Grant to fund rehab education programs

The Community Rehabilitation Program-Rehabilitation Regional Continuing Education Program (CRP-RRCEP) will serve DOE's Region II: New York, New Jersey, and the territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

It will offer free education and training for employees of public and private community agencies whose mission is to provide rehabilitation, occupational training, employment coaching and job-placement services to target populations. In Western New York, these include Allentown Industries; People, Inc., and other non-state-operated organizations.

CRP-RRCEP will be operated through the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, where it joins the Rehabilitation Continuing Education Program for Region II. The latter, also funded at UB by DOE, has provided continuing-education programs for employees of state-funded agencies since 1974 and has earned a reputation for innovation and quality programming.

Both programs are co-directed by David Burganowski and Dwight Kauppi, associate professor of counseling and educational psychology and director of the graduate program in rehabilitation counseling.

Day-to-day operations will be supervised by Project Coordinator Ronald House, a former Cornell University faculty member who directed Cornell's Human Services Administration Program in the New York State College of Human Ecology. House, who has extensive experience in curriculum design and training, said programming this year will include more than 50 continuing-education courses at agency sites and through Internet distance-learning programs. Although some programs will be co-sponsored by the agencies, there generally will be no cost to eligible organizations. Traineeships for lodging and meals will be available on a limited basis.

Available courses include vocational assessment, case management, personality disorders, job coaching, crisis intervention and prevention, team building, communication, strategic planning, applied mental health, management of independent living, job development and marketing and fundraising

Special-interest forums for community-agency employees will be available, as will seven certificate programs in human-resources management, management development and technical assistance. Distance-learning programs in management and professional subjects also will be available to organizations.

State-run agencies already served by the UB program under the DOE's Regional Rehabilitation Continuing Education Program are the New York State Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disability, New Jersey Department of Labor/Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, U.S. Virgin Islands Disabilities and Rehabilitation Services, New York Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and Puerto Rico Department of the Family/Vocational Rehabilitation.