The Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities (GCPD) in Indiana wanted to enhance and coordinate efforts for supporting families with a member with an intellectual and developmental disability. This initiative built on previous work of the Community of Practice for Supporting Families and the state-led Living Well initiative, which identified that though there are people and programs providing these supports (both formally and informally), many of these groups feel a lack of connection with others doing similar work and resources are needed to fund and facilitate family-led organizations to lead and drive ongoing improvements to support to families.

In response, GCPD launched the Whole Family Well-Being and Advocacy initiative to develop a sustainable model for ongoing, shared learning and advocacy that would amplify the impact of existing efforts and could be expanded upon to include others. Aligned Consulting Collaborative was engaged to facilitate a three-year process whereby existing family-led and family-supporting groups (both formal and informal) enhance their individual practices to support families and co-develop an infrastructure to sustain shared efforts. The first phase of the initiative engaged people with disabilities, family members, professionals, and community partners to identify and develop shared priorities and recommendations for an infrastructure and related practices to support families in Indiana. More information regarding the first phase of this work can be found at Indiana-strengtheningfamilies.com. As a result of the recommendations, the GCPD is funding a pilot that establishes local Family Networks and a statewide Consortium according to the Connected Families Community Development Model, developed by Aligned Consulting Collaborative.

The pilot of the Indiana Consortium of Family Networks will result in an evaluation of the implementation of the model (including best practices for family peer support that focuses on community development with related tools and resources) that will encourage sustainability and scalability past the end of the pilot period.