[Ct-nfb] Good News from Rhode Island

Sat Mar 15 19:47:38 UTC 2014

Good afternoon all;
Sue you bring up some interesting views on this subject, however those individuals whe are or were employed at sheltered workshops are there for one reason and that is to earn a living. If indeed they're earning a competitive wage, and manage to make some social contacts this is a good thing. I have met a number of individuals the several different work places. In fact I met my wife at Stop & Shop while I was employed there. However a place of business is just that, and there are a lot of other places such as church, and other so called social settings. I don't believe that either the state of federal government should fund a place just for people to go and hang around and be soically excepted. If indeed they're looking for social hangouts than let's call them social hangouts and forget exploiting the disabled by paying them less than minamum wage. I am afraid I will have to side with Justin (which by the way is a rarity for both us) on this one. Let me
 also add that I am currently unemployed and have been for over 2 years, this is partially due to the fact that I was hospitalized for 2 months of last year, and it has taken me pretty much a whole year to recover. 

Rich McGaffin

From: Susan Harper <sueharpernp at gmail.com>
To: NFB of Connecticut Mailing List <ct-nfb at nfbnet.org> 
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2014 9:05 AM
Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] Good News from Rhode Island

I disagree that this is a good idea.  Sheltered workshops do a lot more than provide employment.  Generally they provide a host of services as well as a social atmosphere of acceptance and a peer group.  It is already difficult to connect with others and find support and important information regarding many issues and rights.  I think this will be a way to further isolate and separate those with the most need for services.  Folks will be less able to advocate for their needs and languish in communities where there are already to few services.  Be careful what you wish for!  There are pros and cons to everything.  I strongly agree that there should be real pay for real work.  There still needs to be a stepping stone and a continuum of services, a bridge if you will to get there.   

Blessings,
Sue H.

On Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 8:10 AM, Len Schlenk <lfs40 at optonline.net> wrote:

The closing of all workshops in Ct will take its effect on me the end of June. They will either find me another job or I will be unemployed.
>
>Len Schlenk ---- Original Message ----- 
>From: Justin Salisbury 
>>To: nfbwnews at nfbwis.org ; ct-nfb at nfbnet.org 
>>Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2014 12:43 AM
>>Subject: [Ct-nfb] Good News from Rhode Island
>>
>>
>>Stenning’s goal: Close all ‘sheltered workshops’ for adults with disabilities within three years
>>January 16, 2014 11:20 PM
>>>CRANSTON — The head of the state agency that serves adults with disabilities has set a goal of closing all “sheltered” workshops in Rhode Island within the next three years.
>>>Craig S. Stenning, director of the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH), on Thursday outlined an aggressive effort under way to move disabled adults out of what federal civil-rights officials say are segregated work settings and day programs and into jobs and activities in the community.
>>>The effort, he said, represents a “major transformation of the system” akin to the movement to deinstitutionalize the disabled in residential settings with the closing of The Ladd School in the mid- 1980s.
>>>The U.S. Department of Justice earlier this month released the findings of an investigation launched a year ago by its civil-rights division that charges the state with operating segregated employment, vocational and day programs for about 3,600 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
>>>The report describes the problem of segregation as beginning when disabled students leave school and continuing throughout their lives. (The state Department of Education and the state Office of Rehabilitative Services also were named in the report.)
>>>In an interview Thursday at his Cranston office, joined by five other staff members, Stenning spoke about some of the challenges his department has had in integrating disabled adults into the wider community, including a lackluster job market and the fear of change among some of the programs’ clients and their families.
>>>The department’s (BHDDH’s) budget for “services to the developmentally disabled” has declined by about $29 million, or 11 percent, since 2009, when Stenning took over as director, state budget figures show.
>>>But budget cuts, he said, have not been a major impediment to change. “At one time the budget for the State of Rhode Island for developmental disability services came to $109,000 per person per year — that was the highest in the country,” Stenning said. “So I don’t think the argument that budget cuts are the reason why it [integrated employment] didn’t happen is a valid argument.”
>>>Stenning said that he and other department staff have begun reaching out to mayors in Cranston, Pawtucket and Warwick as part of the department’s new “Employment First” program aimed at ensuring equal employment opportunities for adults with disabilities.
>>>The BHDDH also has sought bids for proposals to create a “center for excellence and advocacy” that would include providing job assistance and outreach to disabled adults and their families.
>>>The department also is reaching out to private businesses, he said. Some companies, such as CVS and Automated Business Solutions, recently hired several adults with disabilities who were formerly in sheltered workshops.
>>>The department has so far placed 40 adults with disabilities who formerly worked at a sheltered workshop run by Training Thru Placement in jobs in the community since the state signed an “interim settlement agreement” with the Justice Department last June. The agreement was to settle violations Justice Department officials found at the sheltered workshop and a vocational program at The Birch School in Providence.
>>>To meet the goals of that interim settlement agreement — which covers about 200 adults at TTP and The Birch School — will take eight years, Stenning said Justice officials told him.
>>>Now, the task has expanded to include thousands of adults with disabilities in 24 day programs, including six sheltered workshops. “My goal is much shorter … closing [sheltered] workshops in three years,” Stenning said, adding, “I’d love if we could fulfill our goal in five.” Even as he stressed his commitment to the goal of moving more adults with disabilities into jobs in the community, he defended the agencies that operate the sheltered workshops, saying they were “state of the art” at the time they were created.
>>>Except for Training Thru Placement, which federal labor officials cited for wage hour violations, he said, the six other sheltered workshops have been operating in accordance with the state labor rules. Justice officials said in their report that many of the adults with disabilities participating in these sheltered workshops have the ability and desire to work in the community for jobs that pay at least minimum wage.
>>>“The Department of Justice’s definition [of segregation],” Stenning said, “is different from the Department of Labor’s definition.”
>>>He said that many of the recommendations made by Justice officials are “totally complementary” with efforts the department has had in the works for the last five years, such as improving how the department assess the needs and abilities of disabled adults and improving communication with their families.
>>>Stenning, who joined the BHDDH in 2000, was appointed director in 2008 by former Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and reappointed by Governor Chafee in 2011.
>>>Mr. Anil Lewis, M.P.A.
>>>Deputy Executive Director 
>>>(410) 659-9314 ext. 2374 
>>>Twitter: @AnilLife 
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