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Crafting The Right Plans And Opportunities. The following video features individuals seated in an office conference room speaking to the camera about their experiences with the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind or MCB. They are each talking about the subject of “Crafting The Right Plans And Opportunities” and how MCB Vocational Rehabilitation or VR clients and counselors set goals and experiences. Speakers include, in order:
Mariesa Mills (Teacher Of Visually Impaired Students)
Brittany Taylor (MCB VR Counselor)
Brendan Foley (Teacher Of Visually Impaired Students)
Mayanne MacDonald-Briggs (MCB VR Counselor)
Sara Regan (Parent of two MCB Clients)
Elena Regan (MCB Client)
00:54
Mariesa Mill: I'm always looking for the opportunity to create some vocational or you know, training experiences for my students, and MCB is very helpful with that.
01:01
Brittany Taylor: Our goal is to provide maybe activities that are going to show them different types of vocations, some interest inventories, work through maybe doing some internships. Maybe they go into an internship and they hate it, it's still a learning opportunity. They've learned what they don't want to do.
01:18
Brendan Foley: The Mass Commission caseworker might send them up to the Carroll Center for the Blind for some independent living skills camp. At one point, one of my kids had the opportunity to go down the Grand Canyon, with a full week of recreation on a boat.
01:32
Mayanne MacDonald-Briggs: She was losing vision and really wanted to see the Grand Canyon. And so it was life changing for her; she got to see it before she lost more vision, and that experience she takes with her for the rest of her life.
01:44
Brendan Foley: They realize there's other kids out there whose vision or skills may be worse than their own. They just get a better understanding of themselves from the experience of…of putting themselves out there socially, and doing something that they're not comfortable with initially. And then they're realizing that wow, that was…that was amazing.
01:59
Mayanne MacDonald-Briggs: Talk about the exciting opportunities. So you try to get kids to buy in with, like, “Hey, we offer space camp, you know. It's one of the programs through Perkins Outreach that we can provide.” And they are in simulators. They're flying, like rocket ships. I mean, it's crazy what they get kids to do.
02:17
Sara Regan: One of the things that I appreciated is that the Mass Commission kept asking even from a very early age, what are your career plans, what do you think you might like to do?
02:27
Mayanne MacDonald-Briggs: So you just try to find out what the students interests are, and then try to match services based on their areas of interests.
02:33
Brittany Taylor: You know, creating a game plan, what can we do? Can we…can we give you a mentor in that field of your choice? And maybe we change the vocation over three or four or five times over the course of their schooling. At the end of the day, if they figure it out when they go to college, then I've done my job.
02:50
Sara Regan: So really wonderful experiences that even kids without disabilities don't often have.
02:57
Mayanne MacDonald-Briggs: I had a student do a Harvard Medical School program. We also had a student who's very interested in engineering go to Boston University pre college summer program for high school students. So giving those kinds of earlier experiences, I think is very important for college success.
03:15
Sara Regan: One of the internships that Elena did that I think was really helpful for her was working with a visually impaired lawyer. I think the biggest takeaway for her was this role model.
03:27
Elena Regan: Yeah, that internship was really pivotal for me and kind of determining what I want to do in my future, learning all about her field, what she does, but more importantly, learning how to conduct yourself as a blind person like in a professional environment, and how to kind of approach people that don't understand necessarily what I can and can't do.
03:49
Sara Regan: I'm aware that a lot of blind people are unemployed, and it's a really staggering statistic. So the idea of these questions around, what do you want to do, how do you see yourself working, and opportunities to gain skills along the way, build a resume, has been really critical, I think for…for them.
04:12
To learn more about and contact the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, find them online at mass.gov. Or call 800-392-6450.