$2.5 Million Grant to Fund Training For Workers At Rehabilitation Agencies

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education has been awarded a five-year, $2.5 million grant by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to provide free continuing-education programs to employees of more than 180 community-based programs providing rehabilitation.

The Community Rehabilitation Program-Rehabilitation Regional Continuing Education Program (CRP-RRCEP) will serve DOE's Region II, the states of New York and 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 it 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 UB 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, Ph.D., associate professor of counseling and educational psychology and director of the UB graduate program in rehabilitation counseling.

Day-to-day operations will be supervised by Project Coordinator Ronald House, Ph.D. House was a faculty member at Cornell University for 28 years and formerly 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 to be held at agency sites and through Internet distance-learning programs.

Although some programs will be co-sponsored by individual agencies, there generally will be no cost to eligible organizations. Traineeships for lodging and meals will be available on a limited basis.

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

The state-run agencies already served by the UB program under DOE's Regional Rehabilitation Continuing Education Program (RRCEP) 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.