Directors' Five-Year Review
Collaboration, New Technologies Powered Cycle's Successes
Submitted by PEPNet Directors Dianne Brooks, Elise Knopf, Marcia Kolvitz, and Cathy McLeod
The "ancient" regional center acronyms- MCPO, NETAC, PEC, and WROCC- seem like quite a blast from the past, and yet it's only been five years since we used them. As we come to the end of the current funding cycle, it's good to reflect about where we started, what we've accomplished, and where we're going.
From the start, the PEPNet staff knew things would be different than what we had experienced in past project cycles. As we prepared our proposals, we included ways that we could collaborate across regional center lines. We were expected to reduce duplication of efforts and come up with streamlined ways of doing things whenever possible, but we also knew that we needed to address issues specific to our own regions. Although we'd worked together in the past, everyone recognized an increased expectation to do things differently. What would our first step be?
First, we agreed to change the names of our centers to recognize PEPNet as the umbrella organization under which the four regional centers reside. That's how PEPNet-Midwest, PEPNet-Northeast, PEPNet-South, and PEPNet- West were created.
The second step was to develop a plan to provide services. Our funding source, the Office of Special Education Programs within the U.S. Department of Education, outlined expectations to provide personnel development activities, technical assistance and dissemination, and technology use activities. Many PEPNet staff members had experience providing training and technical assistance, but the technology use area was a fairly new frontier for us. We realized that technology use could include access services as well as technology used to deliver course content, but none of us could have imagined how much and how quickly technology would change during these five years!
One of the biggest - and possibly most challenging - steps was one that probably was not visible to our stakeholders. To accomplish our goals and work effectively as collaborators, we needed to design a new "workgroup" structure to help us organize some of our common functions and address core issues.
Staff members from each region, for example, collaborated to develop the PEPNet Perspectives newsletter, design and maintain the PEPNet website, expand the Frequently Asked Questions materials, coordinate transition materials, and create the online College Guide. The outcomes associated with the Marketing Workgroup, including developing a logo and tagline as well as print and multi-media materials to support a national marketing, public relations, and exhibiting plan, were fundamental to establishing our collaborative model.
Working as partners, we not only reduced duplication of efforts, but also incorporated a broader and deeper understanding of the issues confronting all of us, resulting in higher quality services for our stakeholders.
We are proud of our accomplishments during this project cycle, and we are confident that the changes we have made have had a positive impact on colleagues who utilize our services. As we look toward the future, we will draw from what we have learned to provide everyone with the resources needed to meet our common goal: to enhance educational opportunities for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
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