The Older Individuals who are Blind (OIB) Technical Assistance Center hosted its annual OIB Program Manager’s Conference on March 14-13 in Savannah, Georgia. The conference theme was Optimizing Services with an Eye for Consistency. 

This year's conference provided 41 participants from 31 states and territories with the opportunity to learn more about OIB policies and procedures, bringing consistency to programs, resources, and technical assistance. Presentations included case management highlights, resource collaboration, and a national perspective of OIB programs. 

Kendra Farrow, OIB-TAC Project Director, felt that this year’s conference was a great success in sharing updates from OIB-TAC. One presentation focused on data from a national perspective and reporting. Farrow hopes that providing technical assistance for the 7-OB report and discussing inconsistencies will “improve the reliability of the information provided to RSA in future 7-OB reports.” 

OIB Program Managers said they look forward to this conference to collaborate, stay up to date with best practices, and receive updates from OIB-TAC. Through many of the breakout discussions, all participants were able to also learn from one another about innovative initiatives that each is doing in their state. 

Farrow said, “it was very exciting to help OIB programs generate new and innovative strategies for their programs and know that everyone who attended will take new strategies back to their OIB teams and consumers.”