Exploring Effective Models for Retreat Training

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Hello, and welcome to Exploring Effective Models for Retreat Training, our April 25th, 2025 webinar. Come along with us today to learn about three unique retreat style programs. New Jersey's A Shore Thing, Virginia's Senior Retreat, and Wisconsin's Adventures in Vision Loss program. Discover what these programs have in common and what sets them apart, including their implementation methods, duration, structure, and more. Let's dive in.

New Jersey. Allyson Cohen.

I would love to learn a little bit more about your program, A Shore Thing. Could you please tell me a little bit about how the program works and who's eligible to participate?

Ally Cohen: So our shore program, it stands for Senior Hands-on Retreat Experience, is a week long intensive independence training program to provide real life experiences to those who are 55 and older.

55 and older consumers of ours. The reason that it's called the Shore Program is because we like to hold it in areas that are close to the shore, to the Jersey Shore. So some of our. Previous programs have been held in Atlantic City, New Jersey and in Long Branch, New Jersey, which are both beachside, oceanfront destinations.

So it gives a little, yeah, a very nice addition to the program and opportunities for trips and experiences that our seniors in their homes may not have the opportunity to experience anymore.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: So when they go to these destinations, where do they get to stay?

Ally Cohen: So they stay in. We we're usually housed in a hotel.

So in Atlantic City, it's previously been in one of the casino hotels. Atlantic City is a, is a very large casino destination. So we usually will stay in one of the casinos and when we do hold it in Long Branch or further. North of where Atlantic City is, it's in one of the like hotel resort type ho accommodations.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's amazing. How fun for these adults. Yes.

I might have to go help you train.

Ally Cohen: It's such a fun program. It's one of my. I've worked this program since our inception back in 2016, and it's like, it's so nice to have come full circle where, you know, I started out as a rehab teacher just helping plan and work the program to then becoming a supervisor.

To have a little bit more autonomy and assist with the program and now to be the director of the program and making all of the decisions is, is really an honor that is very for, in terms of the consumers are, are all of the consumers funded under OIB funding? Yes. So it's all under OIB funding. The consumers don't have to pay for anything.

We cover their accommodations, their food any materials and items that we provide during the program, they get to keep and take home with them. The only thing that they are responsible for paying for is any incidentals or extra things that they'd wanna purchase or do outside of the program.

Okay, so.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Two thoughts, sorry. So transportation to and from the destination. Is that included?

Ally Cohen: It is it is included. We do encourage our consumers to take advantage of their mobility skills and their transportation options. However, we know that it, it is quite a distance depending on where we're located and that that's not always an option.

We do allow consumers to bring a plus one a companion. It can be a family member, a friend so a lot of times. Those people will also bring them to the program, but if in the event they cannot get to the program, we do arrange for transportation through the use of our driver aids and we rent cars and arrange, we start on a Sunday, so it makes it a little bit easier to arrange for getting the consumers to the program.

And then we end on a Friday, which is a telework day for our staff, so it makes it a little bit easier to transport them if needed.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay, that makes perfect sense. And in terms of other expenses like incidentals, do you all plan their after hours activities as well or do they kind of get some free time in there also after hours?

Ally Cohen: So during the first couple programs that we ran, we had activities planned all day long, and then we had after dinner activities planned and we quickly learned that. This population was exhausted after, like the first or second day of the jam packed days. So we started cutting out the after dinner activities.

So what we will do is we'll go all day long incorporating breaks in similar to like a conference style where we have planned activities throughout the day, breaks lunch, and then we do dinner as a group at one of the, either one of the restaurants. Locally, depending on where we are or in the casino areas, we have access to restaurants within the casino.

So we'll do a group dinner and then usually after dinner it's just free time where they have the choice to go out and explore do whatever they want or go back to their rooms and relax.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That makes perfect sense. That is a long day. Even as a conference attendee, we know that it's a long day and you're pretty wiped out by the end of the day.

In terms of programming that you try to cover or a curriculum, do you use kind of the same curriculum every year or do you kind of vary it depending on the people that you're working with? We do generally follow the same I would say outline for the curriculum and then just make tweaks and adjustments throughout.

Ally Cohen: So we always include orientation and mobility, rehab teaching, and our eye health nursing disciplines. And I try to give the staff the autonomy to create the activities that they. Would like to work on with the consumers, but we do really have kind of a really good foundation of what's worked in the past and what we try to stick to.

We may just change things up, activities wise, items wise. And then within the instruction that we do, we also bring in presenters. So we bring in, local agencies that provide services to consumers, not just who are visually impaired, but maybe the department on aging, or we do like an emergency preparedness seminar type thing.

We have had someone come in and do adaptive exercises with the consumers. Just, you know, whatever we think might be of interest to the group, we try to vary it, but we do sometimes keep to the same, what works. And then during each trip we also, or I'm sorry. During each program, we also plan a day to do a trip.

When we're in Atlantic City, we go to this little shopping village called Smithville. And they have a bunch of little shops and bakery and restaurant and different things. And we did the last year, last fall when we did this program, we did a scavenger hunt. Our mobility instructors put together a sc, a little scavenger hunt for them, and we did like a guided tour scavenger hunt of the shopping area.

And then in the afternoon gave them some free time after lunch to go and use their skills and go shopping. You know, and with assistance if needed. When we were in Long Branch, we did a walking tour, food tasting tour of Asbury Park, which is a beach side community that has shops and restaurants and things down a couple of their main streets.

So we did a walking food tour guided by our mobility instructors of that area, and they got to try different foods and things. So that was also really fun. So we tried to incorporate some kind of. Adventure trip outing to encourage the consumers to use their mobility skills and to show them and give them confidence that they're still able to do these kinds of things.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. And that sounds like a lot of fun. I'm very jealous a lot don't have this program here. It sounds great. In terms of your instructors, it sounds like you've got some mobility instructors in there. Are all of your instructors trained in-house or are they certified in the field? What kind of instructors do you have?

Ally Cohen: So all of our mobility instructors are certified A-C-V-R-E-P mobility instructors. Okay. Most of them are in-house. We do contract a few mobility instructors to supplement some of the needs that we've had recently. Okay. But the core group of our mobility instructors are in-house. Our rehab teachers some of them are certified A-C-V-R-E-P, but they're not required to be.

And our nurses are all certified, or I'm sorry, not certified licensed nurses. Okay. Very cool. I love the inclusion of a nurse. There actually are instructors who work with our consumers on medication management, pill organization diabetic instruction and education. Got it. So they'll do those kinds of things.

During the program and work either one-on-one or one on a couple. I also forgot to mention that this program we usually allow for 12 participants to to join the program each time. Okay. So it's a lot of like two, I try to aim for two on one, no more than really three on one per instructor for everything so that they can get the most out of the time and everything. Yeah.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That makes perfect sense. And then if you factor in family members, that's, that's a solid 24 people. That's a decent amount of people. Exactly. Yeah. Okay.

Ally Cohen: We also have I didn't mention this, I should have, we have technology instructors as well.

In addition to the rehab teachers. We do usually bring in one or two technology instructors. In the past we've done iPads where each consumer has received an iPad. Wow. And then we help them get it kind of set up and functioning and turn on the accessibility features and then work with them a little bit on using it during the program and then follow up with them after the program to learn how to use it.

We have learned. Over time that iPads are not the right piece of technology for every participant. So we actually are looking at different options for our next program to see if we can incorporate other pieces of technology that we could evaluate and provide based on their own individual needs.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. That makes sense. That makes great. That's still very awesome to even have the opportunity to receive a piece of technology like this. Yes. In terms of programming, each year it's held once a year.

