NYAIL Issues Report on Statewide Needs Assessment

In 2008, NYAIL contracted with the Center for Governmental Research Inc. (CGR) to conduct a needs assessment to determine how ILCs can more effectively meet the needs of people with disabilities throughout the state, to determine service gaps and barriers that interfere with the provision of services, and to determine the resources Centers will need in the future to best meet the needs of their constituents and how those resources should be best allocated. For the full report, click here.

Key findings

Data collected and analyzed by VESID (NYS Education Department, Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities) over the years have indicated that ILCs have conservatively saved New York taxpayers more than $9 in deinstitutionalization costs for every state dollar invested in ILCs and satellites throughout the state.  ILC services contribute to a net savings of upwards of $110 million each year as a result of avoided institutionalized care for people with disabilities, and the actual savings may prove to be higher when all ILCs begin to consistently report such information beginning within the next year.

The numbers of people served by the Centers in 2006-07 were at least 19% higher than at the beginning of this decade.  More than 71,000 persons were served by 36 state-funded Centers and satellites in that year, not counting thousands of additional people with disabilities served by 14 additional Centers and satellites that do not receive state funds.

Consumers of ILC services express overwhelming support for the services they receive, with systems and personal advocacy, special education and service coordination representing needs that are especially well addressed by the Centers.  More than 9 of every 10 consumers would recommend the Center that serves them to other persons with disabilities, with another 7% saying they would make such a recommendation “depending on the need.”

Information supplied by NYAIL and ILCs indicates that the Centers have historically been influential in helping shape and pass pivotal legislation strengthening the self-sufficiency of persons with disabilities and helping save the state money by reducing nursing home and other institutional costs associated with people with particular types of disabilities.

Despite the demonstrated successes and accomplishments over the years of ILCs and their statewide association, there are currently significant gaps in services and underserved geographic areas which need to be addressed. 

Key Recommendations

With the successful track record of Independent Living Centers and their demonstrated ability to successfully impact on the lives of people with disabilities and to save taxpayers significant dollars, NYAIL and ILCs are in a stronger position than many agencies that they can build on in negotiations with state and local officials.  The full report contains a number of recommendations designed to provide guidance as ILCs look to their future in an uncertain time.  The recommendations include:

• Expanding an advocacy agenda focusing on issues impacting people with disabilities, and the key role that ILCs play in enhancing individual independence and economic self-sufficiency, while at the same time saving taxpayers money.
• Maintaining a united voice as advocates for people with disabilities and their families, and specifically advocating for the creation of a unified NYS Office on Disability to help ensure focused statewide attention on issues affecting people with disabilities.
• Expanding advocacy to ensure inclusion of ILCs as full participants in the development and/or restructuring of systems of services and supports to meet the needs of people with disabilities in the most integrated settings possible.
• Developing new and expanding existing funding streams, even in—especially in—difficult economic times. Specifically, the needs assessment should be used to educate other non-state entities—e.g., county governments, United Ways, foundations, the business community—about the strengths and needs of ILCs.
• Identifying opportunities to leverage existing infrastructure such as staff, board members, and networks of contacts. In particular, such collaborative opportunities should include overtures to working more closely with such potential partners as county governments, the business community, school districts, health care providers, and various other potential funders and potential service-provision partners.
• Defining new approaches to consistent data collection and management that can drive improved decision-making and agenda-setting; devising regional approaches to critical issue areas such as housing and transportation; and garnering public awareness for what is already available to the community.
• Developing a variety of communications, training and technical assistance approaches to strengthening human capital (staff, board members) within the Centers, building on and expanding existing NYAIL technical assistance and training initiatives.
• Emphasizing the need for such services as expanded transportation, strengthened financial support, expanded vocational/employment opportunities, and increased emphasis on integrated housing opportunities for people with disabilities.  The degree of need for such services varies across regions and ILCs, so careful assessment and priority-setting processes need to be followed to ensure that resources are allocated where the needs are greatest.
• Focusing attention on how best to address, in this economic climate, the fact that 17 counties have no ILCs or satellite offices to provide locally-based services to residents with disabilities.
• Addressing what appear to be resource gaps and inequities in the operating costs and resources available to Centers and satellites across regions.
• Developing approaches to improve service access to vulnerable and underserved subsets of the population of persons with disabilities, such as those in rural areas and in various immigrant communities, as well as racial/ethnic minorities in some communities, and as the population ages, seniors with disabilities.  Expanded transportation and other service access initiatives, bilingual staff and cultural diversity training may be helpful responses in some cases to help improve service access to such groups.
• Creating an awareness among ILCs, where additional financial resources are not forthcoming to provide needed services, and where even existing resources are threatened, of opportunities to allocate existing resources in the most equitable and fair ways possible, collaborating with other service providers and seeking ways to use existing resources most efficiently and fairly, given concentration of needs and available resources.