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Grants Given and Success StoriesThe Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services (DRS) established a program called the Rehabilitative Services Incentive Fund (RSIF) in 1996. The RSIF was intended to seed new services which can become self-sustaining or to complete one-time projects which fill a specific need and/or demonstrate an innovative idea. Each year from 1996 to 2002, the Jefferson Area Disability Services Board (DSB) was allocated RSIF funds. For Fiscal Years 2002 to 2009, RSIF grants were awarded through a statewide competition. On July 1, 2009, the RSIF program was suspended. 2009 – Competitive Grant - JAUNT Stars ProgramThe Jefferson Area Disability Services Board was one of 14 DSBs statewide (of 28 that applied) to receive funding from the Rehabilitative Services Incentive Fund grant program for Fiscal Year 2009. JAUNT STARS is an innovative demonstration program created by the Jefferson Area Disability Services Board to directly address the most pressing needs identified in our 2006 assessment and our implications for action: transportation, employment, awareness, support, funding and coordination of services. The Independence Resource Center (IRC) was the sub-grantee, with support from other agencies such as the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services (DRS), Piedmont Workforce Network, and county Departments of Social Services being critical to the project’s success. The project focused on providing para-transit services to underserved consumers in the rural areas of Planning District Ten that would assist these consumers in employment training and employment acquisition. The goal was to provide a given consumer with approximately 8 weeks of daily transportation services that would allow the acquisition of employment and provide sufficient transportation services to allow the consumer to work for a period of weeks before having to assume the full financial burden of transportation costs themselves. IRC used grant funds to purchase JAUNT tickets and distributed them as needed to consumers who completed the intake and individualized independent living plan procedures. IRC coordinated with the local partners to identify consumers and implement the program. 34 consumers received services through the program. Below is a list of links for grants given in previous years. |
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