Training and Consultation
Posted by: CQL on 12/15/2006
Filed under: Alaska
The Arc of Anchorage
The Situation
The Arc of Anchorage is a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting community integration and quality of life for children and adults who experience developmental disabilities, behavioral health issues, or deafness. The Arc of Anchorage was founded in 1957 by a small group of parents at the very beginning of a nationwide shift in how society thinks about people with disabilities. Today, The Arc helps Alaskans achieve lives of dignity and independence as valued members of the community.
The Arc of Anchorage has adopted “Commitment to Quality” as a core organizational value. They state “the best judges of how well we are meeting that goal are the people themselves. The people we serve are at the center of the planning for and the evaluation of the services they receive, according to the personal measures each of them has selected to define their quality of life.”
What CQL Did
CQL worked with The Arc of Anchorage on a series of training and consulting projects:
- Training in the use of Personal Outcome Measures SM to measure the quality-of-life and quality-of-services at the Arc of Anchorage. Staff learned about the intent of each Personal Outcome, how to interview people to gather information on each personal outcome and individualized support, and how to measure the presence or absence of each.
- Consultation services on how to implement systems for organizational change. These strategies were driven by the data results of the interviews held with people served. The implementation of the strategies resulted in accountability and responsiveness to the primary customer.
- Assessment and analysis of the organization’s strengths and areas of challenge in delivering person and family directed services and supports. This modeled the actual CQL Accreditation review process while providing ongoing education for the entire organization and experience for up to twenty staff during the entire process.
- Training of direct support professionals employed by The Arc of Anchorage, with a focus on the principles of the Personal Outcome Measures SM, how to use the measures to learn about people, and support staff to make individual changes in service environments.
“[CQL] has been of great assistance in this ongoing effort to ensure that the services we provide are making the kind of difference that really matters to the people we serve. We have adopted [CQL]’s twenty-one Personal Outcome Measures SM as both a map and a measuring stick, showing the way forward as well as how far we have to go.”
The Arc of Anchorage Web site