[nfbmi-talk] ri desegrating shelterred sweatshops

joe harcz Comcast joeharcz at comcast.net
Fri Jan 17 21:26:23 UTC 2014


Right you are and might I add to the mix the importance also of skills 
training, assistive technology aquisition and training, and other meaningful 
accommodations that allow people with disabilities including those who are 
blind to not only engage in the workforce, but also to live ndependently, 
with the maximum ammount of dignity.

Anyway, well said Terry.

Joe
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry D. Eagle" <terrydeagle at yahoo.com>
To: "'NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List'" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 3:29 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] ri desegrating shelterred sweatshops


> Commmunity-based employment of sheltered workshop disabled employees, whom 
> I
> call slave laborers for corporations and the U.S. military, is not a new
> idea.  When I worked in the community mental health system from 2000 to 
> the
> mid-2000s, we made every attempt to place persons with developmental and
> mental disabilities in meaningful minimum wage and above jobs, and were 
> very
> successful at doing so.
>
> First, the key is to have dedicated employment service providers and 
> support
> professionals with confidence in the abilities, talents, and dreams of
> persons with disabilities.  It begins and advances at the top with
> leadership from management that has such a belief, and an expectation of
> employment placement and job success by both professionals and persons 
> with
> disabilities.  Professionals cannot and will not be effective in finding,
> cultibating, and retaining community-based jobs if a belief and expressed
> confidence and expectation in persons with disabilities is not present and 
> a
> primary focus.  One cannot sell to private sector employers that which a
> professional does not exhibit.  In business that is referred to as "being 
> a
> product of the product".  The product is the abilities, talents, and 
> dreams
> of persons with disabilities.  In my opinion, that value is the single 
> most
> important and effective element that is sorely absent in the field of
> vocational rehabilitation training and employment services to persons with
> disAbilities, and is the single reason for the poor utilization and 
> ultimate
> waste of vast amounts of rehabilitation funds and programs.  All the
> requirements for academic degrees and professional certification and
> licensure will not get the desired result of job readiness, placement, job
> coaching, and job retention and advancement outcomes.
>
> The equally important key in the endeavor of employment of persons with
> disabilities is to inspire the person with disabilities with an 
> expectation
> of self-improvement, exploration, the value and reward fulfillment of 
> work.
> Anyone who has interacted with persons with a variety of disAbilities,
> physical and developmental, well know that the person with a disAbility 
> have
> the innate hierarchy of needs, desires, and drive as persons without 
> obvious
> disabilities.  The dream for belonging, meaning and being  productive,
> appreciated and recognized, as well as the desire for the "things" we all
> dream of acquiring, are alive in the person with a disAbility.  The 
> problem,
> barrier, and challenge is the too many stereotypes, labels, and low or no
> expectation is attached to a person with any disability.   Too many 
> persons
> with disAbilities have lived a life in the shadows of such negative,
> destructive, and demoralizing lack of belief and low or no expectations,
> which is an assault and abuse to the dignity and respect to any human 
> being.
>
>
> Until there is a significant paradime shift in the way rehabilitation
> leadership and professionals view the persons with a disAbility, the 
> system
> that boasts that a path exists to employment and independence for persons
> with disAbilities, will simply continue to waste financial and human
> resources, and will continue to exhibit the same miserable and deplorable
> rehabilitation and employment outcomes, and such outcomes shall mirror the
> level of low expectation from rehabilitation professionals and from 
> clients
> with disAbilities that historically and currently exist within the field 
> of
> vvocational rehabilitation.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbmi-talk [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of joe
> harcz Comcast
> Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 7:41 AM
> To: nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [nfbmi-talk] ri desegrating shelterred sweatshops
>
> RI to move disabled out of 'segregated' workshops - Connecticut
> PostCRANSTON, R.I. (AP) - Rhode Island officials are planning to remove
> thousands of disabled adults from work settings deemed to segregated by 
> the
> federal
>
> government and place them in jobs and activity programs in the community.
>
>
>
> Craig Stenning,
>
> director of the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare,
>
> Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals,
>
> told The Providence Journal (
>
> http://bit.ly/1gU84tf )
>
> that the plan is a major transformation of the system.
>
>
>
> A federal
>
> Department of Justice
>
> investigation found that about 3,600 of Rhode Island adults with
> intellectual and developmental disabilities were unnecessarily segregated 
> in
> state-licensed
>
> day programs and other settings. The department says many of those adults
> have the ability and desire to work in the community.
>
>
>
> Stenning says the state's goal is to close all "sheltered" workshops for 
> the
> disabled within three years and place people in the community.
>
>
>
> ___
>
>
>
> Information from: The Providence Journal,
>
> http://www.providencejournal.com
>
>
>
>
>
> Source:
>
> http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/RI-to-move-disabled-out-of-segregated-wor
> kshops-5151906.php
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