Ally Cohen: It is, it used to be held twice a year pre Covid. We have not gotten back to holding it twice a year. Okay.

At this time. So we've really just been holding it in the fall of the last couple of falls, and we're aiming to hold another one in the, in the upcoming fall. In the fall. Okay. Yeah.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Do you have any training that you don't include that you would love to see included that maybe just hasn't been possible?

Ally Cohen: You know one thing that is a little more difficult to do in a hotel type setting, and we are trying to find other ways. To accomplish this is, is cooking cooking and kitchen instruction. So we have previously been doing this activity where we do sandwiches and salad and we ask the staff to bring everything out in its organic form, so not to cut up the vegetables and the lettuce and all of that.

And we do. Instruction with the consumers. And then we also do blindfold instruction with the companions. Okay. So that they can and we do that in a, a bunch of different ways with the companions. So the program really is beneficial to both the consumers and the companions that they bring with them because we do also set up activities for the companions to do, to learn what it's like and what.

Their you know, significant other or friend might be going through. So we do a lot of sensitivity training with them. Okay. And so that has been, that activity has been one of our more overwhelming activities to try and accomplish. And it's, it's in the fact that like not everybody gets to do everything because there may be only one or two big carrots and one onion, like, so just trying to come up with a way to incorporate those skills and activities.

But in a, in a less overwhelming and rushed kind of way that's probably one of the things that we've struggled with recently that I really wanna change about the program. Other than that, I think we have over the last eight years come up with a solid kind of framework and trial and error adding and, and removing things that we either felt didn't work very well, or adding things that we really wanted to see as part of the program.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: And that makes perfect sense. Being in a hotel, they're obviously not gonna let you into their hotel kitchen. Anything else that you would like to share with us, with the audience for this webinar about this awesome program?

Ally Cohen: We one of the other really great parts of this program that I wanted to highlight.

And forgive me, I'm glad you were asking me questions because I would forget all of these finer details. But we do an adjustment to vision loss segment during the program, and that is 100%, probably the most talked about and most beneficial in the opinion of the consumers and the companions because they get, they each get it at separate times.

Okay. It is, it always runs long. So I've been adding more and more time each time for this. There are tiers involved. Mm-hmm. They really break it down. And our our aspire coordinator, she coordinates our support group programs, does such an amazing job at really. Explaining to the consumers what they're going through.

Mm-hmm. And then ways to help them kind of work through that. And then talks about our support groups that we offer to get them involved. Actually it was really awesome during one of our last, not this past program, the one before the group became so close to one another, they actually formed their own support group. That meets and we, we were talking about doing this like an alumni shore support group thing each year because they wanted to stay in touch. They wanted a way to be able to keep in touch with each other and meet on a regular basis. And so they did it. They formed their own support group and it all stemmed from this session with Susan talking about adjustment to vision loss.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. And I think it's one of those areas that we don't see covered enough across our field. There's not necessarily counselors or mental health counselors trained specifically in vision loss and that adjustment process, so a lot of people just don't get that need met. So I love that that's included.

Mm-hmm. That's awesome. Yeah. So to participate in your program, does somebody have to be a resident, a local resident, and within the counties you serve? Or can they come from California to come and join?

Ally Cohen: They do have to be New Jersey residents. They have to be open consumers with us. Okay. It is a very or it was at one time a very selective process. We were really trying to aim the program to consumers who were new to their vision loss and didn't receive a lot of training yet, so that it would, they would get the most benefit out of it. So our consumers, we usually would send out the application and the information and ask our caseworkers to look at their caseloads and kind of nominate the consumers that they feel would best benefit from the program. Okay. In the beginning we used to have piles of applications and we would sit there and go through each of them and like, you know, look at everything and, and figure out if they were, the committee would figure out if they were a good candidate.

When we first came back from Covid, we didn't have that problem. We actually were really like begging for people to participate. Mm-hmm. But it was great because this last one. In the fall we actually did have to say no to people. Wow. Which we hate to do, but that's a good problem to have. Mm-hmm.

Because that means that we have people interested, we have potential consumers that would benefit and they can always try and apply for the next one if they're still in need of services and instruction.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: And do the participants only get to go through one time?

Ally Cohen: Yes. Okay. Just one program during their time with us.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Yeah. Like an active case. That makes sense. Yeah. Or else the same people. We, they, they love the program so much. We would have repeat people constantly, but I think it's just such a beneficial thing to our adults that a lot of times we only think of a retreat or a camp style event for kids, but our adults are sitting at home and definitely need that.

Time together with each other to kind of learn together and just network and build those friendships that maybe they're not having. Once those vision, you know, once the vision loss sets in, they just kind of stay at home. So thank you so much.

Ally Cohen: Absolutely. That's, that is absolutely what happens. They make new friends that are all over the state and they keep in touch through the phone and through Zoom and through their iPads. So it is, it's such a wonderful experience.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Virginia with Dave Fuller. Alright, well thank you for joining me today. We are here to learn a little bit about your senior retreat. First of all, how long have you all been running that retreat?

Dave Fuller: Gosh, I've been, I've been with the agency now about 11 and a half years.

It was in place before I arrived. Wow. So it's been around at least I. 10 years, I believe. We have six regional offices across the state of Virginia, and our headquarters is located here in Richmond, Virginia. And on our campus we have, I. An incredible full campus training center where we have adult students who take classes there from September until mid-June.

And then every summer we have a five week program for middle and high school age students, and then a two week, blocked off for our seniors to take classes. Okay. And originally it was only one week. Every summer in August, they've expanded it. As of last, last year, it's now two one week programs for people 55 and older.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. And are they separate groups that participate in each of the weeks? Yes.

Dave Fuller: Yes. Okay. Two separate groups. But same courses and programs and things that they'll be studying they basically get an overview of all of the. Courses that are taught at the center. So they will have experiences with braille, assistive technology home management orientation and mobility.

So they really get a full glimpse of what the center does throughout the year. Frequently it's a launching pad for individuals to go, gosh, I think I might want to be a full-time student. And it's a great way to introduce the center to our seniors because I taught there for four and a half years for their home management class, and it's.

It's a full day when you're in the adult program and even during the retreat, you know you're going from eight 30 in the morning until five o'clock.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Oh wow.

Dave Fuller: For a lot of seniors who are not working, they may have kind of a sedentary lifestyle. And when you're thrust into that sort of environment, it, it's an awakening, you know, so.

It's a great way for folks to go. I, you know, let me think about this because am I physically right? For the program. Am I emotionally ready? We have on our campus a very nice dormitory where students stay and seniors stay during the retreat, a cafeteria, a gymnasium.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Oh, wow.

Dave Fuller: They just got the bowling alley fixed.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay.

Dave Fuller: We have a swimming pool and yeah. But we also allow each of the seniors who come during the senior retreat to bring one friend or family member okay to participate in all the training for free. And I taught four years over there. And I have to say the senior week was always my favorite week throughout the year. It's a fun group. The folks at the dorm told me the seniors would stay up and play cards over at the dorm. And that's the other thing that's great about the retreat is so often. People who have loss of vision, perhaps their family members work during the day. They're isolated at home.

They don't have any connections within the blind community. So it is a great way of networking. We encourage it folks make friends for life and it, it, it's, it's a great social interactions as well. About half of the staff at the center are blind. Okay. So that's the other thing. You know, family members can sympathize, but they may not be able to empathize about vision loss and to be around your peers who are traveling the same journey, that traveling can be really affirming, I think, and very supportive.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: It can be, it definitely can also help the family members understand a little bit better what if, what their family member maybe could be doing that maybe they're, they're not doing at home.

