CT Family Support 360: A Planning Grant

 

Overview

The purpose of the Family Support project is to plan multi-agency partnerships to design a one-stop center to assist poor or underserved families with a child or adult member with a developmental disability to preserve, strengthen and maintain their family unit. There will be three levels of formalized consumer involvement. The first is the Connecticut Real Choice Steering Committee which is comprised of persons with disabilities, families and agency representatives. The second is the consumer advisory board for the UCEDD. It also has a majority of consumers, plus agency representatives. Most importantly, the Bridgeport Real Choices Steering Committee serves as the steering community to this Family Support project. Consumer and target families have meaningful involvement in all project planning and activities.

Major Activities

• Formalize partnerships
• Assess information technology
• Assess existing resources
• Conduct an analysis of eligibility across agencies/programs
• Assess training needs
• Conduct strategic planning
• Develop an implementation plan

Highlights

At the last couple of meetings held in Bridgeport (April & June 2005), members brought up the need for more services for Parents with Cognitive Limitations. The representative from the PWCL workgroup was not able to attend the last two meetings, however, the project coordinator maintained phone contact with her. At the June meeting there was a discussion about targeting Parent with Cognitive Limitations as the population to benefit from a one-stop center. Therefore, as a follow up to this meeting, the coordinator contacted the chair of the PWCL statewide workgroup and the Bridgeport representative to share with them the discussion held at the June meeting. They were both very excited and thrilled to target this population for the one-stop center.

The PWCL statewide workgroup has brought together an array of state and community providers concerned about families headed by a parent with cognitive limitations. The workgroup, from the beginning, has been a solid collaboration among the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Mental Retardation, the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services, the Department of Social Services, and the Department of Labor, as well of many private providers. Formed in September of 2002, the statewide workgroup meets monthly. As a group, they have discovered that throughout Connecticut providers are struggling to provide appropriate services to these families within social systems that do not fully understand or adapt to their unique needs. They have also recognized that there are gaps in the understanding of these families, the services that best meet their needs, and the ability to effect change in a state system that has no central service system of care.

Therefore, the Family Support 360: A Planning Grant will target Parents with Cognitive Limitations for the planning of the one-stop center in the city of Bridgeport. There is a need to recruit ‘local’ partners. So far, the members of the workgroup are statewide. We will need to form a Local Task Force to assist us with addressing the specific needs of the city of Bridgeport.

Contact

Gabriela Freyre-Calish, MSW
Phone: 860-679-1563
E-mail: freyre@nso2.uchc.edu