CENTER FOR EBPs

Nicole Clevenger, BFA
Supported Employment (SE) Consultant and Trainer

Nicole provides consulting and training to service organizations throughout Ohio that are implementing Supported Employment (SE), the evidence-based practice. SE helps people diagnosed with severe mental illness find a competitive job of their choice in local communities with rapid job-search and placement services, as well as follow-along and other services (see sidebar). Nicole also promotes the Center's Benefits Planning consultation and training among service organizations and consumer-operated services (COS) that are helping people make more informed decisions about their benefits situations and employment dreams. In addition, Nicole provides consultation for the Peer-Employment Partnership, a collaboration of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and COS/peer-centers throughout the state. The collaboration is designed to increase employment for people living with severe mental illness.

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Listen

Two clips from conversations with Nicole. For more information, see the “Related Stories” section at the bottom of this page.

1.) Work Is Recovery (2m, 38s) Track #1 from “Every Journey Has a Story” audio CD project. | listen & learn more | get complete story |

2.) New SE Fidelity Scale (4m, 50s) | listen & learn more | get complete story |

ABOUT NICOLE (continued)

Nicole brings unique insight from her own recovery journey to her work as a consultant and trainer at the Center for EBPs. She offers service providers and policy makers a voice from the consumer perspective, which ultimately helps inform decision-making about service innovation. Nicole eagerly shares stories from her experiences, especially those that illustrate the difference between traditional vocational services and evidence-based SE services. She emphatically notes the importance of SE’s core principles and practices, especially the “zero-exclusion” and “consumer preferences” components (see sidebar). She explains that it was the SE model that encouraged service providers to support her preference for a job that matched her interests, education, and skills in writing, advocacy, and art.

Nicole also shares recovery stories with consumers and family members in an effort to encourage others to embrace the struggles and triumphs of their own experiences and to pursue their employment dreams. One of Nicole’s goals is to encourage everyone involved in services to engage in open and ongoing dialogue and to build meaningful relationships that are defined by hope, optimism, and genuine collaboration. Since joining the Center for EBPs, Nicole has interviewed many consumers and written numerous success stories. She insists that personal stories of recovery must be told, because they are the most powerful forms of evidence, ones that bring feeling and, thus, meaning to outcomes and other data.

Nicole serves on the Ohio Supported Employment Advisory Committee as well as the Johnson & Johnson-Dartmouth Community Mental Health Program Advisory Board. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Lake Erie College, with a concentration in visual arts. Prior to joining the Center for EBPs at Case, Nicole had worked as a public relations writer and as a teacher and advocate for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. She was recently profiled in a Supported Employment feature on the CBS Evening News (see below).

RELATED STORIES

John Moneypenny draws upon a strong work ethic to advance his recovery, purpose

A story from Ohio's Peer-Employment Partnership

| listen & learn more |

CBS features Supported Employment success stories in Ohio

| listen & learn more |

Every Journey Has a Story (Audio CD)

| listen & learn more |

New fidelity scale finds its way to Ohio’s supported-employment services

| listen & learn more |