Dave Fuller: Absolutely. That's a great point. The plus we call them plus ones. The plus ones often learn as much, if not more, than the seniors themselves.

It lets them see what the possibilities are. When I taught over there, you know, I would have students frequently say, well, my family doesn't want me to use the stove 'cause they're afraid I'll burn the house down.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Mm-hmm.

Dave Fuller: But when they're there and they see people doing these things independently, then they go, oh my goodness.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: And so for those lessons, do you all follow kind of a set curriculum that you use consistently over the years?

Dave Fuller: It, it, it. It changes somewhat, you know, depending on the instructor and maybe they want to try a new slant on their classes. It's a matter of wetting someone's appetite enough to want to learn more.

And there are pros and cons. To learning through home lessons and learning at the center. All of the classes at the center, including the senior retreat, are group classes. When you work through home lessons with a rehab teacher, it's one-on-one. So there is a slight difference. The best thing about working at the center is as opposed to working with a rehab teacher, maybe once or twice a month, you're going Monday through Thursday learning all kinds of blind skills, right?

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: So in terms of the group training when they're scheduled, eight to five during the day, do you do after hours activities or do the individuals just kind of get some free rein to do what they want?

Dave Fuller: No, they have lots of other activities. And here again, it depends on the year and you know, sometimes they've gone out to a dinner theater they've done ballroom dancing.

Oh, cool. Yeah. Any number of things. So yeah, they stay very active while they're here. And like I said you know, those would be, you know, depending on, I. If you need to rest, you rest. We, we experience that a lot too, that, you know, we're, we're gonna work at your pace. If you need to take a break and go back to the dorm and, you know, take a pause, we'll absolutely accommodate.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's really awesome. Yeah. And they're all all of your staff work for Virginia itself? Mm-hmm. It's all OI funded the whole program?

Dave Fuller: We're all state employees of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Yeah.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. That's what I thought, if I remember correctly.

Dave Fuller: Except for, you know, we, we sometimes have drivers or you know, people, interpreters that we hire, but you know, for the most part we're all state employees.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay, so if you do hire drivers, is transportation available to individuals who need to come to the programming or want to come?

Dave Fuller: If they want to come to the retreat,

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: the senior retreat,

Dave Fuller: it's possible we can work things out.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Do individuals leave that week with any of the equipment maybe that they've trained on, that they would benefit from at home? Or is it something they have to purchase?

Dave Fuller: No significant pieces of equipment. They may get things like writing guides or a signature guide or small things like that. The other thing about coming to the treat and establishing a relationship with us is that we become a resource for you. You know there are hundreds of thousands of things and gadgets and gizmos out there, some that are great.

Worthwhile, worth the price. Others not so much, and some that are frankly just a ripoff. Mm-hmm. We can be a source of information in that regard too. And I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but anyone who wants to go to the senior. Retreat. There is a medical forum that's involved. You have to be in charge of your own medications while you're here. So the, there is a process that happens.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: In general, do they have more than one opportunity to go through the retreat or is it kind of a one time retreat only?

Dave Fuller: We've, we've had some folks who've come back for another retreat. They tend to, you know, want people who have never had the experience to come first. Almost always there's a waiting list depending on how many applicants there are, because. And we want that waiting list because some people get sick or, you know, for whatever reason can't attend that week. And we have folks on deck ready to go. Okay. So I think typically, I'll have to find out the exact numbers.

It's between 20 and 22 individuals who are. Have experiencing vision loss and then plus whatever, plus ones want to attend. So it's usually a group between 35 and 40 people for each of the two weeks.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Wisconsin, with Jennifer Shimon and Angie Zalig.

I would love to learn a little bit about your adventures in vision loss program for adults.

Can you please tell me a little bit about how your program works and where it's held?

Jennifer Shimon: Sure. So my name is Jennifer Shimon and I'm here with my coworker Angie Zalig. And we work through the state of Wisconsin office for the blind and visually impaired. And so there are 11 of us on our team that work across the state, and most of our time is spent working with people one-on-one in their home environment.

People that have vision loss. So we're problem solving, daily living skills, technology, those types of things in the home. But once a year our group comes together and we teach an introductory program. It's called Adventures and Vision Loss, and it's held in Rosholt, Wisconsin at the Lions Campground.

So we hold it at the Lions campground because the Lions Club in general, they have like eight global clauses that they raise money for, and vision loss is one of 'em. So we it's kind of a mutually beneficial thing that the Lions Club gives us their campground at a reasonable rate and we're supporting them as well.

So that's where we hold it.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. So participants have the opportunity to stay overnight and come to the camp and participate in day programming and after hours activities?

Jennifer Shimon: Yes. Yep. Yep. It's a five day program. And we have people come on a Sunday evening around like four o'clock and we do an orientation and dinner and a tour.

And then the next three days are classes on vision loss. And we do have other activities held in the evening and in between times.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Very cool. So are all participants 55 and over or is there a wider age range that's, that can participate?

Jennifer Shimon: So it's people age 18 and up. There's no upper age limit to it.

We just, I. We do do a screening. There's an application process, and we do do a screening to make sure that the client is appropriate for the, the, the setting and medically stable and that they're independent with self-care and mobility. We, they don't necessarily have to have great cane skills or orientation skills because it's a new environment, but just that they're able to physically, you know, balance, strength, mobility, move around independently.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That makes perfect sense. So 18 and up, that's new. I have not heard that yet. So there is a wider age range participating in this program that's very unique. Okay. So in terms of funding maybe for older adults, do OIB funds cover the cost for those participants to attend?

Angie Zalig: This is, this is Angie and yes, ILOB Funding is part of it, but then we also have state funding as well.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. Okay. So is there any cost for the participant themselves, transportation to and from the retreat site, or maybe cost of supplies or food? Anything that they know they have to be responsible for?

Angie Zalig: Everything is free for the participants. So the, they, we stay in a, in a lodge or a cabin, and staying overnight is free of charge.

The food is free of charge. The training is free of charge. I. If participants are able to have transportation to and from this training event that is very helpful. We are a small staff but there have been times where if somebody was very appropriate for the program and really wanted to go, but they didn't have transportation, then our staff has been able to assist.

We've also, from time to time, if people have not had transportation to and from the program, because this is Lions camp. Lions club members are very helpful as well, and they've been kind enough to transport people to and from camp also.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That is very nice. That's an amazing perk to using to collaborating with them. That's awesome. Yeah. So in terms of skills that the individuals learn, since it is such a wider age, age range, are you doing a consistent curriculum or does the curriculum change each year? Depending on maybe who's participating in the program?

Angie Zalig: In general, we stick with the same type of programming. We have six classes, and those would be daily living skills, communication, and braille, technology orientation and mobility.

Cooking and resources and discussion on vision loss, and we've been doing this training event for a number of years. This is going to be, I believe, our 11th year. So throughout the years, we've kind of tweaked a few things along the way, just as anybody would when they're first getting something off the ground, but.

We've really established after this time just a good set core of of skills to be taught. And as far as the classes themselves, all of the classes except for resources and discussion on vision loss are smaller classes. And then for resources and discussion on vision loss, that's where we come as a large group to discuss.

And we've really seen the benefit of that. People really learn a lot from each other.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That makes perfect sense. Are they for after hours activities, are there any kind of fun things, rec and leisure that they get to do after that hard day of training and learning all those skills?

