MG&A's History: Creating Another Way
Jump to: 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010 - PRESENT
The 1970s
Founded in 1976 by Dr. Marc Gold, MG&A has provided quality training, consulting, grant management, and advocacy services designed to assure the complete community access of all individuals with disabilities. The primary areas of focus of MG&A for nearly five decades have been Systematic Instruction, Customized and Supported Employment and community access. Upon seeing a training demonstration by Dr. Gold at a conference in Los Angeles, Ed Roberts, director of vocational rehabilitation services in California and later the founder of the World Institute on Disabilities, asked Marc to start an organization that could train service providers throughout that state. This marked the origins of MG&A. Following statewide training projects in the late 1970's in California, Georgia, and Ohio, MG&A shifted its focus to employment. The organization, under Dr. Gold's guidance, joined other innovators to pioneer early examples of supported employment beginning in 1979 and continuing into the next decade.
1976 MG&A was formed by Marc Gold at the request of Ed Roberts to conduct training in California.
Dr. Marc Gold, ca. 1976
1978 Georgia Project was started – two-year duration.
1979 Ohio Project was started – four-year duration.
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Projects in California, Georgia, and Ohio represented an intensive system change effort, in which MG&A trainers and mentors worked to build capacity to implement the “Try Another Way” approach.
The 1980s
Marc Gold contracted lymphoma and died unexpectedly in late 1982. Eight members of the organization purchased the rights to the name and intellectual property of MG&A in 1983 and the next phase of the organization began with Michael Callahan as president. During the 1980's MG&A focused primarily on training an amended version of Dr. Gold's Try Another Way approach to systematic instruction. New associates were added as the employment field shifted from demand-based supported employment to negotiated customized employment.
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The Motorola Project was started in Austin, Texas, in 1980. It served as the first commercial workplace implementation of Try Another Way. Five additional large corporations (including IBM, Abbott Labs) joined this Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) -funded employment initiative between 1980 – 1982. MG&A trainers worked on company production floors to include PWDs in their workforce, and some aspects of the approach began to be included in training strategies for all employees.
1980 Marc Gold contracts lymphoma and begins treatment.
1981 Mississippi Project was started – one-year CETA-funded employment project.
1982 Marc Gold dies on December 22, 1982.
1983 MG&A was purchased from Marc’s estate by eight former employees as a “C” corporation.
Getting Employed, Staying Employed was published by Brookes Publishing.
Michael Callahan (along with Brad Garner and Cavin McLoughlin) was co-editor of Keys to the Workplace, the first “how-to” text on supported employment.
Early work on the Vocational Profile Strategy – the approach that would later become known as “Discovery” - was initiated.
Michael Callahan and MG&A began a 13-year partnership with United Cerebral Palsy Associations, lasting until 2000.
1988 MG&A began using the term “Negotiated Supported Employment” and developed a process that would later be referred to as Customized Employment.
““The Customized Employment Training with Marc Gold & Associates is truly unique. The training is unique because of the passion, knowledge, and expertise their trainers bring into training and mentoring employment specialists, whether that is in a classroom or virtually. Customized Employment provides a new avenue for job seekers to pursue their aspirations in employment that is not only exciting, but successful.””
The 1990s
1990 The Vocational Profile Strategy, that would later become known as “Discovery”, is included as a foundational service concept in the federally-funded staff project by UCPA, the Self-Directed Staff Training Project (SDST). This project trained hundreds of employment service staff in three states.
1992 MG&A conceptualized the Seven Phase Sequence.
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The seven-phase sequence helps identify natural ways, means and people, then facilitate and/or provide instruction in a manner appropriate to each individual and environment.
1996 MG&A coined the term “Discovery” to replace the phrase “Vocational Profile Strategy.”
1997 Michael Callahan and Brad Garner authored Keys to the Workplace, a text that included information on Discovery and systematic instruction in workplaces.
During the 1990's, MG&A forged new pathways to employment for individuals with the most significant disabilities. Having developed the concept of the vocational profile while at Syracuse University in the 1980's, Callahan and his colleagues developed the Discovery process as an alternative to traditional comparative assessment procedures that often excluded individuals the significant disabilities from employment. Shortly thereafter, Callahan and others at MG&A worked to create a system to develop negotiated, customized jobs in the community.
MG&A continued to expand across the nation. MG&A worked extensively in Texas to assist the state agency serving persons with intellectual disabilities to reform its employment services in anticipation of a state-wide Medicaid waiver. MG&A partnered with United Cerebral Palsy Associations to implement national initiatives in the areas of personal budgets, self-determination and utilizing the emerging workforce system as a viable source of support for employment for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The 2000s
The decade of 2000-2010 saw a continuing development of concepts designed to enhance access to employment for all persons with disabilities. MG&A worked with the states of Alaska and Michigan to implement their projects funded by the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) on Customized Employment as well as with numerous other sites as a technical assistance provider for the National Center on Workforce and Disability, the national technical assistance center for the ODEP Customized Employment projects. During the following years, MG&A emerged as a clear leader in developing and then training concepts that would enhance access to employment through CE.
