First In Families of NC Recognized with Individual and Family Initiatives Innovation Award

Pinehurst, NC (December 6, 2018). First In Families NC (FIFNC) has won the i2i Center’s Individual and Family Initiatives Innovation award for 2018. i2i’s Executive Director Mary Hooper explained, “The purpose of the Innovation Awards is to recognize innovation in services and programming to increase integrated, whole person approaches to care. This was the first year for the award program and the award for Individual and Family Initiatives is given to a program or service led by individuals and/or family members to improve the lives of those served in the public MH/IDD/SUD system. FIFNC’s program’s and services are first rate in involving individuals and family members in their own care and providing the supports necessary to live a full life.”

First In Families of North Carolina (FIFNC) supports people with disabilities and their families throughout all 100 counties of North Carolina to meet crucial, self-defined needs necessary to live in, connect with, and give back to their communities. Sometimes referred to as social determinants of health, or healthy opportunities, such needs are widely recognized and proven to be vital to whole person and whole family health. FIFNC believes that individuals and families are the experts on their needs and does not offer any specific menu of services. FIF meets these needs through two key programs; Family Support and Lifetime Connections. Both short-term and long-term goals can be met through FIF’s provision of needed goods and/or services, education, and future planning support (including Lifetime Connections personal networks). FIF also provides information, referral and system navigation, typically serving largely people not connected to formal services.

At the awards ceremony, FIFNC highlighted the story of Logan Chatman and his family. Logan is 28 and experienced a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) at 13. When he joined Lifetime Connections in 2011, he was experiencing a great deal of social isolation, exacerbated by anger, frustration and impulse control. His parents struggled to support his behavioral needs and were at their wits end when they approached FIF.

Through Logan’s Network, he obtained and has maintained employment at the dining hall of a major university since 2014, has a robust social circle and regularly supports other Lifetime Connections members to meet their goals. He volunteers throughout the state, speaking to provider networks, self-advocates and family members about self-advocacy, Networks and Supported Decision-Making.

His Network also played an integral role in connecting him to formal supports through the Medicaid Innovations waiver.
Because of his Network, Logan’s life and support needs are now markedly different and more nuanced than when he first became a member 6 years ago. He is now a happy, employed, young man with a robust social circle.

Logan’s father, Russ Chatman credits Lifetime Connections of FIFNC with providing his family peace of mind about his (and their) future, stating “I’ve got a different perspective for his [Logan’s] future. I feel like as time goes on he will meet more people who will help him make sound decisions, even after I’m gone.”

First In Families was started in 1995 by parents who believed the community was rich in untapped resources, including the gifts and talents of those with disabilities and their families. They crafted a way to support people with disabilities and their families to live in – and contribute back- to their communities. The ensuing model supports families while also being guided by their expertise. It is an integral complement to the formal service system and leverages private dollars. FIFNC has received recognition as a promising practice for family support by public and private policy entities, including the NC Council on Developmental Disabilities, University of Illinois Department of Disability and Human Development, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. FIFNC won the GlaxoSmithKline Impact award in 2015.

More information on FIFNC and its initiatives can be found at www.fifnc.org.

About i2i Center for Integrative Health

The mission of the i2i Center is to foster collaborative and evidence-based initiatives for improving the quality and efficacy of the behavioral health, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and substance use care and support services systems within a comprehensive system of whole person care. The i2i Center accomplishes its mission by: convening stakeholders; strategizing solutions and activating change.