Advocacy

ATI provides personal (individual) and systems (public policy) advocacy services in the following areas: Education, Employment, Health Care, Commerce, Social, and Citizenship. ATI aims to increase access to equal opportunities in exercising social, economic, educational, and legal rights. ATI works with individuals, community organizations, and state/national networks to promote full inclusion of people with disabilities, and to improve the implementation of existing laws: federal, state, and local.

 

Independent Living Skills Training

ATI provides individuals with training on everyday life skills. The ATI Independent Living Advocate facilitates a variety of group and one-on-one training sessions that relate to budgeting, meal preparation, arranging transportation, personal assistance services, job seeking, and self-advocacy. Other independent living skills trainings relate to locating community resources, managing benefits, accessing health care and other social services, doing laundry, using a computer, managing difficult family situations, and many others.

 

Information & Referral

ATI provides individuals with resources and options that may be necessary in making informed choices about living, learning, and working independently. Individuals of all ages, with and without disabilities, call upon ATI to provide information relating to disability rights and services, and to help them locate other needed resources locally and state-wide. ATI also offers its information & referral services to other businesses and human service agencies.

 

Peer Counseling

ATI staff members offer peer counseling services to individuals with disabilities, sharing ideas and experiences about living with a disability. ATI aims to offer individuals greater awareness and control over their own life through application of the independent living philosophy.

 

Transition

ATI works closely with youth, their family members and other supports to provide guidance, counseling and advocacy to help youth successfully transition from high school on to college, employment or independent community living.

ATI also works with individuals who are in institutional settings, or at risk of going into institutional settings, to help them navigate available community-based resources. ATI has been instrumental in the transition (or diversion) of 102 individuals from institutions into the community since 2004, for a savings of more than $3,428,112. Intra-agency collaboration between the Medicaid Waiver Service Coordinator, Independent Living Coordinator and the Architectural Barrier Specialist has demonstrated great success with providing individuals in a nursing home the means to return to the community. In order to complete the transition, ATI helps individuals gain the independent living skills they need to become independent. In several cases, an individual was able to return home thanks to environmental modifications that made the person’s home accessible.