During the last two decades, the number of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) living in community settings and receiving home and community based services (HCBS) increased dramatically. While this led to better outcomes, including people with I/DD making more of their own choices and being a part of the community, there are great variations in the accessibility of quality HCBS across the country.
In 2017 and 2018 ACL awarded Living Well grants to help develop and test model approaches for enhancing the quality, effectiveness, and monitoring of home and community-based services (HCBS) for people with developmental disabilities. These Model Approaches for Living Well grants, awarded as Projects of National Significance by ACL’s Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, are focused on building the capacity of HCBS systems and enhancing community monitoring to prevent abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Each grantee has designed one or more models integrating community monitoring and capacity building with the goal of enhancing health, safety, integration, and independence of individuals with I/DD living in the community.
The Lewin Group (Lewin), as a subcontractor to New Editions Consulting, initiated the cross-site evaluation of all eight grantees from cohorts one and two in 2018. The cross-site evaluation of the Living Well grants focused on eight key features, organized into three categories. The evaluation has produced the first annual report broken into several interrelated products:
- Executive Summary
- Volume I: Introduction and Grantees
- Volume II: Findings
- Volume III: Methodology
- Volume IV: Conclusion and Next Steps
- Living Well State Profiles
- Living Well Emerging Practices
- Living Well Final Report Tables
Key Features of the Living Well Grants:
Projects of National Significance focus on the most pressing issues affecting people with developmental disabilities and their families. Through the projects, ACL supports the development of national and state policy and awards grants and contracts that enhance the independence, productivity, inclusion, and integration of people with developmental disabilities.