Angie Zalig: Oh, definitely. And because the environment is so beautiful it, we really take advantage of that. So the three training days are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. When people arrive on Sunday evening, we do a tour of camp so that people are become a little bit more familiar with the grounds and where they will need to go the following morning. We get together as a group to introduce ourselves and break the ice so that people start to feel a little bit more comfortable.

And then on Monday we tend to do a pontoon boat ride, weather permitting, because the lions camp has just a lovely lake. And so we rent a pontoon boat too. And then we just go around the lake for a while and just enjoy the scenery and the outdoors. And then on Tuesday we have a dog guide panel that's always of interest to people so they can learn a little bit more about schools and the relationship that one might have with their dog and the ins and outs of it.

And then on Wednesday we have a big bingo party. So if people decide that they just wanna kind of sit out those optional evening activities, they certainly can if they want to. Sometimes people will bring their, you know, audio books to listen to. Sometimes impromptu things happen. One year we had an Elvis impersonator, so he did a performance that was great.

And and then we had a, a rock and roll guy, so he did a, a performance as well. So the classes are mandatory during the day, the six that I spoke of. But in the evening there's, there's lots of things that people can participate in. And then we bring just games too, if anybody wants to do that. So lots of options.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. That's awesome. It sounds like a lot of fun. It is. In terms of your training staff I'm not very familiar with Wisconsin. Do you typically have certified staff on hand? Is it like a peer mentor or structured discovery? What kind of staff and then even just student to staff ratios, do you all keep for that kind of a, an activity?

Jennifer Shimon: Yeah. So we have a mix of different backgrounds on our staff. I'm an occupational therapist by background. We have two people on our team that are orientation and mobility specialists. We have one certified in technology cad, a certification, one low vision therapist. Then we also have an LPN that we hire to stay on site in case of any medical issues.

And we also contract for one more orientation and mobility instructor, so that in that class it tends to be more one-on-one if we can manage that for that year. The classes themselves. I think Angie mentioned they're smaller classes. They tend to be three to four people in the class. We, they rotate through the classes.

It's the same class every day. Like they'll go to cooking Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with different topics. And they'll be with the same group in that class. But then we mix people up through the other classes. So it's a really nice size group. At minimum we want. 14 people to attend our program and at maximum 18.

And that is due to the size of our staff and how we can function and work with, with that many people because we're really responsible the entire time that they're at this camp day and night. But then we also I, it's a nice size group because. People get to know one another. Really long lasting relationships build from this camp so it's enough, enough people that come that you're exposed to other people with vision loss and you really get to connect with people, but not so big that it's really overwhelming from when they first arrive that first evening.

You can just feel the nervousness to by the next day. I say after people have a couple classes under their belt. You can just feel everyone start to relax a little bit more, they get, understand what the program is about and then really thrive in this type of setting where they're with people that understand what they're going through. So.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. In, in terms of that nervousness, do you ever allow family members or significant others to come with the individual?

Jennifer Shimon: We get asked that question very often, because people, and you know, it's it, like I said, it's a scary thing to be dropped off at a campground in Northern West wisconsin, not knowing very many people.

So we get that question a lot and we do not allow a plus one or someone to come along because the whole purpose of the experience is to promote independence and growth. So the point is to step away from your support system, which is really hard to do, but it's an amazing thing that happens when, when people do do that we do.

We've been developing and now have started giving a packet of resources and information to family and the support system and how to support the person that attends camp as well. So we do a lot leading up to the program with phone calls and, you know, asking people what their concerns are.

Really trying to make a connection before this program starts because of those nerves.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: In terms of equipment, do the individuals get to take any equipment home, or do they just kind of learn about equipment and then they can purchase equipment on their own later?

Angie Zalig: When it comes to equipment, for the various classes, oftentimes the instructors will provide different types of equipment for people to take home with them. Okay. So for example, if we take the cooking class, for example, if people are finding helpful, a liquid level indicator or measuring cups with the, with the large indicators of the half cup, you know, fourth cup, that type of thing.

Oftentimes we have these things to give out to help people. If there's something that somebody finds helpful, again, they were, they were brought to camp at the suggestion or the approval of their rehabilitation specialist. So if there's something at camp that's, or this training event, I should say, that's particularly helpful, then that individual can work with their rehabilitation specialist.

If it's something that might really benefit them, but perhaps it's a hardship to afford. And then of course I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back to those bingo prizes. We do have some really nice things too that, that we put specifically for people to be able to help them, you know, with the, with the classes that we had provided instruction in.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Are there any things that you maybe don't cover during that week in terms of programming or topics that you kind of leave for individual training, things that you might would maybe that you would like to include, but you just have had to keep separate for whatever reason?

Angie Zalig: Yes, that would be because this, this training event is, is targeted as an introductory type of class.

And because we really only have three class, or I should say, excuse me, three days, we cannot delve too deeply into these subject matters. So as far as things that we really don't touch on, those would be. More in depth types of instruction. If I go, for example, with technology. Obviously there's a lot that can be learned in technology and it evolves so quickly.

So we just do just a, an introductory level on these kinds of things. And then if somebody wants more assistance when they get home, if they've got maybe an Android phone and they want to learn more about that, their particular phone, or they need more instruction and orientation and mobility, then they follow up with their rehab specialist upon their return home.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Does somebody have to be a resident of Wisconsin? Do you ever take people from outside of the state that don't have maybe access to a retreat program in their state to participate in training?

Jennifer Shimon: Jen? Sure. We, we do have a requirement that the person is a Wisconsin resident. Okay. It has been pretty common that we have ended up in wait lists for the program. Wow. Just internally. So and very often we get asked for follow-up programming, you know, an additional week, a more advanced level camp after this one.

And at this time we just do this introductory program. What's really nice though is the Lions Camp, they do, they have summer programming where they do camps all summer long, and one of them is for adults with vision loss. So if people meet people at our program and they get to know the campground and feel comfortable, they can attend a summer camp, more of a recreational focused program in summer for a week. And that is up to 150 people.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Oh, wow.

Jennifer Shimon: And you go year after year where our camp is a onetime, one time attendance.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. That was gonna be my next question. So they kind of go through one time and then they have to go on to other forms of training?

Jennifer Shimon: Correct.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. What have you guys found to be the most helpful to the consumers that they're coming away with and they're talking about the most?

Angie Zalig: I think probably Jen and I will both answer this question because it, this is so impactful for the participants and also for the staff. I can't possibly express in words how moving this event can be. So like Jen had mentioned before, people show up in this new environment. They, they're kind of essentially dropped off.

They, they don't know anybody except maybe their rehabilitation specialist. And that's about it. So new people, new environment, and not only just for a day, but five days, you know, day and night. And so sometimes people are are, oh my gosh, what did I get myself into? I'm, I'm a little, I'm a little nervous here.

And so we have seen people get teary-eyed when their first, when their loved ones leave. But then those bonds form so quickly and we see people with more vision helping those with less vision and all, and all these people just come together to form these great relationships. So that literally by the end of, so Thursday, everybody departs in between 10 and 11.

And by Thursday people are literally crying because they don't, they say they don't wanna leave. They have, they've had such a good time really good friendships. I think one of the greatest things is we give out these certificates of completion for people, which matters a lot to them. So everybody gets the certificate of completion, but then each participant also receives their own, their own individual.

