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REVOLUTIONARY COMMON SENSE LIBRARY
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Agency Underfunded!
Staff Overworked and Underpaid!
Waiting List Grows and Grows!
But there's a solution...
Reinventing
DD Agencies
Revolutionary Common Sense by Kathie Snow
www.disabilityisnatural.com
Any or all of the exclamations above may be the mantras of many developmental disability agencies. DD agencies—regional centers, community service boards, or whatever name they go by in your neck of the woods—are struggling. Budget cuts, too many people to serve, not enough staff, rules and regs out the wazoo, and a myriad of other problems have some DD agency employees wondering if they’re aboard the Titanic.
Yet other developmental disability agencies are flourishing. They face similar
issues, so why aren’t they suffering? Because they’re reinventing
themselves!
Reinvention can come in many forms. In general, however, it requires an agency
to think outside the box—about itself and the people it serves—and
to look for assistance outside the traditional government funding streams.
Such assistance, however, is not in the form of dollars! It represents, instead,
collaboration with typical (e.g., non-disability) organizations and entities
in the community. If “inclusion in the community” is part of a
DD agency’s mission statement, doesn’t it make sense to look
to the community for assistance?
At one agency, and through a collaborative effort with the local YMCA,
very young children (birth to three) received Early Intervention services
(therapy) by participating in baby swim classes at the Y. The swim teacher
and the physical therapist worked side-by-side during the classes—they were both “instructors”—making
it a seamless, inclusive activity: moms and their babies with disabilities
were indistinguishable from the moms whose babies did not have disabilities.
This is community at its best, and the babies and their moms receive
beneficial help through typical activities in a natural environment.
A community-centered board for a three-county area in Colorado is representative
of the new breed of DD agencies. Under the leadership of executive
director Steve Hall, the staff broke new ground.
“We do everything possible to ensure people with disabilities are doing
things in the community, with people who don’t have disabilities,” Steve
said. “Our job is to build a bridge to the community.”
The staff members determined what’s important to adults with developmental
disabilities by creating an “interest inventory.” Armed with this
information, staff members investigated what community activities meshed with
an individual’s interests. Staffers looked at churches and their
activities; hobby clubs and special interest clubs of all kinds; service
clubs and volunteer organizations; community activities, such as park
and rec; and other opportunities. Staffers then provided assistance
(as needed) to connect the person with the appropriate organizations.
These efforts led to adults with disabilities joining organizations
and clubs, which, in turn led to new friendships with people outside
the service industry, which led to new connections, which led to individuals
with disabilities getting real jobs, and then moving into their own
homes or apartments, with whatever supports they needed!
The staffers purposely stayed away from typical human service and disability-related
organizations, to ensure people with disabilities moved beyond the “client” role.
Steve adds, “We mine the gifts that exist in the community.”
The “miners” routinely hit the mother lode. The community connections
made by staffers led to “repeat business:” many employers began
calling the agency when they had job openings! As a result, the overall cost
of job development was lowered. In addition, Vocational-Rehabilitation statistics
indicated that two-thirds of the adults with developmental disabilities in
Colorado who attained real jobs were served by this agency. Obviously, it’s
doing something right since its catchment area covers just three
counties of the great state of Colorado!
Several years ago, employment guru Cary Griffin shared the following
with me, “One
of the ways to help get people jobs is to use local connections
and not be wholly dependent on VR or any other system. So I was teaching
a group of employment specialists some of the strategies people with disabilities
can use to become more connected to their communities. As the workshop went
on, I realized the employment specialists, themselves, were not very connected
to their communities. So how could they be expected to teach people with
disabilities how to become better connected?”
Cary, Steve, and other leaders have learned to focus on helping
staff people create their own set of community connections. To
that end, agencies who are reinventing themselves provide their
employees with time to make those connections. That may mean an
employment specialist spends time driving around town to see what’s really out there, followed by personal visits to businesses, social
organizations, and other entities. This is a vitally important step, for if
a staff person is dependent on traditional sources for job placements for the
individuals with disabilities he serves, he may not know what “real” places
and opportunities exist in his own backyard!
When a DD agency works toward eliminating the dependence of
people with disabilities on itself, grand results are in the
making. If staff members become “bridge-builders,” people
with disabilities are able to become interdependent in the
community, through real jobs, social opportunities, friendships, and
more. And when, for example, one person with a developmental disability
achieves this goal, and needs less professional assistance, the agency
is then better able to serve others who need more assistance. Multiply
this scenario many times, and you can see that waiting lists can disappear,
the budget is enough, and life is A-OK for staff and people with disabilities,
alike.
Many of us are aware the system, as it currently operates,
isn’t working
like it should. Going back to the headlines of this article, people with disabilities
are waiting and waiting and waiting, and their lives are passing before their
eyes, while staff members of DD agencies are overworked. As long as staff and
people with disabilities remain in the “closed” environment of
the service system, the status quo will remain. But if agencies reinvent themselves
by creating connections in the community—for staffers and people with
disabilities—great outcomes are possible for all!
©2002-07 Kathie Snow; all rights reserved. Permission is granted for non-commercial use of this article: you may print this web page and photocopy it to share with others. Click here to download the PDF handout version of the article. As a courtesy, please tell me (kathie@disabilityisnatural.com) how/when you use it. This is the intellectual property of Kathie Snow and is protected by Copyscape; permission is required before republishing in newsletters, on websites, etc. Clip art from Adobe In-Design.
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Our words reflect the way we think, so let's get rid of descriptors like "handicapped, physically disabled, mentally retarded, learning disabled" and other words that focus on the condition instead of the person. People First Language promotes dignity and respect for all!
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