By Richard Strong, Director, Minnesota State Services for the Blind

(Editor’s Note:  Mr. Strong presented this item at the NFB of Minnesota Annual Convention on October 26, 2013.)

Thank you Ms. President. 

Once again I have to say how very much I appreciate the opportunity to be here and speak with the membership of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota--the largest organization of blind people in the state.

Over the 31 years I’ve been at SSB (State Services for the Blind), the Federation has always invited SSB’s Director to its convention.

And I believe that he — or she — has, with rare exception, attended.

And also with very, very rare exception, the director has been welcomed warmly. 

And there’ve been convention sessions, on occasion, that were VERY warm not only at the welcome but also during the question and answer period following the formal presentation.

Now some of those VERY warm segments were more than a bit uncomfortable for some directors.

However, the warmth — o.k. — the heat — was generated by genuine concern by Federationists about SSB’s direction on issues important to blind Minnesotans.

Issues such as:

• Metro Mobility and the need for positive expectations that, with proper training, blind people, as first class citizens, can and ought to use mainline bus transportation;

• The importance of solid Adjustment-to-Blindness training and the importance of value-driven  Center-based services;
• The critical role of  Intensive Training Under-the-Blindfold for SSB staff:
  • so they gain an “in-the-gut” appreciation for and profound understanding of the positive role solid alternative skills training can play in the lives of blind people--
  • and so they also understand the consequences and often-times downward spiral of despair,  low self-esteem and low expectations that can result from poor ATB training. 

 The need for a separate and distinct organizational agency  for the blind here in Minnesota; and

• The need for SSB, as an employer, to hire competent blind people.  

These and other issues generated varying degrees of heat at past Conventions and I’m certain there will be issues in the future that will provide much warmth.

Let me be clear, much good work has been done at SSB over the years and yet, much remains to be done.

And let me also be very clear--let there be no doubt, SSB appreciates and listens to your input, suggestions and ideas.

Your president and vice president meet with me frequently to share concerns, ideas and suggestions on how SSB can be better.

I thank them for their insights, perspective, wisdom and candor.  It’s through such dialogue — their willingness to engage and SSB’s willingness to seriously participate — that we can change things for the better.

In so many areas, we can move from how things are towards how things ought to be. 

We can indeed continue changing what it means to be blind in Minnesota. 

And a special thanks to those Federationists who serve on committees at SSB and help in other ways for SSB to become a better agency for a better Minnesota.

• A number of NFB members have volunteered as readers of cookbook and knitting books in the Braille section, helping get these books to customers more quickly.

1. Charlotte Czarnecki
2. Chelsea Duranleau
3. Cindy Lien
4. Melody Wartenbee
5. Emily Zitek

• Jennifer Dunnam, your president and Steve Jacobson your vice president along with Rob Hobson and Emily Zitek serve on the State Rehabilitation Council and its various committees, offering solid advice to SSB.
• Amy Baron, Pat Barrett, Dick Davis, Kathleen Hagen and Ryan Strunk, all serve on one or more committees of the Council.

Thank you all for your advocacy, your active participation in the council and its committees and the valuable assistance you — individually and collectively — provide SSB to help improve services to blind Minnesotans — and helping secure a future better than our past.

Some of you know I’m not from here, I’m from New York — and I habitually reference the words of great New Yorkers, even some who were not originally from there.

It was more than 40 years ago, Robert Kennedy, my senator from New York at the time, stood to address the U.S. Senate.  (This was back in the day when congress managed to keep the government running.)

Along with members present that day in 1965, Kennedy addressed his remarks to the blind and visually impaired citizens present to recognize the 25^th anniversary of the founding of the National Federation of the Blind.

Quoting Sophocles, Kennedy said:

• “A Greek philosopher once wrote ‘What joy is there in day that follows day, some swift, some slow, with death the only goal?'
• “What we are interested in — those of you that are here, and those of us who are in the Senate of the United States, who feel strongly about this problem - is to make sure that you can live out your lives making a contribution to society, and live your lives in dignity.”

The work we do at SSB is really about dignity.

It’s to assist and support blind Minnesotans as they seek the dignity of meaningful work, the dignity of independence, the dignity of life lived to its fullest measure.

SSB’s had a number of successes in the year just past that ended September 30 that support dignity.

We continue to have challenges and continue to work hard addressing those challenges.

Let me touch on several results, the successes and some ongoing efforts.

The Administrative Services Unit has put in place the new monitoring process for vendors, which will continually improve services customers receive from community partners.

We’ve made aesthetic and functional improvements to our St. Paul building.  And some folks here are working on what will be a great Braille addition to the display of our Mission Statement in our lobby.

