The Community of Practice for Supporting Families of Persons With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

It is important to continuously support families to improve the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their family members. Using a life course approach to address strengths and needs of families, a National Community of Practice, infused with the Charting the LifeCourse framework, focused on systems change to improve policy and practices to enhance the lives of families. A qualitative analysis used the Value Creation framework to evaluate both process and product outcomes of 16 state communities of practice as to changes in knowledge and practices.

Supporting Families Through the Charting the LifeCourse Framework.

Supporting families who have family members with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) as they move through life is a critical need ( Reynolds, Palmer, & Gotto, 2018 ). The phrase, supporting families, juxtaposes the typical family support paradigm in response to the ongoing shrinkage of federal and state dollars and the recognition that parents and caregivers need services and supports to support their family member with IDD at home ( Amado, Stancliffe, McCarron, & McCallion, 2013 ). Within the family support movement, families are defined in the broadest terms, including those living in the same household, people who are affiliated by birth or choice, and others in the role of helping individuals with IDD succeed in life ( Reynolds et al.