Advance Joins Minnesota's "Elite Eight"

We’re pleased to announce that Advance was one of eight organizations recently awarded a transformation grant by the Minnesota Department of Human Services to increase competitive integrated employment and community engagement outcomes for the people it serves. The grant funding resources are provided to help Advance build new organizational capacities over time through service redesign and introduction of promising practices.

So what exactly will this mean for Advance and the people it supports? Here is a partial list of our project objectives:

• Launch “state of the art” practices to deliver the best outcomes possible
• Expand choices and types of jobs people can obtain in our workforce
• Secure better wages (at least minimum wage) and benefits for people obtaining jobs
• Build creative partnerships with business leaders that hire job seekers
• Learn how to negotiate, customize jobs in ways that use the strengths, abilities, and potential contributions of individual job seekers
• Increase opportunities/choices for wrap around, non-work community engagements
• Increase social interaction/inclusion of people we support with other community members
• Increase skills/competencies of our managers and direct support professionals (DSPs)
• Better align services and outcomes with our values and mission to support people in achieving a richer, self-determined life

Advance’s transformation will unfold gradually, deliberately, and over a manageable period of time. Our leadership team is developing a new business plan guided by our board of directors and Minnesota Transformation Initiative Technical Assistance (MTI TA) Center. We’re excited to share that we’re working with two experienced technical consultants who have track records of success in working with similar transformation projects inside Minnesota, nationally, and internationally. Our MTI consultants, Staci Jones and Don Lavin, visited Advance in September and they’re guiding us in taking actionable steps to help Advance grow and prosper as an organization.

At Advance, we’re excited about our future and the promise of this project to help us engage fuller, richer lives for the people we’re privileged to support. We value our many community partners, and as always, welcome your ideas and participation to help us Advance this important work. Watch for more information to come!

CLICK HERE TO Read ongoing grant updates in future newsletters