Speaking with One Voice

Grantee: Courage Center
Project Title: Continuum of Care Project:
An Action Plan to Better Serve Minnesotans with Disabilities

Uniting around a common vision is not a simple
undertaking. “It’s easy to talk about partnership,” saysJohn Tschida, vice president of public affairs and research at Courage Center. “It’s a heck of lot harder to actually work in partnership and agree on priorities. But the disability community has united around this work and agreed on what our ideal vision of the health system could be — a holistic and integrated approach to health care.”

To address Minnesota’s lack of coordinated medical and independent living services for people with disabilities, The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation made a grant to Courage Center to support a collaboration that included the Minnesota Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, government agencies and private health-care providers. The goal is to create a continuum of care, which will help people live independently by connecting medical services with critical support systems like in-home care and public health service coordination.

Courage Center took that vision to other constituencies. “It was important to bring the concerns of the disability community to

the broader health community,” says John. “People in the world of aging services have a stronger sense of kinship with us — our concerns and their concerns are very similar.”

By creating strong partnerships among disability organizations, the aging community, health-care providers and elected officials, participants raised the awareness of an improved health continuum to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. This shared vision, coupled with evidenced-based research and evaluation, became the cornerstone for public policy changes. By documenting the impact of rehabilitative and preventative services, Courage Center revealed that these services not only work, but improve quality of life and decrease medical costs in the long run.

Courage Center is a Minnesota-based rehabilitation and resource center that advances the lives of children and adults experiencing barriers to health and independence.