Community Life

ICI’s work in the Community Life focus area emphasizes the key outcome of community life engagement (CLE) for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). By community life engagement we mean access to and participation in the life of the community through activities such as volunteer work, adult or continuing education, recreation, and any other ways people with and without disabilities keep actively engaged outside of their job.

Our work on CLE complements ICI’s ongoing work on competitive integrated employment in that CLE activities complement and supplement work as part of a full and meaningful life. CLE activities can support career exploration, wrap around work time, or serve as a retirement option.

We are currently researching strategies for improving day services and supports for people with IDD to improve CLE for participants and translating that research into tools, training, and technical assistance for state agencies and service providers.

Featured projects include:

CLE Toolkit. This toolkit was developed out of ICI’s case study research on effective strategies for improving CLE. It was designed to help service providers develop and improve high quality supports for CLE. It contains guideposts for success, a self-assessment tool, real-world examples of service providers making CLE happen, and other helpful resources and tools. https://cletoolkit.thinkwork.org

Engage Briefs. These brief products describe findings and insights from our ongoing research on CLE, including description of the four CLE guideposts and how they are put in practice at case study sites. Read the Community Life Engagement Engage Series.

Promising Practices in Community Life Engagement. A collaborative effort with the Access to Integrated Employment project, these publications highlight service provider practices that enhance CLE for people with IDD while maintaining a focus on employment. Read the Access to Integrated Employment and Community Life Engagement Promising Practices series.

Guidepost Fidelity Scale Development. The goal of this project is to develop a guidepost fidelity scale that assesses service providers’ adherence to the Four Guideposts for CLE, a research-based model for day services and supports based on ICI’s previous research. Over the course of three years the project team will convert an existing self-assessment tool into a full fidelity scale and test the scale for validity and reliability.


Related Projects: NERCVE, CLE