Ms. Burnetta Schlechter applied for vocational rehabilitation services in 2017. She initially expressed an interest in working as a licensed operator of a cafeteria in our BEN program. Ms. Schlechter is legally blind and met all the requirements to be accepted into this program. She had completed the Business Enterprise Program Licensing Training in 2019 and completed an On-The-Job (OJT) training at the Lloyd George Federal Courthouse in 2020. Prior to this, Ms. Schlechter completed her associate degree at Mount San Antonio College, and two certificates from College of Southern Nevada for Travel and Tourism and Business and Office Skills. Ms. Schlecther has worked as a travel agent, receptionist, and administrative assistant.
Ms. Schlechter’s challenges were with overcoming barriers presented by her blindness and learning how to manage her stress levels to become a successful manager. Due to her vision loss she requires magnification or audible assistance and non-visual adaptive strategies. She completed training related to daily living skills, assistive technology and orientation and mobility. She received assistive technology devices and quickly learned how to use these devices to help her access her computer, receipts and other documents to process orders, create profit & loss statements, track inventory and many more activities to keep her business operating successfully.
Ms. Schlechter started her OJT during the shutdown at the Lloyd George Federal Courthouse at the Next Level Café. She eventually took over the location as the interim operator in September 2020. During her training and her initial operation of this site she experienced many challenges such as low building occupancy, organized protests, shortage of supplies and unplanned building closures. These were unique challenges she faced as a new operator. She worked closely with her BEN Officer to develop strategies on how to plan and organize her work to be effective in her role. As the months went by, and the economy started to slowly return she eventually was able to increase her profits and complete her services. She was closed successfully rehabilitated in May 2021 as the operator of her cafeteria, Next Level Café.