Their own individual award and those are so cute. So some examples that I jotted down, 'cause I I think they're pretty neat, is one of them is The Walking Wizard Award for greatest improvement in cane skills or running with the Bulls Award for the biggest risk taker. Snickers award for making everyone laugh.

So this coming together on Thursday with everybody laughing because they've had such a great time and crying because it's coming to an end, is really very moving. And I'll pass it on to Jen 'cause I know she's got things to say about this training event too.

Jennifer Shimon: Yeah. I don't even know how to follow up after that.

I completely agree. A lot of times the staff are teary at the end as well, listening to the kind of the large group discussion. Every time I leave camp, I think it, it's one of the most important things that we do. So I second that. I would also say that I think it's really beneficial for the people that come to camp to just be exposed to the rest of our staff.

You know, they're working one-on-one in our regions, but to be exposed to the different talents and skills. Is, is priceless as well. And we do at the, the last day of, of camp, we also do an exit interview where we ask a few questions if, you know, if people feel like they've gained confidence, gained skills and then we ask.

For comments and suggestions. And after everybody leaves, we do a debrief and we, we talk through and we look through the surveys and really the minute we're done with one camp, Angie and I are onto the next year working on planning, taking into consideration what people have told us and, you know, how can we make some improvements.

So we, we definitely take the feedback that we get as well.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. It sounds like it really supports that adjustment process for those people kind of new to some vision loss or really working through those beginning stages of that vision loss. That's awesome. One last question. Do you have any tips for programs that might be considering taking on something like this?

Maybe they've never thought about doing a retreat, but they would love to do it after hearing the benefits. What would you tell them in getting started with something like this?

Jennifer Shimon: Oh yeah, I was just gonna say, I, I feel like Angie and I have worked at, what is this, our third year running it. But I, I came into a well-developed program.

It was already in place, so a lot of people did the really hard work early on. I would say that we, we would be open to anybody reaching out to us. There's more we could talk about in terms of the planning and the timeline, our application process and things like that. So we would be more than happy to talk to somebody more individually about about some of those components.

Angie Zalig: And I would say too that maybe to start a little, we, when we first started this program, about 11 years or so ago, we actually had one more day of training. So it, our training event actually was longer than what it is now, but we just found by, with the extra day of training, the participants were quite tired.

The staff, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's a challenge because it's. It's it's a long time to be there and it's intensive and the participants are learning a lot. So we personally have found that the three training days are, have worked well for us personally. And then of course Sunday with the the drop off and then Thursday with, with wrapping up.

But that was just something we ourselves have found as we've developed it throughout the years. That makes perfect. But it's been just an awesome experience.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Well, and that makes perfect sense. There is kind of an information overload. You get to like information saturation, so it makes sense that three days would be, you know, the most effective and then everybody has time to process.

Angie Zalig: Yes. And that information overload is a good point too because Jen had alluded to the fact that we do this exit survey and we ask for information from the participants so we can improve each year. One of the pieces of feedback that we've gotten is you've provided us with so much information if each instructor could give us a handout or information of what we covered during class, so we can take that back and refer to it or show our family members and our friends so that it's, you know, we have a reference.

So we've done that as well, which, which has been very helpful.

Dr. Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Well, thank you Angie and Jen for all of the information. We definitely will let everybody know that you are open to more questions. You might have some programs reaching out to you. Thank you so much for your time.

Jennifer Ottowitz: We hope you've enjoyed learning about these effective models for retreat training.

Many other agencies and organizations across the country have similar programs. You can learn more on our website at oib-tac.org. That's OIB TAC.org, and we hope you'll consider how starting a retreat training program could help the older adults you serve.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Hello, and welcome to the second half of our April 25th, 2025 webinar Exploring Effective Models for retreat training. In the second half, we have interviews from three additional programs. We spoke with California's Society for the Blind Senior Impact Program, new Hampshire's Silver Retreat, and.

Louisiana's Center for the Blind TLC program. Come along with us and learn how three additional programs are running their senior retreat group training and peer support programming TLC Senior Retreat Program, Louisiana Center for the Blind. Okay. So when you do, when you do training in a church or a council on aging, are they group, do you do like a, any kind of a camp or group trainings for adults?

Louisiana Center for the Blind: We do small group trainings, like I said, at councils on aging churches as senior living, like assisted living complexes, those kinds of things. And then we also have what we call retreats where people will have a small group of about anywhere between maybe six and 12 people come over to the Louisiana Center for the Blind over in Ruston.

We have apartments there that we use. And they come and they live together for four days. We spend the night there. Okay. We do very in depth training there. We do a lot of travel. We do a lot of cooking and leisure activities, just kind of dependent on what the group. Is into this last one we had in November, we did a fishing we had a bunch of people that were interested in fishing and had quit fishing.

Oh, cool. That's a big thing here in Louisiana. Mm-hmm. So we did a fishing outing with them and we Oh, fun. We used the the little. Lures that make noise and rattle whenever, you know, a fish is on it. We didn't catch any fish, so they tried though. We tried. We tried and just getting people out and letting them I mean, even if you don't catch fish, you know, it's still fun to be out.

It was a beautiful day and then we bought fish and fried and, you know. We taught them how they can continue frying fish and you know, cutting up french fries and just all the things that go along with that. 'cause so many people give that up. And it's something they really love. You know, Louisiana, we love our cooking, so we spend a lot of time on that.

A lot of times if we have a group that like to sew, we'll do, you know, a full day on sewing different, you know, ways to continue that. Not every time, but several times we will do woodworking. LCB has a large woodworking shop with all the equipment for the students to use, so they'll let our seniors come over and use the woodworking equipment and get woodworking instruction.

Nice. So we try and arrange our groups where, you know, they have similar interests. So, you know, we might have a lot of ladies that wanna sew in wine and then we might have a lot of people that want woodworking in the next one. So it just kind of varies on what our clientele's interested in. Okay. And then when they stay on campus, are any of those things funded by like the state OIB funding, or are you guys having to fund all of that?

It's partially funded by our the seven OB program.

California Society for the Blind: Okay.

Louisiana Center for the Blind: And then LCB puts up a match. You know, they, they provide all the. Equipment, they provide all the housing and all that transportation all that we, we, we do all that.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. So you do have a pretty good collaboration with that seven Right? Funding. Good. Okay. Awesome. So it sounds like the agenda or the curriculum varies. There's probably not a set curriculum. It varies depending on the group that you're working with, or do you have kind of a set. Curriculum that you would use?

In general?

Louisiana Center for the Blind: We have a set curriculum. But it, you know, when we get to leisure activities, that's the part that kind of varies. Okay. And it, you know, and it, it's not a written in stone kind of agenda. We just kind of have things we go over and it usually a set, you know, timeframe that we do them. But people just vary so much in their needs and their, their wants and their, you know, activities they wanna do that.

We, we change it up depending on, we're very flexible. Okay. You know, that's the name of the game. You have to be flexible with what they want. And then with seniors you have to go with what they're able to do too. Some days, you know, some groups we, oh, hold on one second. My thing's wanting to update.

Okay. Some, some groups have, you know, a lot of stamina where we may have another group that needs a, you know, you know, a 30 minute rest after they do things, so, okay. That, you know, we just gotta be flexible with what we do.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. That makes perfect sense. So their age then, you're 55 and over typically is the age of the person you're looking at.

Right.

Louisiana Center for the Blind: 55 and older.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. And then what group sizes do you usually try to keep if somebody was gonna access it?

Louisiana Center for the Blind: Usually between six and 12. Okay. That's pretty good. We allow family members to come the first year or so. Okay. We did it. We, we didn't have family members come and our clients would go home and their spouse would be like, oh no, you're not touching that saw.

