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Top RSA officials to visit Saipan
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Posted on Feb 07 2000
Two top officials of the Rehabilitation Services Administration will be visiting the island on Feb. 9, 2000 to meet with Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio and officers of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.
RSA Commissioner Fredric K. Schroeder and Region IX Regional Commissioner Gilbert “Doc” Williams will also have the chance to meet the clients of OVR and review further progress made by the agency. The last visit of an RSA official here was more than 10 years ago.
As RSA commissioner, Mr. Schroeder administers a $2.4 billion program that annually provides services to more than 1 million people with disabilities. He served for eight years as the executive director of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind where he was responsible for a variety of statewide services primarily targeted at correcting the 70 percent unemployment rate experienced by the blind nationwide.
Mr. Williams, on the other hand, has served as the regional commissioner of Region IX since 1990. Prior to joining RSA, he coordinated national training programs, working with State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies, RSA Regional and Central Offices, and universities providing rehabilitation and continuing educational programs.
Tee Abraham, director of OVR, said the arrival of Mr. Schroeder and Mr. Williams is very important as the agency has been given a high risk designation status.
Ms. Abraham said the two officials will meet the clients and ask them questions about the corrective actions undertaken so far. The public will have the chance to listen to their views on Feb. 9 at 8:00 a.m. on Radio Station KSAI.
Earlier, the California-based Rehabilitative Services Administration in Region 9 has already lifted the “reimbursement status” of the OVR due to efforts made by the current officials to carryout meaningful action programs.
Vocational Rehabilitation is a joint federal-state partnership that operates in all the 50 States and possessions and territories of the United States including the CNMI.
Although the program has been in existence in the U.S. since 1920, it was not extended to the CNMI until the early ’70s.
