The North Carolina Technical Assistance Collaborative
The Summit Implementation Technical Assistance Collaborative was funded to assist the State of North Carolina to implement the recommendations of the 2008 DD Summit. Year One activities began in July, 2009 and ended in September, 2010. Year Two began in October 2010 and ends September 2011. A third year began in October 2011 through February 2012.
Background
Given the relatively low priority assigned to the sustainability and expansion of developmental disabilities services over the past several years and in anticipation of the change in administration, the North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities, in mid-2008, convened a summit of DD stakeholders in a series of three meetings to discuss key areas of system change to form the agenda for the next Governor. Those meetings, facilitated by the HSRI, resulted in the report: Looking Forward: A Summit on the Developmental Disabilities System in North Carolina. HSRI provided a supplemental report that described best practices nationally that could be applied to the implementation of the recommendations.
The Summit report advanced 46 recommendations for policy and administrative reform organized into key domains that reflect the overarching issues facing the developmental disabilities system in North Carolina. The Council chose to focus on five of the domains in the Summit document – Viable Direct Support Workforce, Quality Management and Quality Improvement, Improving Case Management, Empowering Individuals and Families, and Fostering Leadership and Innovation. These recommendations, however, are not self-implementing. This grant recognizes the need to provide state public managers with consultation to assist them to address these complex issues.
HSRI convened a group of national experts to comprise a Technical Assistance Collaborative with the capability to support and extend the capacity of public managers in the following core areas:
- A heightened understanding of the best practices surrounding each of the five Council priorities among public policy makers and other targeted beneficiaries in North Carolina;
- The development of specific strategies in response to requests for technical assistance that can be translated into policy and practice in North Carolina;
- The dissemination of information to key stakeholders and beneficiaries across the state regarding the key policy issues entailed in each of the Council’s five priorities;
- The identification of barriers to the implementation of Summit recommendations;
- The inclusion of partners from other parts of state government in the work required to expand and enhance services and supports to people with disabilities and their families.