It's too dangerous. Or, no, you can't touch the stove because you're gonna burn yourself. So we found if we have the family member come with 'em, they can participate and learn how, you know, they can do things safely as well. So it, and we do a lot of kind of family supports, family counseling because you know, when you go blind, it's not just a.

You know, it's a whole family situation. Mm-hmm. So we do a lot of that as well. So we allow one family member to come and then on the last day, if they have more family members that wanna come, we do like a little graduation ceremony. Oh, nice. And the family can come for that.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. That is awesome.

Okay. And that was one of my questions, do family members get to come? So that's awesome. Do you guys plan if they're, if you're doing the residential for four days or for a week roughly, do you plan all of their time? Do they have after hours activities or do they get to just kind of mingle after hours when they're staying at the apartments or the dorms?

Think

Louisiana Center for the Blind: mingle, but sometimes we have after hours activities. This last one, we had someone there that came and did personal safety training. Okay. So that was something we did after hours. He just happened to be at the center doing training for them. So he came over and did stuff with our seniors.

That's, we've had that happen three or four times. Sometimes we'll have a play, maybe if there's a play going on in town, we'll take 'em to a play. Oh no. We'll go maybe out to dinner at a restaurant. 'cause that's something that a lot of people give up as well. So we just kind of try to incorporate those after hour activities into something that.

They wanna be doing at home anyway, or something they've stopped doing. But they do usually have several, you know, hours throughout the, the stay there where they can have free time to do whatever they want or just talk. And I think that's, that's something that really does help them is just talking with the other people that are there and hearing their stories and how they've coped.

Another thing we do that's kind of different is, or maybe it's not different, I don't know. We have peer mentors. Okay, so we have two seniors that have been blind for many years that came to one of our earlier retreats. And they come and I. Act as a peer mentor. You know, they, they tell their story how, you know, we have one lady that sat in her house for 13 years and never went out and, you know, came to a retreat and basically got her life back.

You know, she travels around now and, and does all kinds of things. We had one another gentleman that comes and, he just wanted something to read with and he wound up learning so much that he went back to work and he's still working and he's gotten promotions and you know, so we have some great peer mentors that come and really uplift our seniors that are there.

So that's very, very helpful to us as well, because. You know, Stacy, Janet and I, neither, none of us are, are blind or visually impaired, so having those senior mentors who are their age and blind as well really makes a big impact on them.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: It is a big difference, yeah. To hear from somebody. Yeah. Living the experience.

Right, right. And so for you all for the staff, are you guys agency trained or are you certified through A-C-V-R-E-P? How does the. Who does the training?

Louisiana Center for the Blind: We, Jan Janet is a CV, whatever that one. RP. Mm-hmm. Yes. I have my certification from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and Low Vision and a Master's in social work from LSU.

Cool. Then we also did some agency training as well, and then Stacy's got her master's in orientation and mobility from, arizona, somewhere in Arizona. And then, so I think she's A-C-B-R-P-R-E-P. Mm-hmm. Yes. You're good as well. So we have kind of both kind of a mix.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. Very good.

Louisiana Center for the Blind: Yeah. Okay.

And then we do, we do you know, yearly training with the center as well.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. Very good. Okay. Very cool. And so the retreat, is it just TLC retreat? Is that what you guys call it? Or does it have a special name for your retreat? TLC Senior Retreat. That's it. Senior retreat.

Louisiana Center for the Blind: Okay. Yeah. And TLC stands for Techniques for Living confidently.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: It's such a cool program. And the retreat aspect is really what we're looking at. A lot of places don't do, they'll do the community-based training or they'll do in-home training, but they don't bring older adults together like you might do with kids. And so it's a very unique thing to see. We really wanna highlight that.

So states know that you don't have to like leave older adults out of that. You can bring them together and let them learn from each other.

Louisiana Center for the Blind: Okay. Yeah, it's our, it's my favorite thing we do. I wish we had more funding to do 'em, you know, once a month. We don't, you know, because Louisiana, the, our territory is so spread out.

We, you know, there's people that can't come over for four or five days, you know, they have sick loved ones or, or they just, you know, don't want to,

yeah. We

Louisiana Center for the Blind: still have to do our in-home, you know, our in-home training. Mm-hmm. But the retreat, if we can get people over, I mean, it's, I know in-home services change lives, but the retreat, I mean, you can just.

Feel it on graduation day. You know, there's tears. I mean, we have never had one where there aren't tears. Shed, even by big bur men, you would never think. Yeah, right. They just really get so much out of it and they build lifelong, lifelong friendships from it,

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: which is important.

Louisiana Center for the Blind: Yeah. Yeah. So it is absolutely the best thing we do.

I, I find, you know. And then we kind of continue that over one month one Thursday a month, we have a virtual senior meeting. Okay. So we get a lot of people from the retreat or anyone, you know, anyone throughout the state can call into it. It's just, you know, a a phone conference line and we have different topics.

Okay.

Louisiana Center for the Blind: Sometimes it's just. Maybe chit chat or what's going on in the news. Sometimes we have a speaker from, you know talking books or the pharmacy or, or different things, different subject matters, cooking, whatever it, you know, whatever we have that month. So that's another way for them to connect as well.

So I think it's just really important to get seniors to connect with one another.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Mm-hmm.

Louisiana Center for the Blind: And socialize as much as possible.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Yeah, I agree. Awesome. No, I agree. Yeah, they get kind of trapped in their homes.

Louisiana Center for the Blind: Yes. And that's why I started the monthly virtual meeting was during Covid 'cause you know, we couldn't meet one-on-one for so long.

So I started it then and we just kind of kept it up ever since. They, they really love it so much. So

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: a great program. We don't see people bringing older adults together very often, so. Yeah.

Louisiana Center for the Blind: Yeah. Yeah. It's really needed. It really is. So it is. I'm proud that we started that. I really am. I mean, I know some other places do it as well, but it, like I said, it's one of the, the best things I think we do as far as senior go.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Yeah, no, it's a great, it's a great, and there's not many, I'm looking and there's, we found. Maybe seven or eight total across the nation, which is not that many.

Yeah. So,

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: yeah. So it's a great thing to highlight. Well, thank you so much. Senior Impact Program, California Society for the Blind. Go for it. Take it away.

Shari Roeseler: Okay. So in California, the OIB funds are awarded through a competitive process. So every three years we go through a competitive process. And most of the, there are 23 blindness agencies in the state of California and we're all more or less geographically located. And so when we look at how we wanna s support seniors, we kind of look at what are the counties that we, that we cover and we wanna work with during this last round.

I, I happened to be, at the time president of the California Agency Association of Agencies for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and we all came together and we went over every county in the state and each, each agency dis stated which counties they wanted to apply for funding. And then if there were more than one agency for a given county.

We were tasked with working together to jointly put in a proposal. So it was not, we weren't competing against each other for the same territory. Oh. So it was a much more collaborative process. So that's, you know, how that, how that process works. We, society for the Blind was funded for 13 counties.

So it's a pretty big geographical area that we serve. We're located in Sacramento, California. But we serve counties that are pretty close and then counties that are pretty far away. Some of those counties are rather sparsely populated, but that just means that those seniors. Are more isolated, have more challenges to get services and the like.

So that's, that's kind of the down and dirty on how the senior the OIB grant is parceled out in the state of California.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. Wow. Okay. So then for, since you cover such a wide area for your senior impact program, you bring mm-hmm. Individuals into one central location or two different locations.

