Practice
National Council on Independent Living: Washington
National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) advances independent living and the rights of people with disabilities.
From a Four Bed Placement to a New Life
Community Works: Management consultation, facilitation and training in PATH, person-centered planning, and Microboard development Working towards communities in which each individual is cherished.
Good Practice – Towards Independent Living – A collection of Examples from Europe
This Collection is a joint initiative of the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) and the European Disability Forum (EDF). It features examples from different EU Member States, which to a different extent facilitate the right to live independently in the community.
Myth Buster: EU Funds and Independent Living
This Myth buster is aimed at all those advocating for ESI Funds to be used to support the right to independent living, and for those involved in the programming, implementation and monitoring of these funds.
Myth Buster: Independent Living
The Myth Buster on Independent Living deals with some of the most common misconceptions about disabled people, independent living and personal assistance. They have been selected by our staff and members, based on their lived experience, and have been inspired by our work with policy and decision makers at the European, national and local level.
A New Way Home
A New Way Home, a personalised approach for leaving institutions. People with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour have continued to be placed in long-stay institutions, often a long way from home. New ‘placements’ of this kind have not always been avoided, and some people have not yet been afforded the opportunity to plan for their departure. This travel guide demonstrates tried and trusted methods for navigating the difficult road home. (The guide demonstrating how to avoid that difficult journey in the first place is perhaps for another day, though its outline can be discerned from the principles and practices described here.) But it also affords all of us, as concerned citizens, a set of principles, ideas and practices we can use to hold each other account in making sure these journeys are taken.
Neighbourhood network Parent-and-Carer-Information
Neighbourhood Networks strives to carry out excellent work and have positive relationships with everyone we support and come into contact with. We are realistic and appreciate that things do not always go according to plan. We need to know when things go wrong so that we can put them right – and make sure the same problem does not arise again. In this way our service can continue to improve.
Shared Lives in Northern Ireland Annual Report
Shared Lives in Northern Ireland-Annual Report 2017-18. This report provides a useful baseline in relation to a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges in delivering an expansion of a shared lives approach as the sector develops in Northern Ireland.
State Of The Nation Shared Lives In Wales February 2020
Reflecting upon 2018-19, Shared Lives carers now support over 1,100 individuals for the first time, a clear indication that people, including commissioners of services, increasingly know about and understand the benefits of its support.
Shared Lives in England 2017-18
Shared Lives England 2017-18 Report tells the story of what the Shared Lives community has achieved in recent years. Shared Lives vision is a kinder, stronger society built on sharing our lives and our homes. We help build communities where everyone lives a full life, regardless of the support they need. We do this by turning Shared Lives and Homeshare into thriving, mainstream options, with all the right structures in place to support and guide who want to share their lives and homes.
Shared Lives in Wales 2017-18
Shared Lives in Wales – Annual Report 2017- 2018
Vulnerability in Adult Homesharing Situations for Persons with Disabilities
This papers central purpose is to highlight some of the more likely vulnerabilities that may be present for the people who find themselves resident in supported adult home sharing living situations.
Independent Living For People With Intellectual Disabilities
Living independently does not mean doing everything yourself or not having support. Independent living is about having choice and control over your life and having the same range of opportunities as a non-disabled person.
Home Sharing Info For Families
Community Living BC (CLBC) provides supports and services to eligible adults and their families. CLBC funds a variety of residential services. Home sharing is a residential support service that many eligible adults and their families choose. CLBC has a range of policies, guidelines, and standards for home sharing. This information sheet answers some common questions families have about home sharing.
Homesharer Role
Homesharer is a unique arrangement where homesharers provide live in support and companionship in their own home. Duties detailed in this role description capture the key elements of the Homesharer role description.
Shared Lives Plus – Ambassador’s Test
The Ambassadors test is a checklist to help people know what good shared lives look like.
Shared Lives Plus -A Shared Lives Charter
Our vision is a kinder, stronger society built on sharing our lives and our homes.
ACL- Administration for Community Living
All people, regardless of age or disability, should be able to live independently and participate fully in their communities. Every person should have the right to make choices and to control the decisions in and about their lives. This right to self-determination includes decisions about their homes and work, as well as all the other daily choices most adults make without a second thought.
A Home That’s Right For Me
Summary Report of Policy Forums Sponsored by the Ministry of Community and Social Services- Ontario.
Prepared by: Jenny Carver & Associates – July 2009
Housing Hub
We are an online community of people with disabilities and housing providers working together to create accessible housing options.
