Older Individuals who are Blind Program Report
May 2023

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 February 2023.

Program Reviews and Site Visits
OIB has not conducted any program reviews or issued any reports. The preparation and publication of the next Request for Applications (RFA) process has not allowed for travel. OIB anticipates resuming on-site visits in Fall of 2023 at the beginning of the next grant year.

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.

OIB Match
For the 2022-23 federal fiscal year the OIB program has negotiated match pledges from two match partners. OIB has Match pledged from VISTA Center in Palo Alto and Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael. The OIB program expresses gratitude to these partners for their voluntary match contributions, and desires the BAC make note of these key contributions. OIB anticipates the necessary match for this fiscal year will be met by the end of May 2023.

Request for Applications (RFA) process
The OIB program released the competitive RFA on January 5, 2023. OIB staff worked with internal DOR partners to ensure that the RFA met and complied with all guidelines to ensure the RFA was competed successfully. The Notice of Intent to Award was published on April 4, 2023 and 42 of California’s 58 counties were awarded.

The timeline allowed for a re-release of the RFA to provide the greatest geographical coverage and availability of OIB services across California. The 2nd RFA was released on April 11, 2023 and offers applicants the remaining 16 counties that can be applied for. Applications are due May 12, 2023.

Staffing
OIB is in the process of recruiting/hiring an Associate Governmental Program Analyst (AGPA). OIB hopes to have a person hired by the end of May. The position will help support the work of OIB invoice processing, reviewing reports, doing on-site reviews, and working on the implementation of AB2480.

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