Form 1
For Fiscal Year 1975-76
Proposal Summary

Community Agency Name: Center For Independent Living, Inc.

Address: 2054 University Avenue, Berkeley, Ca. 94704

Title of Project: Supportive Services for Disabled, Blind and Aged Berkeley Citizens

Description of Project:

Primary Focus: The Center for Independent Living provides supportive services for blind and disabled residents of Berkeley. Included among these services are transportation. efficient and speedy wheelchair repair, screening and placement of household help, readers and attendents; welfare rights advocacy, as well as peer group and crisis counseling. Secondary Focus: The Center aids public and private agencies in developing priorities, in training professionals, and in evaluation procedures.

Project Period: Sept. 1, 1975 - Aug. 31 1976

Amount Requested from City: $ 25,000

Amount Requested from Other Sources: $ 226,950

Total Project Fund Request: $ 251,950

Is Project Currently Funded by the City? YES X; NO _____. If so,

who is your departmental liason? Mr. Errol Johnson

Director of Project: Edward V. Roberts

Project Director's Telephone No. 841-4776

Project Site, if known: 2054 University Avenue

Official Authorized to Sign for Agency: Philip E. Draper

_____
Signature Date: _____

(FOR CITY OF BERKELEY USE)

_____

DEPARTMENT NAME: _____

PROPOSAL ASSIGNED TO: _____ DATE: _____

DEPARTMENT REVIEW: RECOMMENDED FOR CITY FUNDING YES _____: NO _____

RECOMMENDED CITY FUNDING: $ _____

DEPARTMENT PRIORITY RANKING: _____

DEPARTMENT CONTACT PERSON: _____ PHONE: _____

PROGRAM BUDGET: _____; EXPENSE CODE: _____

Appendix 1

The CIL maintains an office for service delivery, and as a location for seminars and informal gatherings. The CIL office is available to those among the target area's 21,000 disabled population who are eligible. The office is open from 9-5, five days a week(with twenty-four hour emergency answering service). On a telephone, office appointment, or drop in basis the CIL has 15 staff members and volunteers, each of whom can provide approximately 1/2 hour of service per client for twelve clients a day. In total, this means 60 hours for 120 clients a week. In practice however, individual needs vary to such an extent that the CIL may serve anywhere from 50-250 clients a week. Many clients need multiple services, while some require only that specific questions be answered. Thus staff member/client time ratios vary immensely.

The services provided include: ongoing aggressive out-reach activity to establish the needs of the overlooked severely disabled (the aged and minority members); the equivalent of two full-time staff members are devoted to this activity. The equivalent of two full-time staff members devote themselves to client referral, followalong, and advocacy. The equivalent of four full-time staff members to increase individual capacities for personal maintenance through: recruiting, screening and referral of attendants for the disabled (one and a half staff members); training and self-care techniques (one half full-time); housing problem solving (one half); psycho-social counseling (one and a half).

The equivalent of three full-time staff members provide services to increase personal mobility: 15 hours a week for mobility and orientation training for the blind. Fifty-two hours for repair of wheelchairs and orthopedic devices. Fifty hours of specialized transportation to meet the needs of the severely disabled. The equivalent of three full-time work to increase the disabled's participation in the physical and social environments through: group activities, publications, removal of architectural barriers, with one full-time member for each activity.

The CIL estimates in the upcoming year it will serve approximately 180 individuals a day, though more often than not this figure reflects the provision of multiple services to individual clients, so the overall client figure may in fact be smaller. Thus, while it is possible to give the precise amount of hours worked, per staff member per week, it is impossible at this point to give a precise number of clients served.

Participants

Area: The CIL target area is northern Alameda County including North Oakland, Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, and Kensington.

Number: The estimated number of potential disabled and blind participants, 18-64, living in the target area is approximately 8,000, including at least 2,100 severely disabled. Of these we plan to serve all of the severely disabled who are eligible and those of the blind and remaining disabled that are desirous of, and eligible for, our services.