Homeshare Australia & New Zealand Alliance- HANZA
Homeshare brings together older householders or householders with a disability who could benefit from help in the home and companionship, with people of integrity prepared to lend a hand in return for affordable accommodation. The Householder provides a bedroom and shared facilities. In exchange, the Homesharer provides approximately 10 hours per week of practical assistance such as cooking, cleaning, shopping and gardening, as well as providing company and the added security of having someone else sleeping in the home.
The Housing Toolkit | Summer Foundation
The Housing Toolkit is a resource designed to assist you in making decisions about the type of housing and support that would suit your lifestyle, preferences and needs. The Summer Foundation has worked closely with people with disability and their families to understand the experiences, issues and concerns about housing and support. Throughout this consultation process, the aim was to create a toolkit that is relevant and user-friendly, to help people make their own choices.
A Place to Call Home
Living independently does not necessarily mean living alone. An important consideration is that there is an element of choice in where a person lives. Although some people may choose to live alone, others may choose to live with someone else – a friend or a flat mate – who may or may not have a disability.
ILO and Safeguards
In May, UpSkill Lead, Linda Hughes wrote a blog about Individualised Living Options (ILO) and what the new Operational Guidelines mean for support coordinators. Since that time, UpSkill hosted a lunchtime learning session with their Community of Practice members about the guidelines and suffice to say, everyone had a lot of questions. One of the recurring themes was about safeguards. In this month’s blog, Linda shares insights into why safeguards for people entering into an ILO arrangement are so important.
Home Resources
Resource Links
A Home of Your Own
Creating a home and lifestyle is a long lasting and universal topic. If moving out of home is a milestone for most young adults, then we need to consider why this is so often challenging or out of the reach of people who live with disabilities.
Living like everyone else
A guide to new opportunities for supporting people with disabilities and complex needs to live in their own home.
Adam Moves Out
My name is Adam. I am 25 and moving out of home for the first time. This is my story.
Curtin Individual Supported Living Manual 2nd Edition
The Manual builds on a Framework that was developed over two research projects carried
out between 2007 and 2011. This revised version was produced after the completion of a third
research project carried out over 2015-2017.
Homesharing – My Place
The homesharer (also known as foster care or host family care) arrangement is based on My Place’s belief that family is the foundation stone of the society in which we live. People with disability want to be, and are entitled to be, warmly welcomed and fully included members of society.
Homeshare Melbourne
At Home Share Melbourne, we focus on the idea of a ‘home’ rather a house. A home is not just a bed and roof over your head, it’s somewhere that is safe, comfortable, welcoming, which is full of people (and pets!) who you have chosen to live with. A home is a sanctuary and how it feels can impact the rest of your life.
Developing an Outcome Measurement Tool for Shared Lives
Shared Lives Plus commissioned the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Kent to develop an outcome measuring tool for Shared Lives. The purpose is to be able to more easily demonstrate the benefits of Shared Lives locally, regionally and nationally. It needed to be easy to use as part of current processes, co-produced with Shared Lives users, carers and schemes and evidence-based. The authors would like to thank the Shared Lives schemes who worked with us on this project for their cooperation and support, and particularly the Shared Lives users and carers who gave their time and shared their experiences.
Shared Lives Plus Community – Alternative to Residential Care
In Shared Lives, a young person or adult who needs support is matched with a carefully approved Shared Lives carer. Together, they share family and community life. Half of the people using Shared Lives live with their Shared Lives carer, sometimes for many years. The other half visit their Shared Lives carer for day support or overnight breaks.
Keys To Life
Keys to Life describes examples that illustrate the context of innovation; guiding ideals, four leadership commitments, and innovation in the design and delivery of residential supports for ten people that have emerged from the organization’s commitment to innovation.
Wish Fulfilling Justice
The stories in this paper provide examples of residential design that maximise individual’s relationship to others – families, paid support workers, advocacy and their growing network of support. The goal of the AHRC Homebuilders Program in NYC is to increase the capacity of individuals to live independently.
Home! Tip Sheet
Since 2003, Belonging Matters has journey with many people with intellectual disability and Autism to move beyond tradition group home living to imagine and create a home of their own. We have harnessed the wisdom of individuals, families and our many allies locally, nationally and internationally. Following are some tips we have learnt along the way!
