Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 30, 1994 TAG: 9408020082
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Last year, the board sponsored 16 workers, four of whom have gone on to other employment programs.
Under the terms of the new contract, the board will fully sponsor eight mentally disabled adults to attend the workshop's employment programs for fiscal year 1995. The board will pay for transportation for four additional clients for a year.
The plan may be altered to fit the needs of those clients, perhaps allowing for several additional months of full sponsorship rather than a year of paid transportation, said Lynn Chenault, executive director of the Community Services Board.
The agreement reached Thursday ends for now the often emotional debate that has been brewing since May, when the board notified 10 workers they would not be able to attend the workshop with board funding for the next year.
The decision to reduce the number of board-sponsored workshop positions was a result both of budgetary constraints and of the board's increasing emphasis on moving able employees into less segregated, more mainstream work environments, Chenault said.
Following a series of discussions with the clients' families, however, the board decided to extend funding to two more people, leaving eight to be cut from board sponsorship. Of those eight, four left the workshop voluntarily for supportive employment programs and one probably will be doing so soon, Chenault said.
While this leaves three clients unaccounted for, Chenault said they will not be left to fend for themselves. The board will help them find new programs over the next few months and will pay their transportation for the next year if needed.
And there still may be a way for these adults to remain at the workshop. Bob Huff, executive director of the workshop, said in an interview Wednesday that the board and the workshop each will be receiving $3,750 from the Virginia Department of Rehabilitation Services as part of a state program to support employment opportunities for disabled adults. While guidelines for using this money have not yet been formulated, the organizations may be able to put the additional funds toward sponsorship, he said.
In addition, one of the workshop's employees soon may be promoted to a non-sponsored position, opening a space for one of the adults who formerly received board backing, Huff said.
The decision to reduce sponsorship was not an easy one for the board to make, Chenault said, but it was a necessary part of the organization's across-the-board budget reductions. And while the board may have been tempted to spend just a little bit more to continue to sponsor all eligible adults, that could have wreaked havoc with other, less publicized programs, he said.
"We must be careful about zeroing in on one group at the expense of others," he said. "We just don't have the funds to do all of the services for all of the people who need them."
by CNB