[Blindtlk] To move or not to move

[Jessica Kostiw]

To fully answer your question, I think it is important to examine the centers reasoning on why it is important for someone to move away after graduation. One becomes very comfortable in a town after 6 to 9 months. This means both travel and in social situations i.e. the centers themselves. In a nutshell, the centers many times have to deal with people who do not move on emotionally from a center and stay in the same town. These people are often seen coming about the center. The reasoning is, you got the training, you got the confidence, go out and use it. Training is basically 6 to 9 months of teaching you how to deal with getting out of your comfort zone; by the time you were up for graduation you are completely in your comfort zone So basically, in order to actually put the training to use, you need to get out of your comfort zone to improve your skills on your own. Otherwise, what was the point of the whole thing? If you don't use it, you will lose it!

I think almost a bigger reason though, deals with the social aspects. As I mentioned before, there are those who graduate and continue to just hang around the center. At least in Louisiana, the center culture is very close and very difficult to get out of. It is a small town, and basically a set group of friends that are easy to make because you have a lot in common. So the bottom line, yes you can live in the same town as a center. You just need to prove to the center, that you will go out on your own into the community and not be dependent on the center its self. You will not be one of those people that hang around during school hours just being disruptive. Go out and join church, a book club, be active in the community. In Roston it is very possible to not interact with the center at all. Justin is a small town, think about what it would be like in Minneapolis or Denver… Even more possible.
Good luck in your decision! I hope I helped

Jessica
PS sorry for the typos, I'm using Siri. Wanted to write a quick long email.

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 25, 2013, at 1:48 PM, "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com> wrote:

> To really address this question, one would need to know more about why you are raising the question and also the circumstances of an 
> individual would have to be taken into account.  I would say that most of us who live independently had to afford a place to live 
> while on SSI or SSDI at some point in our lives, so one would have to understand what is meant by not being able to afford it and 
> what future plans were involved.  One might also live at home and be the primary care giver thus being as independent as would be the 
> case when living separately.  I'm not sure I've ever heard that our centers require a guarantee of living alone after training as a 
> condition of training, though, so I am wondering about the reason for this question.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Steve Jacobson
> 
> On Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:49:19 -0400, RJ Sandefur wrote:
> 
>> I understand the NFB centers want the stuidents to move away from home after their training and I support this view. However, What 
> if the person is unable to afforwardit? RJ 
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