From Institution to Community Living
The work centres on identifying five case studies from across the European region where an institution for people with disabilities including those with high/complex support needs, has been completely closed. The case studies span almost fifty years of time and work; in the view of the project team this provides a useful timeline that identifies how each has learned from the experience of the previous work and built an ever stronger and evidence informed approach to complete closure.
From the radicals setting out to close the institution in Trieste, led by Franco Basaglia, to the detailed and strategic approach in Moldova, each case study provides a good sense of the work needed and what it takes to succeed in completely closing an institution for people with disabilities.
Social Care Future: Summer Update July 2021
This newsletter provides an update on what the Social Care movement has been doing and future plans. The Social Care Future vision is: Don’t we all want to live in the place we call home, with the people and things that we love, in communities where we look out for one another, doing what matters to us?
Creating Change- Changing Expectations
Beth Mount and Connie Lyle O’Brien reflect on lessons learned from the early days of moving from congregated institutional models of support to individual person centred ways of supporting people with developmental disabilities.
Citizenship – A Guide for Providers of Support
This guide uses the 7 keys to Citizenship as a framework to help build quality into an organisation that is providing services for people with disabilities. One of the keys to Citizenship is Home. A person’s home is their sanctuary where their possessions and privacy should be respected by those visiting or helping within it. Every home should look, feel, smell and be valued as a home – a special and valuable space for each of us.
Social Care Future
Don’t we all want to live in the place we call home with the people and things that we love, in communities where we look out for one another, doing the things that matter to us? Social Care Future is a growing movement of people with a shared commitment to bring about major positive change in what is currently called “social care.”
NACBO: Meaning Of Home Submission
The National Alliance of Capacity Building Organisations (NACBO) is a national network of not-for profit, values-based, capacity building organisations. This document is NABCO’s submission to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. We define the meaning of home and what we consider to be best practice in home and community living. We list what each sector can do; people with disability themselves, families, allies, services, or government. We then consider how best practice for a few can become accepted practice for many. We offer three take-home messages from our work and offer four recommendations for government action. Finally, we share twenty-three stories which illustrate that people with disability can have a home of their own, establish networks of family and friends and contribute to a community where they belong.
The Future of Home
Just released, our Future of Home book brings to life what our future housing system could look like. It’s the culmination of over seven years of research by TACSI and other organisations just like us all over the world. Our hope is that this book stimulates the collective imagination of what could be, and how we might join up all the innovative work currently being conducted on the margins to build a better housing system.
Planning Card Set HOME
We have an equal right to live on our own, or with the people we choose, in the community, with the support we need. This Planning Card set can be used to support you think about and discuss the idea of creating your own home.
Planning Booklet HOME
It is your right to have your own home. There are lots of ways of creating a home where you choose who you live with, where you live and how you live. You and your supporters might like some help to hear about and talk about some of the possibilities. This Workbook can be used along with the Planning Card Set to think about and discuss ideas for creating a home of your own.
Quality Assurance Framework- Homeshare UK
This document provides an overview of the Homeshare UK Quality Assurance Framework.
Individualised Living Options: The Role of the Provider
This video discusses the role of an Individualised Living Options provider.
Individualised Living Options-ILO
Individualised Living Options are ways to live independently in the community without having to share a group home. In this video we give examples of different ways you can do this.
Independent Living
All people have a right to independent living under Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). This article recognises: “the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and shall take effective and appropriate measures to facilitate full enjoyment by persons with disabilities of this right and their full inclusion and participation in the community”.
Independent Living
This Fact Sheet outlines the meaning and definition of Independent Living.
Mythbusters “It’s too dangerous for people with disability to live in their own home in the community.”
Mythbusters “Living in your own home means you have to be capable of doing everything or most things yourself”
Mythbusters “People with disabilities don’t have the skills needed to live in their own home.”
Mythbusters “Living in your own home means you will be lonely.”
Mythbusters “You can only get the supports you need if you live with other people with disability”
Mythbusters “You’re too disabled or your needs are too complex to live in your own home”
WAiS Exploring Home
This is an Easy Read document focussing on questions about ‘home’ and where you might like to live.
My Life, Your Life, Our Life. A Guide to Creating Home. Easy read version
My Life, Your Life, Our Life. A Guide to Creating Home. Plain language version
My Life, Your Life, Our Life – WAiS
‘I want to share my life with people who matter to me, people I know care about me, like a family or very close friends. After all, what’s life if you have no one to share it with?’
