The Alabama Council for Developmental Disabilities was established by Executive Order Number 27 on December 1, 1971. Governor George C. Wallace was the Governor at that time. The Council was called the Alabama Planning and Advisory Council for Developmental Disabilities Services and Facilities and was composed of twenty-four (24) members that served at the pleasure of the Governor.

  MISSION STATEMENT

To serve as an advocate for Alabama’s citizens with developmental disabilities and their families; to empower them with the knowledge and opportunity to make informed choices and exercise control over their own lives; and to create a climate for positive societal change to enable them to be respected, independent, and productive integrated members of society.

  VISION STATEMENT

All Alabamians, regardless of disability, will live, learn, work and play In inclusive communities where the worth of every person is valued, Individual needs are supported, and opportunities are barrier free.

 

  GUIDING PRINCIPLES

1. People with developmental disabilities, including individuals with the most severe disabilities, are capable of achieving independence, productivity, integration and inclusion into the community.

2. Individuals with developmental disabilities and their families have competencies, capabilities, and personal goals that should be recognized, supported and encouraged. All assistance to such individuals should be provided in an individualized manner.

3. Individuals with developmental disabilities and their families are the primary decision makers regarding the services and supports they receive, and should play decision making roles in policies and programs that affect the lives of such individuals and their families.

4. Services, supports and other assistance are provided in a manner than demonstrate respect for individual dignity, personal preference, and cultural differences.

5. Specific efforts must be made to ensure that individuals with disabilities from under represented groups enjoy effective and meaningful opportunities for full participation in the developmental disabilities service system.

6. Efforts to recruit professionals to work in the field of developmental disabilities must focus on bringing additional numbers of individuals prepared to work with under represented groups to ensure that the appropriate skills, knowledge, role models, and sufficient human resources are provided to effectively address the growing needs of an increasingly diverse population.

7. Communities can be responsive to the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families, through education and support, and are enriched by the full, active participation and contributions of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.

8. Individuals with developmental disabilities must have access to opportunities and the necessary supports to be included in community life, have interdependent relationships, live in homes and communities and make contributions to their families, community, state and nation.

NUMBER of PEOPLE with DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES in ALABAMA:

There are an estimated 163,000 people with DD in Alabama.

NUMBER of COUNCIL MEMBERS

Total Number of Members – 36
Number of Consumers – 23
Number of Agency Reps – 13

Agencies Represented on the Council:
Department of Senior Service
Governor’s Office on Disability
Local Agency – Independent Living Center
Civitan International Research Center
Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program
Alabama Department of Children’s Affairs
Medicaid
Department of Mental Health/Mental Retardation (DSA)
Department of Rehabilitation Services
Department of Human Resources
Department of Special Education Services
Department of Public Health
310 Board

NUMBER of STAFF : 4

STANDING COMMITTEES

Child Development & Health
Employment/Transportation
Community Living
Systems Change
Executive Planning Committee
Membership

FREQUENCY of MEETINGS: Quarterly

DESIGNATED STATE AGENCY/ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCY:

The Alabama Department of Mental Health/Mental Retardation

2005 FEDERAL ALLOTMENT: $1,305,392.00

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CURRENT COUNCIL PROJECTS

• Employment

Ability Alliance of West Alabama (AAWA) -“A Nation of Joiners”
This project is designed to facilitate successful participation of individuals with intellectual/ developmental disabilities in becoming active participants in civic or social organizations in their communities.

Alabama Association for Persons in Supported Employment (AL-APSE) -“Community-based Outreach Activities and Information Regarding Supported Employment for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities”
This grant presents an annual conference for stakeholders across the state. The program features national experts presenting best-practice information in the field of supported employment. Community-based information regarding access to and benefits of supported employment is also provided to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families so these individuals will have more choices available to them in employment.

Birmingham Independent Living Center (BILC) – Transportation Advocacy
The transportation advocacy project is designed to provide up-to-date information about transportation advocacy issues to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. The purpose is to empower them to be proactive at all levels to facilitate development of transportation policies/legislation that can improve their access to existing and new transportation systems.

Birmingham Independent Living Center (BILC) – Transportation Planning
The transportation planning project will work with stakeholders throughout Alabama to increase the knowledge of public agencies regarding transportation issues as they relate to the disability community. The project is designed to provide opportunities for individuals with disabilities and their families to be valued members of their communities who are included in transportation services policy development across Alabama.

