Input sought for Vocational Rehabilitation State Plan and the State Plan for Independent Living

State News

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. To join the discussion, you must first register with Disqus and verify your email address. Once you do, your comments will post automatically. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.

comments powered by Disqus

December 7, 2009

Submitted by the Georgia Department of Labor

ATLANTA - The State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) and the Statewide Independent Living Council, Inc. (SILC), in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Labor Vocational Rehabilitation Program, will hold a series of joint public hearings statewide to obtain input on the needs for vocational rehabilitation (VR) and independent living (IL) services leading to greater independence and employment for people with disabilities.

The Georgia VR and IL programs are required to submit plans to the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) of how Georgia will use federal and state funds to provide a wide array of rehabilitation services to achieve priority goals and objectives in FY 2011-2013. The public hearings are opportunities for citizens to provide valuable input for those plans. RSA is the federal agency responsible for administrative and fiduciary oversight for VR and IL funding disbursed by the United States Congress.

Citizens attending the hearing who wish to comment for the record will be limited to five minutes; no extended two-way dialogue is permitted. Those who wish to comment, but cannot attend the hearing in person, may send written statements of no more than two (2) pages, double-spaced to:

Linda Shepard, SRC Chair

c/o Parents Educating Parents & Professionals, Inc.

3680 Kings Highway, Douglasville, GA 30135

Email: shepard.linda@peppinc.org

OR

Patricia Puckett, Executive Director

Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia

755 Commerce Drive, Suite 415

Decatur, GA 30033

Email: ppuckett@silcga.org

Written or emailed comments must be postmarked no later than Friday, January 22, 2010.

The Georgia SRC and the Georgia SILC will hold hearings in four separate locations to solicit comments from a representative and diverse population. The date, time and location for each public hearing are as follows:

• Tuesday, January 12: Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, from 1-3 p.m., Roosevelt Auditorium, 6135 Roosevelt Highway, Warm Springs, GA. Contact for directions: 706-655-5000

• Wednesday, January 13: Rome, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Etowah-Oostanaula Room, Rome-Floyd County Library, 205 Riverside Parkway, NE, Rome. Contact for directions: 706-295-6407

• Thursday, January 14: Atlanta, from 4-6 p.m., Westin Atlanta Airport Hotel, Atlanta Room 3 & 4, 4736 Best Road, Atlanta. Contact for directions: 404-762-7676

• Friday, January 15: Athens, from 1-3 p.m., Georgia Department of Labor Career Center, Oglethorpe-Oconee Room, 150 Evelyn C. Neely Drive, Athens. Contact for directions: 706-354-3900

In addition to holding in-person public hearings and providing outlets for written and emailed comments, a survey instrument soliciting feedback will be available on or about January 11, 2010, at the SRC web site, www.srcgeorgia.com, the SILC web site, www.silcga.org, and the PEPP web site, www.peppinc.org.