Champions for Inclusive Communities
The purpose of Champions for Inclusive Communities National Center is to provide national leadership to the Division of Services for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (DSCHCN) and its constituents in achieving full implementation of the President's New Freedom Initiative (PNFI). In particular, the PNFI requires that services and supports for persons with disabilities are provided in community settings and that they will: include access to assistive and universally designed technologies, expand educational opportunities; integrate Americans with disabilities into the workforce; expand transportation options; and promote full access to community life (http://www.hhs.gov/newfreedom). Several problems will be targeted:
Problem 1: Approximately 25% of Families of CSHCN report that services are not organized so they can use them easily (National Health Survey, CSHCN supplement)
Problem 2: Solutions that attempt to target any one of these problems by itself have a high likelihood of failure.
Problem 3: Cookbook solutions to achieving inclusive community integrated services for CYSHCN at the individual family and systems levels tend to be ineffective.
Goals and Objectives: The Champions for Inclusive Communities staff will work with DSCHCN and its other national centers, states, community based programs and family organizations to:
1. Identify and work with major national public and private community development initiatives
2. Facilitate linkages between community development initiatives and State programs.
3. Develop and maintain a website linked to relevant community development initiatives,
4. Develop and disseminate materials on inclusion of CYSHCN,
5. Develop and implement a community recognition program,
6. Collect, analyze, expand and apply evidence-based data to integrating community systems.
The Champions Center will base its work on participatory action research (PAR), federal legislation, vertical and horizontal integration, implementation and sustainability. Likewise, the Center will work in a collaborative and coordinated manner with the five other National Centers as well as national and community-based advocacy and service provider organizations to identify and address the systems change strategies that rise above these problems. A continuous quality improvement (CQI) evaluation plan will guide both the activities of this Center and the evaluation of its effectiveness of achieving the six objectives.
Project Assets
Website: Champions for Inclusive Communities