The Full Life Ahead Foundation (FLAF) - “Statewide Interagency Collaboration to Promote Employment of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities”
This project provides workshops for individuals with disabilities and their families, as well as for professionals, educators, and employers to foster increased knowledge in Social Security Work Incentives and help develop a network of resources for advocacy and support that can be used to promote employment of individuals with developmental disabilities.

Jackson County Association of Retarded Citizens – Business Buddies
(This demonstration project enhances non-paid supports and promotes employment self-direction and job satisfaction for individuals with mental retardation who are working in supported employment.

Tuscaloosa County Board of Education - “Project Success: Fellowships for High School Students with Developmental Disabilities”
This project supports individuals with developmental disabilities through fellowship opportunities in a school-based, student owned and operated entrepreneurial toner and ink-cartridge recycling business. This entrepreneurial effort provides learning opportunities for the students while meeting the recycling needs of the local business and professional community.

• Systems Change

Ability Alliance of West Alabama (AAWA) -“Go For It”
The purpose of this project is to collect transportation need/utilization information from individuals with disabilities in the Tuscaloosa area while providing transportation to at least 30 individuals with disabilities. Two automobiles will be leased, a scheduler and several drivers will be employed to provide the transportation.

Children’s Hospital of Alabama – Respite Care Provider Training Program
(This project provides free train-the-trainer respite care provider training and will maintain a database of trained respite care providers to increase consumers’ access to qualified respite care providers.

• Community Living

Auburn University (AU) - “Fun with Friends”
This project is designed to improve inclusive recreational programs/policies for individuals with autism by training college students in inclusive recreational activities and assisting individuals with autism to participate in inclusive recreational activities.

Cleveland Avenue YMCA - “Project Friend”
This demonstration project promotes inclusion of children with developmental disabilities into existing YMCA programs at two YMCA locations in west Montgomery.

Huntingdon College – MANE (Montgomery Area Nontraditional Equestrians)
This project provides a workforce, training, and transportation supports for a therapeutic horseback riding program for individuals with developmental disabilities in the Montgomery area.

Richard Daniel Day – Experience the Arts
Individuals with developmental disabilities are provided hands-on art instruction.

SCOPE 310 Authority of Florence Alabama - Model inclusive summer camp
This is a fully inclusive summer camp demonstration project that is being implemented at the Shoals YMCA. Training will be provided through in-services, parent advisory gatherings and hands on experience for the YMCA staff to facilitate serving children with special needs in an inclusive recreation environment.

University of Alabama (UA) – Disability Sports Clinics
This demonstration project conducts weekly inclusive sports clinics, biannual inclusive sports workshops, and annual summer camps for individuals with disabilities that promote skills for their active involvement in existing community based recreation opportunities.

United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Birmingham - “Housing for Everyone: Expansion of Housing Opportunities for People with Disabilities”
This grant will provide training and disseminate information regarding affordable housing issues to people with disabilities, their families, housing advocates, service providers, and officials from affordable housing programs across the state. The project is designed to facilitate the development of collaborative partnerships between the disability community and the affordable housing system as well as to provide counseling in home-rehabilitation and home-ownership financing for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.

United Cerebral Palsy of Mobile – Horses on the Horizon
This demonstration project will develop and implement an inclusive, non-competitive therapeutic riding instruction program.

• Child Development/Health

Children’s Hospital of Alabama – School Nurse Resources to Facilitate School Inclusion
This project is designed to enhance the professional knowledge and skills of school nurses through continuing education and pertinent health information regarding the health needs and legal issues related to working with students with disabilities in schools.

Decatur City Schools -“Technology Tools for Inclusion: Making It Happen”
A team of regular and special education teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents will be created to develop software programs to supplement the classroom Hands-on Science Project (HASP) and Alabama, Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) science module activities. This curriculum software adaptation provides supports needed for students with developmental disabilities to participate with their peers in inquiry-based learning activities within the inclusive classroom. The adapted curriculum will enable the students with disabilities to independently prepare for tests, as well as prepare and present reports to classmates. The project will be piloted in Decatur City schools and will be available for use across the state upon completion of the pilot. The project will result in: (1) teachers, parents and related professionals being trained in strategies for effective inclusion; (2) peer mentors and teams of excellence being created to support teachers in using the technology in the classroom to foster inclusive learning environments; and (3) an increase in accessible curriculum supports to enhance instruction of students with special needs within inclusive classroom settings.

Easter Seals Alabama, Inc – “Family to Family Health Information Network” (FFHIN)
This project promotes interagency education and collaboration to address fragmented services and ameliorate difficulties that families experience in accessing health-related information. This project is designed to address these issues so families who have members with disabilities can have better access to and can benefit from a full range of needed health services across the life span.

