Lehigh Valley Center For Independant Living Inc

Lvcil provides several transition and employment (t&e) services. Career path, one of the t&e services, offers employment services for adults, with a primary focus on adults ages 18-25. These services encompass an eight-week work-essential skills training class followed by traditional community-based work assessments, job development and job coaching. Services are delivered based on a strength driven person-centered plan process, which each participant experiences along with his/her support network. Many participants have recently completed high school and are seeking their first significant employment experience. The program was started with an innovation and expansion grant through the pa office of vocational rehabilitation ("ovr"), and in late 2011 achieved sustainability and moved into a fee-for service program. The primary purchaser of the services is the pa ovr office, but the services have also been provided through the office of developmental programs and under private pay agreements. The program now serves about 150 participants at any given time.

Based on lvcil's success with transition and youth employment services, lvcil had the opportunity to develop life school-based services. In the life program, staff works with young adults in high school to help achieve individualized needs such as cooking, laundry, community travel, and hygiene skills. These services are also driven by a person-centered plan and are typically paid by school districts on a fee-for-service basis.

Lvcil provides a range of services for persons with all types of disabilities, including but not limited to, advocacy, skills for independent living, information and referral, peer support, housing search and placement, youth transition services, supported employment services, sign language interpreter referral services and community outreach. Lvcil uses the americans with disabilities act ("ada") as its backbone to offer individual and collective advocacy on issues that impact a person's right to live independently, as well as provides and ada consulting and site survey service called accesscheck. Lvcil also consults with similar organizations on developing programming for youth. Assistive technology needs of consumers are also addressed though several initiatives.lvcil's independent living skills education assists individuals with disabilities who are going to be on their own for the first time, as well as, individuals who need extra support as their disabilities change. Independent living skills enable individuals to obtain the skills necessary to stay independent and be on their own. Lvcil's independent living skills training includes but is not limited to assistance with personal finance, care of the home, cooking, and shopping, and is provided on an individual or group basis.peer support is a non-therapeutic helping relationship between lvcil staff and consumers in which issues relating to life with disability are discussed as well as providing independent living skills training. Consumer-to-consumer peer relationships are facilitated through agency events which include community-based similar age peer social group activities. Information and referral, a staple in most disability services agencies, is provided to consumers, professionals and the community-at-large. It involves providing resources and ideas on topics related to specific disability needs and might range from questions on purchasing a wheelchair modified van to an explanation of rights under the ada. Lvcil is also charged as a center for independent living to work in the community to increase inclusion for all of its residents with disabilities. Lvcil achieves this through staff, board and volunteer participation in nearly fifty local, regional and statewide organizations. Lvcil brings the interests of persons with disabilities to the table and promotes full inclusion in all areas of life.the community outreach work of lvcil had a large influx of activities in the year, thanks to the second year award of the statewide coalition group grant to lvcil. The project unites systems advocacy efforts, outreach and education at all 17 centers for independent living in pennsylvania. The topics of focus have been advocacy 101, emergency preparedness and voting rights. Lvcil coordinates the project and facilitates the other centers for independent living in receiving a modest quarterly allocation to support the work.lvcil has a twenty-five year history of providing housing search and retention services to persons with disabilities. Housing services are provided through local city and county community development block grant ("cdbg") program funds. Consumers in the cdbg programs typically live on extremely low income and need assistance to address imminent loss of housing and to understand their rights under the fair housing act. Staff members also provide landlord-tenant mediation and seek to develop landlord relationships to benefit consumers. Education is also provided to private landlords to encourage them to understand the benefits of renting to persons with disabilities. Community grants allow lvcil to provide additional housing services to area residents.lvcil is a leader in transition services for young adults with disabilities. One program is the s2l group which offers young adults in high school and early adulthood the opportunity to engage in social, leadership, volunteer and other community activities. The s2l group meets at least twice a month for a wide variety of events, and members are offered the chance to attend other optional community