In this next installment of posts focusing on Autism Awareness Month, I wanted to highlight the organization “Autism Housing Pathways.”
What is “Autism Housing Pathways”?
Autism Housing Pathways is an organization that was created by a group of parents in the Nashoba Valley area in 2009. Per the History tab on their website: “They began meeting in June 2009, committed to pooling their talents, energy and resources to create self-directed housing for their children when they reached age 22. The group engaged in a visioning process based on a person-centered planning tool, and consulted with a variety of individuals who helped them to examine the challenges and rewards of self-directed housing, and educate them in the steps involved in creating a housing cooperative.” History: Autism Housing Pathways website
From this original mission, the parents created the umbrella organization to provide resources to all families pursuing independent living for their adult children. Per their mission statement: “Our mission is to enable Massachusetts residents with developmental disabilities and their families to find or create sustainable, supported, self-directed housing that meets their needs and contributes to their quality of life.” Mission Statement: Autism Housing Pathways website
Catherine Boyle is the current President of Autism Housing Pathways. I have seen Catherine present at many conferences over the years, and every time I hear her, I learn something new. I tell people to run, don’t walk if they have the chance to listen to her speak! The landscape of housing is constantly changing, so you will need to keep tabs on this every year.
Important Resources
The organization has extensive resources for families, regardless of the part of their journey related to housing. Some areas to start with are:
- The Roadmap to Housing: 5-10 year timeline: for most of us, the prospect of our adult children living outside of our current home is going to take considerable planning. This resource, found on the website’s home page, walks you through the various items you as a family can explore and work on over the next 5-10 years while planning for independent living. Many things can be accomplished before your adult child even moves out of the home, especially in ADLs, self-determination, and self-advocacy.
- Housing Bootcamp Page: This page provides free webinars related to housing, including Catherine’s previously held “Learning About Housing” 5-day Zoom session. She also has live sessions during the year; if you sign up for her email list, you will be notified when she runs them and if they are in person or via Zoom.
- The Skills for Living Page: I have found this resource to be invaluable! As we have been working on ADLs to increase independence so that L can live outside of the family home, we have been using these resources and incorporating them into his goals in his ISP. We started by using the “Modified Adolescent Autonomous Checklist,” and from there, L selected his top 5 goals for the year to work on.
- The Technology Page: As an Assistive Technology Specialist, I was, of course, drawn to her technology page. This page includes low-tech, mid-tech, and high-tech resources and gives families a good place to start exploring technology supports for the home.
- In-person sessions and online meetings: Catherine offers individual planning sessions related to housing. I did a 1-hour session with her after attending many webinars first. Her vast knowledge and resources helped us set up our 10-year plan. She also offers housing pathway meet-ups that meet live via Zoom for a nominal fee. You can find out more information by going to the Services page on the website. They also have a year-long membership fee if you want to become a member and access additional services. For more information, you can visit the Membership Page.
Call to Action:
- Planning for our adult children to live away from us has so many facets that it can be seen as another overwhelming task.
- Take this in small pieces. The sooner you start discussing and planning for this next step, the easier it will be to map it out and take each task in small steps.
- What if you cannot see a vision where your person lives outside the home? Take a look at the Modified Adolescent Autonomous Checklist to identify which ADLs your person can be doing while living at home. The goal is to find which activities your person can do as independently as they can, and this will look different for each individual. The checklist can take an overwhelming task and break it into more manageable steps.
Until next time,
Cheryl
#Life Without a Filter 