Sarah Hard At Work

Check out some nice photos of Charles Family SmartHome resident Sarah working on her math and art and the home.

Wii The People

Last year, a group of CU Engineering students worked on projects to design simple adaptive technologies that aided increased independence for some of the folks Imagine! serves, including some residents of our SmartHomes.

Read more and see a video about last year’s projects here.

Well, this semester they are doing it again! The students have picked their projects, and one project is a very interesting task that should benefit the residents of our SmartHomes.

One group of students is working to adapt a Wii Fit balance board for people who have no or little lower body function. The students are envisioning a modified platform or chair that a person who is using a wheelchair can sit in and control the Wii Fit balance board. Control can be from a joystick or leaning action.

How could this be impactful? Two ways:

1) Like many of us, some individuals with developmental disabilities struggle to fit time for physical activities into their busy daily lives. Providing a fun and interactive way to exercise will certainly benefit the health and well-being of the SmartHome residents.

2) Wii games can be played over the internet, allowing residents to engage with others in the community in a manner in which their disability is invisible. For example, residents of the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder frequently engage in online Wii bowling matches with students at the University of Colorado. The CU students playing are unaware of the physical or developmental limitations some of the SmartHome players have, they just know they are playing with worthy opponents.

Increasing the ability of those who use wheelchairs for mobility to engage in these Wii games has the potential to be extremely beneficial.

Thanks again to Melinda Piket-May, associate professor of engineering at CU, and her students for undertaking this very worthy project.

Introducing Technology Plans

Individuals receiving services from Imagine!, including all of the residents of our SmartHomes, have annual planning meetings where the individuals, along with family members, care providers, and other key members of the individual’s support team discuss what services will best meet the needs and goals of the individual. During these meetings, the team develops what are known as Individual Plans (IPs). These plans focus on the issues discussed in the meeting and outline the strategies for addressing them.

To further our ability to see how technology can impact the lives of the residents living in our SmartHomes, we have begun to develop resident Technology Plans to support and enhance each resident’s IP. The Technology Plans will focus on how to use technology to maximize residents’ self-sufficiency and quality of life while optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of caregivers in the service environment.

The Technology Plans will identify baseline skill levels at various tasks, identify objective milestones that will indicate an increase beyond those baseline skills, and then create methodologies and motivational plans designed to meet those objective milestones.

The objective milestones will build on each other in such a way that residents will be able to use technology to take incremental steps toward meet bigger goals identified in IPs – focusing on what is important to and important for each individual resident.

The data from the Technology Plans will be tracked, so we can have better measurements of the success rates of the many technologies already in use in the SmartHomes.

The new resident Technology Plans are another example of how Imagine! is moving forward with Phase II of its SmartHomes project, where we are using the homes as living laboratories to identify and develop the most effective tools for serving people with developmental disabilities and related conditions – so we can meet the needs of many more in the future!

Presentable

Next week, SmartHomes PR guy Fred Hobbs will be presenting at the Pennsylvania Community Providers Association Technology Conference, discussing Imagine!’s use of social media to improve operational efficiency and provide opportunities for community involvement for those we serve. Take a sneak peek at his presentation below.

Getting Social: One Human Service Organization's Success Using Social Media

View more presentations from Fred Hobbs

Tour The Longmont SmartHome!

Exciting news! Free, guided tours of the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont are scheduled to begin in April.

The tours are available for anyone interested in seeing first hand how technology can be used to improve the lives of people with developmental disabilities.

To respect our residents’ time and privacy, we have established a set schedule for tours. In March 2011, tours of the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome (Boulder) tours will be conducted on the first and third Monday at 11:00 a.m. Beginning in April, tours of the Charles Family SmartHome (Longmont) will also be available.

The schedule from April on will be:

Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome (Boulder) Tours - First Monday of the Month at 11:00 a.m.

Charles Family SmartHome (Longmont) Tours - Third Monday of the Month at 10:00 a.m.

Tours take approximately one hour.

Click here to schedule a tour online.

Mandy Tests Prompting Systems

Several residents of the Bob and Judy SmartHome are helping to test some task prompting systems that may assist individuals with developmental disabilities in gaining and keeping meaningful employment. Cool, forward thinking stuff. Check out these pictures of Mandy in action.

Donna's Diary - February 2011

How did happy couple (and SmartHome residents) Donna and Gerald spend Valentine’s Day? Get the details, plus the haps on Gerald’s new job, by checking out Donna’s latest online diary entry below.

And check out all of Donna’s diary entries here:

The most important news in my life this month is that my husband Gerald is going to be starting a job at Twisted Pine Brewery. He is absolutely thrilled! He will be doing an inventory of sales along with having other responsibilities. When Gerald starts his job, it is going to be quite exciting for us to have a double Stopa paycheck since both of us will be working. We are already planning to put more money into savings.

The Twisted Pine Brewery is the same place that held a party for us right before we got married. They gave us money they raised at the party to help pay for our wedding and honeymoon. Gerald has enjoyed going there for a long time as a customer, and he’s really looking forward to working there. He already has his Twisted Pine Brewery shirt to wear while he’s working. I’ll keep you posted on how this turns out. After Gerald gets settled in with his job, I want to see my friend Jodi and have a beer with her at the Twisted Pine Brewery. I like supporting a business that is good to my friends, and they sure have been good to me and my friends.

So, earlier this month was Valentine’s Day, and we had quite a bit of fun. I had a couple friends I am well acquainted with stop by the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome and we had a wonderful time visiting. Also, Valentine’s Day was a good opportunity for me to reflect on how fortunate I am to have Gerald in my life. It’s been a great two years, going on three years, for us. We met when our friend Alex set up a blind date for me and Gerald. I was living at The Station (18th Street PCA) and Gerald was living at 19th Street Group Home. We hit if off good right off the bat and things just keep getting better and better.

I am definitely looking forward to spring arriving next month and bringing us some warmer weather. When it’s too cold, my left hip, which was replaced, hurts like crud. I am definitely a fan of warm weather and I function much better in it. I look forward to continuing to keep you updated on what’s going on in my life, and wish you a happy spring.