Learning to Listen : The key to Supported Living
Cheryl Mayfield describes how she transitioned from institutionalised living to independent supported living, and describes some of the quality indicators for providers of supported living services.
Settling Into Your New Home
Since 2003, Belonging Matters has walked alongside many people to move beyond traditional group home living to imagine and create a home of their own. Following are some tips we have learnt along the way from people who have settled into their own home.
Individualised Living Options (ILO)
Individualised Living Options (ILO) is funding for Home and Living Supports to enable people to live in a home of their own.
My Home My Way: Individualised Living Options Information and Support
The National Alliance of Capacity Building Organisations (NACBO) are working on a project to assist people with a disability, their allies and families to explore Individualised Living Options. We have a dedicated staff member available in your State who can provide you with mentoring and coaching to assist you navigate through the stages of exploring an Individualised Living Option that works for you!
Small Supports: A Paper to Challenge and Inform Transforming Care Partnerships
This paper thinks about people with learning disabilities and /or autism who are living in secure settings (hospitals and ATUs). For some years a new informal group of support organisations has been evolving and are committed to supporting people with learning disabilities, mental health issues and autism. Often the people supported have experienced a string of placements in inappropriate, segregated, out of area, secure settings. Usually, these placements failed or broke down not because of the person but because the service was wrong
How Genuinely Supportive Persons, Agencies and Systems can enable People to have Real Homes of their Own
This analysis provides critique and insights that are relevant to those who seek to improve the service and system responses to the needs of people with disabilities. Michael Kendrick is an international consultant, specializing in values-based leadership and social change in the disability and aged areas.
Investing in Ordinary Lives
Briefing 1 sets out the options for wealthy individuals, High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs), to invest in housing that can be used by people in the UK. How can wealthy individuals invest in housing for people with learning disabilities?
Investing in Ordinary Lives
Briefing 2 sets out the options for companies to use their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes as a way to invest in property and housing that can be used by people with learning disabilities or encourage the development of accessible housing.
Investing in Ordinary Lives
Briefing 3 sets out the options for small landlords to invest in and provide property and housing that can be used by people with learning disabilities.
Investing in Ordinary Lives
Briefing 4 sets out the options for corporate investors and lenders to invest in housing for people with learning disabilities.
Institution Watch Newsletter: Volume 7
In this edition, Institution Watch have asked individuals from across the country to provide their perspective on the issue of de-institutionalisation and provide commentary as to why we have successfully closed large institutions but have not yet enabled people to exercise true choice and control in and over their lives, and to offer suggestions as to how this situation can be changed.
The Right Way
Beginning with background information about institutions, community living, public policy and human rights, The Right Way presents principles and key elements for planning the closure of an institution based on lessons learned in Canada and elsewhere. This booklet is a guide for community and government leaders involved in planning the closure of institutions for persons with intellectual disabilities and the creation of supports to enable individuals to move from these institutions to their own homes in the community.
What is Housing Inclusivity?
This is the accessible version of “What is Housing Inclusivity?” It explains what Inclusion Canada means by Housing Inclusivity. Having inclusive housing and having a home are not the same thing, but they are connected.
What is Housing Inclusivity?
Home is a universal and basic need. People from all cultures and times in history have this need and while housing varies across the world, the meaning of home is constant
Institution Watch: Volume 11
This newsletter is written and produced by the People First of Canada and Canadian Association for Community Living joint task force on De-Institutionalisation. “An institution is any place in which people who have been labelled as having an intellectual disability are isolated, segregated and/or congregated. An institution is any place in which people do not have, or are not allowed to exercise, control over their lives and their day to day decisions. An institution is not defined merely by its size.”
Listening to People: An Ongoing Journey of Liberation
Bojana Rozman PhD shares the journey of the Association for Promoting Inclusion and the people they work for with as they have established community based support services for people leaving institutions in Croatia.
Independent Living for a Life of Self-Determination
The Independent Living Institute (ILI) of Sweden works to promote the opportunities for people with disabilities for more personal and political power, self-determination, full participation and equality through information, education, consultancy and development projects. This essay from Jamie Bolling ILI Operations Manager and Article 19 as a tool project manager – tells the story behind the IL movement, explains the concepts and explains what Independent Living means.
Living Our Dreams
Living Our Dreams introduces you to people who are thriving in homes they have chosen. Having a home of their own has allowed them to express their individuality. It has provided them with a sense of control over their lives and an understanding that their preferences and choices are respected. It has improved the quality of their lives and has provided them with new opportunities. Most significantly, it has strengthened their family connections and has allowed them to develop meaningful relationships with others.
