Independence and integration through disabilities funding

The Foundation wants to support innovative services and supports designed to enable people with multiple disabilities to live a life of their own choosing in the community—not in segregated, institutional, or congregate settings.

A life of their own choosing means achieving independence, self-respect, and self-satisfaction at school, home, and work to the greatest degree possible. The Foundation focuses on housing, jobs, and friends for people with multiple disabilities. The Foundation wants to encourage people without disabilities to have personal experiences with people who have disabilities to extinguish fear, stereotypes, and misconceptions. The Foundation seeks programs designed to build relationships and to prevent loneliness and isolation.

Geographic focus

Intellectual Disabilities (all ages, including autism, mental health, and learning differences)

• The Foundation will consider requests throughout the United States and Israel
• First priority given to community-based, direct-services providers in Maryland, northeastern Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and Israel
• Applicants outside priority areas will be given consideration for ongoing, innovative programs that can be replicated

Physical and Sensory Disabilities (all ages)

• The Foundation will consider requests from community-based, direct-services providers only in the Foundation’s “hometowns” of Maryland, northeastern Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and Israel

Questions:

If you are seeking a grant, can you answer “yes” to most of these questions? Please expand and explain your answers to relevant questions as part of your Letter of Inquiry (LOI).

1. Do the people you serve own or rent their own home in the community or does your agency? Do they pick with whom they want to live?
2. Do the people you serve have authority over their own funding and how it’s spent? Do they save and spend their own money?
3. Does the person you serve have other people in their lives (friends and acquaintances)in addition to paid staff and family?
4. Do the people you serve have jobs? What kinds of jobs? Do they get their own paycheck from their jobs?
5. Do the people you serve participate in activities in their community that are not related to any disability organization?
6. Do you help the people you serve receive individualized services and supports? Do you help them learn to do things for themselves?
7. Do you help your people use adaptive technology such as assistive communication devices or tele-monitoring in homes?
8. Does your organization measure outcomes long-term — not outputs? What do you measure to demonstrate that you have changed a person’s life for the better? Have you measured outcomes in the past (for how long, what outcomes)? You must discuss outcomes (past and future) in your Letter of Inquiry (LOI).

The Foundation has several goals:

• Housing (capital grants for renovation and new construction): The Foundation funds safe, deeply affordable, accessible housing integrated into the community—both independent and supported housing, especially scattered-site projects and innovative, replicable models for increasing the availability of low-income housing.

1. Housing grants in U.S. and Israel The Weinberg Foundation is open to requests for grants for non-institutional housing for people with multiple disabilities as long as the applicant can demonstrate:
   • A sustainable financial model
   • An identifiable population that will live in the residence
   • Supports and services for the residents
   • Social interaction with people in the greater community
   • Information has been given to the disabled applicants about alternative housing choices
2. Jobs: The Foundation supports customized employment in the community, meaning that time is invested in the individual to determine the person’s abilities, interest, and willingness to work and only then to identify appropriate employers. In other words, the Foundation supports projects that promote self-determination in employment—choice. The Foundation focuses on transitioning youth who are aging out of special education.
3. Early intervention: The Foundation seeks early intervention programs for children with multiple disabilities, especially the autistic spectrum disorders (ages 0 to 5). Education is the treatment for autism, and the Foundation seeks early-education programs that show positive outcomes and use evidence-based methods. Education programs can be in segregated settings as long as the long-term goal is mainstreaming and integration. The Foundation does not fund public schools. To avoid indirect harm, the Foundation funds only evidence-based programs that have credentialed staff,low student/teacher ratios, and are tailored to the specific needs of individual children. Family involvement and home-based programs are also crucial in the Foundation’s grantmaking decision.
4. Community-based services for those with psychiatric illnesses: The Foundation funds psychiatric rehabilitation programs, mental health centers, mobile crisis teams, NAMIs, and “clubhouses.”
5. Integrated (inclusive) summer camps and other integrated social programs: The Foundation’s Trustees selects integrated summer camp programs for children with and without disabilities. Preference is given to camps open all year for respite programs for families.
6. Training of Professional Staff in Evidence-Based Treatment Methods: In terms of tutoring or therapy programs for those with learning or intellectual disabilities (especially autism), the Foundation will fund only evidence-based therapies that are supported by replicated and validated research such as Applied Behavior Analysis. The focus is on training at service providers because the Foundation, by charter, cannot fund universities.
7. Legal Aid Programs and Access to Benefits: Families need the services of legal experts at Disability Law Centers and Legal Aid Bureaus, where families can have an advocate to represent them in acquiring needed services. The Foundation recognizes the importance of legal assistance in identifying and accessing benefits such as Medicaid and helping parents with due process hearings and Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).
8. Family Support: The Foundation supports service and resource coordination and navigation of the disabilities system. To increase service coordination at the time of diagnosis for families and children with disabilities or mental illness by means of case management is crucial. Family-to-family programs, one-stop shops, and respite programs are important to the Foundation.
9. Assistive Technology: The Foundation understands the importance of assistive technology as a treatment tool for those with intellectual, sensory, or physical disabilities such as robotic-assisted physical therapy for children with cerebral palsy, telemonitoring of homes, or augmentative communication devices. Durable medical equipment such as rehab equipment for the home and home modifications including ramps will not be funded.

If your organization is raising funds for any capital project (new construction, renovation, and equipment) or if you have any questions, please contact Stan Goldman, Program Director, Disabilities; sgoldman@hjweinberg.org or 410-654-8500, x263.