eFedLink A Community of Practice (CoP)

Website

Advancing the Federal Employment of People with

Disabilities

Persistent Challenges• The challenges around employment of persons with

disabilities in the federal sector remain with us.• We need to try additional ways.• We need to reach across agencies and geography to

connect more frequently with federal peers who are doing similar work and have similar needs.

• We need our group wisdom to work “smarter, not harder.” We need to construct our answers to challenges together while sharing different situations requiring different responses.

2

• Sharing Best Practices Across Agencies

• Colleagues Helping Colleagues

• Collaboration, Individual and Group Learning

3

A Tool By Us, for Us

Sponsored by the U.S. Department Of Labor, Office Of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) as part of the National Employer Technical Assistance Center.

A New Tool, A New Way of Working Together

A Community of Practice is a

4

What Do Communities of Practice Do?• Seek and invite others

interested in shared work• Share learning within

organizations, agencies and roles

• Share learning across organizations, agencies and roles

• Decide to do things together that will address a shared concern

• Create new knowledge grounded in ‘doing’ the work

Slide courtesy IDEA Partnership5

Professional Development

Policy & Regulation

Strategic Planning

Service Delivery System

Data Collection

Program Initiatives

Why do we need the eFedLink CoP?To Shift: From Isolated, Single Agency Activities to Cross-Systems, Cross-Stakeholder Efforts

6

Communications and networking hub for the federal disability employment community. 7

How Can Separate Work Become Linked Work?• By Inventing new ways to connect &

collaborate:• Discussion Threads• Issue Focused Practice Groups/Learning

Communities• Involve Practice Groups in identification of best

practices, gap analysis of existing resources and advising creation of new resources & tools

• Electronic vehicle for building ‘our community’ – Using www.efedlink.org

• Plan together, create together• Share materials, training & events• Make it ‘the way you work’, not an ‘add on’ 8

eFedLink.org

The purpose of eFedLink.org is to advance employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities in the federal government.

9

Key Features of eFedLink.org

Dashboard – A launch pad for essential info and tools

Federal Initiatives –Current key information

Collaborate – Send messages, post discussions, join groups

Resources – Helpful links, documents, media, get assistance

Planning – Create a plan in 45 minutes or less10

Dashboard – A launch pad for essential info and tools

11

After log-in…the dashboard is your own special page

• Recent announcements

• Active threaded discussions

• Messages from other members

• Upcoming events

• Current status of any planning

• Favorite resources

12

Federal Initiatives – key items

13

The Federal Initiatives page will provide

you with basic information regarding the

Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP),

the Section A Hiring Authority and the

Executive Order:

• What are they?

• How do we get started?

• Where can we get help?

14

Collaborate – Send messages, post discussions, join groups

15

Once a planning group is created, members of that group can engage in closed discussions, and share documents to work out ideas without having to meet in person.

Join a group

16

Discuss with group members or send individual messages

17

Plan activities and post documents

18

Here you can choose to post to the group only

Resources – Helpful links, documents, media and assistance

19

• Searchable resources are organized by topic.

• A resource map of the United States will be created so that eFedLink.org federal offices will be able to find local resources that will be of assistance by topic.

• efedlink members are also able to view documents, media and ask for help.

20

Current events and new resources

21

Openly shared documents

22Here documents can be made available to all registered members

Media resources

23

Getting Started – Create an Account

Go to

www.efedlink.org and click on “Register here!”

24

Getting Started – Create an Account

Fill in the registration Form completely. Within one business day you will receive a username and password.

25

For more information Please go to the www.efedlink.org website or contact one of us

Thank you for your attendance and interest today!

26