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Problem/Need Statement American Association of Service Coordinators Conference Sessions EDAE 639 Amber Dejmal

Service coordinators in the United States aid more than one million low-income seniors, individuals with disabilities, and families who live in affordable housing (AASC, 2013). A service coordinator provides information and referrals to residents in order to empower the residents to maintain self-sufficiency and age in place. Service coordinator positions are paid for through Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants, federal rent subsidies, or municipalities through tax income (Donovan, 2013). In order to properly train service coordinators the American Association of Service Coordinators (AASC) holds annual conferences which provide guidance and training to its members. The service coordinator industry was first developed in 1978 when the Congregate Housing Services Program was enacted which provided funding to hire service coordinators (Cohen, 2010). In 1999 the American Association of Service Coordinators expanded the program to encompass a Code of Ethics that lays out a set of standards and principals to guide service coordinators (Cohen, 2010). The Center for Housing Policy explains that some housing providers lack specific ability to access and deliver services that residents will benefit from (Cohen, 2010). Thus it is important to make sure that service coordinators are well trained so they can offer beneficial services to their residents. There are many barriers that make it difficult for service coordinators to achieve their goal. I surveyed the Colorado Chapter of the AASC on September 10th, 2013 to see if they had a need for a training session that showed how service coordinators can engage with their residents more effectively. Out of the 25 people who attended, 20 of the service coordinators said it would be beneficial to have a session on how to engage with their residents more effectively at the next AASC conference (Dejmal, 2013). Also the buildings in which service coordinators work are all low income HUD buildings. This means that the residents who live in the buildings are very

diverse and that there are many barriers for the service coordinator to overcome. Many of them are minorities that may or may not speak or write in English, many have little or no education, many have mental illnesses and disabilities, and the majority of residents are older adults who are frail (HUD, 2013). Because of the diversity in these buildings a session for new service coordinators on tools to overcome barriers to engagement would be important. The American Association of Service Coordinators website shows that currently they do not provide training on how to engage residents or overcome diversity barriers (AASC, 2013). The more tools service coordinators have to overcome those barriers to engagement the more resident will access the service coordinators. In order to address the gap and give service coordinators tools to help them achieve their goal I will design and submit the two sessions for the AASC National Conference that will be held in Houston Texas in 2014. The session will be a four hour intensive session on Increasing Resident/Service Coordination Engagement in Your Community. The goal of the session is to give service coordinators best practices and tools that will aid them in overcoming barriers to engagement so the residents can become self-sufficient and age in place. There are several reasons why this gap should be filled by an instructional event. One big reason is that HUD requires every service coordinator in the United States to have a certain amount of training each year. According to HUD, 2013 service coordinators must have 32 hours of training the first year and 12 hours each subsequent year they are a service coordinator (Cohen, 2010; HUD, 2013). Service coordinators need additional training to match residents needs to specific interventions and identify appropriate care providers (Cohen, 2010). One of the required trainings are on Strategies for Communicating Effectively and Supportive Services for the Elderly (HUD, 2013). Thus by presenting this session at conference two of the required

trainings will be available for service coordinators to access. Many service coordinators receive grants which allow for them to go to a conference each year. Thus conducting the sessions will be a great way to provide many service coordinators with adequate training to meet their requirements and their goal. I believe that conference trainings will fill the gap and so do other entities. AASC, HUD, the property on which the service coordinator works, and the company the service coordinator works for have all agreed that the training through conferences are important and have already provided funding and permission for service coordinators to attend. It is clear why there is strong support for such training. In the long run service coordinators save resident tremendous amounts of money. In one year my coworker and I have saved the residents in our building over $150,000. Service coordinators also improve the overall quality of the residents life (Donovan, 2013). One study done by the Office of Policy and Research shows that a service coordinator increases the residents length of stay at the building by six months, prevents unnecessary institutionalization, promotes independent living, and ultimately saves taxpayers dollars (HUD, 2013; Donovan, 2013). Thus AASC, the property the service coordinator works at, the service coordinators employer, and especially HUD all support training and send service coordinators to conferences in order to get that training. A service coordinator has a very important role in the lives of low income residents. Developing a session for this conference would be beneficial, not only to the service coordinator, but to the residents as well. My goal is to create three hours of intensive session material and submit the material for the 2014 American Association of service coordinators National Conference in Houston, Texas. The session Increasing Resident/Service Coordination Engagement in Your Community will be decided on by a panel and if accepted I will gladly

present this session to hundreds of service coordinators across the country. My hope is that they will be able to utilize tools to help them engage in more effective ways with their diverse residents so that there residents can have an improved quality of life and stay in out of institutions such as nursing homes.

References AASC. (2013). What is a service coordinator? American Association of Service Coordinators. <http://servicecoordinator.memberpath.com>. Cohen, R. (2010). Connecting residents of subsidized housing with mainstream supportive services: Challenges and recommendations. Center for Housing Policy; National Housing Conference; What Works Collaborative. Dejmal, A. (2013). Would a session in increasing resident/service coordinator engagement be beneficial? Survey. 10, September, 2013. Donovan, S. (2013). Multifamily housing: Service coordinator program. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD (2013) Semi-Annual Performance Report. Office on Housing: Housing and Urban Development (HUD). <http://www.portal.hud.gov>. Jung, L.A., and Baird, S. (2003). Effects of service coordinator variables on individualized family service plans. Journal of Early intervention.