Philippines Outreach
By Reed StephanOn October 20, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) in collaboration with Leslie Smith from the Sumter County Government met with visitors to their municipality from the nations of Brunei and the Philippines. The collaborative meeting was designed to introduce the program of supports and services developed by the state of Florida for persons with developmental disabilities, as well as identify current programs and future initiatives that are compatible with the goals each of these nations have for providing those same type of supports and services to individuals with developmental disabilities within their own countries.
The officials, Mona Alimin O.T., Brunei Ministry of Health and the Hon. Karla Monica C. Adajar, City Councilor, San Pablo City, Laguna, Philippines are both intimately involved with the development and implementation of services for individuals with disabilities within their own countries and each had many questions about how Florida assists individuals with disabilities in living and working within unsegregated environments in the community. While each nation has a legislative commitment to the inclusion of persons with disabilities, the specifics of the actual programs was of interest with an emphasis on employment. An overview of the APD program, as well as its relationship to the overall state government was presented along with the specifics of vocational services provided by Vocational Rehabilitation and the Division of Blind Services. APD Employment Specialist Cindy Drew presented the approaches utilized to assist people with disabilities in identifying appropriate jobs based on their interests and skills along with the supports and services that allow people with unique needs to attain, maintain, and thrive in a job.
Moving forward, APD and the two countries will continue to maintain communication allowing Adajar and Alimin to access the subject matter expertise that resides at APD to assist them with the design and implementation of specific programming for persons with developmental disabilities.
From left to right, Cindy Drew, APD Central Region, Reed Stephan, APD Central Region, Leslie Smith, Sumter County Government, Mona Alimin O.T., Brunei Ministry of Health, Hon. Karla Monica C. Adajar, City Councilor, San Pablo City, Laguna, Philippines
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