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Where We've Been...
In the fall of 2005, the Community Living Research Project began exploring Community Living supports and services for adults (19+ years) with developmental disabilities in four topic areas:
- young adults transitioning from high school,
- residential alternatives to group homes,
- non-residential supports, and
- services for seniors.
To date, the Community Living Research Project has performed literature reviews in these four topic areas making use of academic, government, community, and internet information databases. These reviews have been prepared as written reports and are available to the general public. You can access these reviews by clicking on the Literature Reviews option on the side toolbar.
In addition, researchers on the team conducted both focus groups and individual interviews with people receiving Community Living services in B.C. and family members of individuals receiving Community Living services in B.C. The goal of the interviews were to:
- Explore how individuals with developmental disabilities and their families experience their current services, supports, and the options available to them;
- Explore what individuals with developmental disabilities would like to see in terms of services/supports/options available;
- Develop a survey for a later phase of this study.
Each interview and focus group session was audiotaped. The audiotaped interviews and focused groups were transcribed and analyzed. The reports from this phase of the study are now available by clicking on the link. The CLRP also undertook, in association with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, research into barriers to employment, particularly for those people who have difficulty engaging in the labour force full time or at full productivity. A further study was undertaken on Homesharing, looking at the current state of practice in BC and making recommendations for improvements to this model of residential support. The final phase of our research involves a survey of families and self advocates in BC to get a picture of the demographics, satisfaction, community connectedness, and a range of other issues. The family survey is now complete and being analysed; the self advocate survey will be going out by the end of 2008. The reports have been widely read in Canada and abroad, and presentations have been made to a range of audiences in BC, Canada Australia, the US, and South Africa. Many of the presentations are available here as PowerPoint presentations
Where We're Going...
At the request of the Canadian Association for Community Living, we have also devised a national version of the family survey which is now open on line for participants and shortly the self advocate survey will also ‘go national’. This will give us a good picture of how BC is doing compared to the other provinces and territory. The surveys are designed to be comparable with data from the US National Core Indicators surveys which will also provide comparative data with 28 US jurisdictions. Discussion are also under way regarding replication in other countries.
The next steps of the Community Living Research Project involves the completion of the BC surveys and their analysis. Reports on each of these will be available in early 2009. The final step for the project will be to prepare a summary report from all of the research highlighting key issues and making recommendations for future support and services in BC under the four key areas of research. We hope this will be complete by mid 2009.