[PACapitalChapter] State Board of Vocational Rehabilitation Meeting on December 5 in Harrisburg

[Drenth, Joe]

Hello everyone,

Please be aware that the next State Board of Vocational Rehabilitation meeting will be held on Thursday, December 5, 2019 at the following hotel:
Best Western Premier
800 E. Park Drive
Harrisburg, PA  17111

The meeting is officially scheduled from 9AM to 12:30PM, but it would be great if we had enough public comment from our members to make the meeting last all afternoon. This is how we show OVR management and the Secretary of Labor and Industry that they cannot ignore the blind and visually-impaired stakeholders.

At the recent NFB of Pennsylvania 2019 convention, we all agreed by passing a resolution that our attendance and participation in these VR Board meetings is extremely important, so please make every attempt to attend and stand up for the rights of blind customers to get the vocational rehabilitation and other services they deserve.

The Board needs to hear your voice at this meeting, since the Board will be voting on plans OVR wrote with respect to vocational rehabilitation as part of the 2020 - 2024 State Plan. There will also be an update on how OVR is going to partially open the Order of Selection for a number of customers each quarter, so get involved and let the Board know whether or not you agree with how OVR is planning to address this very important problem of not serving all customers immediately.

OVR says they do not have enough money to serve everybody who seeks services and who meets the strict requirements, but is there more they can be doing? Should the requirements for receiving services be tightened? Please come and give us your opinion on these questions and more.

Thank you, and I hope to see you at this meeting.

Joseph Drenth
First Vice-President, National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania State Board of Vocational Rehabilitation
Senior R&D Software Engineer, JBT Corporation, Automated Systems Division
Cell: 215-827-7787
Email: joe.drenth at gmail.com