JRC program loses $400,000

Jefferson Rehabilitation Center has taken another hit from the state.

The agency has learned it will lose just over $400,000 in state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities funding for its sheltered-workshop program.

This comes a year after the center had an $80,879 cut in state Office of Mental Health funds for the same program.

Maureen P. Cean, the center's director of habilitative services, said the cut is nearly a third of the funding JRC receives from the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

A press release issued Wednesday by the agency said Production Unlimited, 615 W. Main St., Watertown, will not close and staff will not be laid off. There are 140 JRC clients who work in the manufacturing facility.

Some clients may be moved to another agency program, but for those who are not ready or don't want to switch, a day habilitation program may be established at Production Unlimited in order to foster the attachment clients have developed over their time working there.

"The goal is to keep all of the clients in some way or fashion," Mrs. Cean said.

At Production Unlimited, the center's clients produce goods such as three-ring binders, college exam booklets, equipment record folders and equipment tags through various state and federal contracts.

Mrs. Cean said some of the workshop's cost could be offset by more community-based contract work.

Sheltered workshops were designed to serve people with the lowest skill level, who aren't ready to be active in the community and who are in need of the largest amount of training and support, she said.

Despite reassurances given by the agency, some parents are expressing deep concerns about the program's future.

The possibility the program will close is one of Elaine T. Bock's worst fears. Her 37-year-old son, Shawn Norton, is one of the center's clients.

Mrs. Bock said that her son hasn't always been the high-functioning developmentally disabled person he is today, and that the center's sheltered-workshop programs have helped him immensely.

"It helped structure his life," she said.

She attended a meeting Tuesday night to discuss the most recent funding cuts with center staff and other parents and guardians. She left the meeting confused, Mrs. Bock said, and she doesn't quite understand what will happen with the program or if her son will be able to continue employment there.

"I feel like all I've been told isn't it," she said. "The facts are confusing, and what worried me is, I had no inkling this was going on."

Although Mrs. Bock said she and some other parents and guardians hadn't known about the situation until this week, Mrs. Cean said the agency became aware of the most recent funding cut "a few weeks ago."

The agency eventually will give recommendations for each person based on his or her abilities.

One of the reasons state funding for such programs continues to be reduced, Mrs. Cean said, could be because the concept of sheltered workshops "hasn't really been embraced by disability advocates and other people who work in the field because it's not an integrated setting."

"It's still keeping folks with developmental disabilities, in essence, sequestered from the community," Mrs. Cean said. "However, as long as we have folks and families interested in being served in the workshop setting, the JRC is going to continue to aim for that service."

Roger J. Ambrose, Jefferson County Community Services director, said the state isn't necessarily picking on Jefferson Rehabilitation Center. The agency is the only one in the area that has sheltered-workshop programs.

Had federal stimulus money not been available, the state's mental health and developmentally disabled services could have fared much differently, he said.

Part of a larger movement may be under way, Mrs. Cean said, to move JRC away from funding that comes 100 percent from the state.

"We believe the state will continue to chip away with the state contracts until they're gone," she said.