"OVR has played such a pivotal role in my life, since I was a kid. Throughout my teenage years, into early adulthood, I had received services — a counselor throughout middle school and high school helped me establish kind of a sense of what I wanted to be doing long term..."

Governor Shapiro’s 2025-26 proposed budget includes commonsense solutions to problems facing Pennsylvanians — especially when it comes to strengthening the Commonwealth’s workforce.

Harrisburg, PA – Governor Josh Shapiro’s 2025-26 budget proposal delivers commonsense solutions to challenges facing Pennsylvanians — especially when it comes to strengthening our workforce. In his budget address, the Governor called on the General Assembly to join him in solving these problems, including expanding economic opportunity for Pennsylvanians with disabilities. 

A key focus of Governor Shapiro’s proposed budget is a $5 million investment in the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR), expanding our workforce and ensuring more Pennsylvanians with disabilities have access to job training, career counseling, and direct connections to employers. OVR serves approximately 50,000 Pennsylvanians each year, partnering with employers to match businesses with skilled, motivated workers. This investment will help more individuals enter the workforce, secure meaningful employment, and contribute to growing Pennsylvania’s economy.

Click here to watch Lucas Leiby, a software developer who worked with OVR, and click here to watch Brian Hoerz, one of OVR’s vocational rehabilitation counselors, share how OVR’s services and support make meaningful impacts in people’s lives and why these investments matter, or read the transcripts below.

TRANSCRIPT: Lucas Leiby

"I am, in many cases, I would say, a success story of what OVR investment looks like. My name is Lucas Leiby. I currently work full time as a software developer.

"OVR has played such a pivotal role in my life, since I was a kid. Throughout my teenage years, into early adulthood, I had received services — a counselor throughout middle school and high school helped me establish kind of a sense of what I wanted to be doing long term. And they were willing to stick by my side and provide for me when it came to college applications, when it came to fighting for accessibility and accommodations, when things weren't working out. When I was an undergrad, trying to figure out, how do I make Calc 2 accessible?

"I just cannot put a bound on how OVR has helped me, and the hundreds of thousands of others, if not millions over the years.

"It is absolutely imperative that Governor Shapiro, his commitment to OVR and OVR’s initiatives, is noticed and observed by the Commonwealth because it is going to make such a tremendous difference." 

TRANSCRIPT: Brian Hoerz

"The impact of OVR on the customers that I work with, it's immense. My name is Brian Hoerz. I'm a vocational rehabilitation counselor.

"Working with someone who comes to you and is willing to say, ‘Hey, I have a need here. I have a goal. I need supports.’ They really are being vulnerable and putting faith and trust that you have their best interests at heart — and that you have the professional skills and ability to help them.

"For me to see that from beginning to end — where you meet with someone, where they're seeking out services, and then see it all the way through to the point where they are successfully employed and they're happy with that employment and they’ve bettered their lives and the lives of their families and lives of their community members — it's so empowering.

"How I felt watching Governor Shapiro give the Budget Address was just raw emotion of knowing that here is the person at the helm of our great Commonwealth who truly believes in serving every single member of this great state."