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Community Agency Profile: Independent Living's La Cumba Initiative
 From the April 2002 Disabilities newsletter.Facilitating Community Inclusion "Any community is made better by the contributions of its citizens. If people with disabilities are not contributing, the community is missing out," says Jacquelyn Blaney, the director of Independent Living, a community agency in Baton Rouge, Louisiana that supports people with disabilities. It was this goal of full community inclusion that inspired her agency to implement its La Cumba (Swahili for "heart of Africa") initiative about five years ago. Developed in brainstorming sessions with agency staff, the initiative, which will receive AAMR's 2002 Community Inclusion Award, seeks to build meaningful relationships between people with disabilities and the larger community. Friendships and Connections The idea for such an initiative developed when the agency, which has been serving the disability community for 16 years, "realized people weren't getting quality outcomes. They were isolated and didn't have friends in the typical community," recalls Ms. Blaney. "We wanted to give people what we would want for ourselves — friendships and connections." The initiative required a change in mindset among the agency's staff. Previously, the goal had been to teach people with disabilities social skills needed to survive in the community. "We thought of the community as a dangerous place," says Ms. Blaney. "We had to rethink our relationship with the community and refocus our staff and mission." And so agency personnel met with community leaders, such as ministers and directors of organizations like the Elks, to come up with ways that people with disabilities could build relationships with people in those organizations. They asked a group of people that the agency supported to participate in meetings with the community leaders, allowing connections to be made. For example, the director of the local Elks chapter invited a person served by La Cumba to become a member after the person expressed an interest in joining the group. La Cumba then followed up and made sure the connection was made and sustained over time, and that the person with a disability had developed friendships with the typically developing people in the group. A Shifting Focus Ms. Blaney is excited by the changes she sees in the community. "The idea that people with disabilities had nothing to offer the community has hopefully changed over time. We couldn't have done it without the help of the community." Another source of pride for Ms. Blaney is the way her agency has adapted to its new focus. "There's been a whole shift from spending time teaching skills and behavior to helping [people] develop friendships and connections. Our staff enjoys their work more. They see it makes a difference for people with disabilities and the community. [As a result], we have a low turnover rate." Ms. Blaney advises other agencies to "see where people are isolated and how you can change that. Start identifying community leaders [who can reach out to the people you serve] and start bringing them in. You need to give training to your staff and redirect time and resources. A real shift needs to happen to be committed to person-centered supports."
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