[nfbmi-talk] did they loose their rsa home work?

joe harcz Comcast joeharcz at comcast.net
Tue Apr 20 13:12:44 UTC 2010


According to Mr. Melvin Farmer in his ludicrous FOIA response to the President of NFB Michigan DELEG nor anyone else knows about this RSA monitoring review by any name or the subsequent report issued in September to the Michigan Commission for the Blind. Now this FOIA response was also copied to Patrick Cannon, MCB Director. Yup the same Pat Cannon who, among others has the report and the one who wrote this article. I wonder what RSA would think about this obfuscation and lack of transparency by an agency that regularly receives 80 percent of its funding from the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Education? MCB would not exist if it weren’t for federal enabling legislation and funding.
 

Are all the folks at DELEG so obtuse to reality?

 

Joe Harcz

 

 
MCB Insight
Michigan Commission for the Blind, March 2009

 

 
Comprehensive RSA Visit to MCB Wraps Up Today
By Pat Cannon

 



Photo L-R: MCB Director Pat Cannon, MCB Training Center Director Christine Boone, RSA Chief of Technical Assistance Sue Rankin-White, RSA Vocational Rehabilitation Program Specialist Charles Sadler, and MCB Consumer Services Director Leamon Jones in a Victor Building conference room in Lansing March 2 discussing MCB client employment outcomes.

 

Eight people from the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) in Washington, D.C., have been visiting MCB for a routine monitoring review on-site in Michigan all this week.  

 

RSA is the federal entity responsible for monitoring state rehabilitation agency programs to provide technical assistance and assure that all of the regulations regarding program implementation and service delivery are being followed.  For example, RSA has been with us this week to ensure that MCB is providing the kinds of services in our Vocational Rehabilitation and Independent Living programs that are outlined in the Rehabilitation Act.  Not unimportantly, RSA is also responsible for the flow of federal dollars coming to our agency.  Our visitors have been looking closely at all of our statistical data as well, such as the populations that we serve, outcomes, cost of services, specific kinds of programs such as transition, cash match agreements, and collaboration with community rehabilitation organizations.  

 

At one time, these routine reviews were done annually, but the reviews have become both less frequent and more comprehensive.  This is the first time RSA has monitored MCB since the agency’s reorganization in 2004.  

 

RSA staff have been meeting with the executive team and managers, and we’ve had a very full agenda.  During this busy week, members of the RSA team have visited the MCB Training Center in Kalamazoo; the Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Detroit field offices; the Michigan Career and Technical Institute in Plainwell (which is run by Michigan Rehabilitation Services, but also serves some MCB clients); the Michigan Works! service centers in Kalamazoo and Lansing;  the MCB transition programs with the Ingham, Eaton, and Macomb intermediate school districts; and MCB community partners New Horizons of Auburn Hills, Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, and Peckham of  Lansing.  RSA team members also attended portions of our Mini Adjustment Seminar in Detroit on March 5 and met with Client Assistance Program staff at Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service in Lansing.

 

Several other agenda items are of note.  Tuesday afternoon there was a joint management session with MCB and MRS.  Also, Technical Assistance and Continuing Education, or TACE, formerly known as Region 5 RCEP, is also a part of the exit review of the monitoring team to provide any technical assistance.  

 

We have welcomed this opportunity to showcase the work and accomplishments of the Michigan Commission for the Blind.  In addition, we have appreciated this opportunity to receive guidance and support on anything that we can do to provide even better consumer services in the future.

 

 
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