Integrating
Long-Term Supports with Affordable Housing
MISSISSIPPI
Grant
Information
Name of Grantee
The University of Southern Mississippi, Institute for
Disability Studies
Title of Grant
Project BRIDGE
Type of Grant
Integrating
Long-Term Supports with Affordable Housing
Amount of Grant
$720,000
Year Original Funding Received
2004
Contact
Information
Royal Walker, Jr., JD
Associate Director and Project Director
3825 Ridgewood Road, Suite 723
Jackson, MS 39211
601–432–6261
rwalker@ihl.state.ms.us
Subcontractor(s)
None.
Target
Population(s)
Medicaid-eligible individuals with
disabilities and/or long-term illnesses requiring long-term supports and
housing services.
Goals
- Prepare consumers and
other key shareholders to set an agenda by developing a comprehensive plan
for systems change resulting in the building of an infrastructure that
integrates and coordinates long-term supports and housing services.
- Adopt an action plan
that will guide systems change efforts to develop the State's infrastructure
in meeting the needs of individuals requiring long-term supports.
- Field test the action plan by supporting two community-based
pilot demonstration projects.
- Design and implement a
program and outcomes-based evaluation system for defining data needs and
purpose; defining audiences for data reports; identifying sources of data;
defining research methodology and instrumentation for both quantitative
and qualitative measures; establishing a data storage system; and
collecting, analyzing, and reporting data.
Activities
- Establish a statewide
BRIDGE Action Council to guide the development of an agenda for systems
change.
- Provide ongoing
training and technical assistance to members of the BRIDGE Action Council
regarding best practices on affordable and accessible housing, long-term
support, the coordination and integration of long-term support and
housing, community inclusion, quality of life issues, self-determination
and person-centered planning, transition, and exemplary models of
community housing programs from across the United States that provide for
long-term support.
- Hold community forums
and conduct focus groups with Medicaid-eligible consumers in each region
to solicit input from individuals with disabilities and other stakeholders
regarding plans developed by the BRIDGE Action Council and to hear
directly about the need for integration and coordination and other issues
on accessible, affordable housing and long-term support.
- Analyze information
from the forums and focus groups.
- Develop a statewide
action plan that outlines recommendations for interagency coordination of
policies, resources, and services that result in the development of
infrastructure in meeting the needs of individuals.
- Select two regional
communities to serve as model sites to test the action plan and serve as
office locations for housing support coordinators.
- Develop local action
plans (which support the statewide plan) that result in the development of
local infrastructure that meets the needs of individuals requiring
long-term supports.
- Transition individuals
from institutional settings to affordable housing and stable long-term
supports in the community by implementing the Home of Your Own (HOYO)
model.
- Develop and implement
program evaluation measures to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of Project BRIDGE in meeting designated goals
and objectives.
- Design a quality of
life, outcomes-based evaluation system.
Abstract
The Institute for Disability Studies (IDS), Mississippi's University
Center for Excellence located at the University of Southern
Mississippi, has been endorsed by the Executive Director of
the Governor's Office, Division of Medicaid for the State of Mississippi as the lead agency for the Real
Choice Systems Change Grant in the area of Integrating Long-term Supports with
Affordable Housing. IDS will work with the Division of Medicaid and other key stakeholders, including Medicaid-eligible individuals with
disabilities (and their families) requiring long-term supports who want to live
in their community in the housing arrangement of their choice.
Project BRIDGE is designed to prepare consumers and other key
stakeholders to set an agenda through the development of a comprehensive plan
for systems change resulting in the building of an infrastructure that
integrates and coordinates long-term supports and housing services.