It's all of that.

Shari Roeseler: So, okay. We, so we, so we provide our services at our center, which is in sort of Midtown Sacramento. We also do in-home, and we also do remote instruction. So we actually kind of have three modes of training seniors. So like in some counties, if there's a lot of snow in a given winter time, it can be next to impossible to get into those counties until the snow melts.

And so that's where remote, which could be on a computer or over the phone. And we developed, actually during COVID we had, we developed what we called Safe at Home Kits. And so we would put some basic instructional materials you know, including a cane bump, dots, you know, myriad of other things.

And we would actually ship those to a client's home and then we would call them or do a zoom and we would go over with them how to use those various items as sort of a beginner. Class. So that's, that's how we do that. We do a lot of community engagement activities. So in addition to the actual classes where we're teaching blindness skills, we also will do like the Apple Hill is a very.

Popular area in the fall. We take seniors there, so they're practicing their cane skills. They're getting to practice, you know, shopping and going out. And then it's really about the socialization and breaking the isolation. As you know, that happens for a lot of seniors.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: For when you do bring them together, how large are the groups that you, you usually try to bring together with your seniors?

Shari Roeseler: Yeah, it's a great question. We usually if it's a, a training like say it's training on how to use your iPhone, your smartphone, we'll probably limit that class to say nine to 15 people because it is so intensive. And so that in that case, you know, most of the staff would be on hand that day. The other thing that we do is we use a lot of mentors.

So those are seniors who have gone through our program and have been around for a while, who then become trained on how to be basically like a teacher's assistant. And so when we're doing a program like say an iPhone workshop or some other skill training, they'll be there as well. So we might have five or six mentors who then support.

Four or five instructors, and that way each individual participant is gonna get a one-on-one person working with them.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. That is really awesome to use mentors.

Shari Roeseler: Yeah.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: For that, do they ever do like an overnight activity or an overnight, like camping? We don't, or it's just day programming?

Shari Roeseler: We, it's all day programming, so we do not do residential services,

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: no residential. Okay. And are they fully funded with the OIB or does. Do your participants ever have to contribute to their services or their supplies?

Shari Roeseler: We so it, we provide all of the materials and the instructions. So through the OIB grant and then obviously fundraising, we are able to provide those services.

And so we don't ask our clients to make a payment. We do share with them, you know, this is what this program costs, this is what you know. And so a lot of our clients actually make donations. They're generous in that respect. That's awesome if they're, if they're able. But most of our clients in all of our programming, not just their senior program, are low to very low income.

Okay.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: And they're all 55 and over generally for your O Yes. B and your OIB. Okay. Yes,

Shari Roeseler: yes.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Do they ever get to, other than maybe having the mentors work with them, do they ever get to have a plus one where maybe they can bring a family member to the class to learn along with them, to absolutely

Shari Roeseler: support.

Absolutely. So depending on the client some require an attendant to be with them. Okay. And, or you know, like especially if we're doing remote instruction, that's often a nice time to have a family member or caregiver present so that. They're hearing how we teach. They're also learning about interdependence, so sometimes there's a lot of dependencies that develop.

So we are trying to help that senior become a little bit more independent but also know when it's important to ask for help. So we will you know, type link people in that way. As far as involving family members or caregivers. Okay.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: And that's also equally important in breaking some of those, that isolation and getting the help.

Absolutely. Welcome, Kathleen, your general programming, do you guys have like a set curriculum or do you have like rotating classes that you offer for your older adults? Or is it just kind of like dependent on who's coming through at the

California Society for the Blind: time? Well, normally when I do an intake, which is mm-hmm. Starting getting the ball rolling.

I will suggest in-home evaluation and training, and that's an opportunity for clients to actually sit down with one of our instructors in their home transportation being an issue. So we go to them and of course we're traveling across 13 counties. So that's the, in-home, it's a really good introduction for our clients.

I explain to them ahead of time what we do, that our focus is on training and helping people to adapt to their vision loss through learning to do things and alternative techniques and, and that we do offer the in-home training in addition to other in-person group training at the agency, primarily at the agency, as well as remote access.

And so what we're talking about then are, you know, training in accessible technology devices and training activities of daily living communications, advocacy, you know, core skills and. You know, getting an idea in the intake what the person, where they wanna start, you know, I, I'm giving them the information to the, their options to make choices.

And then assigning an instructor if they, and most of 'em do go with the in-home evaluation or they can come here occasionally I get people who would prefer to come to the agency to meet the instructor. And I assign instructors. If they have a, a specialty in a particular area like working with Apple products or an orientation mobility instructor does, is that answering your question?

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: It is, yes. Yeah. So your, your courses. You assign 'em to an instructor when they come in for like group classes? Are those on like a rotation? I know when I worked at the Lighthouse in Florida, we had, you know, like the Apple iPhone class was every Tuesday and it was on rotation and people could kind of come through.

Is that how you do it?

California Society for the Blind: Normally with the, the iPhone in particular, which is really popular. We have a workshop. Every month. Oh, cool. So we have a schedule, we send out the prior month for the upcoming month for people to sign up for workshops, iPhone and mobility workshops are usually available here, you know, in person at the agency.

And then once a month we do like a, oh, the, I think it's the final, the the last Monday of the month for a call in. So no matter where you are, you can call in and there's gonna be. A instructor to answer specific questions. And then one new thing we're doing now, and this is because we have fabulous clients, we have a group of clients who are meeting once a month and they call, call their group, how do we do it?

And anyone can call in and talk to another client about a problem they're having. And so, oh wow. You know that here, networking. As well, solution, you know, problem solving, coming up with solutions

Shari Roeseler: and Stephanie, we put out a calendar every, every month. There's like cooking classes, so in, you know, living skills and things that are, you know, they're happening all the time.

So if you, like Kathleen said, if you can't make it in January. We're gonna have that iPhone class every Feb in February, maybe a couple times in February. There's the, you know, the, what we call our core blindness skills classes. Those are, those are repeated and then peppered in there are like next week we're doing a, a waffle breakfast on the, or not next week, on the 29th.

And so those are things that are. You know, social engagement. And it's also an opportunity for our clients to get to practice the skills that Kathleen and the rest of the staff are teaching them. You know, they get to learn how to set a table, prepare food, clean it up, all of that. So, and it's a lot of fun.

Yeah. So yeah, this is a loud, fun program. We're taking a group to Home Depot, for instance, and we do, we do, at least we call that community integration. Yeah. They practice their mobility skills, their communication skills. You know how to check out, use their, you know, to pay for things. Again, it's a social atmosphere.

California Society for the Blind: It's supportive helping people to overcome their fears and build their confidence in, in using very practical

Shari Roeseler: skills. When they're out, you go to the train station and Amtrak station and, and you know, so really practical things.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. And are your instructors agency trained or are they certified through the through revision rehabilitation

Shari Roeseler: field?

Both. They're so, you know, if they're teaching orientation mobility, they, most of ours are NOMC trained. We also have a comms. Trained. Okay. Certified instructor our assistive technology instructors go through a TI to be trained. So that's a couple. Okay. Like a two year program, I believe. And braille instructors that they pass their UEB tests so they're all, you know, trained within, certified within their field.

And then there's ongoing training and there's a lot of cross training among staff. You know, they go to ob obviously different conferences and things like that. So.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Silver Retreat, New Hampshire Future Insight. Hello. Thank you so much for joining me today. I would love to hear a little bit more about your Silver Retreat program, if you don't mind.

