Interagency Core Team Events
2026 Interagency Core Team Event
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
9 am – 3pm
Killington Grand Hotel
“The Power of Firsts”
Every young person’s future is shaped by a series of “firsts.” Their first opportunity, first job, first advocate, first success, and sometimes their first experience with assumptions that influence what others believe they can achieve.
Join transition professionals from across Vermont for a day of professional development, connection, and practical learning centered around The Power of Firsts. Through lived experiences, youth perspectives, interactive sessions, and cross-system expertise, we’ll explore how our first impressions, expectations, and actions can open, or unintentionally limit opportunities for youth with disabilities.
Throughout the day, workshops will move beyond information-sharing to focus on what we can do with what we learn. Explore how communities are creating first college experiences, how employer partnerships can open doors, how we can recognize the skills youth already have, and how stronger collaboration, family partnerships, transition planning, and self-advocacy can create meaningful opportunities.
But this day isn’t about adding another item to an already-full to-do list. It’s about stepping back, connecting with others, learning from what’s already working, and finding practical ways to build on the work you’re already doing.
Whether you support youth through education, employment, healthcare, human services, or community programs, you’ll leave with new connections, practical tools, fresh perspective, and a renewed sense of possibility, along with one first step you can take to help create a meaningful opportunity for a young person.
Come ready to learn. Come ready to connect. Leave ready to take one step forward.
Agenda
8:30 – 9:00 am: Registration and Networking.
9:00 – 9:05 am: Welcome & housekeeping.
9:05-10:10 am: Keynote: The Power of Firsts.
10:10 – 10:20 am: Move to First Workshop Session.
10:20 – 11:15 am: Workshops Session 1.
11:15 – 11:25 am: Move to Second Workshop Session.
11:25 am – 12:20 pm: Workshops Session 2.
12:20 – 1:15 pm: Buffet lunch and Networking time.
1:15 – 1:20 pm: Move to District Breakout.
1:20 – 2:30 pm: Core Team District Breakouts
2:30 – 2:35 pm: Move back to ballroom.
2:35 – 2:50 pm: Closing Session: Themes for Reflection
2:50 – 3:00 pm: Door Prizes
Keynote:
The Power of Firsts: Deneé MacKenzie, Kaylen Modrak, Jayson Capobianco
Long before a first job, young people experience moments that shape how they see themselves and what they believe is possible. The first assumption made about them. The first opportunity they’re given. The first person who recognizes their strengths and believes in their potential. These “firsts” can influence confidence, self-advocacy, and future success.
Through lived experience, youth perspective, and professional insight, Deneé, Jayson, and Kalen will explore how the expectations, assumptions, relationships, and opportunities surrounding young people can influence what comes next.
Together, they’ll challenge us to look beyond what we see on the surface, consider the experiences and circumstances that may be shaping a young person’s path, and recognize the important role adults play in creating meaningful opportunities. Attendees will be encouraged to consider how curiosity, high expectations, connection, and the chance to experience a successful “first” can help young people recognize their strengths, build confidence, and see new possibilities for themselves.
Because sometimes one person, one opportunity, or one first can change what happens next.
Core Team Breakout Groups
This year, we’re bringing the conversation closer to home by breaking out into our district core teams instead of breaking out by region as we have in previous years. This shift gives us an opportunity to build stronger connections within our local communities, learn from the experiences and strengths of those around us, and focus on the possibilities that exist right where we live and work.
Together, we’ll identify opportunities, share what’s working, challenge ourselves to think differently, and consider how we can turn ideas into action. The goal isn’t simply to leave with good ideas, it’s to leave knowing what first step we can take together to create greater opportunities for young people in our districts.
Workshops
Access Day: Creating a College Experience, Burlington Core Team Members
What if a student’s first experience with college could happen before they graduate from high school?
Burlington HireAbility, schools, and Community College of Vermont (CCV) teamed up to create an Access Day, giving students and families an opportunity to experience college, ask questions, and begin seeing themselves as college students.
