Learning Community Group Concept Mapping: Fall 2014 Outreach and Recruitment, Spring 2015 Case Management and Service Delivery. Final Reports

Beginning in 2014, the Federal Government provided funding to New York State as part of an initiative to improve services that lead to sustainable outcomes for youth receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. As part of the NYS PROMISE initiative, Concept Systems, Inc. worked with the Learning Community to develop learning needs frameworks using the Group Concept Mapping methodology (GCM). This GCM project gathers, aggregates, and integrates the specific knowledge and opinions of the Learning Community members and allows for their guidance and involvement in supporting NYS PROMISE as a viable community of practice. This work also increases the responsiveness of NYS PROMISE to the Learning Community members’ needs by inspiring discussion during the semi-annual in-person meetings. As of the end of year two, two GCM projects have been completed with the PROMISE Learning Community. These projects focused on Outreach and Recruitment and Case Management and Service Delivery. This report discusses the data collection method and participation in both GCM projects, as well as providing graphics, statistical reports, and a summary of the analysis. In this report we refer to the Fall 2014 project as Project 1, and the Spring 2015 project as Project 2

Discovery and Strategic Partnership Group Concept Mapping: 2014-2015 Progress Report

In 2014, New York State received funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to begin the NYS PROMISE (Promote the Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income) research initiative. The goal of this initiative is to coordinate the system of support surrounding these youths to better catalyze their potential to transition from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to a sustainable future of living and earning as independent adults. To guide strategy and support PROMISE priorities over the course of the initiative, NYS PROMISE convened the NYS PROMISE Steering Committee, comprised of appointed liaisons from agencies who are connected to the NYS PROMISE initiative. To support sustainable partnership development for greater progress and impact on the goals of NYS PROMISE, the Steering Committee engaged in a structured, time sensitive strategic planning and partnership framework development effort. To develop the elements of a prioritized strategy, the group used Group Concept Mapping (GCM), and constructed a visual framework, or concept map, that served as the basis for prioritization and strategy development throughout the process. The GCM approach employs a group process to capture individual contributions for consensus around a given topic, using a structured approach with a specific sequence of steps that support timely and consistent engagement in the process. GCM incorporates opinions and values, and presents the results in ways that are understandable and usable. 25 individuals from 8 member agencies took part in the concept map development, contributing elements in response to the following prompt: “To yield enduring individual outcomes, a viable system to support youth with disabilities in their transition from high school to successful adult lives needs to include…

NYS PROMISE Learning Community Group Concept Mapping: Fall 2016 Case Manager Experience - Final Report

Beginning in 2014, the Federal Government provided funding to New York State as part of an initiative to improve services that lead to sustainable outcomes for youth receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. As part of the NYS PROMISE initiative, Concept Systems, Inc. worked with the Learning Community to develop learning needs frameworks using the Group Concept Mapping methodology (GCM). The GCM projects gather, aggregates, and integrate the specific knowledge and opinions of the Learning Community members. This allows for their guidance and involvement in supporting NYS PROMISE as a viable community of practice. This work also increases the responsiveness of NYS PROMISE to the Learning Community members’ needs by inspiring discussion during the semi-annual in-person meetings. As of the end of year three, three GCM projects have been completed with the PROMISE Learning Community. These projects focused on Outreach and Recruitment Project 1), Case Management and Service Delivery (Project 2), and Case Manager Experience (Project 3). This report discusses the data collection method and participation in the Case Manager Experience GCM project, as well as providing graphics, statistical reports, and a summary of the analysis

