Category Archives: Recent News

Amy Zuck, Public Information Director

Christian Opportunity Center (COC) is pleased to announce, that the search for Public Information Director has ended in the hire of Amy Zuck.  Zuck has worked for COC for the past 11 months as a part-time Substitute in Vocational Services.

Zuck comes to COC after working for Crossroads of Pella as the Crossroads Cares Program Coordinator for the past 14 years.  On August 28^th Zuck officially began her duties as the Public Information Director.

“I am very excited for this opportunity that I have been given. Over the past year I have come to admire the mission, the persons supported and staff at COC greatly,” Zuck stated. “I’m really looking forward to sharing all that COC has to offer with our community.”

COC’s mission is to integrate Christian values in teaching skills for life.

Founded in 1969, COC provides residential and vocational support and services to nearly 300 people with disabilities in Dallas, Mahaska, Marion, Polk and Warren counties. For more information on COC and its services visit https://christianopportunity.org/.

Andrea Carballo (left) and COC Executive Director Rod Braun (right) at Wednesday’s Pella Christian High School’s Awards Night

Christian Opportunity Center (COC) selected Pella Christian High School’s Andrea Carballo as the 2017 Sarah M. Braun Memorial Scholarship recipient.

Named in honor of the late daughter of COC Executive Director Rod Braun and his wife Robin and made possible by the COC Foundation Fund, the $1,000 scholarship is presented to a high school senior pursuing an academic focus in human services.

Carballo plans to major in biology at Georgetown University beginning in the fall of 2017, pursuing a future in the medical or education fields with the purpose to help those who are less fortunate in her native country of El Salvador.

Daughter of Jose and Karem, Carballo achieved a 4.0 GPA during her high school career and received numerous accolades including: Academic Achievement Award, Student Council President, Congress of Future Medical Leaders, Mock Trial State qualifier and cross country and tennis team captain.

A member of Third Reformed Church, Carballo led Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and participated in youth group and small group. Carballo also traveled to El Salvador, Haiti and Nicaragua on mission trips.

Criteria for the scholarship include academic performance, extracurricular activities, community involvement, and personal character and personality. Applications for the scholarship are accepted from all COC service areas.

Founded in 1969, COC provides residential and vocational support and services to more than 300 people with disabilities in Mahaska, Marion, Polk and Warren counties. For more information visit www.christianopportunity.org.

Shawn works 30 hours per week as a cook in Dairy Queen’s hot kitchen with assistance from a COC job coach

Christian Opportunity Center (COC) is increasing its supported employment efforts in the wake of new State rules eliminating sheltered employment.

COC has been providing supported employment services since 1987 and has many success stories of people who have become long-tenured, dependable employees in community businesses. COC provides on-the-job training and support to help people with disabilities learn the necessary job duties to be successful in employment.

Through its supported employment, COC helps people with disabilities find and maintain employment, with an emphasis on finding the right job match for each person. COC has helped people find employment in a variety of settings, including: retail, grocery stores, restaurants, meal delivery, cleaning services, and production work in factories.

Kim Koellner, COC Regional Director for Vocational Services, oversees both supported employment and sheltered employment.

“Job coaches serve a dual role as they strive to support individuals by assisting them in exploring their interests and strengths and with the process of becoming employed,” Koellner said. “Once hired, they provide support to learn the job, develop natural supports, and periodic support on the job. At the same time, job coaches support employers by learning about their business needs and work culture so that they can support the individual to be a successful employee.”

COC is currently operating supported employment in Indianola, Knoxville, Oskaloosa and Pella.

If your business is interested in employing a person with disabilities through COC’s supported employment, contact Vocational Program Manager Cathy Wilson (E: cwilson@christianopportunity.org; P: (641) 673-9467, ext. 17).

“Supported employment has experienced growth in several ways during the past year, primarily due to referrals from Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation (IVR) and as a result of Career Exploration classes,” said Koellner. “The services are working in a complimentary manner by providing exposure, practice, and support to the process of obtaining and maintaining employment in the community. In addition to serving individuals from COC, growth is also occurring due to IVRS referrals from the community who choose COC as their provider for job development and other services.”

The reason for an increased focus on COC’s supported employment is the elimination of sheltered employment. For decades, advocacy groups have fought to eliminate sheltered employment, believing that every person with a disability should be working in a community business.

COC currently employs people with disabilities in its sheltered employment in Pella and Oskaloosa. COC contracts for production work with more than 30 companies to provide production services such as small parts packaging, general assembly, mail processing, digital document recording, shredding, delivery, and woodworking.

By May 2018, people will no longer have the opportunity to earn a paycheck in COC’s plants.

Despite the elimination of sheltered employment—which accounts for only two of the 38 programs offered by COC—COC will continue to offer residential and spiritual services in addition to its supported employment and non-work oriented day program.

Founded in 1969, COC provides residential, spiritual and vocational support and services to more than 300 people with disabilities in Mahaska, Marion, Polk and Warren counties. For more information visit www.christianopportunity.org.

COC Executive Director Rod Braun

(A message from COC Executive Director Rod Braun)

There has recently been much discussion among some members of Congress regarding a block grant of Medicaid to the states. Typically, a block grant caps the federal assistance to the states in exchange for increased flexibility given to the states as to how they use the federal Medicaid dollars. While Christian Opportunity Center (COC) supports state and federal efforts to control Medicaid costs, we don’t believe the solution is a block grant to the states. This issue is very important to COC because 83 percent of our funding comes from Medicaid.

What might we expect from a block grant of federal Title 19 funding? We need only look back at the last block grant that impacted supports and services for people with disabilities. We should learn from history because past experience is the best predictor of the future.