A Home of My Own? Right, Rhetoric or Reality?
This resource aims to assist people with disability and their families to understand the environment around accommodation and service provision in NSW and to help establish a framework to critique options that are on offer for housing and support – in order to achieve the dream of a home of one’s own. Family Advocacy believes that people with disability, like other citizens, should have a range of housing options from which to choose.
Housing Position Statement-Family Advocacy
Family Advocacy has a vision of an inclusive society, and that means inclusive housing, too. An inclusive housing system is one which caters to the needs of all people, including people with disability, and provides for and encourages social mix. Diverse communities are good for everybody.
Common Threads – Approaches & Contexts for Planning Everyday Lives
The Common Threads Conference was a gathering of people engaged in small group conversations and story telling to share and reflect on their understanding and experiences of person centred practice. This reflection by John O’Brien features profiles of ten approaches to person centred planning.
Moving Out
Lisa Bridle from CRU (Community Resource Unit) explains the process her family adopted to support their son Sean to move into a home of his own.
Housing Hub Support Portal
Everyone has the right to decide where they live, who they live with, and how they live. We know that complex processes and the current lack of housing options for people with disability can make things difficult, and that navigating the housing market can be daunting. The Support Portal makes everything about your housing search easier. Through the portal, you can create a housing seeker profile.
Housing Mythbusters Series
When it comes to accessible housing, there are a number of myths that create barriers for people with disability to find a suitable home. In our Mythbusters series, we will be exploring the facts to raise awareness of what is possible.
Housing Options for People with a Disability
This free online webinar is about what home and support options are possible with the NDIS. The webinar is for people with disability, families and carers, support coordinators, allied health professionals and support providers. The online webinars will take place on 24th July and 28th November 2023.
Understanding Individualised Living Options (ILO)
Individualised Living Options (ILOs) are ways that people with disability can be supported to live as independently as possible. You can register for these free online workshops that will take place on Tuesday, June 6 and Tuesday, October 31 2023.
Home and Living Services: Housing Hub
Living More Independently
The Housing Hub has teamed up with Mable to create a three-part series about living more independently. These guides are for people with disability, families, and the people who support them. The following three topics are covered:
Starting your Independent Living Journey
Planning your move to Independent Living
Choosing the right support workers and building a team.
Each guide has been written to go along with a video. You may want to watch the videos with your family, a friend or a support worker you trust. Then if you want, you can ask them for their thoughts as you work through the question and answer sections of the guides.
My Home, My Way: Workbook
This workbook accompanies the My Home, My Way Guidebook.
My Home, My Way: Guidebook
This Guide forms part of NACBO’s My Home, My Way project, which offers practical advice, activities and stories of people with developmental disability living in their own home, making a home on their terms with support from their allies and families.
Turning the Beam of Inquiry Inward
Moving forward is never easy, but once you master turning the beam of inquiry inward, it becomes much easier to work alongside each other. Listen now for more on how changing the way you think can lead to more effective problem-solving!
No More Waiting
This planning guide is intended to provide organisations with information to assist them to be ready to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability and their families in planning for social care. Aboriginal people with disability and their family members may also find this guide helpful to use in conjunction with individual planning resources, some of which are mentioned in section four of this guide.
Becoming a Housemate
Isaac is 18 and is a part-time college and University student, a delivery man, a drum club member, a live band fan and a housemate. He also has a complex disability. The things that build a good life are not always offered by service providers and don’t always fall under NDIS line items.
CRUcial Times- Principles for Partnering between Natural and Formal Supports
Article by Dr Michael Kendrick provides clarity about the strengths and limitations of formal and informal supports . A thoughtful combination of natural and formal supports can potentially enrich a person’s wellbeing. ‘Formal’ supports are various forms of assistance provided to a person via paid formal services, professionals and agencies. Informal or ‘natural’ supports would include all of the many forms of everyday helpfulness and assistance ordinary people freely provide to each other in daily life.
Independent Advisory Council Home and Living Reference Group Meeting Bulletin 17 May 2022
This Bulletin tells you about the recent meeting of the Home and Living Reference Group (Reference Group). The Reference Group met on 17 May 2022. The Reference Group gives advice to the Independent Advisory Council (Council) to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Its advice focuses on home and living supports for people with disability to:
• live independently
• choose where they want to live
• do things for themselves in their homes
• be included in the community they live.