Let me start with age. Is there a specific age that you cover under your Silver, silver retreat? Yes, the silver retreat is restricted to folks that are over or 55 or over

55 or over. Okay. For that group, when you do have a group come together, is there a certain number of participants you like to include or that you limit a group to?

Yes,

Bri Stone: we allow up to 12 participants. We always hope to get the full 12 but we don't take more than 12.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay, that makes sense. Is there housing available? Do they have a specific place that they stay? Mm-hmm.

Bri Stone: Yes. So our Silver Retreats are a five day immersive program. And so they check in on a Monday and they stay at a hotel with us and they check out on Friday.

So we have them for four full nights. Yes, so the lodging is whatever hotel we're at for that week.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. And do you schedule their entire time, even like after hours activities or is it only training during the day and then they get free time? So a

Bri Stone: mixture. So we have a couple of events that are optional in the evening.

We always do a dinner out on the Wednesday evening, so that one, we, you know, it's not listed as optional. But, so we do that one on one night. We have a game night, and then we have some education in the evening as well.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Very nice. That is awesome. And for participants that are coming, is there transportation available if they can't maybe get to the hotel?

Bri Stone: There is, yes. So our agency has a volunteer driver program, so we try to utilize our volunteer drivers first, and if that's not possible we would help folks with private transportation, like sometimes a cab or an Uber to get them to and from the.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay, awesome. So in terms of helping is everything funded, even the transportation and materials and everything is funded, the hotel.

Everything is funded. Yes. That's awesome. That is, what kinds of skills specifically are they learning during those day training sessions? Sure.

Bri Stone: So we offer a variety of different skills and for some folks it will be different depending on their vision impairment. So if somebody is visually impaired but not legally blind we might have different breakout rooms.

So, you know, part of the group might be doing one thing while, you know, the other part of the group is doing a different skill based on their vision and their ability. So, you know, some of the sessions would be like, we would do low vision skills with magnification, but somebody that wouldn't benefit from magnification would maybe do something with OCR instead.

So those are some of the, you know, the differences, but we do offer. Communication skills orientation and mobility. Lots of assistive technology independent living skills. So one day, the Thursday of the retreat, we always go off site. When we're here in Concord, we use our building because we have an adaptive kitchen.

But if we're someplace else in the state of New Hampshire we would look at a community center or a church. Someplace with a kitchen and we do a day of independent living skills. So we split the group up in the morning, half of the group does cooking while the other half rotates through some other independent living skills, and then we swap for the afternoon.

So everybody's getting hands on. Kitchen skills. We do have adjustment to vision loss. We also have some games and some social interaction and some peer support as well throughout the week.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: That's awesome. And do the, do the participants have a way to stay connected after, do they, are there like continuous group things they can still participate in?

Bri Stone: Yeah, so we don't, we get, so Friday we have like a little mini graduation ceremony and people can speak about their experience during the week and they almost always ask if they can if we will host a reunion okay. For them. Unfortunately, we don't have funding available to host reunions at this time, but we do offer for those that want to share their contact information.

We create a contact sheet for them that's either handed out on paper in large print, or emailed to the participants, whichever, whichever form they choose. So everybody that's willing to participate in that does get added to their contact list so they can choose to stay in touch after the retreat with each other.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. That's awesome. In terms of support, do the participants get to bring a family member or can a family member participate in any of the training?

Bri Stone: So, great question. The answer is no. Okay. We get asked that question a lot as well, and we want folks to work on their independent skills and again, something else, you know.

Because we've gotten asked that a lot. We sort of wanted to dig in a little bit deeper to maybe, you know, how folks feel at the end of the retreat. So we have started asking them that. So we'll say, you know, for the, for the folks that you know, had asked about bringing somebody, do you still wish you brought somebody?

And we have never received an yes for an answer. Oh wow. They have all said no by the end of the retreat. Interesting. Yeah, so some of the comments have been things like, well, if my wife was here, she would've helped me do these things, or you know, so I'm glad I came by myself, so I learned how to do them independently.

So. That makes sense. Yeah. So we don't allow anyone, we have tossed the idea around because we get asked so often, but once we started asking the participants at the end and we're getting the feedback from them that they actually were happy they didn't bring somebody we've stuck with the policy of not allowing a guest.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. That makes perfect sense. In terms of the training itself, who's carrying out the training? Do you have like in-house trained staff or do you have staff that are all certified within the vision rehabilitation field? How do you approach that? So it

Bri Stone: mostly in-house staff. So we have occupational therapists who are also c LBTs.

So they do most of our training. We have a few assistive technology experts as well, so we utilize them during the week. We have a licensed social worker on staff. So she is leading those adjustment to vision loss sessions. We have certified orientation and mobility specialists, so we're, we're using those in-house.

One of the components actually is a presentation by an eye doctor. So we don't have any doctors on staff. Okay. So we do reach out to you know, to a local eye doctor to come give that presentation. We have reached out to when we didn't have a licensed social worker on staff, we would sometimes reach out to, a partner that we have used for that. So yeah, so our funding does come from the State of New Hampshire Department of Ed through their OIB program.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay.

Bri Stone: So that's something they had put this out to bid and we Future and Insight bid on on the program and we were awarded the bid. Okay. So we're executing that.

So, yeah, so we're not funding, I just wanted to be clear that we're not funding this through our own agency. Okay. That is how it's funded.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: And do you raise extra funds? Like does OIB cover everything you all need? Or do you raise extra funds for stuff that's not affordable?

Bri Stone: So in the, this is in the first contract we were supplementing a lot.

Okay. Because we, initially, we didn't. We didn't really, I guess, bid accurately. Okay. Like not having done it before. Yeah. So we were, we were for sure not recouping what we were putting in. Okay. But we learned from that mistake, I guess. And in the contract that we're currently in, we did more accurate, accurately represent what we were spending.

Okay. So this contract, I don't feel like we have needed to supplement. At all.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. And does that include supplies for the individuals? If you're training them on, say, a tech supply, do they have the option to get that funded through OIB or do they have to fund it themselves?

Bri Stone: They, so we have an approved list of aids and devices that we can dispense

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay.

Bri Stone: Through OIB. So folks can get a guide cane if they need a cane for orientation mobility. A magnifying glass UV filters a task lamp. And then they're given like some communication skills, items like bold line paper and signature guides. So there's, there's a list of. Oh, and then some RT items.

And so when we do the, in the, the training in the kitchen, they can get things like a liquid level indicator measuring cups, measuring spoons. So there is a whole list of aids and devices that folks can get.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. And is there a limit per person or can they have anything on that list? If it, if it's usable?

Bri Stone: They can have anything on that list if it's usable.

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: Okay. Is there anything mm-hmm. In your current program that you wish you did have or wish that you could add that you would love to see in terms of growth or expansion? Good question.

Bri Stone: I think. Maybe some of the, maybe some follow up, some more follow up after the week's concluded.

Okay. You know, like a six month, you know, appointment maybe, or, you know, some kind of follow up afterwards. Okay. Just sort of built into the program that everybody would get that. Right now if folks reach out it's usually approved that they can get, some additional training but it's not really part of the curriculum or part of the program.

It's more, you know, one-on-one than okay. For everybody,

Stephanie Welch-Grenier: thank you for coming along with us during our April webinar series on retreat training programs. This month we learned about a variety of programs that are offering retreat training, programming to adults with visual impairments, specifically OIB consumers.

This is a unique training opportunity for our adults, and we are happy to share this information with you.