Older Individuals who are Blind Program Report
November 2022

Title VII Chapter 2 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, authorizes and funds independent living services to individuals age 55 or older whose visual impairment makes competitive employment difficult to attain, but for whom independent living goals are feasible. The Older Individuals Who Are Blind (OIB) program aims to assist Californians, 55 and older, who are blind or severely visually impaired, live in their community of choice, function at maximum capacity, and feel valued in society.

Below are updates since the last meeting of the Blind Advisory Committee (BAC) in September 2022.

Program Reviews and Site Visits
OIB has not conducted any program reviews or issued any reports. With COVID-19 limiting travel along with preparation of the next Request for Applications (RFA) process. OIB anticipates resuming on-site visits in late 2022 and will update as regular travel resumes.

OIB Services
The new grant cycle began October 1, 2017. DOR made 3-year awards with an option to extend for two additional years in order to facilitate funding stability for the grantees. All but two counties in California (Alpine & Inyo) have OIB services available to eligible residents. OIB has extended all grants for an additional year and distributed an additional $1,000,000 in carry-forward funding in order to support programs in providing direct consumer services and/or access to consumer devices.

All OIB grants have been amended for the sixth year of the grant cycle and became effective on October 1, 2022. See the current list of OIB service providers at the end of this report.

OIB Match
For the 2022-23 federal fiscal year the OIB program is negotiating match pledges from potential match partners. OIB has Match pledged from one source: VISTA Center in Palo Alto. The OIB program expresses gratitude to this partner for their voluntary match contribution, and desires the BAC make note of this key contribution. Additional match is expected from one additional partner but is not finalized at this time.

Request for Applications (RFA) process
The OIB program is planning to release the next competitive RFA early in the new calendar year. OIB staff is working with internal DOR partners to ensure that the RFA meets and complies with all guidelines to ensure the RFA will be competed successfully. The timeline should allow for a re-release of the RFA if necessary to provide the greatest geographical coverage and availability of OIB services across the State.

Staffing
OIB is in the process of recruiting/hiring an Associate Governmental Program Analyst (AGPA) that will be shared with the Blind Field Services (BFS) District Operations Support Team in Central Office. OIB hopes to have a person hired by the end of the calendar year. The position will help support the work of OIB invoice processing, reviewing reports, and doing on-site reviews as well as assisting the BFS program with key operational tasks.

List of 2022/23 Provider Agencies and their Counties of Service 
(Through September 30, 2023)

Agency Name	Counties of Service	
Access to Independence	Imperial	
Blindness Support Services	Riverside & San Bernardino	
Blind and Visually Impaired Center of Monterey County	Monterey	
Community Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired	San Joaquin	
Center of Vision Enhancement 	Mariposa & Merced	
Dayle McIntosh Center	Orange & Los Angeles	
Disability Action Center	Colusa, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, & Tehama	
Earle Baum Center	Lake, Napa, & Sonoma	
Independent Living Center of Kern County	Kern	
Independent Living Resource Center Inc.	San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, & Ventura	
LightHouse for the Blind	Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, & Trinity	
Lions Center for the Visually Impaired – Diablo Valley	Alameda, Contra Costa, & Solano	
San Diego Center for the Blind	San Diego	
Society for the Blind	Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Glenn, Mendocino, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo, & Yuba	
Valley Center for the Blind	Fresno, Kings, Madera, & Tulare	
Visually Impaired Persons Support 	Stanislaus, & Tuolumne	
VISTA Center	San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz