<div dir="ltr">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. <div>
<br></div><div>Blessings,</div><div>Sue H.</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 8:10 AM, Len Schlenk <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lfs40@optonline.net" target="_blank">lfs40@optonline.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div dir="auto" bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font face="Arial">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.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Len Schlenk</font> ---- Original Message -----
</div>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#000000 2px solid;PADDING-LEFT:5px;PADDING-RIGHT:0px;MARGIN-LEFT:5px;MARGIN-RIGHT:0px">
<div style="FONT:10pt arial;BACKGROUND:#e4e4e4"><b>From:</b>
<a title="PRESIDENT@alumni.ecu.edu" href="mailto:PRESIDENT@alumni.ecu.edu" target="_blank">Justin Salisbury</a> </div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial"><b>To:</b> <a title="nfbwnews@nfbwis.org" href="mailto:nfbwnews@nfbwis.org" target="_blank">nfbwnews@nfbwis.org</a> ; <a title="ct-nfb@nfbnet.org" href="mailto:ct-nfb@nfbnet.org" target="_blank">ct-nfb@nfbnet.org</a>
</div><div class="">
<div style="FONT:10pt arial"><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, March 15, 2014 12:43
AM</div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial"><b>Subject:</b> [Ct-nfb] Good News from Rhode
Island</div>
<div><br></div>
</div><div><div class="h5"><div><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Times New Roman',serif;FONT-SIZE:12pt">Stenning’s
goal: Close all ‘sheltered workshops’ for adults with disabilities within
three years</span></div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">January 16, 2014 11:20 PM<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.)<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.”<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The Department of Justice’s definition [of
segregation],” Stenning said, “is different from the Department of Labor’s
definition.”<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri','sans-serif';COLOR:#1f497d;FONT-SIZE:11pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri','sans-serif';COLOR:#1f497d;FONT-SIZE:11pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri','sans-serif';COLOR:#1f497d;FONT-SIZE:11pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri','sans-serif';COLOR:#1f497d;FONT-SIZE:11pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri','sans-serif';COLOR:#1f497d;FONT-SIZE:11pt">Mr.
Anil Lewis, M.P.A.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri','sans-serif';COLOR:#1f497d;FONT-SIZE:11pt">Deputy
Executive Director <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri','sans-serif';COLOR:#1f497d;FONT-SIZE:11pt">(410)
659-9314 ext. 2374 <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri','sans-serif';COLOR:#1f497d;FONT-SIZE:11pt">Twitter:
@AnilLife <u></u><u></u></span></p></div></div></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>Nfb-legislative-directors
mailing list</span><br><span><a href="mailto:Nfb-legislative-directors@nfbnet.org" target="_blank">Nfb-legislative-directors@nfbnet.org</a></span><br><span><a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-legislative-directors_nfbnet.org" target="_blank">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-legislative-directors_nfbnet.org</a></span><br>
<span>To
unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Nfb-legislative-directors:</span><br><span><a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-legislative-directors_nfbnet.org/president%40alumni.ecu.edu" target="_blank">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-legislative-directors_nfbnet.org/president%40alumni.ecu.edu</a></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div></div><p>
</p><hr><div class="">
<p></p>_______________________________________________<br>Ct-nfb mailing
list<br><a href="mailto:Ct-nfb@nfbnet.org" target="_blank">Ct-nfb@nfbnet.org</a><br><a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org" target="_blank">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org</a><br>
</div>To
unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Ct-nfb:<br><a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/lfs40%40optonline.net" target="_blank">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/lfs40%40optonline.net</a><p></p></blockquote></div>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>
Ct-nfb mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Ct-nfb@nfbnet.org">Ct-nfb@nfbnet.org</a><br>
<a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org" target="_blank">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org</a><br>
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Ct-nfb:<br>
<a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/griswoldjp%40gmail.com" target="_blank">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/griswoldjp%40gmail.com</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div>