On 7/15/17, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Richard and All,
The OTC is the Orientation and Training Center. It is a training
program for newly blinded adults. The OTC is located at 3411 South
Alaska Street in the South end of Seattle on the ground level of a two
story building that houses the various Vocational Rehabilitation staff
for Seattle North to the Canadian border. The OTC is a residential
program. Blind adults accepted into the program are housed in
apartments several blocks South on Martin Luther King Way. Apartments
are two bedroom units with two bathrooms, a full kitchen and a decent
sized living room.
The two students assigned to each apartment are responsible for its
maintenance. The OTC accommodates about 17 students at a time, about
14 residential and three or four Day Students.
Back when I directed the OTC, I had a staff of 8 instructors and 1
clerical Assistant.
The Program is tailored to each student's training needs. The classes
now run, I believe, for ten weeks, then an evaluation takes place and
students are moved into a second ten week class. Since the program is
built around the needs of each student, the length of a persons stay
depends upon how much instruction they need, and how quickly they gain
command of the skills.
The goal of the OTC is to prepare students for the next stage of their
rehabilitation. Students leaving the OTC are usually headed to
college, vocational training or on-the-job training.
The building at 3411 South Alaska Street was dedicated in 1963, built
specifically for housing the state's services for the blind. At the
time of the opening of the new building, the OTC was called, the
Northwest Regional Rehabilitation Center for the Blind. It was one
program within the Office of Services for the Blind, and was under the
Department of Public Assistance. By the late 60's, the Office of
Services for the Blind was moved into Governor Dan Evans new
Department of Social and Health Services.
The ensuing struggle between the Blind Organization and the Department
of Social and Health Services(DSHS) is far too long and involved to
detail here, but needless to say, it was turbulent times until 1977,
when the Office of Services for the Blind was separated out of DSHS
and put into a new agency named the Washington State Commission for
the Blind. All services for the blind were moved into the Commission,
except for the School for the Blind and the Talking Book and Braille
Library.
After serving for two years as the instructor in the Business
Enterprises Program, teaching food service management, I became a BEP
Counselor, working in the field. In 1979 I moved over into the OTC as
a Braille instructor. I also taught a physical fitness class and an
attitude class. In 1984 I was offered, and accepted, the job as
Director of the OTC. I did move upstairs for a couple of years, from
1989-1991, to serve as Assistant Director for Field Services. I
returned to my first love and served as OTC Director until the end of
1993, when I took early retirement. In January of 1995 Cathy and I
moved into our newly completed home near Quilcene, and began
contracting with Services for the Blind, and later with the University
of Washington, providing services to older blind and low vision people
on the entire Olympic Peninsula and Kitsap County.
Hope this is not too long winded an explanation of what the OTC is all
about.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/15/17, R. E. Driscoll Sr <llocsirdsr@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl, what is the meaning of
O T C?
Richard
Sent from my iPhone
