Sibling/Family Workshops on Future Planning
Training Staff: Tamar Heller, PhD, Don Meyer, PhD, Sharon Davis, PhD, Anne Guthrie, & John Kramer, MS

The RRTC will revise its future planning curriculum for families and their adult relative with I/DD to include siblings without disabilities. The goal is to increase the likelihood that sibling dyads will make future plans by increasing their knowledge of I/DDfuture planning resources and information, enhancing the reciprocal nature of their relationship, and improving their advocacy and conflict resolutions skills. The curriculum will be expanded to include two new sessions that address legal and financial issues and age-related changes for adults with developmental disabilities that include parents as well as siblings. Siblings will be recruited from The Arc’s innovative national Sibling Support Project. The outcomes of forty siblings who receive the training will be compared to a group of siblings who do not receive the training. A train-the –trainer model program will be developed and provided to agencies in Illinois and in Washington after the curriculum has been evaluated and will also be disseminated nationally through The Arc’s extensive network.

The Illinois Department on Aging will continue to use the “The Future is Now” training at two additional sites for its National Family Caregiver Support Program demonstration funded by the AoA. The RRTC will provide technical assistance in evaluating future planning outcomes. The original and sibling versions of the future planning curriculum will be translated into Spanish. The RRTC will also encourage agencies to adapt the curricula to different cultures to expand this training among culturally diverse and underserved populations. The curriculum is being used nationally (e.g., Tierra del Sol in California is instituting the training for the entire agency).