Strengthening Disability and Cultural Competence in Information and Referral/Assistance (I&R/A) Work with People with I/DD and their Families

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People with I/DD and their families may experience several challenges over the course of their lifespan, and these challenges must be navigated in a manner that respects how each person’s and family’s cultural values may impact their experiences and understanding of disability. The course offers strategies that staff and providers may use to integrate cultural and disability competence into their work with people with I/DD and their families, strengthening access to the support system for this diverse group nationwide.

The course will assist I&R/A professionals to define intellectual and developmental disability (I/DD); recognize barriers experienced by people with I/DD and their families; describe the many ways that culture impacts how a person and family experiences disability; and identify best practices to serve people with I/DD and their families.

This course was developed by The Arc in partnership with NASUAD to support the professional development of I&R/A specialists.
To access this free, online training course, visit NASUADiQ. If you are new to NASUADiQ, you must create an account for yourself to be able to access this course.

National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities

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NASUAD represents the nation’s 56 state and territorial agencies on aging and disabilities and supports visionary state leadership, the advancement of state systems innovation and the articulation of national policies that support home and community-based services for older adults and individuals with disabilities. NASUAD releases publications, provides technical assistance to agencies, and develops initiatives to support state agencies to better support people with disabilities and families.

Family Support Research and Training Center

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The main objectives of the FSRTC are to define the state of science in family support; generate new information in critical policy areas of self-direction and managed care and in culturally competent peer supports, and to share promising practices in family support nationally.

Volunteering: For Disability Professionals

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As a disability professional, you play a key role in encouraging and supporting people with disabilities and their families to fully engage in civic opportunities like volunteering.
In the links below, we provide information on how you can help foster inclusive volunteering opportunities, and how to engage local businesses to build inclusive volunteering partnerships.

Include Volunteer Community Service Opportunities in Support Plans

Sometimes, volunteer work and service is not considered as an option when a person with I/DD and his or her support team is making a support plan. As you and your colleagues help people with I/DD to make individual support and service plans, allow the person to consider whether he or she wants to volunteer and help him or her identify service opportunities that he or she would be interested in. This article reviews the different types of service people engage in and offers some key questions you can use to help connect a person with I/DD to volunteer opportunities in the community.

Foster Inclusive Volunteer Programs in Your Community via Local Partnerships

If you are looking for ways to build inclusive volunteering opportunities in your community, focus on individual projects and short-term community efforts. Often, small projects can help neighborhoods and local community organizations without significant experience working with people with disabilities improve their knowledge of how to engage and support volunteers with disabilities. Check out this report from Seattle that shares stories and strategies on how to support people with I/DD to become more involved in community life for inspiration on how you may be able to develop similar activities in your community.

Think Outside of the Box

Some of the biggest challenges for disability professionals are to find volunteer opportunities that match the interests of the people that you serve, that avoid unintentionally segregating people with I/DD, and that connect people with I/DD meaningfully to other well-connected volunteers in the community. Check out the tip sheet for recommendations on how you can overcome these common challenges.

What Else Can I Do?

Check with your local chapter of The Arc to learn more about other local volunteer opportunities you may want to participate in or connect the people you support with!

Volunteering: For Volunteer Coordinators

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Many volunteer programs are not comfortable including people with disabilities. Programs may not know or may worry that they won’t be able to support or accommodate to volunteers with disabilities or don’t know how to effectively communicate with people with disabilities.

However, there are many resources available to help volunteer programs learn how to better support and engage people with disabilities as volunteers.

Presume Competence, Be Precise, and Plan

People with disabilities have a variety of talents and gifts and give back to their community in many ways. If a person with a disability wants to volunteer in your program, presume that they can volunteer and contribute to your work, but be precise about what volunteering means at your organization. This tip sheet offers recommendations and an example plan that you can use to help support volunteers with disabilities in your program.

Take Courses and Get Tips on Disability Inclusion from the Corporation for National and Community Service

The Corporation for National and Community Service offers four 15-20 minute online courses as well as many practical tips on how volunteer programs can be more accessible and inclusive to people of all abilities. Each tip provides additional resources and tools that programs can easily use or amend for their program. Check out CNCS’s Disability Inclusion webpage!

Check Out These Fact Sheets on Engaging People with Disabilities

Making a volunteer program inclusive may mean changing your program. As you consider making your volunteer program more inclusive, you may find that you need to change how you recruit and train volunteers, how you support your volunteers, or even the physical places where you volunteer. These fact sheets from Volunteer Canada can give you tips on how you can make your program more inclusive, recruit volunteers with disabilities, and use technology effectively to support inclusive volunteering opportunities.

Connect with Your Local or State Chapter of The Arc

With more than 600 chapters across the country, The Arc and its chapter network support more than 1 million people with I/DD and their families each year. Our chapters offer services and support to people with I/DD and their families across the lifespan to help people and their families live, work, go to school, and participate in all aspects of their community. As a result, chapters of The Arc can guide and assist you on inclusive policies, procedures and practices to be more inclusive when you recruit, train, and support people with disabilities.

Self-Advocacy Online

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Self Advocacy Online is a place to find accessible information and videos on current topics in self-advocacy. Visitors to the site will discover multi-media lessons on a variety of topics such as living self-determined, healthy, contributing lives in their communities. The site includes a story wall of videos of self-advocates sharing their stories. SAO operates with primary funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD), and other federal agencies. SAO is a part of the Research and Training Center on Community Living at the University of Minnesota.

Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE)

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Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE) works to ensure that people with disabilities are treated as equals and they are given the same choices, rights, responsibilities, and chances to empower themselves as everyone else. SABE is a national board of regional representatives and members from every state in the US.

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

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The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) is a national grassroots disability rights organization, advocating for systems change and ensuring that the voices of people with autism are heard. ASAN’s activities include public policy advocacy and leadership trainings for self-advocates. ASAN provides information about autism, disability rights, and systems change to the public through a number of different educational, cultural, and advocacy related projects.

Self Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center (SARTAC)

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The mission of SARTAC is to strengthen the self-advocacy movement by supporting self advocacy organizations to grow in diversity and leadership. SARTAC shared best practices tools, conducts interviews with self-advocacy leaders, shares success stories, provides training and assistance, and provides self-adovocates scholarships and leadership opportunities.

TASH

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TASH advocates for human rights and inclusion for people with significant disabilities and support needs – those most vulnerable to segregation, abuse, neglect, and institutionalization. TASH works to advance inclusive communities through advocacy, research, professional development, policy, and information and resources for parents, families, and self-advocates. The inclusive practices TASH validates through research have been shown to improve outcomes for all people.