American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Training and Technical Assistance Center (AIVRTTAC)
AIVRTTAC is a partnership between the Northern Arizona University – Institute for Human Development and the Northwest Indian College – Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation Institute. The overarching goal of AIVRTTAC is to improve the capacity of AIVRS projects to provide culturally appropriate vocational rehabilitation services to all eligible tribal participants.
Culturally Appropriate and Responsive Training, Technical Assistance, and Capacity Building Services
AIVRTTAC defines Appropriate and Responsive Training, Technical Assistance, and Capacity Building Services as follows:
In the provision of education, guidance, technical assistance, and capacity building to address the essential needs of the AIVRS projects, AIVRTTAC will recognize and respect each Tribe’s unique history, sovereignty, oral traditional knowledge, spirituality, languages, beliefs, values, livelihoods, ceremonies, and perspectives about Tribal members with disabilities.
The AIVRS Program is designed to provide vocational rehabilitation services, including culturally appropriate services, to American Indians with disabilities who reside on or near Federal or State reservations, consistent with such eligible individual’s strengths, resources, priorities, concerns, abilities, capabilities, interests, and informed choice, so that such individual may prepare for, and engage in, high-quality employment that will increase opportunities for economic self-sufficiency.
The goal of AIVRTTAC is to improve the capacity of AIVRS projects to provide culturally appropriate vocational rehabilitation services to all eligible Tribal participants. This is accomplished through the provision of intensive training and technical assistance (ITTA); targeted training and technical assistance (TTTA); universal training and technical assistance (UTTA); and credit- and non-credit-bearing academic/capacity building programming, delivered through an approach that is respectful of and responsive to the beliefs, practices, and cultural attributes of AIVRS projects staff. The result will be an increase in the knowledge and skills of AIVRS project personnel, which will result in improved employment outcomes for AIVRS participants.
AIVRTTAC’s culturally appropriate and responsive services will ensure its relevance to the cultural background, needs, priorities, experiences, interests, and capabilities of AIVRS participants to make informed decisions to become gainfully employed, achieve improved quality of life, become financially self-sufficient, and live independently.
- Acknowledge the unique social and historical contexts of Tribal VR settings.
- Conduct TTA in culturally respectful, relevant, and meaningful ways.
- Conduct Talking Circles in safe and trusting learning environments.
- Demonstrate respect for participants’ lived experiences, beliefs, values, and traditional indigenous knowledge.
- Bridge Federal VR practices and Tribal VR holistic practices through capacity building.
- Strengthen participants’ identity, beliefs, and traditions through culturally responsive teaching.
- Practice reciprocity with participants to achieve shared common goals and ensure they feel valued and empowered.
- Ensure that knowledge translation complements Tribal VR emerging and promising practices.
- Offer academic courses and coaching to build the capacity, knowledge, and skills of Tribal VR personnel.
- Maintain an accessible and user-friendly project website with relevant cultural information and resources.
- Develop activities, materials, products, and practices that are culturally responsive to participants.
- Integrate cultural knowledge and practices within project activities.
- Incorporate Native adult learning principles.
- Honor and celebrate Tribal VR programs’ achievements.
- Cultivate collaborative partnerships to ensure giving back to Tribal communities.
- Focus efforts on Tribal VR goals to benefit project participants and sustain VR services.
Four Hubs
Provides training and technical assistance on the following topic areas to AIVRS projects:
- Applicable laws and regulations
- Promising practices for providing services
- Delivery of VR services
- Assistive technology
- Professional development practices
- Financial and grant management practices
- Project performance evaluation
- Other topics upon request and need
- Offers a hybrid of 13 quarter-long courses in American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation topics through NWIC.
- Provides training on the fiscal/financial management toolkit previously developed by the TVR Institute in order to build foundational skills for AIVRS staff and others working in the field.
- Will develop a pathway for AIVRS project staff to obtain ongoing training (both credit- and non-credit-bearing) that will lead to improved knowledge and skills as well as potential degrees (bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral) in relevant fields.
Bridges research to practice in a manner that promotes the use of evidence-based emerging and promising practices across all aspects of AIVRTTAC. Materials, content, and delivery of all levels of technical assistance will incorporate best practices.
Assesses and monitors AIVRTTAC’s progress toward achieving performance outcomes. Measures training and technical assistance effectiveness.
Two Support Components
Guides and leads all dissemination and universal training and technical assistance (including verifying accessibility) through:
- AIVRTTAC website
- Webinars
- Social media
- Print materials
- Weekly updates
- National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation Training materials
Ensures that all AIVRTTAC materials and activities are culturally responsive through:
- Providing culturally responsive teaching
- Researching needs assessments, including examining and developing culturally based promising VR practices
- Assisting AIVRTTAC participants in adapting standard VR practices to the cultural and social needs of AIVRS projects
- Using the AIVRTTAC holistic AIVRS project model
- Developing opportunities to bridge understanding between cultures
Operating on tribal lands in 26 states, the purpose of the American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Services (AIVRS) Projects is to help tribal members with disabilities prepare for and obtain gainful employment. To assist AIVRS Projects in achieving that goal, in October 2015 the Northern Arizona University’s Institute for Human Development was awarded a five-year grant and entered into a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Rehabilitation Services Administration. Its purpose was to develop the American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Training and Technical Assistance Center (AIVRTTAC) in order to provide education, guidance, and technical assistance (TA) to AIVRS Projects. This grant has enabled AIVRTTAC to develop and provide three types of training and TA to 93 AIVRS Projects across the nation.
ITA activities might include an initial- and post-case file review; a policies and procedures review; training on program management and case management practices; and coaching and guidance on vocational rehabilitation (VR) practices and services. ITA is intended to bring about changes to policies, programs, practices, and/or operations that can increase an AIVRS Project’s capacity for improved outcomes at one or more systems levels (whether programmatic, community, state, or federal).
In order to begin ITA services, the AIVRS Project and AIVRTTAC develop an ITA Agreement (ITAA), which involves the whole staff and stipulates a longer time commitment (several months to over a year) on the part of the AIVRS Project. Typically, the ITA site is provided a minimum of two onsite visits in order to gather information that will help define and inform the activities and processes in the ITAA. In addition, AIVRTTAC provides consistent in-depth virtual meetings to train staff on key topics that meet the objectives of the ITAA.
TTA often takes on the form of coaching and guidance phone calls or short one-to-one emails, with the goal of helping AIVRS Project staff clarify challenges. It also includes the almost 100 webinars and in-person training and TA that have been provided by AIVRTTAC over the last six years. TTA trainings cover a wide range of topics, including conversations on self-care in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, an overview of the VR process, and best practices for program evaluation and data management.
UTA is provided through website information or resources such as newsletters, recorded webinars and Talking Circles, products and tools, toolkits, and e-learning modules, all of which can be downloaded from the AIVRTTAC website by independent users. Through UTA, AIVRTTAC has reached over 5,000 users in the last six years.
AIVRTTAC staff are always seeking to understand the needs of all AIVRS Projects so that we may continue to design and provide culturally responsive training and TA activities. Our ultimate goal is to improve the capacity of AIVRS Projects to provide VR services and increase successful employment outcomes for all eligible tribal participants.