In this interactive session, the Burlington team will walk through what they did, what they learned, and how transition core teams can create a similar opportunity in their own communities.
Most importantly, attendees will consider: What first opportunity can we create to help a student explore college, make an informed choice, and take their next step?
Come ready to identify your own first step toward implementing an Access Day or similar college-access experience in your area.
The Skills They Already Have: Shifting Mindsets About Youth Readiness, Katie O’Shea, VT Afterschool
Too often, the focus is on whether young people are “ready” for what comes next. This workshop challenges that mindset by exploring how youth are already developing skills, strengths, and experiences that prepare them for the future. Participants will learn how to recognize those skills, support youth in naming their strengths, and create opportunities for young people to continue growing. You will leave with ready-to-use resources to help youth shift their own mindset, recognize the skills they are already building, and see how those strengths connect to future opportunities.
The First Step Towards Employment and Career Exploration with HireAbility, Katie Coe & Nat Piper
Every employment journey starts somewhere, a first conversation with an employer, a first opportunity to explore a career, a first workplace experience, or a first step toward a job goal. In this conversational workshop, we’ll explore how Business Account Managers and HireAbility’s employer partnerships can help create those first steps.
Together, we’ll connect career exploration, progressive employment, and other HireAbility resources to the opportunities they make possible for job seekers. We’ll look at how we can use these tools and relationships intentionally to create experiences that help someone discover their strengths, build skills, and see what might be possible.
Attendees will leave challenged to identify one “first” they can help create and one action they will take to make it happen.
Panel: Building Systems That Work Together
Supporting youth and families often requires navigating multiple systems, agencies, and services. This panel brings together system partners and problem-solvers to explore how organizations can better align efforts, clarify roles, and strengthen collaboration. Hear real-world examples of what happens when systems work together and when gaps create barriers. Facilitated with youth voice at the center, this conversation will highlight practical strategies, resources, and lessons learned for professionals working across education, employment, health, mental health, and community services.
Education & Transition Planning, John Spinney and Jayson Capobianco
This workshop will explore effective transition planning practices that help students prepare for life after high school. Participants will learn about IDEA requirements, evidence-based approaches, and statewide transition outcomes, including Indicator 13 and 14 data. The session will highlight strategies for implementing meaningful transition plans, strengthening collaboration, and supporting successful post-school outcomes for students.
The First Time I Spoke Up: Creating Firsts That Build Self-Advocacy, Green Mountain Self Advocates
High school is full of important “firsts” for students with disabilities. The first time I spoke at my IEP meeting. The first time someone asked me what I want for my future. The first time I asked for an accommodation. The first time I disagreed with a decision. The first time I said, “I want to try this myself.”
These moments can build confidence and self-advocacy skills that last long after graduation. But sometimes, with the best intentions, adults step in too quickly, speak for students, or protect them from experiences that could help them learn and grow.
In this interactive workshop, Green Mountain Self-Advocates (GMSA) Peer Trainers will share their lived experiences of learning to speak up, make choices, take risks, make mistakes, and advocate for themselves. Together, Peer Trainers will explore how educators and counselors can recognize everyday opportunities for students to practice self-advocacy, before they leave school and are expected to do it on their own.
Participants will leave with practical strategies they can use to create more opportunities for students to have a voice, make real choices, try new things, and take the lead in decisions about their own lives.
Partnering with Families: Moving from “Doing For” to “Supporting With”, Vermont Family Network
Families are essential partners in a young person’s transition, but professionals can sometimes struggle to balance family involvement with keeping the young person’s goals, preferences, and voice at the center. Join Vermont Family Network (VFN) Family Support staff for an interactive session focusing on how professionals can build stronger partnerships with parents/caregivers while supporting youth autonomy at the same time.
