Fiscal Years 2005-2008 UCEDD Grant Goals & Objectives
Quality Assurance Health Early Intervention/Education Employment
Areas of Emphasis Goals Iowans with disabilities have real choices about living in the community, are empowered to choose, and receive individualized supports. Iowans with disabilities will be healthy and will have access to and the use of the full range of coordinated health and health-related services. Infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities will maximize their potential and families will maximize their capacity to support them. Reduce the poverty levels of people with disabilities by increasing employment rates to those of the general population.
Training Goals Provide interdisciplinary pre-service preparation and continuing education opportunities that assist trainees to help make real choices about living in the community a reality for Iowans with disabilities.

Objective 1: Sponsor University of Iowa courses, guest lectures, and continuing education programs to prepare future and current professionals to impart best practices that improve systems of supports. (capacity building)

 Provide interdisciplinary pre-service preparation and continuing education to enhance the availability and accessibility of appropriate health and health-related services for Iowans with disabilities and their families.

Objective 1: Sponsor University of Iowa courses, guest lectures, and continuing education programs to prepare current and future professionals to deliver state-of-the-art health and health-related services to Iowans with disabilities and their families. (capacity building)

Objective 2: Provide clinical training for future health professionals to enhance their knowledge and ability to deliver state-of-the-art health services to people with disabilities and their families. (capacity building)

 Provide interdisciplinary pre-service preparation and continuing education opportunities that assist trainees to enhance the development of infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities and the capacity of their families to support them.

Objective 1: Sponsor University of Iowa courses, guest lectures, and continuing education programs to prepare future and practicing professionals to deliver state-of-the-art developmental and educational services to infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities and their families. (capacity building)

 Provide interdisciplinary pre-service preparation and continuing education opportunities that assist trainees to support people with disabilities to achieve their individual employment goals.

Objective 1: Sponsor University of Iowa courses, guest lectures, and continuing education programs to prepare future and current professionals to deliver state-of-the-art workplace supports that assist people with disabilities to achieve their employment goals. (capacity building)
Community Services Goals Provide training and technical assistance to people with disabilities, their families, professionals, policy makers and other community members that help make real choices about living in the community possible for Iowans with disabilities.

Objective 1: Through subcontracts from the Iowa Department of Human Services, administer Iowa’s CMS-funded Real Choices and Medicaid Infrastructure Systems Change grants, providing technical assistance to state and community partners in helping to reduce the institutional bias of Iowa’s service system. (advocacy, capacity building, and systems change)

Objective 2: Through a subcontract from the Iowa Department of Human Services, administer the Conner Training Consortium and its related Community Living Transition grants. (capacity building)

Objective 3: In collaboration with the Iowa DD Council, assist local communities to increase their capacity to include people with disabilities in community activities. (capacity building)

Objective 4: Provide community education programs through outreach and telecommunications for people with disabilities, their families, professionals and other community members. (capacity building)

Objective 5: Participate on state and local councils, committees, and task forces (e.g., DD Council, MH/DD Commission Adult Service System Redesign work groups, People First Board of Directors, Secretary of State’s Help America Vote Act Planning Committee) to help facilitate systems improvements that promote community inclusion. (advocacy and systems change)

 Provide training and technical assistance to people with disabilities, their families, service providers, policy makers and community members to facilitate the availability and accessibility of appropriate health information and services for Iowans with disabilities and their families.

Objective 1: Provide and expand tertiary level evaluation and treatment services for Iowans with disabilities including those who are underserved. (capacity building)

Objective 2: Provide primary and tertiary level clinical services to Iowans with disabilities, in collaboration with community service providers, using the advancing technologies of telehealth. (capacity building)

Objective 3: In collaboration with the Iowa Departments of Public Health and Human Services and the Prevention of Disabilities Policy Council, improve Iowa’s Care for Kids EPSDT program to assure that participating children receive periodic screenings according to recommended schedules; are provided with appropriate health promotion, preventive care and developmental reviews; and are referred for needed diagnosis and treatment services. (advocacy, capacity building, and systemic change)

Objective 4: In partnership with the Iowa Department of Public Health and other key stakeholders, develop and strengthen community-based wellness and quality of life programs for people with disabilities. (capacity building)

Objective 5: Provide community education opportunities concerning disability and health issues for people with disabilities, their families, community health and human service providers, and other community members.  (advocacy, capacity building, systems change)

 Provide training and technical assistance to people with disabilities, their families, professionals, policy makers and other community members that help enhance the development of infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities.

Objective 1: Provide interdisciplinary clinical evaluations for infants, toddlers and children to identify and treat developmental problems and to assist families to promote their children’s development. (capacity building)

Objective 2: Staff and assist in leading Iowa’s Early ACCESS Council (Iowa’s Interagency Coordinating Council under Part C of I.D.E.A.) to redesign Iowa’s early intervention system for young children and their families. (advocacy & systems change)

Objective 3: In partnership with the Iowa Department of Public Health, implement a statewide newborn hearing screening system to assure that newborns with potential hearing loss are identified and that those identified are not lost to follow-up. (capacity building and systems change)

Objective 4: Assist the Iowa Department of Public Health, Early ACCESS, and Iowa’s Title V program to implement and enhance a statewide nutrition screening and intervention program. (capacity building & systems change)

Objective 5: Assist Iowa’s Disability Determination Service to collaborate with other service system partners to better support families of children eligible for Supplemental Security Income. (capacity building & systems change)

Objective 6: Participate on state and local councils, committees, and task forces (e.g., DD Council, MH/DD Commission Children’s Service System Redesign work groups, Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems core team) to help facilitate systems improvements that promote community inclusion through early intervention and education programs. (advocacy and systems change)

Provide training and technical assistance to employers, people with disabilities, their families, educators, policy makers and other community members that advance the employment of people with disabilities.

