Healthy Community Living, formerly called Motivation for Self-Management, is a five-year project to develop a multi-media health promotion program to improve people’s health and wellbeing that provides support, health promotion, education and opportunities for people with disabilities to succeed in reaching personal goals. It includes two separate curricula that blend in-person program delivery with online social engagement and website materials.
The curricula currently in development include:
- Community Living Skills, a multi-media, peer led Independent Living skills curriculum based on the Self-determination Theory intended for consumers who would benefit from developing independent living skills but who are not quite ready to complete goals. Community Living Skills currently includes topics like Self-care, Self-advocacy, Housing, Transportation and Disability Identity.
- Living Well in the Community, a multi-media, peer led health promotion program adapted from our evidence-based Living Well with a Disability Program and intended to help participants set and reach quality of life goals by developing a healthy lifestyle. Living Well in the Community is a peer led health promotion workshop and includes topics like Goal Setting, Building Support, Eating Well, Physical Activity, and Staying on Course.
We are working with the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL) to recruit and establish partners at each stage of project development who represent both rural and urban communities. Staff from eight Centers for Independent Living served on development teams using an Iterative Participatory Curriculum Development (IPCD) procedure to create and adapt the curricula. The use of IPCD in curriculum development helps ensure that the final products of this development project will be relevant, useful and will contribute to the wellbeing of people with disabilities. The two curricula will be rigorously evaluated through implementation and data collection. Knowledge translation activities include new training and technical assistance procedures that, along with outcome results, will be widely disseminated to a variety of community-based programs (such as Aging and Disability Research Centers) and health promotion researchers.
For more information about the HCL program click here: www.healthycommunityliving.com
For more information about the Living Well with a Disability program, click here: http://livingandworkingwell.ruralinstitute.umt.edu/
- Project dates: 2015-2019
- Funded by: National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research Grant No. 90DP0073
- Principal staff: Craig Ravesloot, PhD., Tannis Hargrove, Tracy Boehm Barrett, Mary Olson-Willard, Maggie Lawrence, Justice Ender, Kaitlin Fertaly
- Related projects:
RTC:Rural News
- Dec. 15, 2016: “Healthy Community Living– Real People. Real Places.”
- May 4, 2017: “UM undergrad presents Facebook data for RTC:Rural participatory health promotion project.”
- Aug. 3, 2017: “Consumer interviews add to Participatory Curriculum Development project.”
- Nov. 28, 2017: “Healthy Community Living now in pilot phase.”
- March 23, 2018: “Students Exchange Knowledge in Curriculum Development Process.”
- Dec. 12, 2018: “Healthy Community Living project shares stakeholder engagement practices for online conference.“
- Feb. 19, 2019: “Healthy Community Living featured in KTDRR Casebook.“