30 Ways in 30 Days: Vocational Training

A Job-Killing Budget Proposal

Hundreds of severely disabled Pennsylvanians would be affected by a 50% cut in supported employment and worksite job training programs if SB 850 were to become law.

HARRISBURG (June 3, 2009) - One person may be in a wheelchair, another may have cerebral palsy and be unable to walk in a straight line. What they share is the pride and satisfaction that comes from holding a paying job. Both have been trained at a vocational workshop on how to do a job – for example, putting covers on books or packing screws in a plastic bag to be shipped with a new vacuum cleaner.
 
Vocational workshops get support from the Commonwealth to serve the needs of individuals with workplace challenges.

Senate Bill 850 would cut vocational workshop support by 50% from what the governor proposed, which would have a devastating impact on on-going training efforts involving hundreds of severely disabled Pennsylvanians. The unemployment rate among individuals with severe disabilities or facing other workplace barriers already approaches 75%.

Currently, 20,924 Pennsylvanians and their families are waiting for mental retardation services and support administrated through the Department of Public Welfare (DPW).

“Waiting lists for community services have been created over the past years due to a lack of funds from the State and further expansion of the wait for service is totally unacceptable,” states Jim Guerreri, Executive Director of Cumberland Perry Association for Retarded Citizens (CPARC). The S. Wilson Pollock Center for Industrial Training, located in Mechanicsburg, is CPARC's vocational training program and is one facility that will see its waiting list grow if state funds are cut.

SB 850 would reduce so-called state and federal “waiver funding” by $32 million for programs for people with disabilities administrated through DPW. The program’s emergency waiting list initiative would be wiped out for fiscal year 2009-2010. 

To speak with Jim Guerreri, Executive Director of Cumberland Perry Association for Retarded Citizens (CPARC), call 717-249-2611.

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