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Clip #4

VIA's funding plan, and this is very important as far as getting into the 
details of how you can attach funding, is primarily focused on converting 
Medicaid Waiver dollars to Supported Employment dollars by insuring that 
traditional day services follow their dollars and follow the person.  In our 
state that averages about $9,000.  We obviously are maximizing every dollar of 
VR funds that we can.  We're focusing on tapping every penny of the $22 billion 
annual Medicaid contribution to day services.  To recap, we're leveraging our 
facility assets. We're creating our own foundation which we have done. We're 
fundraising aggressively and regularly to support gaps and program funding and 
operating costs.  

We're tapping every creative funding source available to the individual.  We're 
not just looking at traditional funding sources.  We're not looking at just 
figuring out what the feds are going to do, or what the state is going to do.  
We're looking at and working with WIA, PASS, Ticket-to-Work, small business 
loans, etc.  VIA's funding plan also is focusing on what is best for the person, 
not what is best for the organization.  

When you go through organizational change, when you make a decision to convert, 
which is kind of funny. I get kind of nervous, since I was raised Southern 
Baptist.  Conversion being in that world, a one-time religious event.  I think 
it probably is [here] also. What will happen as your organization will change?  
When you go through these wonderful hurdles? If you're not thinking in terms of 
the person, if you're thinking about the organization, in essence you'll end up 
in this place. That is, that your organization will become a survivalist.  The 
Wilder Foundation of Minnesota had a wonderful program. This was the central 
piece of what they provided, and this is where the statement came from:  "If an 
organization's mission is to survive, it doesn't have a mission."  Thank you 
very much.