 Welcome to CTN member highlights. I'm Leslie McVane and today my guest is Rabia Dow, the program and service director at the Iris Network. Welcome, Rabia. Thank you for inviting me to be here. Well, there are exciting things happening at the Iris Network and we'll get into that in just a minute but do you want to give us a little background on the Iris Network and and what it is and does and means to the Portland area? Sure. The Iris Network is actually a statewide provider of services for Mainers who have lost their vision or are experiencing vision difficulties. So we have staff all over the state all the way to Fort Kent and down to the New Hampshire border and everywhere in between. We provide rehabilitation services. We provide resources for folks to help them function as independently as possible on their daily life be it at home, at work, at school, at play. We've been around for over a hundred years since 1905. The headquarters is right here in Portland and the staff, as I said, come from throughout the state. And what I was interested in reading was that you have clients that average around a thousand a year, I think on the average around the state and there are only 50 staff members that deal with that all the way, you know, from Fort Kent or all the way down to Kittery and that's an amazing amount of territory to cover. It is and that actually the 50 staff members include the maintenance crew and everybody else who runs behind the scenes. So it's a small staff and we do work with about a thousand folks a year, year in and year out. The majority of them, the majority of people who are losing their vision in in general tend to be older. So the main is actually one of the grayest states, in fact, the grayest state in the country. So there is a large proportion of our clients who are senior citizens, but we do work with all ages. I think it's amazing and one of the very exciting things that is happening and that we're going to be talking about is the new Rehabilitation Center that just sounds like it's state-of-the-art and long time coming and needed to help people get into the workforce and tell us a little bit about it and how it's going to work. Sure. You know, once somebody loses their vision, for the most part, it's progressive vision loss for most people and it keeps up slowly and you start retreating further and further back into your bedroom and giving up activities that you used to enjoy or that you used to perform. From walking down the driveway to get your mail to maybe going to the grocery store or reading your bills or going doing your banking, going to work, going shopping for Christmas presents and over time those things add up. So for the most part what you've been doing at the IRS network is having therapists, vision rehab therapists, go to people's homes and work with them at home. But that is slow. There are distances. Blindness is not that common, so you're not going to find too many blind people on the same block. So you have to drive from one place to another. And with a limited staff. And with limited staff, right? And that means that you may see somebody maybe once every two weeks, if you're lucky, for about an hour or so, but there's a lot to cover. How can I put a cup of coffee safely without spilling it on myself or use the stove without burning myself or the house down, right? Or things like identifying one medication from another. Yeah. Or when my daughter, when she lost her sight, with a new baby, dropping a glass and breaking it and not knowing where it went. It's a safety concern. And even, you know, within the house going from second floor to first floor. Or you know, for example, if there are children leaving toys on the floor or somebody in the family will slot, believes their shoes here and there, and you may trip on them. Right. So so this rehab center. So the rehab center is a new way of delivering the service. Yeah. So whereas you would get maybe a couple hours every week or two of services in your home, coming to a rehab center means you're going to be residing on campus. For 12 weeks? For up to 12 weeks. Up to 12 weeks, exactly. And you're going to be getting about 35 hours a week. Amazing. So it's like an intense, you know, college experience. That's it. Exactly. Yeah. So instead of going through the school of hard knocks, you're going to a college or in and getting your education all at once. And even more beneficial than that is that the facility we have is three floors, chock full of all kind of technology and resources and know how we have staff who've been on in doing this business for over 30 years, 40 years. And we have some who are just going through training right now. So it's a very rich resource. And we can't possibly take every device with us to show people in their home because we would need trailer trucks for every staff member. But here you've got it all. And you're taking people, not just from Maine, but around the country. We're going to go around the country. And the other benefit of that is actually meeting somebody else who is going through the same experience. And you know that helps so much, doesn't it? Just to know you're not alone in this. Right. Because blindness is isolating. And you just feel that you're going crazy. The world is closing around you. So by talking with other people you actually kind of normalize the experience. And yet you're not unique. You're other people just like you. And what works for you may work for me and I may share something with you so it works. Now, we've got to wrap it pretty soon. So I wanted to just, you know, December 3rd is the grand opening. Yes. And you have some really special guests coming. Could you speak a little bit about that? Sure. Guest speaker. We have the Commissioner of the Rehab Services Administration from Washington D.C., Mrs. Janet Labreck, who's going to be coming to be our guest speaker. And she and her organization have sponsored this center. It's a federal, state, private, collaborative effort to provide services to the state of Maine and to other south centers. And it is state of the art. And you're going to have some other dignitaries from the state. We will have exactly the Commissioner of Labor and other members of the legislators. And now is it open to the public? It is. We welcome anybody to come in and whether for this grand opening or to just stop by and see what services we have or just call if they think they can benefit from services from seeing an optometrist for low vision to learning technology. They're amazing because I've had to call for various reasons. And they, you know, they're right there with the answer. And so it's December 3rd from 10 to noon. Exactly. What's the address? 189 Park Avenue. 189 Park Avenue. And for more information, people can go to your website. Exactly. TheIris.org. All one word. T-H-E-I-R-I-S.org. And we welcome any inquiries and stop by for visits. Well, I'm looking forward to going by because it just sounds absolutely fantastic. And thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for the opportunity. And letting our audience know a little bit more about this really, really important service. Thank you. Thank you.