Criteria: The disabled and blind eligible for the CIL services are:

1. All persons eligible for benefits under Chapter 3 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
2. All persons eligible for benefits under Title 16 of the Social Security Act.
3. All persons who are welfare or public assistance recipients.
4. All persons whose annual net income (excluding disability or blind support from any source) is below the following maximum income scale:

• Family Size
•     Family Income
• 1
•     $2,200
• 2
•     2,900
• 3
•     3,600
• 4
•     4,300
• 5
•     5,000
• 6
•     5,700
• 7
•     6,400

5. Description of Program

The objective of the CIL is to increase the disabled individual's capacity for independent living. This objective is reached through:

1. Maintaining an office which serves as a location both for the provision of services, and as a common place for the blind and disabled to meet-either on a one-to-one basis, in informal gatherings; or on a group basis in loosely structured seminars.
2. Conducting outreach activities which determine the needs of the "frequently overlooked" blind and disabled among the aged and minority citizens in the Center's target area which consists primarily of North Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, and Albany.
3. Assisting clients in more effective use of existing agencies through:
   • a. information and referral
   • b. careful follow-up, both with clients and with agency staffs
   • c. direct client assistance with advocacy as needed.
4. Providing services to increase individual capacities for personal maintenance through:
   • a. recruiting, screening and referral of readers for the blind and attendants for the disabled
   • b. training in self-care techniques
   • c. housing location and problem solving assistance
   • d. provision of psycho-social counseling
5. Providing services to increase personal mobility:
   • a. mobility and orientation training for the blind
   • b. repair of wheelchairs and orthopedic devices
   • c. specialized transportation to meet the needs of the disabled.
6. Helping the disabled and blind community increase their participation in the physical and social environments through:
   • a. group activities
   • b. The Independent, a quarterly newsletter
   • c. the removal of architectural barriers and the modifications of building codes in co-operation with county and city officials, e.g. the curb ramps in Berkeley
7. Conducting research and evaluation of total program; the collection and dissemination of hard data concerning CIL's effectiveness; the production of working organizational models for the development of similar programs around the country; and finally, movement towards the ultimate financial independence of the CIL.

The CIL's sensitivity to the disabled population's need is assured through the vigorous and aggressive outreach activities of its Board of Directors, staff and membership.

The Research and Evaluation Division (RED) is an already existing component of the Center for Independent Living, Inc. The RED is staffed by individuals who have completed graduate work at the University of California in the fields of city planning, social policy planning, and public policy analysis. The RED also has a direct liaison with the University's Institute of Urban and Regional Development. In addition to carrying out individual research projects, the RED designs and implements evaluation studies for the various programs funded under the CIL corporation.

In evaluating each project, the Division selects several questions for research that are thought to be of critical interest both to the funding source and to the staff and clients of the project.

The subjects specific to the proposed CIL Services Project which are likely to be of greatest interest are: a) the impact of CIL services on the observed behavior and attitudes of the project's clients, and b) the potentiality of total or partial self-support of the various project services. Research into these two subjects involves structuring and implementing a methodology designed to address a series of questions including, but not limited to, the following:

• A. Impact of services on client
  1. What is the status with respect to the following characteristics of a 20% sample of clients at their intake into the services system?
     • a. employment and income status
     • b. degree of mobility within the metropolitan area
     • c. extent of independence in living situation
     • d. frequency of participation in social and community activities
     • e. subjective measure of client's satisfaction with present situation
  2. What is the status with respect to the same characteristics of the 20% sample of clients after receipt of CIL services?
  3. What other factors in the environment might account for some or all of the observed change in client characteristics?
• B. Potential for project self-support
  1. What changes can be expected in client demand for each CIL service?
  2. Which services can be administered on a fee-for-service basis?
  3. Which services have the potentiality for eventual sale on a contract basis to other public agencies such as the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation?
  4. To what extent can the operating surplus, if any, from self-supporting services help defray the cost of continued provision of the remaining services?
  5. What is the scale of the external support likely to be required by the CIL Services Project in future years?

At the end of the first year of the project's operation, the Research and Evaluation Division will present a report to the CIL Services Project staff and to the funding source detailing the results of the study.