NYS Developmental Disabilities Planning Council (DDPC) awards $16,000 to Families Together in New York State

George E. Fertal, Sr., Chairperson, today announced that on December 11, 2008 the New York State Developmental Disabilities Planning Council (DDPC) awarded $16,000 to Families Together in New York State to support caregiver and youth participation in Coordinated Children's services Initiatives (CCSI) activities.

Children with cross-systems needs either have, or are at risk of having, complex, co-occurring unmet medical, mental health, developmental, substance abuse, educational, social, vocational, or other needs that require collaboration among multiple service systems, families, and youth to give them the level of care that they need. CCSI is a cross-systems process for serving these children to meet their need for services and supports from multiple service systems. The CCSI process encourages flexible decision making and the use of service dollars to purchase needed goods and services that would not otherwise be available to the family and uses family involvement, individualized planning, and strength-based approaches from the involved agencies. It also facilitates communication with community and state level teams to assist families with the obstacles they are facing.

Families Together in New York State is providing training and support to assist family and youth participation in CCSI efforts. Their training activities have included the development of a statewide CCSI Family Education Project curriculum that is being rolled out in 2008 - 2009. So far 19 youth have participated in a statewide network development movement on relations between youth and professionals. 52 youth and policymakers attended a CCSI supported workshop designed to strengthen community and partnership with youth with disabilities and families. Work has also been done to get youth and caregivers engaged in policymaking. To date, two family members and one youth representative have been actively participating in several commissioner-level planning activities. Over the next year Families Together will increase outreach activities to promote CCSI initiatives, increase youth representation at all levels of CCSI activities, and insure that families and youth have more opportunities for training and involvement within CCSI activities.

Feedback from Families Together in NYS has been very positive. Forums that were supported by the DDPC have "clearly demonstrated both the value of and demand for meaningful youth involvement at the policy-making and systems delivery levels." Attendees at one forum "overwhelmingly indicated that the event was of value to them and that they would attend another similar event if it were offered." Other events developed a set of cross-systems recommendations that were developed for and by youth. Further feedback from Families Together events has shown that "the visibility of CCSI family and youth members is greatly enhanced by DDPC support, not only at the state level but nationally as well."

The DDPC is a federally funded state agency dedicated to designing and implementing new programs that serve New Yorkers with developmental disabilities and their families in the most effective way possible. Sixty percent of the Governor-appointed membership of the DDPC is parents and people with developmental disabilities. For more information on the DDPC, go to: www.ddpc.state.ny.us.