Home of Your Own
Training Initiative
The Ohio State University Nisonger Center UAP's Home-of-Your-Own training initiative answers
a national need for field-tested training curricula for consumers, family members, advocates, and
direct care staff in the area of supported living. Few training curricula currently exist and none have
been subjected to the same intensity of field testing that the Nisonger Center UAP's training
initiative curricula are currently undergoing. The curricula development and field testing have been
carried out with consumer consultations and oversight from the Home-of-Your-Own's Consumer
Advisory Committee. Involvement and input from consumers have been crucial in the
development of effective curricula that maximize outcomes regarding consumer choice and
empowerment, consumer cooperative living skills, and basic attitude and value change in direct care
staff.
The Home-of-Your-Own training initiative includes a Family Support group, conducted with
parents of individuals with challenging behaviors, and training curricula in the following three
critical areas of supported living:
This project was supported by a training initiative project from the Administration on
Developmental Disabilities (Grant # 90-DD-0313). To obtain a copy of any of these curricula or for more information about Home-of-Your-Own, contact:
Betsey A. Benson, Ph.D.
The Nisonger Center UAP
The Ohio State University
Tel.: (614) 292-8365
Fax: (614) 292-3727
CHOOSING A LIFE: Leah Holden, M.A.
"Choosing a Life" training curriculum's focus is on individuals who support choice-making
by persons who use supported living and broadened its scope to address choices related to
finances, relationships, crucial skills, social roles, and community connections. Products
include a participant's workbook and a facilitator's guide.
IT'S MY LIFE: Leah Holden, M.A. & Louisa Hext, M.A.
"It's my Life" training is an adaptation from the "Choosing a Life" curriculum that was
adapted to train individuals who are currently in, or waiting, for supported living. This
curriculum is structured to provide choice-making training to the consumers.
COOPERATIVE LIVING SKILLS: Marc J. Tassˇ, Ph.D., Susan M. Havercamp, M.A., Steven Reiss, Ph.D.
This curriculum addresses skills training for individuals with developmental disabilities who have
chosen to live with a roommate or housemate in a supported living context. The ten-session training
is divided into four modules:
The format within the Cooperative Living Skills curriculum uniformly uses five basic training
components: (1) instructional content, (2) video vignettes,
(3) modeling,
(4) role playing, and
(5) feedback and discussion. The main objectives of each session are clearly stated at the start of each session and emphasis is
placed on role playing.
BASIC ATTITUDES AN VALUES OF DIRECT CARE STAFF:
Wade Hitzing, Ph.D.
The target audience for this curriculum is direct care staff members who provide services
and personal assistance to individuals with developmental disabilities in a supported living
arrangement. Ideally, this training program is intended to be implemented as the first
training experience in an ongoing basic inservice training sequence. However, it can also be
used in "retraining" experienced direct care staff, especially those transferring from a
facility-based service model to a supported living setting.
Video support provides the trainees (direct care staff/service providers) simulations that
serve as the focus for critical discussions and reassessment of personal attitudes and values
with regard to issues raised in supported living. The "Basic Attitudes and Values of Direct
Care Staff" training curriculum is intended for use in group instruction of no more than 20
participants. An effort has been made to allow this material to be adaptable to instructional
strategies involving larger groups in a workshop-type format.
GO BACK TO THE CIRCL MAIN MENU.