The year was 1981, and Congress approved a block grant of the Title 20 program that became the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). There had been talk among some in Congress that the Title 20 program was unsustainable. Now we have similar talk that the Title 19 program is unsustainable. Don’t be fooled. The Title 19 program is not unsustainable. Unsustainable really just means it is not a priority.

Prior to 1981, many of the vocational and residential supports provided to people at COC were funded via the Title 20 program. Under the SSBG, the federal government paid 50 percent of the service costs, the State paid 25 percent, and the counties paid 25 percent. But, there was a cap on the federal participation.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in 1981 estimated the cost of the Title 20 program at $3.1 billion, yet the SSBG was set at just $1.7 billion. This led to an immediate cost shift from the federal government to states and local governments to fill the gap created by the shortfall in the appropriation. In the past 36 years, the SSBG has never been adjusted for inflation and with the budget sequestration, the SSBG appropriation for 2016 was just $1.58 billion. If you adjust for inflation for the past 36 years, the 1981 appropriation would be $6.37 billion.  Instead, we get just 25 percent of this amount today. This tells us what we can expect from a Title 19 Medicaid block grant.

Service providers like COC survived the SSBG only because of a new federal program known as the Home and Community Based Services Waiver (aka Medicaid Waiver). But, we are not aware of any new federal funding source available that would provide relief in the event of a block grant of Title 19. A block grant would mean more cost shifting to state and local governments. My perspective, after more than 40 years of working in disability services, is that the federal government is generally a more reliable funding source than state and local governments.

We urge you to contact U.S. Senators Grassley and Ernst, along with your U.S. House of Representatives member (likely Congressman Dave Loebsack if you work in Mahaska or Marion counties, or Congressman David Young if you work in Warren or Polk counties) to advocate against a block grant of the Title 19 funding. You may use talking points from this information in your advocacy efforts.

Thank you in advance for your advocacy on behalf of the mission of COC.

COC Executive Director Rod Braun

The only thing Executive Director Rod Braun loves more than tennis is Christian Opportunity Center, where he has worked for the past 30 years.

The former Pella High School boy’s tennis coach and Central College assistant tennis coach accepted the position of Director of Operations at COC on Jan. 13, 1987. Seven months later he was named Executive Director and has led the public benefit corporation ever since.

Braun was hired as the fourth Executive Director in COC history. At the time, he told the Board of Directors he planned to stay for five to seven years. Three decades later, his tenure is nearly double the length of his three predecessors combined.

“COC has been blessed with great governance members during my tenure; great employees and great volunteers; all of whom work collaboratively to ensure meaningful lives for people with disabilities,” said Braun.

Braun graduated from Oregon State University in 1976 with a bachelor of science in geology. He earned his master’s degree in education with an emphasis in special education from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1985. During this time, Braun worked for three different disability service providers, resulting in more than 40 years in the field.

“I have had the privilege of making many lifelong friendships, including people in my three positions prior to COC,” Braun said. “My previous jobs also gave me the opportunity to observe and learn from different leadership styles. In my lifetime, there has been a positive sea change in attitudes toward people with disabilities, from segregation in large congregate living situations to living in a home or apartment in the community, having a job in a community business, and being included in the life of a local church of their choosing.”

When Braun was hired in 1987, COC offered supports and services to approximately 60 people with disabilities in Pella and had annual revenues of $1.5 million.

Today, COC provides supports and services to more than 300 people with disabilities in Mahaska, Marion, Polk and Warren counties, has more than 250 employees, annual revenues of more than $11 million and a Foundation Fund with assets in excess of $6 million.

Under Braun’s leadership, COC began expanding in 1989 with the development of vocational supports and services in Oskaloosa. The following year, COC opened its first group home in Des Moines. In 1994, the organization opened two homes in Indianola for people with severe disabilities. Group homes were added in Oskaloosa and Knoxville in 2015 as well.

In total, COC has 24 group homes spread across its five communities.

COC also acquired two organizations in Indianola—Winifred Law Opportunity Center and Total Living Centers, Inc.—in 2002 and 2004, respectively.

“Over the years, we have had opportunities to grow and expand at a pace that provides a challenge without compromising service quality,” said Braun.

But it’s not the physical or financial growth of COC that gives Braun the greatest sense of pride. That designation goes to the people he works with and the people COC supports.

“My co-workers are the best and they go to great lengths to ensure quality lives for people with disabilities,” Braun said. “Consistently, our employees have cited personal satisfaction in seeing people grow and develop new skills as the number one reward of their work.”

Equally impressive is Braun’s dedication to disability services on both a state and national level and his dedication to the local communities, which have supported COC every step of the way.

Braun has been a member of the Pella Noon Kiwanis Club, the Pine Rest of Pella Advisory Board and the Pella Housing Commission. He is a current Board Member for Pella Regional Health Center.

He was also the Council President for Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Knoxville, where he serves as an adult Sunday School teacher.

Braun was a Board Member for the Iowa Association of Community Providers and for the Iowa Donor Network. He served on the Governor’s Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities and as the Council of Reformed Charities President. He was also a Survey Consultant for the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), an organization from which COC has received 12 consecutive three-year accreditations.

In addition, Braun served as a State Association Representative and Board Member for the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), a national disability providers organization.

“Our five communities have been incredibly supportive of the ministry of COC,” Braun said. “When we communicate a challenge, we have always had a great group of volunteers and donors who have risen to every challenge.”

Braun and Robin, his wife of 39 years, live in Pella with their dog, Arantxa. They raised three children—Sarah, Mark and Ashley—and have four grandchildren.