John's usual--
Knock on wood, we've had 2 nice weather weekends in a row. I hope that you were able to find time to do something you enjoy outdoors. CLI staff is excited to be able to start planning outside activities again. It feels like we've been stuck inside for a really long time.
Someone told me last week that some people don't know what CLI offers our clients because each client's services are completely different from each other and it's harder to imagine than the workshop used to be. Part of this is because we have been really careful to build programs to be compliant with Ohio's new laws/mandates around community employment & integration. When Ohio changed its rules 10 years ago, the laws were re-written to no longer allow segregated services after 2022. For the last 6 years, CLI has been shifting our services to be as person-centered and community-integrated as possible. CLI works individually with each of our clients to build customized services around that person's specific interests & goals. I think that is a good thing. But I do understand that people might find it hard to know exactly what CLI is selling as a service model when the answer is "it depends what you want." Some of CLI's services don't look radically different than they used to. The big difference is that we don't provide those services in the workshop unless someone has a work-related outcome. We base all of our non-vocational services (ADS) in different spaces around the community-- offering people a varied curriculum of classes & and activities that people can choose from based on interest and goals. But, if someone wants services 5 days a week, 9am - 3pm, we still offer that. We just think that life's too short to hang out in a cinderblock building all day. We do still have a few openings available, including some paid vocational training.
One of the questions that came up this week was about the difference between the Huron County Board of DD (aka "Christie Lane") and CLI. It surprised me a little because I feel like I talk about that all the time to everyone. CLI is 100% separate from "Christie Lane" (aka the Huron County Board of DD). We are a private, non-profit company that contracts with the Ohio Department of DD. There are many local companies that do this, such as Renaissance House, REM, Partners in Community, Ability Works, the LINK & many others. We are all paid by the Ohio Department of DD what's called a "fee-for-service" for what provide-- whether that's a 15 minute "unit" of service or a car ride to work. Ohio pays providers like us using 60% Medicaid money and 40% local tax money that they collect from local county boards of DD.
So to recap-- Ohio's state-wide DD system consists of 3 separate parts: the state department, local county boards of DD, and private agencies paid to provide services. All three parts are separate from each other. We might not always 100% agree with what each other is doing, even though we're all in the same system. However, the when all three parts are on our collective game, we're able to work well together to solve a particular problem-- such as services during COVID-- or the current problem of just trying to find employees. Person-centered services require persons to provide those services.
Thanks & have a great week.
John
