Promoting Community Participation
Community living is the first step to community participation, which includes any activity a person wants to engage in, such as meeting friends at a restaurant or theater; belonging to a social group, club or church; and volunteering, working or attending school.
Research and Training Center on Promoting Interventions for Community Living
The Research and Training Center on Promoting Interventions for Community Living (RTC/PICL) investigates the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions that modify home environments and enhance the personal skills of people with disabilities as a way to increase their community participation.
It also promotes the dissemination and utilization of successful practices.
The project is a collaboration with the University of Montana, and is codirected by Jean Hall at the University of Kansas and Craig Ravesloot at Montana.
Two Interventions: Starting at Home, into the Community
The Center is studying two complementary interventions.
The Home Usability Program teaches individuals with disabilities to self-assess and improve the usability of their homes. Ravesloot’s previous research shows that people with disabilities who have more usable homes (for example, in their bathrooms) are more likely to participate in their communities because they expend less energy in daily self-care, thus freeing up more time for other activities.
Out and About, the other intervention, teaches participants to set goals for community participation and solve problems related to barriers in the community, such as inaccessible transportation or lack of access to health care. Out and About also builds social networks by using peer support in the pursuit of participants’ goals.
The contents of this website were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RT5043). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this website do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.