Areas of Emphasis and Goals and Objectives for 
Five-Year Plan 2007-2011 
Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council

Employment 

Goal 1: Support and sustain successful community inclusion and employment of people with developmental disabilities. 

Objective 1: Participate in and support a network of agencies providing education, training, employment and other supports to employers, community members and people with disabilities. 

Objective 2: Support the cultivation of natural supports within employment settings that foster job retention, skill achievement/enhancement and employee success. 

Objective 3: Promote and increase the active participation of people with developmental disabilities in designing the approach and implementation of employment strategies. 

Goal 2: Promote community-supported employment

Objective 1: Reestablish a policy through legislative advocacy that sheltered workshops will not receive any new funding.

Objective 2: Establish a policy that no person transitioning from education to work would be transitioned into sheltered work.

Objective 3: Monitor and report on the implementation of recommendations by the DDD ad hoc Employment committee.

Formal and Informal Community Supports

(Individuals have access to other services available or offered in a community, including formal and informal community supports that affect their quality of life.) 

Goal 1: Support communities and community organizations to increase their capacity to create new options and strategies to meaningfully include people with developmental disabilities and their family members.

Objective 1: :  Promote and support person-centered approaches in planning with people with developmental disabilities, including children and family members, regarding individuals transitioning into adult life, employment, post-secondary education, home ownership, transportation and recreation.

Objective 2: Inform the legislature and other policymakers of the benefits of implementing policies that promote the inclusion and participation of people with developmental disabilities in all aspects of community life.

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Health

Goal 1: Engage in and support systems advocacy and legislation on health issues.

    Objective 1: :  Engage and support systems advocacy and legislation for targeted health care such as the reduction and elimination of the wait list, universal access for healthcare (208 commission activities,) and person-centered planning such as the implementation of House Bill 05-1243.

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Council member, Dr. Irene Aguilar, co-chaired the Vulnerable Populations Task Force of the 208 Commission. Her presentation to the House Health and Human Services Committee from March 2008 is available by clicking here.

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Quality Assurance 

(People have the information, skills, opportunities, and support to live free of abuse, neglect, financial and sexual exploitation, and violation of their human and legal rights and the inappropriate use of restraints or seclusion. Quality assurance systems contribute to and protect self-determination, independence, productivity, and integration and inclusion in all facets of community life.) 

Goal 1: Promote and support the development of leadership and self-advocacy capacity among people with developmental disabilities and their family members.

Objective 1: Support leadership training by people with disabilities and their family members for other people with developmental disabilities and family members who may become leaders in Colorado. 

Objective 2: Support policy-making groups to actively include people with developmental disabilities and family members in decision-making processes.

Objective 3: Serve as a representative voice of the cultural competence and cultural diversity interests and concerns among Colorado citizens with developmental disabilities.

Objective 4: Support and expand participation of people with developmental disabilities in cross-disability and culturally diverse leadership coalitions.

Objective 5: Establish or strengthen a program for the direct funding of a State self-advocacy organization led by people with developmental disabilities.

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As part of the Council's implementation of Objective 1 under Quality Assurance the Council directly supports self-advocacy and leadership development through a grant to Watch Our Words (WOW).   WOW is a group of facilitated communication users, their facilitators and friends who meet monthly alternately in Lafayette and in Denver.  WOW offers trainings to any groups interested in learning about facilitated communication.  WOW has also produced two DVDs, one with short documentaries about 5 WOW members, and another that can be used as a training video.  Click here for the documentaries on Michael Hoover, Jaison Hart, Daniel Sutter, Sharisa Kochmeister and Chris Patton. Click here for the Training segments.

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