Beginning in 2007, MG&A began to work with several states on their Medicaid Infrastructure Grants (MIG), particularly in Wisconsin and New York where statewide initiatives on Customized Employment have been developed with MG&A's assistance. MG&A then joined the Southeast (Technical Assistance and Continuing Education) TACE to provide employment training and consultation to the state rehabilitation agencies in the eight states in the southeast region of the TACE network. In December of 2011 MG&A in coordination with Southeast TACE implemented a Transition Conference within the TASH conference. The conference was also live streamed so that vocational rehabilitation staff, providers and families were able to attend both in person and virtually.
2000 MG&A formed a non-profit entity, Employment for All. New associates joined MG&A as a result of this partnership.
2001 The newly-formed Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) coins the term “Customized Employment” and suggests that an “individualized determination of the strengths, needs, and interests of the person with a disability” be used to guide employment services. This “determination” was a generic way of describing the Discovery process: an MG&A strategy.
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The US Social Security Administration contacted the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services with an offer to fund a major Youth Transition Demonstration if MG&A would be included in both the management and technical assistance. This six-year initiative allowed MG&A to embed customized employment and systematic instruction strategies within a nationally-significant transition projects for students with significant disabilities.
2009 Held the Inaugural Discovery Retreat in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
2010 - PRESENT
2010 MG&A was contracted by University of South Florida to develop a webinar-based certification for university students.
2012 MG&A was contracted by SourceAmerica to provide training and technical assistance for the Pathways to Careers initiative, a paid internship-to-work project focusing on Customized Employment outcomes.
Developed an in-house performance-based certification program for Discovery.
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MG&A developed performance-based certification in response to the need to have a more robust instructional approach to Customized Employment and Systematic Instruction services. Participants are provided a mentor to assist them with feedback and guidance as they conduct the actual performance of the Discovery, Customized Job Development or Systematic Instruction processes.
2013 Began offering performance-based certification in Discovery in Pennsylvania contracted by the Arc of Pennsylvania.
2014 Developed an in-house performance-based certification program for Customized Job Development.
Began offering performance-based certification in Customized Job Development in Pennsylvania and in various locations across the US.
2015 Developed an in-house performance-based certification program for Systematic Instruction and Job Site Supports.
Began offering performance-based certification in Systematic Instruction and Job Site Supports in Pennsylvania and various locations across the United States.
2016 Received a contract from WINTAC and Y-TAC technical assistance centers to develop a draft for the Essential Elements of Customized Employment.
Received ACRE status for certification in Supported Employment.
2017 Developed the Essential Elements of CE for WINTAC and Y-TAC.
2018 Held the 10th Annual Discovery Retreat in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
Received ACRE status for certification in Customized Employment.
2019 Announced a multi-year transition of ownership of MG&A from Michael Callahan to Therese Fimian.
2020 MG&A began offering virtual training in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
2022 Therese Fimian took ownership of MG&A from President Emeritus Michael Callahan.
Therese has worked in the disability employment field for over 20 years, overseeing national workforce, research and demonstration projects and programs to increase access to employment, economic, and professional empowerment for individuals with significant disabilities.
For eight years, Therese directed a national initiative through which several hundred customized employment positions were created, and hundreds of strong partnerships with businesses were established.
Since launching its annual Discovery retreat, MG&A has facilitated a nationwide discourse on Discovery, Customized Employment, and the effective implementation of the processes. Attendees are provided updated information such as discussion papers, forms, PowerPoint presentations and "how to guides" for various aspects of the Discovery and Customized Employment process. This information allows attendees to effectively implement Customized Employment approaches when they return home in a manner consistent with best practices.
During the Discovery retreat, MG&A consultants also meet to review current projects, training materials and discuss how to ensure that all information is presented in a cohesive and consistent manner.
Throughout the decades, however, a common thread for MG&A's services has been systematic instruction based on Gold's Try Another Way approach. This timeless strategy remains critical to the success of all employment efforts for persons with significant disabilities. MG&A is the lone steward of Marc's enduring work on instruction. The core concepts have been continually, but carefully, updated to reflect the most effective and respectful means to assist individuals with disabilities to perform critical tasks in a quality manner.
““While MG&A’s approach to Customized Employment establishes the defined process, it is flexible enough to tailor it to the job seeker’s talents and interests. The training is clear, concise and thorough which provides an excellent base of knowledge for staff to follow while allowing the job seeker to fully participate in the process. Staff gain confidence in not only discovering the job seekers strengths, abilities and interests but also in their approach with employers. I can’t begin to describe how much it has benefited the job seeker, staff and community.””
Throughout her entire career, she has worked with national and state agencies to develop and improve strategy, policy, and practice to increase interest in and access to resources and services that result in competitive, integrated employment for individuals with disabilities. These efforts required the improvement of employment services, incorporation of financial and benefits planning, and increased access to assistive technologies.
Therese joined MG&A as an associate in July 2019, and assumed its presidency along with ownership of the organization in 2022.