Community Living

Center on Aging and Community Living (CACL)
The Center on Aging and Community Living (CACL) is a collaboration between The Institute on Disability (IOD) and The Institute on Health Policy and Practice (IHPP) at The University of New Hampshire (UNH). These two institutes have been actively engaged in projects related to aging and long term care for many years. Jointly, the IOD and IHPP provide ongoing support to the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services, the ServiceLink Resource Center Network, and various other partners in the Aging Network, in designing, implementing, and evaluating systems change initiatives.

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DirectConnect will address the growing direct care workforce shortage in New Hampshire by providing recruitment, training and retention opportunities aimed at creating a sustainable workforce.  These opportunities include college degree and certificate programs, nationally recognized training from Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, the College of Direct Support and more.
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The Employment and Asset Development Resource Network (EARN) is designed to provide high quality information and resources to individuals with disabilities, professionals, and family members that result in improvements in gainful community employment opportunities and financial well-being of persons with disabilities.

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This three-year project is developing online instructional modules to teach direct service employment staff to facilitate social inclusion and natural supports for employees with disabilities in the workplace.  Evaluation of the impact of training is taking place in two stages across 5 states before the final revised training module will be made available to community rehabilitation programs nationwide.

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EPM-RRTC: The Employment Policy and Measurement Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (a) investigates the impact of government policies and programs on employment, with particular attention to the effects of program interactions, (b) examines new ways of measuring employment outcomes, and (c) facilitates the translation of research findings into policymaking and program administration.

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Family-Centered Transition Planning (Sustainable Implementation) aims to improve high school transition, employment, post secondary education and community participation for youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

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IC-RRTC: The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Individual-Level Characteristics Related to Employment Among Individuals with Disabilities is generating new knowledge about the role of individual characteristics on employment outcomes. Despite the ADA and advances in medicine and technology, people with disabilities, as a group, have become economically less self-sufficient over the last few decades. For people with disabilities, employment rates have declined, reliance on public benefits has increased, and household incomes have fallen further behind those of other households. In addition, there are substantial disparities in employment outcomes within the population with disabilities. The IC-RRTC will work toward improving strategies and interventions designed to foster better employment outcomes for the various subpopulations of people with disabilities.

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The New Hampshire Children's Mental Health Competencies project is designed to assist New Hampshire’s community mental health center children’s directors, family organizations, and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a set of core competencies for direct service staffs in the children’s programs.

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The New Hampshire Leadership Series is a seven-month training session for adults with disabilities, parents or family members of children with disabilities, and LEND Trainees. It is based on the national Partners in Policymaking model. The Series is funded by the NH Department of Education, NH Developmental Disabilities Council, NH Bureau of Developmental Services, NH Area Agencies, many public and private foundations statewide, as well as the Friends of Leadership fundraising events, and donations from NH Leadership graduates. Through the courses, leaders emerge who have a clear vision, knowledge about state-of-the-art supports for individuals with disabilities, and skills necessary for advocating with service providers. They know how to use the legislative process to achieve change, and how to organize communities to support inclusion. The Leadership Series enhances the ability of people and families to change laws, persuade schools and businesses to include individuals with disabilities, and educate communities about the importance of welcoming and including every member.

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In fall of 2007 the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Behavioral Health contracted with the Institute on Disability (IOD) at the University of New Hampshire to conduct the New Hampshire Public Mental Health Consumer Survey Project. The project, now wrapping up its second year of survey work, is part of a federally mandated annual survey of the nation’s Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC). With support by the project’s advisory board, the IOD and the UNH Survey Center conducted and analyzed findings for a consumer satisfaction survey of adults, youth, and family members of youth receiving services from New Hampshire’s 10 community mental health centers. Individuals were asked for feedback in a number of areas, including: general satisfaction with services, access to services, participation in treatment, quality of treatment received, cultural sensitivity, and outcomes.

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RENEW is a structured school-to-career transition planning and individualized wraparound process for youth with emotional and behavioral challenges. Developed in 1996 by staff at the Institute on Disability (IOD), RENEW is being provided by schools, community mental health centers, community-based providers, and IOD staff members to youth. The model focuses on supporting each youth to design and pursue a plan for the transition from school to adult life. RENEW has substantially increased the high school completion, employment, and post-secondary education participation rates among our most vulnerable youth.

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The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Community Living (RRTC-CL) develops evidence-based programs, policies and practices that further community living and participation among people with disabilities. The goal of the RRTC-CL is to increase the interdependence and full community participation of people with disabilities through the development and implementation of scientifically sound, theoretically driven and evidence-based interventions.

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The Center for START (Systematic, Therapeutic, Assessment, Respite, and Treatment) Services provides consultation and training in crisis Prevention, management, and support for individuals with intellectual disabilities and behavioral Health needs. The mission of the Center for START Services is to enhance local capacity and provide collaborative, cost-effective support to individuals and their families through exemplary clinical services, education and training, with close attention to service outcomes. The START program model, which was first developed in 1988, presents a least restrictive model of care/support that offers provision of multi-modal clinical assessment and support, training and empowerment for families and caregivers including effective behavior management and therapeutic tools, a residential therapeutic respite facility, and optimal utilization of existing resources.

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StatsRRTC: The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics aims to improve knowledge about and access to existing data, and generate the knowledge needed to improve future disability data collection and dissemination. It is our goal to foster evidence-based decision making by people with disabilities and their families, advocates, policymakers, program administrators, service providers, and researchers by making data widely available and accessible.

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