Event Food
Coffee available all day
Breakfast – A La Carte
- Coffee and Tea
- Greek Yogurt
- Bagels
Lunch – Soup and Sandwich Assortment
- Butternut Squash Maple Bisque
- Baby Spinach Salad
- Field Greens
- Turkey and Smoked Bacon Sandwich
- Italian Sub Sandwich
- Quinoa Crusted Black Bean Wrap
- Assorted Cookies and Double Fudge Brownies
Certificates of Attendance
Certificates of attendance for continuing education will be distributed at the end of the event. Because the Core Team Breakouts are a central part of this event, we ask that all attendees plan to participate in the full day, including their district-based breakout session.
The breakouts are an important opportunity to move from learning to action, connecting with colleagues, sharing ideas, and identifying meaningful next steps within your district. Your participation is an essential part of what makes this event valuable and we encourage everyone to stay through the conclusion of the day.
Certificates will be available after the closing activities upon departure.
Core Team Purpose and Function
Core Transition Teams increase capacity at the local level to develop, provide, and manage an effective transition process for students with disabilities who are age 14 or older. Teams work with school staff to identify students who may need “transition services” that involve inter-agency partners such as HireAbility, Developmental Services and others.
Teams identify available resources and supports to assist students in achieving their goals as they transition to life after high school. Recognizing that communities will have their own individual approach, it is important that all high school special education staff, Agency of Human Services (AHS) staff, and community partners have access to the support of a Local Core Transition Team.
HireAbility Transition Counselors or other agreed upon community partners will convene the Team as the facilitator. Core Transition Teams should include key members from the school, adult agencies and the community who are involved/concerned with the transition of students from school to adult life.
Depending on the needs of the school and community, teams typically meet either monthly or quarterly throughout the school year. When discussing individual student issues, the focus is student centered and the planning should revolve around that student’s individualized desired outcomes. Teams often work best when the roles of facilitator, timekeeper, minute taker, and observer are shared, and the success of the team is a shared effort among providers.
Core Team Activities by District
Core Teams are organized into twelve regions around the state. Each team has a webpage that lists upcoming meetings, previous meeting notes, current members, and regional and state resources that support youth in transition.
Barre
Bennington
Statewide Agency Core Team
The Statewide Agency Core team is comprised of leaders from agencies who serve the whole state who serve youth in Vermont. It is co-facilitated by the Transition Program Manager of HireAbility Vermont and the Secondary Special Education Director from the Agency of Education. Agencies represented include HireAbility Vermont and the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Vocational Rehabilitation agencies), Agency of Education (Special Education, Dual Enrollment, and Adult Education and Literacy), Department of Labor (WIOA and Youth Programs), Department of Mental Health, Department of Children and Families (Family Services), Vermont Family Network, Vermont Assistive Technology Program, Department of Health (Children with Special Health Needs), Developmental Services Division of DAIL, UVM Center for Disability and Community Inclusion, and JobCorps. The core team operates on a Problems of Practice Model which creates smaller working groups to focus on topics that impact youth supported by two or more agencies. We meet the 3rd Tuesday of February, April, June, August, October, and December via Microsoft Teams.
Problem of Practice Topics Include
- Access to drivers education and transportation
- Improving relationships with agencies who support youth working with DCF-Family Services
- Barriers to employment for youth eligible for developmental services exiting high school
- Strengthening the relationship between the JOBS Supported Employment Program for youth with high levels of barriers and DCF-FSD, Youth Development Program, and VDOL
- Creating stronger pathways for youth to access the resources of JobCorps and to successfully return to their communities after completing training.
Youth Voice
HireAbility provides several opportunities for youth and young adults to develop leadership and advocacy skills. At the annual Interagency Core Team event, a panel of youth and young adults with disabilities share their experiences navigating the transition process. Through the Pathways to Partnerships grant, HireAbility is also forming a Youth Voice team to ensure that youth and young adults have an active role in advising the partner organizations that serve transition age youth.