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Website: https://daledileo.com
Looks like you touched a nerve, Dale, and the “real” group-thinkers don’t like their nerves to be touched or their comfortable existence questioned.
All these “programs” were designed 30 or more years ago to prepare folks for work–that hasn’t happened. So, like Marc Gold said, try another way. Many folks across this country have and have demonstrated that it IS possible to support everyone in valued and meaningful ways to work in integrated settings at the prevailing wage. Our precious and limited public resources should be funding that which results in such outcomes now that we have learned how to do so. There are some things about which we shouldn’t have choice and this is one of them—we desperately need work first policies. We can no longer afford to fund programs that don’t provide the outcomes we desire. If folks need respite, call it that and fund that accordingly, but don’t call it habilitation or pre-voc because that’s not what it is!
Thank you for your clearly reasoned response to this report. This is a civil rights and social justice issue. Equal opportunity means just that!
Jim, I have to disagree with your comment. There is nothing more “one size fits all” than a sheltered workshop that assumes just because someone has a disability they should have the same job as everyone else who has a disability. Regular employment isn’t one option, it’s tens of thousands of options.
This also isn’t a matter of insulting the intelligence of families, the problem is that we have been telling families that we are the “experts” and that we know what is best for their loved one. Sheltered workshops are what we created so implicitly recommend. We tell families that people are “not ready for competitive employment” or “need pre-vocational training” and they believe us. The fact is, often we are just taking the easy way out. It’s time to raise the bar on our own services and realize maybe we are the ones keeping people out of the workforce and in the services we have invested so much time and money into creating.
Just as we should not judge people by the color of their skin, hair, clothes, etc. we should not judge people with disabilities by their labels. We should also not assume they continue to require separate services. The biggest barrier to the employment of people with disabilities is Lack of Expectation. People with disabilites have continually demonstrated their ability to work in real jobs with real wages. society no longer find it acceptable to segregate people in separate schools or warehouse them in large residentail institutional settings, yet we continue to “serve” them in smaller institutional day settings we have created in the name of helping professionals. It is the staff of these facilities that benefit through job security and continued employment. It is time to give people with disabilities the opportunity for real jobs and real wages as promised in the DD Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. it’s the right thing to do, and NDRN got it right. Thank you Dale for supporting them.
Thank you Dale and Laura for supporting the Need to End Segration in Employment. Our families need improved information about opportunities for their sons and daughters. We started a Postsecondary Education Program in August 2011 with one of our students coming from a sheltered workshop. Last year at this time, that young lady’s options were limited. She was not allowed to socialize during the day. She did not have choices. Today she has completed her first year of college. She has gained experience in two jobs. She has met new friends, rides the bus, and navigates a very large campus. What did it take? Opportunity.
Thank you! Keep up the good work. Liz Fussell
Too often, people with disabilities aren’t allowed to CHOOSE anything–others are just assuming that a workshop is the service that best meets their particular need.
Many of the CRPs here in Wisconsin have been actively engaged in shifting to support integrated employment. A number of them share in this video how they’ve come to see it as the right thing to do! Check it out and share widely!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd3qgUwLHbw
Jim
Mr. DiLeo: You continue to purport the pie in the sky philosophy of one-size-fits-all for people with disabilities. You believe that people with disabilities and their families are unable to make their own decisions. Your beliefs are a throwback to the 1960’s hippie commune era, where individual choice is unrecognized and group thought promoted.
To mandate a particular philosophy, choice or set of services insults the intelligence of the families and people that are served in community rehabilitation programs.
We are still a democratic country,and thus all people with disabilities and their families need to continue to choose the type of service that best meets their particular need.