JUDITH CREED HORIZONS FOR ACHIEVING INDEPENDENCE

Our goal is to create a supportive community for adults with intellectual disabilities and autism to foster independence, personal growth, and a sense of safety, belonging and trust. We aim to provide community-based living settings with individualized support services that develop independence and growth in a supervised environment. By providing supported apartments, as well as supervision of individuals in their own homes, we aspire to help individuals transition to independent living.

We also aim to increase the ability and opportunity for disabled individuals to get competitive, integrated employment in the greater community through vocational skills training, job coaching, and community outreach education.

We further seek to promote opportunities for socialization and community-building through our own integrated programs and those of partner organizations. We hope to provide activities that teach the life skills and vocational training needed to function at the highest possible levels of independence and productivity.

We want to help increase our residents' access to support and services through ongoing relationships with other organizations.

We also strive to garner community support and understanding of JCHAI and our mission while demonstrating the value of diversity in the workplace and in the community at large.

We seek to make our housing, services and programs available to adults and their families without regard to their financial ability and on a nondiscriminatory basis.

We assess the needs of each person on an individual basis to determine the level of support needed for them to live independently and accomplish their goals. In order to do this, we work with a team of experienced social workers and other service providers within JCHAI and in partner organizations. We determine the capabilities of each person and help them set goals for what they want to accomplish.

After assessing the level of support needed, we put those supportive services in place so the individuals may live and work in the community. We provide support to ensure the individuals receive access to any necessary medical and social services as well as life-skills and vocational training. Our employees are highly skilled, dedicated professionals who are experienced in providing support that is targeted to the needs of each person. We continually monitor progress and re-assess support plans in order to tailor support to individuals' changing needs.

In order to achieve our goal of helping individuals who want to work secure competitive integrated employment, we assist with job-skills training, job placement and employment liaisonship. We do this through our own vocational classes and training program as well as by partnering with local organizations that provide vocational training and job placement.

To foster an environment that enables peer socialization and a sense of community belonging, we offer many programs, classes and socialization opportunities. We do this by organizing a wide range of outings, trips, and other activities. We conduct classes and workshops in a variety of interest areas in order to help develop skills while providing socialization opportunities and community involvement. Our John and Jacqueline E. Swartz Education Center is a hub of both learning and socialization for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism as well as neurotypical individuals providing a truly integrated community.

JCHAI has a proven, positive success rate for teaching people with disabilities to live and work in the community. We offer a variety of programs and classes to adequately respond to the community's needs.

JCHAI has been licensed by the state to provide residential services since 1991. We have an experienced team in charge of all of our programs. Each of our program directors comes to JCHAI with decades of education and experience in working with the special needs community and each has worked for JCHAI for over a decade. We have highly-skilled social workers who specialize in identifying and meeting the individual needs of people with disabilities and who are dedicated to providing care and support that allows the highest levels of independence possible.

We have an established integrated apartment program that provides support services to individuals allowing them to live independently in the community in their own apartments. Our successful apartment program has been modeled by other organizations seeking to provide similar opportunities in other regions.

In 2020, we opened the John and Jacqueline E. Swartz Education Center, a state-of-art, free-standing building with technologically sophisticated classroom space, training kitchen and a training coffee shop. This space will allow us to expand our integrated programming with classes and lifeskills and employment training programs while providing a community hub for inclusive socialization.

This year, we are thrilled have opened our John and Jacqueline E. Swartz Education Center dedicated solely to the inclusion, integration, self-sufficiency, and education of people with cognitive disabilities and autism. This 8,500 square foot building contains classrooms furnished with cutting-edge technology and space for inclusive programming, and a full-service kitchen for interactive cooking lessons to teach life and vocational skills. In this space, we are excited to soon open to the public the Weinberg Training Cafe. Staffed with people both with and without disabilities, the training cafe will be a resource for training participants to get competitive, integrated jobs in the greater community.

We are proud to note that we are far outpacing national averages for competitive, integrated employment with over 75% of our members employed in competitive, integrated positions. (The national average is about 35% for people with disabilities.) With the completion John and Jacqueline E. Swartz Education Center, we hope to expand our programming and increase placement of our clients in independent living situations and integrated employment.