The Research

and Training Center on Promoting Interventions

for Community Living

Implementing proven methods to increase community participation for people with disabilities

Why We Need Community Living ResearchAmericans with disabilities deserve opportunities for education, employment, health care, recreation and civic engagement. Yet, despite improved opportunities and increasingly accessible environments for people with disabilities, many continue to face barriers to living and participating in their communities.

The Research and Training Center on Promoting Interventions for Community Living will examine the effectiveness of interventions designed to support greater community participation for people with physical and other co-occurring disabilities.

The RTC/PICL research team will conduct three activities to accomplish this:

• Develop, test and promote two interventions that address both environmental and personal factors that are important to participants in our research.

• Review other evidence-based interventions and report on their success in a systematic review.

• Promote the dissemination and utilization of these effective interventions through a National Community Living Resource Center.

Who We Are: A Research PartnershipThe University of Kansas (KU) Research and Training Center on Independent Living and the University of Montana (UM) Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities are partnering on this research, with funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. KU’s Glen W. White, PhD, and UM’s Craig Ravesloot, PhD, are co-directors of RTC/PICL.

The research team will collaborate with Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and other stakeholder groups to test the interventions and ensure that this work is relevant and useful to people with disabilities and to professionals who provide services and support.

People with disabilities are also essential partners in this work. Our goal is to benefit these consumers, especially those with severe limitations that hinder their participation in the community.

Finally, a Scientist-Consumer Advisory Panel (SCAP) will provide external perspectives. This group will help ensure that we maintain a high level of rigor and relevance in the research.

The Interventions: Building on Success In two interventions titled “Home Usability Program” and “Out and About,” the RTC/PICL staff will more fully develop strategies that have proven effective in our previous research. The goal is to create tools that service providers can use to help increase community participation among people with disabilities.

For the first two years of the Center, the Home Usability Program and Out and About will be refined and tested separately with two CILs: Summit Independent Living Center, Inc., in Missoula, Montana, and The Whole Person in Kansas City, Missouri. In the following years, the interventions will be integrated and tested nationally at other CILs.

The Home Usability Program works with consumers to improve the usability of their homes. Community participation begins at home, so even small home improvements can give a person more time and energy for participating in the community. In this program, CIL staff and consumers work together to harness community and personal resources for making changes in their homes.

Out and About will focus on assisting consumers to set community participation goals and solve problems related to participation issues in the community. These problems may include barriers such as inaccessible transportation or lack of access to health care. Out and About also helps people pursue their individual goals by building social networks and using peer support.

The Systematic Review: Identifying Other Effective Programs Effective programs are only valuable to the people they can benefit if they are known and used. In addition to developing the two interventions described here, the RTC/PICL will conduct and publish a systematic review of the research literature to identify other interventions that are effective in enhancing community participation for adults with disabilities.

This review will focus on multifaceted interventions, which means that these strategies address individual characteristics of the people who took part in the research (including health, functional abilities, education and economic resources) as well as environmental barriers (such as transportation, housing and health care access).

The National Resource Center: Spreading the WordThe RTC/PICL will create the National Community Living Resource Center to make information more available to others who are seeking to improve community participation. The CL Resource Center will be a nexus for information, training and technical assistance.

The CL Resource Center will also host a database to disseminate the findings of our systematic review of interventions and will provide information gathered through our collaborations with the SCAP, CILs and other stakeholder groups.

The Research TeamThe Research and Training Center on Promoting Interventions for Community Living (RTC/PICL) is a partnership between the University of Kansas Research and Training Center on Independent Living (RTC/IL)) and the University of Montana Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities.

The University of KansasGlen W. White, PhD, Co-Director

Jean Ann Summers, PhD, Research Director

Martha Hodgesmith, JD

Dorothy Nary, PhD

Judith Gross, PhD

Amalia Monroe-Gulick, MLS

Val Renault, MA

E (Alice) Zhang, MA

Ryan Henley

Shelby Akers, BA

University of MontanaCraig Ravesloot, PhD, Co-director

Bryce Ward, PhD

Lillie Greiman, MA

Andrew Myers, BS

Administration for Community LivingDawn Carlson, PhD

Scientist-Consumer Advisory PanelThese external advisors help shape the research process and ensure that our research is both rigorous and relevant to the lives of people with disabilities.

Scientist Representatives Consumer RepresentativesFabricio Balcazar, PhD, Professor, Department of Disability and Rosie Cooper – Consultant, former Executive Director of the Human Development, and Director, Center for Capacity Building Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living, Topeka, KSon Minorities with Disabilities Research, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL

Ron Garcia - Executive Director, New Vistas CIL, Santa Fe, NM

Amy Hewitt, PhD - Director, Research and Training Center on Community Living and Co-Director, Research and Training Center

Sierra Royster - Youth Programs Coordinator, Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL), Little Rock, AR

on HCBS Outcome Measurement, University of Minnesota, Jack Stratton - Deputy Director, ARCIL, Inc. CIL, Austin, TXMinneapolis, MN Ranita Wilks - Independent Living Skills/Peer Counseling Catherine Leigh Graham, MEBME - Executive Director, South Specialist and Youth Employment Program Coordinator, Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund, Columbia, SC Independence, Inc. CIL, Lawrence, KS

David Keer - Retired Project Officer and Coordinator of the Interagency Committee on Disability Research, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, College Park, MD

Tom Seekins, PhD - Professor of Psychology and Director, Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities, University of Montana, Missoula, MT

FundingThe contents of this brochure were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RT5043). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These contents do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

For more information:Research and Training Center on Independent LivingUniversity of Kansas1000 Sunnyside Ave., Room 4089Lawrence, KS 66045-7561785-864-4095; TTY 785-864-0706E-mail: rtcil@ku.eduWeb: www.rtcil.org

© 2017 Photos courtesy the University of Montana Healthy Community Living Flickr site