We all — staff, volunteers and customers — deserve and are getting a better environment to do their important work.

Communication Center:  Access to the printed word in accessible formats is critical to literacy and full participation for all. 

• Audio Services launched an important pilot project to scan and format e-texts, giving students and other customers additional options for receiving print material in yet another accessible format.
• They’ve been hard at work implementing the new streamlined process to provide customers a seamless interface between SSB and the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library in Faribault.  We’re decreasing duplicative activity freeing staff time better to serve customers.
• The Braille section once again churned out masses of Braille pages this year, coming in at over 940,000 (941,180).  They also hosted a statewide workshop for transcription volunteers and Department of Education Teachers of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
• As mentioned earlier, under the leadership of Judy Sanders, the section brought together a new group of volunteers to proofread so customers ordering leisure materials can have orders filled more quickly.

Senior Services Unit:

• This year, SSB had a unique opportunity to partner with the Humphrey Institute’s School of Public Policy to begin to answer the question of how we can serve the growing number of Minnesota Seniors with vision loss without an increase in resources.  The study will hopefully generate useful insights that we’ll be assessing and hopefully begin to implement some of them over the near and mid-term.
  • Draft copy of final report focused on:
    • more funding;
    • serving more with existing providers;
    • generating more providers; and
    • becoming a certifier and developer rather than direct service provider.
• With the retirement of longtime SSB employee Lyle Lundquist, the Senior Services Unit welcomed Ed Lecher as Director, and again this year reached nearly 3,000 seniors across our state.

And now for Workforce Development.

• The Business Enterprises Program, after two years of hard work, completed an update to its administrative rules.
• Marking a milestone of success for its vendors, for the first time a BEP operator exceeded $100,000 in net profits.  Altogether, three operators reached this profit level.  One new operator started in her business last year.  And eight locations were added.  The 43 BEP operators now cover 193 locations throughout the state.

• Finally, exploding past its goal, our Workforce Development Unit, including AT Staff Extraordinaire, and community partners collaborated with customers to achieve a very impressive 101 successful closures this last year.

 

• That number, of competitive employment outcomes in integrated settings, is the highest in the past several years.  Those customers have an answer to the question:  What do you do for a living? 
• Positions secured include such occupations as a Graphic Artist doing bookplate engravings, animal trainer, welder and data base administrator.

Together we — SSB staff our volunteers and our community partners working with customers — truly help make a “Better life for blind Minnesotans.”

And we all can do better:

1. We are focusing training efforts on what we’re calling B2B or Back to Basics.  We want customers to get the solid training they need to get solid jobs that pay living wages
   1. Making sure our Workforce staff is stronger in such critical areas as assessment and business intelligence.
   2. And reviewing and reinforcing the fundamentals of policy, rule and basics of rehabilitation of and for blind customers.
2. We’ve updated our Access Technology testing instruments for vendors and most all persons needing to be retested have done so.  We want to make sure there is a high level of competency in trainers we work with.
3. And we’re working to realign our Employer Specialist Services to focus more clearly and directly on the bottom line of quality jobs for specific customers.

There are many challenges ahead for SSB and for blind Minnesotans.  The needs are there:

• for more qualified providers of skills training;
• for more qualified blind people working in the private sector and in federal, state and local government, including at SSB.
• for fair wages for all workers with disabilities and an end to segregated sub- minimum rates;
• for blind youth to access a quality education leading to employment and independence rather than dependence and isolation; and
• for older blind persons to get the services needed to remain in their homes and not be placed in nursing homes or unwarranted restrictive living situations.

Over the years, a lot has been done — we’ve made great progress.

Yet, there’s a lot left to do and we're getting ready.

Seven staff have or are now participating in highly intensive leadership development activities.

 

We’ve worked hard at SSB to develop the next generation of leaders and to prepare our organization for the great challenges ahead.

 

We want to make sure we’re ready to play our part in the very important relationship with the blind community to help make a “Better SSB for a Better Minnesota.”

As you know, I’ll be leaving SSB in December.  On a personal level, I want to thank Shawn Mayo for the help and support she’s provided me over the years.

Shawn, Leo Rosten was a writer and lived for a time in New York.  Building on the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rosten wrote:

"I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate.  It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."

Shawn, the work you’ve done has been useful, you’ve been responsible and honorable, and compassionate.  You count, you certainly stand for something and you have made some — no, not some — you’ve made many, many differences in the lives you’ve touched.

SSB staff who have gone through training at BLIND, Inc. come back to us changed by the experience — changed very much for the better. 

Thank you Shawn, for all you’ve done.  Minnesota’s better because of you.

Madame President, thank you for the opportunity to be here today with you and your membership.