Community Inclusion

This article is aimed at developing tools to help human service providers form partnerships to address and prevent stigmatization of people with disabilities. The Idaho State University Institute of Rural Health (ISU-IRH) developed two anti-stigma social marketing campaigns that incorporated methods to empower people, campaign design and distribution, and methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign.

This manual provides guidance for people with disabilities who are interested in owning their homes. Topics covered include: financing homeownership, understanding credit and budgets, Fair Housing Laws, finding a home, home inspections, buying and closing on a house, and home maintenance and assistance.

The Illinois Homeownership Coalition for People with Disability (HCPD) has a comprehensive set of documents pertaining to its advocacy and assistance for homeownership. The organization’s goal is to assist people with disability in purchasing their homes, allowing them to maintain independence and living in their communities. Review the application, brochure and checklist.

Community Service Options, Inc (CSO) is an organization dedicated to assisting persons with developmental disability to receive service and live in the “least restrictive” setting. CSO provides screening, eligibility assessment, service coordination, and advocacy throughout the Chicago area. The website provides links to their services and assessment tools.

The report presents six strategies or policy levers, gleaned from previous research reports that can be implemented on the federal and local levels to promote collaboration and coordination and support livable community objectives. Examples were selected from a vast array of actions that can be taken. Each of the strategies is illustrated by actual promising practices at both the federal and state levels that can be adapted and replicated elsewhere.

Creating a single assessment tool to be used across age and disability has been an interest of states, policy makers, and providers for years. An interest also exists to develop a consumer-driven participatory assessment where consumers take a more active role. Following review and input from a diverse work group, this tool was piloted for 16 months and a qualitative evaluation was conducted to determine its utility. The development process yielded key findings and recommendations.

Is your program challenged by effective methods to meaningful consumer involvement in the redesign of long-term services and support systems? This report reviews the history and effectiveness of the consumer involvement strategy used from the consumer, state partner, and grant staff perspectives. The report informs future consumer involvement methods in grant activities and other policy decision-making activities and also identifies lessons learned and creates recommendations.

This grant provided people with knowledge and resources concerning their rights and choices and educated key agencies throughout the state. This report provides an overview of grant activities include the Real Choice Speaker’s Bureau, training sessions and conferences. Trainings were conducted at over 40 Department of Health and Human Resource offices and 20 for the Division of Rehabilitation Services. Three conferences (Transitions, PATHS and People First) were also conducted.

This is a comprehensive report detailing the results of Maryland's 2004 and 2005 Participant Experience Survey (PES) results. The PES is a tool, developed by Medstat that measures the experiences of participants of 1915c waivers. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene used funds from a 2001 Real Choice Systems Change Grant to survey two Maryland waivers, the Living at Home Waiver and the Older Adults Waiver.

This tool is designed to equip consumers with the tools necessary to develop a job description, to screen and interview potential employers (personal assistants), and to train new personal assistants as well as address consumers physical needs, leisure and community needs. There are over 30 checklist forms to help determine need. This publication was produced by the Tennessee Personal Assistance Supports and Services (PASS) program.