Full Life Ahead Foundation (FLAF) – Educational Rights Community Seminars
This grant provides parents, education personnel, and others training about educational rights of children with developmental disabilities as well as training in how to improve individual education plan practices in order to increase the number of schools and communities in which successful inclusion practices are implemented.

Goodwill Easter Seals of Gulf Coast, Inc. – Come Out to Play
This project provides inclusive recreational opportunities for school-age children with developmental delays in the metropolitan Mobile area.

Mental Health Association of Tuscaloosa – CRAM
Children and youth with and without disabilities, their parents, and school personnel receive training regarding students’ appropriate responses for conflict resolution and anger management in scenarios involving issues that students with disabilities frequently experience in inclusive school settings.

Scottsboro City Board of Education – School Inclusion
This project is designed to: (1) increase teachers’, students’ and parents’ awareness of inclusion; (2) Collect, measure, and evaluate attitudes, beliefs, and feelings of all stakeholders involved in Scottsboro City Schools inclusive Education Program.

Shelby County Board of Education - “Transition in Action: The Community Classroom”
This project provides high school students who have developmental disabilities with training to develop their skills to support realistic careers and increase self-help skills to support leisure interests and fulfill citizenship responsibilities through classroom and community activities. A transition team consisting of community stakeholders will educate students regarding responsibilities and expectations of various employment industries; students will also participate in a series of lessons, interviews and discussions while completing a series of interest inventories to obtain information on their leisure, citizenship, and employment interests. Classroom lessons and community training will include (1) employment related issues such as health, etiquette, and social skills to develop a more productive employee; (2) business tours; (3) job shadowing; (4) internships; (5) student-completed employment applications; (6) mock interviews with area business leaders, (7) actual job interviews for paid employment; (8) fading on-site support for student employees; and (9) student-completed community service projects at a non-profit site.

University of Alabama (UA) – Crossing Points – School to Adult Life Transition Services
This project provides training and job placement opportunities on a University campus for students with developmental disabilities to facilitate their transition from high school into inclusive community activities.

University of Alabama (UA) – Department of Communicative Disorders – Hippotherapy
This project will evaluate the effectiveness of hippotherapy for preschool children with autism and compare the effectiveness of hippotherapy with traditional therapy for preschool children with autism.

University of Alabama (UA) – Departments of Criminal Justice, Rural Health Research, and Psychiatry – Orphans of Aids in Alabama: Enumeration, Evaluation, and Referral for Developmental Disabilities
This project identifies developmental disability and advocacy needs of children orphaned or at-risk of being orphaned by AIDS and provides these children with referrals to ADAP and Sparks Clinic to meet these needs.

University of Alabama (UA) – Disability Sports/RISE – Inclusive Early Childhood Physical Education and Recreation Program: A Collaboration Between the University of Alabama Disability Sports and RISE Program
This inclusive recreation and physical education demonstration program provides: (1) a venue through which job-training and hands-on experience can be gained by instructors and aides in the field for inclusive physical education and recreation, (2) job preparation in the field of inclusive recreation for adults with developmental disabilities, and (3) a means to prepare children for the integrated physical education classes and recreation programs they may encounter in K-12 programs.

The University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) - “Inclusive Care for Children and Adolescents – Access and Benefits”
This statewide project is designed to: (1) improve accessibility to out-of-school care for children and adolescents with developmental disabilities in community settings across Alabama; (2) provide information regarding best practices for inclusive child and adolescent care for parents and entities who provide care for children and adolescents in community settings; (3) produce a model of advocacy, information and referral for inclusive child and adolescent care; and (4) provide a plan for replicating the model sites to increase the number of families accessing inclusive child and adolescent care within their communities across the state.

The University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) - Reproductive Health Clinic for Women with Spina Bifida
This project will develop and maintain a Reproductive Health Clinic for Women with Spina Bifida that will provide a single point of entry for those young women transitioning from the pediatric health environment as well as all women with Spina Bifida, regardless of age

United Cerebral Palsy of West Alabama, Inc (UCPWA) - “Child/Adolescent Care(CARE II)”
This project is designed to improve the quality of child and adolescent care and increase opportunities for inclusive care for children who have developmental disabilities by expanding the Child and Adult Respite/Education (CARE) model. This grant will provide the resources for UCPWA to implement a training team in West Alabama and adopt a screening protocol and training techniques that can be used to provide supports for parents, child care centers, and after-school programs to foster inclusive child and adolescent care.

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