Lesson 9: Community Resource

Attention

There are many resources in the community that consumers must access and interact with to recover and develop self sustainability. Keeping track of them all in an organized way will make your job much easier.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

  • Develop a plan to organize and quickly access community contacts (e.g., other agencies, recreational facilities, hospitals, schools, Internet sites, etc) that you will need to contact each day to provide good service to the consumers you are working with. 
  • Develop the knowledge and application of the American with Disabilities Act by determining the accommodations that may be required for an individual with disabilities to successfully obtain and sustain employment.

Teaching

Read and Review Instructor Notes and the following web sites: 

http://www.ada.gov/
http://askjan.org/

Community rehabilitation staff people need to interact with many different agencies and resources to provide the support consumers require to live and work in the community.  These include state agencies, the hospitals, doctors, private non profit agencies, family members, clergy, educators and many others.  Additionally, Internet sites (use the bookmark function on you web browser)   can provide a very quick reference to problem solving for particular consumer service.  You should have all these resources available easily.   The systems that a consumer must interact with to obtain and sustain employment include the Career Center, on line services such as Indeed.com, employers, and others.  Professional rehabilitation providers need to have a readily available resource list of contacts and other resources so that when they need assistance they can easily make contact. Time spent looking up agency names and addresses is wasted time that could be spent with the consumer or doing the paperwork.   You should have a file set up, or list in your computer contact file all the different resources you might need to provide support to the consumer you are working with.

Being aware of the provisions of the American with Disabilities Act is an important resource for community rehabilitation service providers.  You are an ambassador of sorts for individuals with disabilities and having a clear understanding of the ADA, it’s application and context in the community is an important part of the professional knowledge base of a community rehabilitation provider.

Assessment

Lesson 9 Quiz

  1. Write a brief description of your plan to keep track of all the various community resources you might need to contact to assist your client with employment related services. Include the sources you will use to access the American with Disabilities Act.  
  2. List three links related to ADA law that you think you might want to keep handy and why. Be sure to include the actual links in the answer.

Lesson 9 Discussion

Review a story where you discovered a community based resource that you did not know about. Discuss both formal and informal types of resources (ones that are specifically created to serve our population and others that serve all people).