the government in assisting victims of hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) sent a contingent of Disability Program Navigators (DPN) to the gulf coast to help locate and provide emergency services to people with disabilities.
Jim Downing, with the DOL Division of Disability Work Programs and nine DPNs from across the nation will help connect people with disabilities to resources for Housing, Health Care, Transportation, and Employment.
Pictured below is Jim Downing and Glenn Olsen, DPN from Wisconsin, utilizing one of several
self contained
Mobile One-Stop centers that are being deployed to Mississippi that is equipped with computer
workstations with satellite technology for communication capability from anywhere to anywhere.
The Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services (MDRS) is partnering with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) to operate is its own Disability Program Navigator Initiative through the WIN One-Stop centers which is in it’s first year of operation.
Cindy Broadhead, One-Stop coordinator for MDRS says “the DPNs from other states have moved in and gone to work immediately, they are knowledgeable, anxious to help and have been a huge benefit to the state.”
For more information on the Navigator Program, please contact Cindy Broadhead at 601-853-5302.
If you are a person with a disability and need any of the above mentioned services, please call the Department of Rehabilitation Services at 1-800-443-1000.
