Professional Learning and Leadership Institute

The Professional Learning and Leadership Institute (PLLI) is an internship program available to individuals with a combined vision and hearing loss. They must be currently unemployed or underemployed and seeking employment in the rehabilitation field working with individuals who are deaf-blind. This program embraces the philosophies of self-leadership, self-employment and peer collaborative learning. Interns will have the chance to gain skills and experiences to support their goal to become an instructor, trainer or habilitation specialist.

Opportunities are available in various rehabilitation areas such as independent living, communication, braille, adaptive technology, vocational development, residential habilitation, advocacy and other related fields. The expected outcome after the internship is successful employment in the blind or deaf-blind rehabilitation field. The intentions of this internship program are two-fold. It is an employment program for deaf-blind individuals. It also promotes peer to peer instruction, training and engagement of deaf-blind leaders in the deaf-blind rehabilitation field.

The PLLI was made possible by a grant from the Lavelle Fund for the Blind, Inc.