Supported Living Services offers flexible and individualized support and assistance to individuals with developmental disabilities.

Go to: http://blip.tv/file/1189983/ to view "SELF-DETERMINED LIVING" a video of lives of people who rent their homes or apartments and have different scenarios of supports.

 

 

 

• Teaching daily living skills in all areas of personal care, household management, and use of community resources
• Assisting with needed medical and dental care
• Providing mobility training for getting around in the community and using public transportation
• Linkage of friends through community, social, and recreational activities
• Providing live-in support staff
• Locating a home of your own

 

New Horizons North (NHN) has assisted a number of individuals with disabilities in setting up supported living services with house mates in settings we call “households”. Once set up, NHN provides the staffing needed in the household in order for the individuals living in the household to be successful at living in the community. This staffing can vary from come-in supports in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week, to 24-hour staff support. Typically there are two or three individuals who share the household. These household services differ from the hourly supported living skills training services we provide to several individuals living independently in the community in their own home or apartment without housemates.  

 

In several cases, this has been a positive alternative for individuals who previously lived in licensed group homes, or other congregate settings, but were unsuccessful in those settings and were required to move. We’ve found that these supported living households have been more successful for these individuals by giving them the opportunity to create a natural, meaningful lifestyle within the community that is specifically designed for him or her. In other instances, individuals have been able to meet their desire to come back to their home community from other parts of the state. Every situation will be different from the next, since individual hopes, dreams, desires, talents and needs vary greatly.

 

Supported living services promote our mission of assisting people with disabilities to participate more fully in community life. SLS is based upon the belief that every person has a fundamental right to live in a home of his or her choice and that no person should be forced to live away from his or her community, or in a setting which is segregated, due to the nature or severity of disability. Supported living arrangements are not licensed; people simply receive the services and supports they need to build the lives they desire while living in their own homes and communities. By “their own homes”, we mean an apartment, townhouse, duplex, or typical single family home which an individual has selected from a range of options; and, the lease, rental agreement or, in the case of a purchase the title/deed, is in the name of the person and signed by the person.