MNTAT Background

MNTAT is operated by Griffin-Hammis Associates, LLC. Griffin-Hammis Associates, LLC is a full service consultancy specializing in developing communities of economic cooperation. Griffin-Hammis Associates (GHA) addresses this mission by providing:

High Quality Training and Technical Consultation
Project Development and Management Services
Inventive Service Delivery

GHA specializes in community rehabilitation improvement, job creation and job site training, employer development, Social Security benefits analysis and work incentives, self-employment feasibility and refinement, management-leadership mentoring, and civic entrepreneurship. Our customers are wide ranging and include businesses, community rehabilitation programs, state and local governments, universities, individuals, and others from the public and private sectors.

In the Minnesota Employment First Summit Consensus Report (June 12, 2007) the participants identified a pressing need in the state for high quality technical assistance and training resources to help improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities in Minnesota Communities. The report states:

“There was an expressed need for the creation of a training and technical assistance (T&TA) entity in Minnesota to provide critical training and technical support services for the leadership, management, and direct service staff of Minnesota’s secondary education, and to the disability, business and employment provider communities. It was strongly recommended that this entity incorporate T&TA strategies that focus specifically on Employment First practices. A T&TA entity is needed to eliminate fragmentation and introduce a model of organizational change and staff development practices through the use of strategies including: web-based training; state and regional training workshops; peer-to-peer mentoring; forums on employment first issues; dissemination of promising policies and practices in workforce development and employment practices; identification of funding and other resources; individual case consultations; and disability benefits planning.”

In January of 2009, the Minnesota Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG), Pathways to Employment, put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to create a training and technical assistance center to respond to the aforementioned needs. Through a competitive process, Griffin-Hammis Associates, LLC, with the collaborative support of Minnesota APSE, was selected by Pathways to Employment as the vendor to create this training and technical assistance entity. On April 1, 2009, the Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Support Center (MNTAT) was created.

MNTAT will accomplish this by using proven, inventive, and evidence-based methods that meld the needs of employment seekers, the business community, service providers, policy makers, families, educators, workforce development professionals and other Minnesota stakeholders. MNTAT will be cross-disability in focus and geographically diverse in its reach.

MNTAT will use a variety of formats and media to respond to constituents’ training and technical assistance needs throughout the state. The goal is to demonstrate and build flexible supports and strategies that will increase and improve the employment outcomes for Minnesotans with disabilities. Among the strategies MNTAT will employ include web-based training (webinars and webcasts); local and regional training events with the support of Minnesota APSE; and the presentation of an annual statewide disability employment conference. In addition, training and technical assistance will be provided in local communities through the establishment of local Community Action Teams (CATs) that will be used as a vehicle for training and technical assistance as well as examples of replicable employment practices that result in the flexible, customized employment of people with disabilities in their local communties.