NYS PROMISE Case Management: A Field Guide for Case Managers and Family Coaches

Case management services under NYS PROMISE are provided by a robust and diverse network of case managers and family coaches. Case managers work predominantly with youth in the research demonstration sites, while family coaches work exclusively with the families of intervention group youth enrolled in NYS PROMISE through regional Parent Training Centers. Regardless of the title of the practitioner, or their organizational placement, they provide similar critical care, coordination and access to the core services and supports provided under the NYS PROMISE intervention, as well as information and referral for other needed services and supports. In addition, they provide intermittent “light touch” data gathering on control group youth and families. While “field guides” have traditionally been employed in the study of plants and fauna, they have increasingly been created to support practitioners in an array of professional fields as they face the obstacles and challenges that can arise while accomplishing specific tasks. The NYS PROMISE Case Management Field Guide was designed for the express purpose of assisting case managers and family coaches in navigating their day-to-day roles, functions, and expectations, while adhering to high quality standards, and managing the impact of their work on their own health and wellbeing. The aim is to ensure that all NYS PROMISE case managers and family coaches (case management practitioners) are equipped to perform their job in a manner that leads to the expected youth and family outcomes of the NYS PROMISE intervention—holding to a common measure of fidelity. While the aim for each case management practitioner will employ different strategies, based on the heterogeneity of the NYS PROMISE population, they will draw from a common set of strategies to ensure consistency in delivery of services and supports. This field guide is presented in modules and is indexed to assist case management practitioners in easily accessing the information they need, when they need it. Following is a summary of the specific modules included in this field guide

Economic Studies Reinforce Efforts to Safeguard Specialty Crops in the United States

Cornell virologist Marc Fuchs and collaborators documented significant economic impact of 'clean plant' programs in grapes and other specialty crops

A Novel Grape Downy Mildew Resistance Locus from Vitis rupestris

USDA Scientist Jason Londo, based at Cornell AgriTech identified a new genetic DNA marker associated with downy mildew resistance. This new locus can be incorporated into grape breeding programs

Determining which vegetative index is best for your vineyard

Tractor-mounted sensors use optical sensing to measure canopy fill. This study compared different combinations of wavelengths that comprise different "vegetative indexes"

Using cell phones to obtain accurate prebloom cluster counts

Viticulturist Justine Vanden Heuvel and engineering professor Kirstin Peterson devise low-cost procedure to count clusters for crop estimation

It’s all in your head(space). Researchers invent automatable method to measure free S02 in wine

The Sacks lab presents a new and easily automated method of measuring "truly" free S02 using headspace gas chromatography (HS-GC)

NYS PROMISE Case Management: A Field Guide for Case Managers and Family Coaches

Case management services under NYS PROMISE are provided by a robust and diverse network of case managers and family coaches. Case managers work predominantly with youth in the research demonstration sites, while family coaches work exclusively with the families of intervention group youth enrolled in NYS PROMISE through regional Parent Training Centers. Regardless of the title of the practitioner, or their organizational placement, they provide similar critical care, coordination and access to the core services and supports provided under the NYS PROMISE intervention, as well as information and referral for other needed services and supports. In addition, they provide intermittent “light touch” data gathering on control group youth and families. While “field guides” have traditionally been employed in the study of plants and fauna, they have increasingly been created to support practitioners in an array of professional fields as they face the obstacles and challenges that can arise while accomplishing specific tasks. The NYS PROMISE Case Management Field Guide was designed for the express purpose of assisting case managers and family coaches in navigating their day-to-day roles, functions, and expectations, while adhering to high quality standards, and managing the impact of their work on their own health and wellbeing. The aim is to ensure that all NYS PROMISE case managers and family coaches (case management practitioners) are equipped to perform their job in a manner that leads to the expected youth and family outcomes of the NYS PROMISE intervention—holding to a common measure of fidelity. While the aim for each case management practitioner will employ different strategies, based on the heterogeneity of the NYS PROMISE population, they will draw from a common set of strategies to ensure consistency in delivery of services and supports. This field guide is presented in modules and is indexed to assist case management practitioners in easily accessing the information they need, when they need it. Following is a summary of the specific modules included in this field guide:CM_Field_Guide_V3_0_1.pdf: 118 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020