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John's usual--
Congratulations to CLI Lifer, Tammy Jamison, who was just won the OPRA (Ohio Provider Resource Association) District 7 DSP appreciation raffle. Tammy's prize bag was personally delivered to her last Thursday by none other than OPRA President, Pete Moore. We're all big fans of both OPRA & Pete here (think "Santa" in Elf)-- so this was a big deal. Pete spent a bunch of time with us that day to make a "Good Life" presentation to CLI staff & to help the CLI Board think about our 2024 strategic plan in relation to current state-wide issues. I'm proud to have worked with Tammy for almost 25 years. She's super dependable and a strong advocate who's not afraid to speak up when she feels that CLI services aren't measuring up to CLI's mission and/or what an individual needs. I've also been extremely grateful to have OPRA as a resource. Staying in business as a small, private, non-profit provider has been a big learning curve for CLI-- after 40 years operating as a small sub-division of the County Board of DD. Tammy & OPRA have been instrumental in getting CLI to now.
CLI submitted our proposal for the DODD ADS Quality Pilot Program Grant last Thursday. More than 150 providers applied for 76 possible spots within 2 hours after DODD started accepting applications at 2pm. It's a first-come, first-served process, so whether we get it or not is 100% dependent on where we are in the que.
If CLI does get the grant, we pledged to use the money to do the following:
- Expand our after-hours & weekend community-integrated ADS for people who are community employed. Historically people have quit competitive employment to return to sheltered employment because they are lonely and miss their friends. We believe that we need to broaden supports to better support people's ambitions to work in the community. People shouldn't have to pick between having a real job or having an active social life.
- Offer a "braided" service of community ADS + remote supports and will actively promote those services to young people transitioning from high school to ensure that they are aware of this resource. CLI believes that it's important that we divert young people away from traditional 9a-3p day services. Often families naturally enroll in these programs because they are unaware of other options. We believe that enrolling young people into traditional day services is counter productive to that individual's long term independence and success.
- Invest in providing more comprehensive computer and application training to individuals with DD, including social media. We'll also work to coordinate methods of improving individual's online access around literacy barriers and make sure that every one of our spaces has a public access computer that our clients can access with or without staff assistance.
- Work collaboratively with other Ohio providers who also want to improve quality outcomes for people in their ADS programs.
We really hope that we get this grant as we can really use the additional money this fall/winter. However, the initiatives listed above are goals of CLI's whether we get this state incentive or not. We believe strongly that the proper course of Aduld Day Services must continue to shift toward meaningful community membership.
We all should know who the lucky grant recipients are within the next two weeks, so stay tuned!
That's all I have for this week. Stay safe!
John
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