive. And like, how are you making that happen? Do you have an in-house person, or are you contracting to make those marketing efforts happen? How are you making that work?

 

Cathy: We do have an in-house marketing team and they're amazing. They're super flexible. They're willing to work with us, so they work to provide whatever materials we need, as I mentioned, able to work in partnership with businesses to specifically customize those marketing materials for the business. And then the other marketing piece we've really done that's kind of new is what we call lunch and learns. And we go into businesses and we kind of do a presentation over like the lunch hour, or sometimes early in the morning at the beginning of a shift. And we really target the HR managers and the team leaders and the people that can get the word out to their employees about our services and about the grant. So those lunch and learns have been pretty well attended, and we're able to really get the word out to a lot of people in the businesses for them to then refer their employees back to us.

 

Carol: Yeah, that's excellent. So looking back so far, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

 

Cathy: I think the number of business partners that we've been able to reach out to and connect with and sign those individualized business plans, we had a goal in the grant of signing 100, and we're at 130 plus with still a year and a half on the grant to go. So just getting that word out. You know, the nice thing about doing that, getting in those businesses is we're not only mentioning the grant, but we're also able to mention Nebraska VR. And if you, you know, can get people just the word out about Nebraska VR, even beyond the grant has really been a benefit. We've had several clients that I say we are really proud to say have gotten advanced degrees. It's not just certifications, but they've been able to go on and get advanced degrees through this program, and then just being able to help contact those clients that we previously served and were able to get a job, and just letting them know you can do more, you can advance and we can help you with that. So I think just all of the clients that we've been able to reach out to and really help them become more economically self-sufficient.

 

Carol: That's excellent. I know that's a big foundational piece within VR. So it's fun to see it actually happen. So for those folks out there that are thinking about applying for a grant in the future, and hard to say what the future holds, what advice would you give them? Because I know often people are like, oh, I don't know. Or, you know, is it too much of a pain in the butt, you know, to try to do all of this stuff? What kind of advice do you have for them?

 

Cathy: I would just say, take the plunge and do it. It's given us an opportunity to really think outside the lines, a little bit of what we could do in Nebraska VR, but it's also gives us the opportunity to make those mistakes and adjust and pivot and evolve. So the hope would be, you know, by the time this grant is over, we have created that model that is going to be sustainable under VR, and we have just learned so much more about our dual customer approach, working with the businesses as well as with the clients. So I would suggest if anybody is looking at doing that, to just do it and give yourself the chance to develop things outside of what you think is currently possible.

 

Carol: I like that. That's great advice. You know, with the dual customer and this focus on business. Are there particular sectors you're seeing that are responding, you know, to this program. Are there certain sectors. You know every state has a different kind of flow to it. So I wondered if there were specifics there in Nebraska.

 

Cathy: Yeah, we've had a pretty big response in the healthcare industry. We actually just signed a business here. Vetter. And I think they have over 30 locations across the state, so we're going to be working with them. We've had a lot of success with the CDL, the transportation and distribution and logistics area. Those have probably been our two biggest focuses or the ones where we've had the most interest. And then probably we've had some in the manufacturing area as well. But specifically we have a lot of businesses with the CDLs that is popular.

 

Carol: Interesting. That's very cool. I know Minnesota was doing something and they also were doing it in the transportation area. I guess I hadn't realized how big that is and the need right now.

 

Cathy: It is, yes.

 

Carol: So where can our listeners go to learn more about your project? Do you have a project website?

 

Cathy: We do. It's VR.Nebraska.gov/pathways. And there's contact information on there regarding the Career Pathways Advancement Project. There's some success story videos out there and just a lot of information about our project and our grant.

 

Carol: Excellent. And then are people able to if they go on the website, are they able to like get at if they had any other questions or something they could get one of you?

 

Cathy: Yep, there's contact information on there as well for anyone to reach out with. Any questions.

 

Carol: Yeah, it's been really fun. As of late, I've been hearing from a lot of folks across the country and they said, we sure like hearing these stories because they're trying to plant the seeds and get ideas. And are there things that they could even try in their state right now...

 

Cathy: Absolutely.

 

Carol: Different way. Yeah. That's great. So any last parting thoughts for our listeners?

 

Cathy: No, I just appreciate the opportunity to share information about our project and encourage anyone interested to go to our website and ask any questions, if they have any.

 

Carol: Well, thanks for coming on today. I really appreciate it. We don't hear much from Nebraska, so I'm like, I have to get at you guys and see what's going on. I look forward to talking to you again when you get kind of in that last year and see where you're standing with all the data and what's happening. So thanks much, Kathy. Appreciate it.

 

Cathy: Thanks, Carol. Good to see you.

 

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