Preface
Purpose
Who should use this manual?
The 1995 Illinois Independent Living Services Capacity/Needs Assessment commissioned by the Statewide Independent Living Council of Illinois (SILC) indicated that Illinois Centers for Independent Living (CILs) are often under-funded and overwhelmed with community demands on their resources and time. In addition, CILs reported only nominal success using formally structured outreach plans. Most CILs rely on their networks with local organizations and their work with local consumers to keep them up-to-date on the needs of their communities. Many CILs indicated they would like information on how to maximize the effectiveness of their outreach efforts to unserved and underserved populations in their service delivery area.
The need to increase outreach was identified by the 1995 SILC study and was included as part of the Illinois State Plan for Independent Living Services and Centers for Independent Living: 1996-1998 (SPIL). Members of SILC voted to develop an Outreach Planning Manual that would help Illinois CILs increase the effectiveness of their outreach activities. This manual will provide CILs with the basic information necessary in developing, implementing, and evaluating outreach efforts.
A Rehabilitation Act finding supports the need to promote outreach. In Section 21 of the 1992 Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Congress found that:
‘’The racial profile of America is rapidly changing. While the rate of increase for white Americans is 3.2 percent, the rate of increase for racial and ethnic minorities is much higher: 38.6 percent for Latinos, 14.6 percent for African-Americans, and 40.1 percent for Asian Americans and other ethnic groups. By the year 2000, the Nation will have 260,000,000 people, one of every three of whom will be either African-American, Asian-American or Latino.’‘
‘’Ethnic and racial minorities tend to have disabling conditions at a disproportionately higher rate. The work-related disability for American Indians is about one and one half times that of the general population. African-Americans are also one and one half times more likely to be disabled than whites and twice as likely to be severely disabled.’‘
‘’Patterns of inequitable treatment of minorities have been documented in all major junctures of the vocational rehabilitation process. As compared to white Americans, a larger percentage of African-American applicants to the vocational rehabilitation system are denied acceptance. Of applicants accepted for service, a larger percentage of African-American cases are closed without being rehabilitated. Minorities are provided less training than their white counter parts. Consistently, less money is spent on minorities than their white counter parts.’‘
"In awarding grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements under titles I, II, III, VI, VII, and VIII, and section 509, the [Rehabilitation Services Administration] Commissioner and the Director of the National Institute on Disability and Research, where appropriate, shall require applicants to demonstrate how they will address, in whole or in part, the needs of individuals from minority backgrounds."
In the summer of 1996, the SILC Outreach Committee put together an ad-hoc work group composed of staff from Illinois CILs and statewide minority organizations to develop an Outreach Planning Manual. During 1996 and 1997, the work group met on numerous occasions, and via conference calls, to develop a comprehensive document that will help CILs implement outreach activities to reach unserved and underserved populations in their service area. In 1998, a handful of original participants developed regional CIL training and made final changes to this manual.
The purpose of this manual is to give Center for Independent Living (CIL) staff and boards ideas on how they might develop, implement and evaluate effective outreach efforts. It has been designed to be flexible in order to meet the unique needs of each CIL and the many neighborhoods and communities in their service area. It is the intention of the SILC Outreach Committee to provide a manual that covers a comprehensive range in which each CIL will find information that is helpful to improving their local outreach efforts. The manual will help CILs tailor their outreach activities to met the needs of their community.
This manual is intended to provide useful information for staff members as well as board members by providing ideas and examples of how CILs can enhance their ability to reach unserved and underserved populations. With increasing state and federal emphasis on outcomes, this document will assist CILs in developing an outreach plan that can be applied. This manual will help to increase the likelihood that CIL board composition and consumer service demographics will reflect their service area. This manual is meant to be a tool to help CILs work smarter, not harder.
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