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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Rich</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>They are suppose to find jobs for ys but they have
been looking since July. I am on of the lucky ones how earns $8.70 a hour. THey
have all ready lessing my worl from 30 hours a week to 24 hours plus they have
cut out all benifits that I had.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Len</FONT></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">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=rmcgaffin@snet.net href="mailto:rmcgaffin@snet.net">Richard
McGaffin</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=ct-nfb@nfbnet.org
href="mailto:ct-nfb@nfbnet.org">NFB of Connecticut Mailing List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, March 15, 2014 9:08
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Ct-nfb] Good News from
Rhode Island</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; COLOR: #000; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">
<DIV style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">Hey Len;</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 19px; RIGHT: auto"><SPAN
style="RIGHT: auto"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 19px; RIGHT: auto"><SPAN
style="RIGHT: auto">this is a major concern in my opinion, it's good there
closing these sweatshops down, for those who are miss treated, and under paid,
but are they going to help those capable of working to find decent employment.
I'm going to ask this question at the April board meeting.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 19px; RIGHT: auto"><SPAN
style="RIGHT: auto"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 19px; RIGHT: auto"><SPAN
style="RIGHT: auto">Rich<VAR id=yui-ie-cursor></VAR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">
<DIV
style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV
style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 0; MARGIN: 5px 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 0px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 0px"
class=hr contentEditable=false readonly="true"></DIV><FONT size=2
face=Arial><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Len Schlenk
<<A
href="mailto:lfs40@optonline.net">lfs40@optonline.net</A>><BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> NFB of Connecticut Mailing List
<ct-nfb@nfbnet.org> <BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Saturday, March 15, 2014 8:10
AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Re: [Ct-nfb] Good
News from Rhode Island<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=y_msg_container><BR>
<DIV id=yiv2081078668>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 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 size=2 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"
rel=nofollow target=_blank ymailto="mailto:PRESIDENT@alumni.ecu.edu">Justin
Salisbury</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=nfbwnews@nfbwis.org
href="mailto:nfbwnews@nfbwis.org" rel=nofollow target=_blank
ymailto="mailto:nfbwnews@nfbwis.org">nfbwnews@nfbwis.org</A> ; <A
title=ct-nfb@nfbnet.org href="mailto:ct-nfb@nfbnet.org" rel=nofollow
target=_blank ymailto="mailto:ct-nfb@nfbnet.org">ct-nfb@nfbnet.org</A>
</DIV>
<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><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 class=yiv2081078668WordSection1>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>January 16, 2014 11:20 PM</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.)</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.”</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>“The Department of Justice’s definition
[of segregation],” Stenning said, “is different from the Department of
Labor’s definition.”</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal>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.</DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Mr.
Anil Lewis, M.P.A.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Deputy
Executive Director </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">(410)
659-9314 ext. 2374 </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=yiv2081078668MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Twitter:
@AnilLife </SPAN></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
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