My Voice, My Choice to Continue

The Ohio Department of MRDD has decided to "go in another direction" and is not going to fund the My Voice, My Choice project beyond June 30, 2007.

First of all, we want to thank everyone who has participated in this project for the past 6+ years for your on-going support. Without the support from County Boards and providers, we could not have been successful. We have been able to empower people with disabilities all over the State of Ohio to use their voices to express choice about their service providers. We have also had a positive impact on the quality of services provided by organizations as they responded to the results of the report card. For the last 6+ years, we have done a tremendous service to individuals with disabilities, their families and service providers.

Second, we are planning to forge ahead! We would like to make the project available to counties who want to participate (day program or residential report card). Our interviewers and project staff will continue to work with us as we redesign the project to meet the needs of individual counties and/or providers. We still have trained and certified interviewers who are available to conduct all types of consumer satisfaction surveys for your organization. And, our support staff is still available to help with mailing guardian packets, tabulation of results, and reporting results.

My Voice, My Choice will be offered on a “fee basis” to any county or private provider who wants to participate. The fee will be based on the number of people to interview on-site and the number of guardian packet mailings. Since we are no longer under our current funding constraints, we will be able to negotiate with individual counties and/or providers to best meet your needs. Make My Voice, My Choice a part of your organization’s on-going quality assurance efforts. My Voice, My Choice remains one of the few tools that you can use to ensure that individuals are getting un-biased, independent information in order to exercise Free Choice of Provider!!

The My Voice, My Choice project can be customized for your organization. Some options may include:

• Questions can be added to the Report Card to meet the individual needs of your organization.
  
• Hire our project staff to handle all guardian packet mailings (no more labeling and stamping).
  
• Determine your own frequency schedule
  
• Determine your own “sample size” – you decide who participates (remember – changes in the administration methods or participation levels will affect the reliability of the instrument)
  
• Web based survey applications
  
• Other options – contact us!!

If you would like further information about how the My Voice, My Choice Report Card Project can be customized for your organization, please contact Project Directors:

Susan Dlouhy at: NorwichCS@aol.com or
Jackie Teny-Miller at: JTenym10@aol.com.

And, again, THANK YOU!!!!

Results from the current day program report card interviews will be finalized by June 30, 2007.

Results will remain on our web site until the end of the calendar year: www.myvoicemychoice.com.