Guidepost 4: Provide Outcome-Oriented & Regularly Monitored Supports

Community Life Engagement providers should monitor their service outcomes to make sure they are providing effective CLE supports. This means that service providers should be:

Emphasizing goals rather than processes.

It is important to keep the focus on individual goals and outcomes, including satisfaction, individualization, and connectedness to community, rather than on process measures, such as times and locations of activities. Detailed, descriptive, individual data can help providers more accurately measure goals and related outcomes.

Holding CLE supports to clear expectations and guidance.

In addition to following state and federal requirements, service provider agencies should consider their own organizational values in developing their standards for quality of CLE supports. Agencies that have success in supporting CLE often start with a core belief that people with IDD can and should have opportunities to live, work, and play in the community in the same ways those without IDD do. Their supports are then designed around that belief.

Expecting CLE to lead to or complement employment.

For working-age adults, CLE should be part of a whole-life vision that includes employment goals. Providers can use CLE activities to build networking opportunities or as a form of exploration to discover the person’s interests, strengths, and challenges.

Volunteering gives people a chance to explore career options and gain employment-related skills. CLE can also wrap around employment, providing additional engagement opportunities, especially for those who work part-time.

Using data to guide continuous improvement.

Providers should also use individual-level data to identify support gaps, guide training needs, and monitor quality.

For example, shift logs, which illustrate the individual’s progress as well as intervention strategies, can become the basis of further training. Providers can use data to review the person’s progress toward their goals and to identify and address gaps in supports and areas for staff improvement. Providers can also use the data to identify effective strategies that worked well to implement again in the future.

Here are some additional resources to help providers apply Guidepost 4:

• Guidepost 4: Ensure that Supports are Outcome-Oriented and Regularly Monitored: This brief describes the fourth guidepost and how service providers are implementing it based on expert interviews and case studies. (ICI Engage Brief #7)
• Braiding Community Employment and Life Engagement Services: TransCen’s WorkLink Program: In this promising practice, TransCen, Inc. combines employment and day services funding to support holistic lives that include both employment and CLE. (ICI Service Provider Promising Practice)
• Using Mobile Communication Technology at SEEC: Without a central facility, SEEC has used various technology, including cell phones, tablets, and laptops, to maintain communication between staff and management. Read this promising practice to learn how this approach had an impact on providing services. (ICI Service Provider Promising Practice)
• Social Role Valorization: This is a set of ideas that can guide service providers to promote valued social roles for people with disabilities and all the benefits inherent in those roles.
• Supporting Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in their Communities: This publication covers values, goals, and quality indicators for integrated employment, pre-vocational services, and community-based non-work activities.
• Learning Opportunities/Quality Work’s CLE Policy: Driven by Philosophy, Guided by Policy: This policy defines CLE and lays out a procedure for enhancing engagement for individuals with disabilities.

Lessons for Direct Support Staff. Our self-paced training can help your staff build skills and feel confident as direct support professionals working in the community. Purchase our course & learn more!

Learn more about our partner project Community Life Engagement in Action!

Upcoming: The Community of Practice application will open in May and launch in September 2024.