Project E3’s team will provide intensive and focused technical assistance to all 80 State-Federal Vocational Rehabilitation agencies and 20 targeted communities across the U.S. and its territories.
Baton Rouge, LA – Southern University Baton Rouge’s (SUBR) Department of Rehabilitation and Disabilities Studies received $13.1 million in grants last month to fund the campus’ Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center for Targeted Communities.
The center was awarded $2.5 million per year for five years, 2015-2020, a total of $12.5 million, and funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration, U.S. Department of Education. The program is designed to improve vocational rehabilitation outcome of persons with disabilities from traditionally marginalized communities. The outcome is to increase vocational rehabilitation participation of people with disabilities from these targeted communities leading to greater quality of employment outcome.
Madan M. Kundu, chair and professor, SUBR Department of Rehabilitation and Disabilities Studies serves as the project director and Alo Dutta, associate professor, is the principal investigator. In a recent interview, Kundu stated; “We will have the opportunity to work on a national project to better the advantage and get Southern on the map, so that we can serve the whole country dealing with people with disabilities,” said Kundu. “There are 80 state vocational rehabilitation agencies so they will get some services from us.”
In addition, the department received a $600,000, three-year (2015-2018) research grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The project will be implemented in collaboration of the Departments of English and Mathematics, and the Office of Disability Services in the Baton Rouge campus.