events as well. The s2l group has garnered the interest of local, state and national groups and has connections to many relevant groups, including the pa youth leadership network. To join the group young adults complete an application process and commit to a personal goal to live independently with or without support in the community someday. The s2l group is a fee-for-service program, which can be paid through several means including private pay, county funding, group fundraising or a combination of means. Fundraising opportunities assist participants in defraying program costs.the year saw a resurgence in the lehigh valley adaptations group again in the year. This group is a very active social group for youngish adults with any type of disability and meets at least once a week. Together participants plan activities which focus on independent living skills, developing and maintaining friendships, socialization and community integration. Lvcil also offers two community clubs which meet on a monthly basis for community or social events to help consumers build peer relationships.real world lehigh valley is another fee-for-service transition service. It is a six-week intensive summer program which focuses on vocational skills, communication, leadership and other attributes needed in the workplace. The real world lehigh valley has since 2017 been involved in a partnership with dorney park and now hosts the program on the campus of dorney park. The integration into a workplace staffed largely by young adults has proven a fertile ground for learning social and work-specific skills. The inclusionary experience is a hallmark of lvcil partnerships at their best. Other t&e services also serves youth with disabilities who are still attending school, due in large part to the workforce innovation and opportunity act (wioa). These services aim to afford youth work experiences prior to completion of high school and are funded by the pa office of vocational rehabilitation through a fee-for-service agreement. They include work-based learning experiences, job shadowing, paid work experiences and travel training. Group learning experiences are offered in schools on a broad curriculum of prevocational and transition services.in addition, lvcil has partnered with ovr and a local intermediate unit (iu21) to provide the vocational independence program (vip), another unique t&e program. This program is designed to support students in their last or second-to-last year of high school. Students attend the program daily throughout the academic year, spending half their days completing work experiences onsite at a host employer (such as cedarbrook nursing home) and the other half of the day participating in training seminars (work-essential skills training, travel training, etc.) at the host site or in the community. Lvcil provides one full-time and one part-time staff for the program, and the iu provides 2 full-time staff. Lvcil's staff are funded by ovr, while the iu staff are funded by each student's school district. Another t&e program involves a partnership with lehigh carbon community college (lccc), and is called the seed program. This program involves two part-time lvcil staff supporting students on campus at the college. Lvcil staff provided assistance with independent living skills related to college life (e.g. Transportation, time management, advocacy, etc.), assist with coordinating work experiences, and provide general case management. Lvcil contracts directly with lccc, who garners funding for the program through private pay, and various grants. Lvcil serves as a supports coordination agency in pennsylvania's adult autism waiver ("aaw") program, and also the office of long term living ("oltl") waivers. The aaw program is administered through the pennsylvania bureau of autism services and is designed to specifically help adults with autism spectrum disorders, based on their identified needs, to participate in their communities in the way that they want to. As support coordinators, lvcil staff members oversee, monitor and facilitate selection of aaw service providers for program participants, and have a key role in assuring participant satisfaction and assessing appropriateness of provider program services.

The pennsylvania oltl administers the oltl waivers. Lvcil currently serves consumer in the attendant care, act 150 and independence waivers. These waivers exist primarily to allow persons with physical disabilities to have the home and community based services required to live independently in the community. Attendant care service is the most common reason for an oltl waiver. Lvcil's supports coordinators provide monitoring of services, problem resolution, and annual or as needed assessments to assure continuity of service. With the advent of managed care organizations taking control of most of the oltl waivers, lvcil had an expected and unavoidable reduction in oltl consumers.lvcil has developed accesscheck which provides fee-for-service consulting, education and site surveys. A related program through temple's tech owl initiative allows lvcil to operate an assistive technology program, with a focus of getting loaned or reused equipment to consumers in a seven-county region. Additionally, lvcil serves as a funding assistance center for the pa assistive technology foundation and refers consumers to the foundation for loan opportunities.because of the depth of transition & employment services lvcil has developed for youth, the agency is being called upon by state and national groups, as well as individual agencies, to provide consultation and training.