10/30/03

Mentoring program for blind Iowans
beginning with aid of $1 million grant

Sarah Lawrence
digital iowa staff reporter
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa--The Iowa Department for the Blind is starting a mentoring program for blind people between 16 and 26 in an effort to lead them to more success in school, employment, independent living and community involvement.

The department was the only recipient of such a grant and received the first of five annual installments of $200,000 on Oct. 1 from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Rehabilitation Services.

"The idea is to connect a young person who is blind with a good blind role model," said Sandy Tigges, program administrator for the orientation center and project director of the grant at the Department for the Blind. "You know, somebody who is working, preferably in an area that the young person is interested in entering, and who is comfortable with their blindness and has good blindness skills."

Many young blind people don't have a blind role model and don't know what to expect as adults, Tigges said. While growing up, they often have to deal with people who don't know much about blindness.

Peggy Elliott, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa, said, "When you're a blind person and have a disadvantage of being the only blind person you know, it's hard to believe in yourself."

This lack of self-confidence is what keeps many blind people form becoming independent, Elliott said.

"They come to think that if you're blind you really can't do very much," Tigges said. "They think you can't work, you can't live on your own, you can't raise a family, get involved with the community and so on."

The mentoring program is designed to erase these misconceptions by giving young blind people the opportunity to meet other blind people who work and are active members of the community, Tigges said.

"Maybe we've got a young person who's interested in the law, so connect them up with a blind lawyer, to get to know that person, so they can talk to them about how they do it," Tigges said. "How do you practice law? What kinds of blindness techniques do you use in order to do the reading you need to do, to do the presentations in court?"

Answers to questions like these will help give young blind people the confidence to make similar goals for themselves, Tigges said.

"You can have all the skills in the world, but if you don't have the confidence to use them, it's not going to do you any good," Tigges said. "That kind of approach to blindness is what underlies this mentoring grant and underlies everything we do here at the department."

Tigges wrote the 30-page application for the grant in two weeks and turned it in to the U.S. Department of Education in early September.

Elliott included a letter of recommendation in the application.

"The basic idea here is that people did this for me when I was a kid, and it's only right that I turn around and do it for others," Elliott said.

There were 12 applicants for the grant, but only the Iowa department's program was funded.

"I think that one of the reasons why we got the grant was that our plans are heavily research-based," Tigges said. "When you put together a program like this, what you try to do is prove that it works, or it doesn't work. So that's the purpose and you have to have a good plan for evaluating and coming up with results."

The program will not begin until next October. The first year will be used to hire people, get brochures out, and start recruiting mentors and young people who would like to be mentored.

The Department for the Blind is planning to work through two state organizations for the blind--the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa and the Iowa Council of United Blind--to recruit people for the program.

The program will last for four years and will pay for itself many times over because if the program is successful, fewer blind people will require government assistance, Tigges said.

"It costs the taxpayers a million dollars to support somebody over a lifetime, so one million dollars for a grant is money well spent," Tigges said. "If just one person became self-supported over a lifetime instead of living on welfare, than the cost of the grant's been saved."