Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Vocational Rehabilitation (Blind)
The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Portion of the Unified or Combined State Plan [13] must include the following descriptions and estimates, as required by section 101(a) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by title IV of WIOA:
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[13] Sec. 102(b)(2)(D)(iii) of WIOA
p. 1. B. Describe the factors that impeded the achievement of the goals and priorities
Current Narrative:
One factor that impeded DBVI attaining some of the goals and objectives was human resources. The division experienced a large turnover in VRCs during this past performance period, as well as over 50% turnover in the administrative support to the VRCs. The need for training in the new roles and learning regulations, takes away from direct service to clients. VRCs need to learn the VR process, the case management system, and understand the federal regulations, such as pre-employment transition services. Although DBVI will have another staff person cover a caseload during a vacancy, this results in less time for direct service to clients until the new VRC is in place. This generally results in fewer closures and would impact the division's delivery of pre-employment transition services.
Another DBVI goal is to increase awareness of services and resources. Again, there is an impact of new staff on the delivery of this goal. Staff need to be oriented to DBVI services and trained on the resources prior to providing that information to existing or potential clients. This would also have an impact on working with WIOA partners. There was a cross training available to all DBVI staff in PY20 pertaining to all the WIOA partners. The concept is the cross training will allow all the partners to have a better understanding of each other's services, so staff can better serve clients without duplication of services and in the most timely, cost efficient manner.
The division's outreach has an increased focus on transition-aged students (14 -21) and their families. With a larger emphasis on working with/including families to better understand the abilities of their student, scheduling can impede the process causing it to take longer.
Transportation in the rural state of Maine continues to be a challenge and is not always readily available, making it difficult for consumers to get to the outreach opportunities and therefore lack the knowledge of DBVI services. This lack of transportation also makes it difficult for some consumers to get to their place of employment, a job interview, work experience or even a job shadow.