Objective 1: Implement a healthy and Ready to Work (HRTW) effort, through the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Programs for Children with Special Health Care Needs, directed to youth with disabilities younger than 16. (systems change)

Objective 2: Facilitate the development of consumer-responsive work-based personal assistance systems that are critical for Iowans with disabilities who work or who want to begin working. (capacity building)

Objective 3: Obtain input from private sector business and individuals receiving SSA benefits into the implementation of work incentive programs and policies. (systems change)
Research Goals Conduct research, evaluations, and policy analyses to determine how best to promote community living opportunities for people with disabilities

Objective 1: In response to Iowa Governor Vilsack’s Executive Order #27, assist state agencies to conduct policy analyses that identify barriers to community living. (advocacy & systems change)

Objective 2: Develop and field test a functional screening and assessment protocol that assists with level of care decision-making and the identification of community supports that prevent unnecessary institutionalization. (capacity building & systems change)

 Identify, research, and evaluate critical clinical and health policy issues that affect Iowans with disabilities and their families to determine how to best promote optimum health and access to needed services

Objective 1: Support the development of substantial, sustained research programs that can attract ongoing NIH funding. (capacity building)

Objective 2: Support the development of targeted clinical research projects that can provide the knowledge base for improving the lives of people with disabilities. (capacity building)

Objective 3: Under contract with the Iowa Department of Public Health evaluate the effects of Living Well with a Disability and other health promotion programs with regard to various health and quality of life measures for people with disabilities. (capacity building)

Objective 4: Coordinate the activities of the Iowa Prevention of Disabilities Policy Council to facilitate the development of collaborative research, training, and service initiatives and address state-level policies related to the prevention of primary and secondary disabilities. (advocacy, capacity building, and systemic change)

 Conduct research, evaluations, and policy analyses to determine how best to promote the development of infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities and improve the systems that support them and their families.

Objective 1: In collaboration with the Prevention of Disabilities Policy Council, Early ACCESS, and Iowa’s Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems grant, develop and pilot a developmental screening tool that can be used by physicians and other health care providers across the state to identify children in need for referral for comprehensive developmental evaluations. (capacity building & systems change)

Objective 2: In collaboration with the DD Council and other partners, develop and pilot a disability awareness curriculum for elementary and middle school students and study the impact of the curriculum on students’ attitudes toward inclusion. (capacity building)

 Conduct research, evaluations, and policy analyses that increase effectiveness of employment services and work place supports used by people with disabilities.

Objective 1: Support the Iowa Department of Human Services and other partners as they create innovative ways to address health care barriers for individuals starting or returning to work. (capacity building and systems change)

Objective 2: Evaluate the Medical Home model as a specific strategy for transitioning youth with special health care needs toward employment in a career track.  (capacity building, systems change)

Objective 3: Evaluate expanded consumer and family control over education, training, transition and employment support expenditures through a "cash out" strategy, i.e., purchasing patterns of services versus service delivery patterns provided in the traditional service system.  (advocacy, capacity building, systems change)
Dissemination Goals Disseminate information through appropriate media that promotes community living opportunities for people with disabilities and empowers them to choose

Objective 1: As part of Iowa’s Real Choices Systems Change project, maintain a website with information resources that help Iowans implement the Olmstead Supreme Court decision and promote community living. (advocacy, capacity building, & systems change)

Objective 2: Administer Link opens in new window.disabilitytraining.org as a web-based calendar of information about statewide training and policy-related meetings. (capacity building)

Objective 3: Operate Iowa COMPASS, Iowa’s interagency information and referral system for disability supports and services available statewide and in each Iowa county. (capacity building)

 Disseminate health and health-related information through appropriate venues to facilitate allowing people with disabilities and their families to make informed health choices and to promote access to needed health services

Objective 1: Provide resource and reference information to people with disabilities, their families and service providers, so that individuals have access to the information they need to make better-informed decisions about their health and well being. (capacity-building)

Objective 2: Operate Iowa COMPASS, Iowa’s statewide information and referral resource so that people with disabilities, their families, and community providers can access information and services to optimize their health. (capacity-building)

Objective 3: In collaboration with the Iowa Departments of Public Health and Human Services and the Prevention of Disabilities Policy Council, publish and distribute the Link opens in new window.EPSDT Care for Kids Newsletter to Iowa health care providers. (capacity building)

 Using appropriate media, disseminate information that promotes developmental opportunities for infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities and supports for their families

Objective 1: In collaboration with the Iowa Department of Education and other Early ACCESS partners, administer Iowa COMPASS as the single point of entry into Iowa’s early intervention system under part C of I.D.E.A. (capacity building & systems change)

 Disseminate information through appropriate media that assists people with disabilities to achieve their employment goals.

Objective 1: Advance the utilization of information and communications technology that can be used by Iowans with disabilities in the workplace and in classrooms. (advocacy and systems change)

Objective 2: Convene a Youth Transition Information Summit that will include federal, state and local governments, small and large businesses, the disability community and other stakeholders. (capacity building)