Transcript - slide 8

Interviewer:  If I came into your program and you were going to decide what I personally would want to do, could you elaborate about the informal process? You’ve gotten somebody new; how are you going to start with him or her?

Danny Cowart:  We are going to start by sending home a family assessment. By that we mean we are going to ask them what they typically do where their family member with a disability is included. By using that, we will know what they already are accustomed to. Then, we are going to have an individual assessment where we spend time with the individual in his communicative mode to find out what he likes or what he dislikes from his perspective.

Many times we have found that the families and the individuals [with disabilities] have very limited experiences, so we begin a systematic sampling. The best way to sample is simply to go and get involved in activities in the community. You don't know whether they like to swim at the YMCA unless they have that ability or adaptation; then we try it. The first time is not really a good assessment, because all those things that you and I have fears and apprehensions about, they do too. They have to get accustomed. You know all ice cream may be vanilla until you have tasted chocolate. You may find out that you really like chocolate, but you won't know until you have tried.

One of the biggest things that has helped us with staff attitude is that we find out from the individual [consumer] what do typical people in your culture, age, and gender do during that time of the day. That begins our sampling routine [peer assessment]. We wanted to place them where their typical peers [without disabilities] would be and see if they like it. From there, we started doing some really good things. Person-centered planning with a group is also involved. I am sure that most people are familiar with person -centered planning process. We utilize that a lot, but we have found that peer assessments and sampling starts building a better day for them.

Interviewer:  You talk about it like it’s something that would just be typical, and that anybody would approach programming this way. I’m not sure that's true. Do you think that every program in Mississippi [approaches programming this way]? Would you say you were typical or do you think you have a more community inclusive attitude than most programs?

Danny Cowart:  I’m not sure how to answer that because I have not studied a lot of programs. I do know that there are a lot of the work activity-type sheltered workshop environments. I am not preaching against those. I am just saying it is very difficult to go through an assessment of what a person likes, if they are in a structured environment that does not allow for it. One of the things that we did is that we have no contract work.

We had some [contract work] in our Moss Point [location] that was brought on by some individuals really wanting that. It was only a small percentage of the day that we did it, and then we went back out into the community. I would think that we are somewhat atypical, but I don't know that because I have not studied the other programs.

Interviewer:  I really wanted to get across to the listener that we are not talking about individuals in your program coming into a building and participating in sub-minimum wage activities. We are really talking about them being in the community doing typical things [i.e. competitive employment] like their typical peers would be doing.

Danny Cowart:  That's right. That's our whole philosophy in a nutshell right there.

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