[Rehab] State Agencies Using Sheltered Workshops for Revenue

[Justin Salisbury]

Hi Dick,

Thanks so much for this.

I wasn't necessarily limiting my focus to blindness-related workshops/industries, but this is definitely a good point that you raise. I spend a lot of time talking to APSE people, who seem to use the term "sheltered workshops" a lot. My office mate at the University of Vermont, Bryan Dague, does some great work in what he calls "sheltered workshop conversion." 

I definitely see what you're saying about the sheltered workshop label. Nobody wants to be called a sheltered workshop because there's so much negativity rightfully assigned to that label, even if everything that they are really is still a sheltered workshop. I've heard a lot of them try to call themselves "Community Rehabilitation Programs" because the sheltered workshop has a mailing address, which means it's "out in the community." What a way to twist our words....

I had been under the impression that the term "sheltered" used in "sheltered employment" or "sheltered workshop" was because those jobs were sheltered from competition such that a nondisabled person could not come compete with a disabled person for that job, which they often call a "disabled trainee" or something like that. Do you not vibe with that, though?

Aloha,

Justin

-----Original Message-----
From: Rehab <rehab-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Dick Davis via Rehab
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2022 11:22 AM
To: Rehabilitation Counselor Mailing List <rehab at nfbnet.org>
Cc: dickblind at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Rehab] State Agencies Using Sheltered Workshops for Revenue

Justin, 

I know of no state agencies that do that. I believe that BISM subsidizes the cost of its training center with revenue from its industries program, thereby reducing the fees Maryland DORS has to pay for training its clients there. I say this with the caveat that this is old information which may or may not still be true. 

If it is true, it would give BISM an advantage over its competitors by artificially deflating its training costs. That would give state counselors a choice between sending their clients to BISM and saving money for the state, or spending more money sending them out of state to NFB training centers. 

You can see how this would affect informed choice for Maryland’s rehab clients. Even if state agencies do not subsidize training centers with revenue from industries programs, most of their training centers do not charge fees for in-state clients. You can see how this process also disadvantages informed choice. 

FYI, “sheltered workshops” is an old term. It refers to entities that have been sheltered from paying the minimum wage. (Even though they were sheltering in other ways.) Today, most of them do pay minimum wage. We refer to them as “industries programs” and welcome them to our career fairs. If they pay subminimum wages, we do not.

Keep me posted,
Dick Davis 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 27, 2022, at 6:47 AM, Justin Salisbury via Rehab <rehab at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> As you may know, I am now in grad school again. I am taking a class on public agency budgeting. For a class project, I need to do some things with a budget from a public entity that is large and complex enough to have revenue-generating activities. Thus, I need to find such a budget.
> 
> I am aware that some state agencies fund themselves by running sheltered workshops. Specifically, I hear that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in Missouri does this. I am looking for additional states or agencies that do this.
> 
> If any of you know of state agencies that operate sheltered workshops to fund their education and rehabilitation programs, could you please let me know so that I can use them in my school project?
> 
> Thank you very much,
> 
> Justin
> 
> 
> Justin Mark Hideaki Salisbury
> he/him/his
> 
> Phone: 808.797.8606
> Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu<mailto:President at Alumni.ECU.edu>
> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-salisbury
> ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Salisbury
> 
> 
> "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore."
> 
> Cesar Chavez
> 
> 
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