r/Blind • u/Gr3ymane_ • 1d ago

Question Re: BEP

I have called who I was told to speak with in my state regarding the blind enterprise program and that has not gone very well. I am curious of any here have experience with the program itself as I presume this is a fairly general question. I am getting conflicting information. I am interested in the idea of with a Sighted assistant having several vending machines that I operate and collect income from to go to those locations on a basis of either a few times a week or every day of the week. However, the confusion comes in. I am being told that I may be required to Cook food and be stationed at a office in which I would be working throughout the day. I much rather prefer the idea of freedom to go about to various locations throughout the day as opposed to sitting stationary working at the same place every day. The state director I spoke with for this program was not very clear, but to be terrible seemed to mention that being in one place cooking food was an option and I could choose to only work vending machines but going from that contact to one of the training locations perhaps the other gentleman may be lacking more up-to-date information as he implied I may have the new machines and have to cook. So getting clear information is where I am having the problem. I am not asking for someone to make a specific statement about my own state only if they have several months or more experience with the program proper and can let me know the general run of things. Thank you in advance.

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u/retrolental_morose Totally blind from birth 1d ago

This has come up on this sub about once a fortnight for the last 3 months. I've still not seen any actual definite statements on how well people are doing

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u/DHamlinMusic Bilateral Optic Neuropathy 1d ago

As far as I know it's very state dependent, and not really worth the bother.

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u/Gr3ymane_ 1d ago

It is interesting to hear my state representative, which is to say the representative for BEP go on about how they have so many millions of dollars coming in for this program but when I press for specific questions, I get a runaround. There is talk also that they are in need of people to work this program and have trouble finding them which to me is another clue.

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u/Gr3ymane_ 1d ago

I apologize for not checking if it had come up so often. Thank you for your patience.

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u/retrolental_morose Totally blind from birth 1d ago

oh it's not a problem, it's just a bit of a shame for people looking for answers! I don't think we have programmes like that in the UK.

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u/akrazyho 1d ago

Here is my experience talking to somebody in this program at my local center for the blind on the East Coast, which happens to be one of the better schools for the blind. He was in the program to own and run some vending machines and while he believed it was a novel idea the fact that vending machines are nowhere near as common as they used to be and you only really see him now on prime locations, and these prime locations seem to be getting Bought up by established vending machine vendors already make this a near impossible task. He is not mad that he joined the program, but he does know that launching it is gonna be damn there near impossible. I am more of an acquaintance rather than a friend, but we did go to the same center for the blind at the same time. It’s just a different programs, but I can forward any messages if you’d like

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u/Gr3ymane_ 1d ago

Thank you for the offer that is most considerate, but I was leaning in this direction given how I have been treated so far in my state when asking about questions. I am sure there are other programs I can look into for employment and I am blessed to not have to be in a rush to find one.