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News from SSB Director, Natasha Jerde

Greetings Community Partners,

I am both sad and thrilled to share that Susan Kusz will be retiring on July 28^th with her last working day on or around July 23^rd. Susan has been with SSB for nine years and with the State since April 5, 2005. She started with SSB as an Office Administrative Specialist providing support to our previous director Carol Pankow. She also was the State Rehab Council-Blind liaison and our Accessibility Champion. When I became director, Susan immediately became my left- and right-hand person. No project was too challenging for her, and rarely did I ever need to ask her to take on something--- because she was already off and running before I could get the words out of my mouth.

In 2024, Susan took on the opportunity to become the Assistant Contracts Specialist working closely with Jennifer Beilke. She dove into her new role like she had been doing it for decades. She hosted Community Partner training Forums and Spotlight Cafés, revamped our CP monitoring process, re-worked the CP webpages, answered hundreds of questions from Community Partners and staff, and tackled challenging situations with ease. Her mission was to bring our partners and staff together in new ways, and she was always looking for opportunities to highlight the value and contributions of our partners to others.

To put it mildly, we will all miss her.

My hope is to backfill for the position as quickly as possible, so Susan has some cross training time with the new person.

We thank Susan for helping make SSB a better place and wish her an amazing retirement!

Thank you,

Natasha Jerde, SSB Director

Spotlight Cafés Taking Summertime Hiatus

With Susan's retirement, we will take a pause on the June, July, and August Spotlight Cafés. The May 13th Café had been switched to a Community Partner Listening Session.

Community Partner Elevator Pitch

Even though the Community Partner Spotlight Cafés are taking a break this summer, you are still encouraged to create an elevator pitch video. These videos are added to the Community Partner webpages for counselors and customers to review as they make decisions on selecting providers. Please contact lisa.rogers@state.mn.us to learn more and schedule your elevator pitch recording time.

Listening Session

A Community Partner Listening Session was held on May 13th. The goal is to improve collaboration and better understand the needs and experiences of those we collectively serve. Your partnership and insight are essential to strengthening the services and supports we provide to Minnesotans who are blind, low vision, or DeafBlind. While many of you were unable to attend, we are extending the opportunity for you to submit your feedback via email. Deadline for submission is June 19th. Click this link to access the form to share your responses. Thank you!

Community Partner Forum - Monday, July 27th

The July 27th Community Partner Training Forum will proceed as scheduled with data privacy as the training topic. We plan for this Forum to be an hour-long session so we can include some news, updates, and announcements. Please register in advance to attend. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Date: Monday, July 27th

Time: 8:00 - 9:00 am

Click this link to register.

State Services for the Blind provides tools and training for employment, living independently, and accessing print. We assist Minnesotans who are blind, DeafBlind, experiencing vision loss, or have difficulty accessing the printed word.

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SSB is an equal opportunity employer and program provider.

The Minnesota State Services for the Blind Vocational Rehabilitation program receives 78.69 percent of its funding through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. For federal fiscal year 2024, the total amount of grant funds awarded were $10,410,449. The remaining 21.3 percent of the costs ($2,817,568) were funded by Minnesota state appropriations.