Systemic Change for the P&A

How to achieve the greatest impact for the populations you serve

Learning Objectives

• Define Systemic Change• Be able to identify opportunities for

Systemic Change• Identify the P&A intervention strategies for

Systemic Change• Determine how to decide whether to move

forward with Systemic Change• List the elements of a strategic plan for

Systemic Change

Systemic Change

• Defined for the P&A – – Systemic change is the act of altering an

obstacle built within a system that is discriminatory, either on its face or in practice, against a group of people with disabilities for the purpose of effecting lasting change that furthers the mission of the P&A.

Systemic Change• Altering an obstacle

– Policy, law, process, practice, attitude, operation

– Can you think of any examples?

• Within a system

– Government, business, provider

– Health care, transportation, mental health care, housing,

advocacy, legal, employment, rehabilitation, education, post-

secondary education, disability services and finance

– Can you think of other systems?

Systemic Change

• Discriminatory – Treated differently from others, not receiving services others have,

not being treated as an equal, voice is not listened to, choice denied– What would you consider to be discriminatory?

• Group of people– Evaluation of the impact can verify that resources are better applied

in a cost-benefit analysis

• Lasting change– There is not a reversion to the discriminatory act after a change in

leadership or other situation.

Systemic Change

• Because systemic change attacks an issue that impacts a group of

people, it is a more impactful approach to many problems than

addressing issues on an individual basis.

– Example: DOC litigation – impacts the entire Indiana correctional

system relative to prisoners with mental illness – potentially over 5000

individual cases could have resulted in this year alone.

The goal of Systemic Change is to effect a lasting change that

impacts a group and supports the mission of the P&A.

Finding Obstacles

• Talk to people with disabilities

• Obtain public input on annual goals and objectives• News – state and local news outlets, social media,

what’s trending on a national level – what are other P&As doing?

• Conduct outreach to underserved groups and listen to what they have to say

• Connect with partners, particularly the DD Network, for

input

Finding Obstacles• Personal observation / work & life experience of staff, board

members, advisory council

• Use of internal team meetings

• Review the data - needs assessments, official reports,

internal I&R data

• Conduct targeted surveys - people, groups, organizations

• Go to conferences and talk to attendees for trends• Get out of the box and look at other angles - PWD are

impacted every day in different ways

Legal Interventions

• Impact litigation / class litigation

• Filing complaints with DOJ

• Amicus briefs

• Providing public comment / testimony on disability

legislation

• Policy analysis and recommendation - white papers

Other Interventions

• Participation in advisory committees, task forces, etc.

• Using the media/getting publicity on a topic

• Collaboration with other groups

• Building a coalition to attack the issue

• Connecting the source of the issue with resources

• Educating legislators

• Support self advocacy

Applying Interventions

• Systemic change will often require an approach that uses multiple types of interventions.– What interventions might go hand-in-hand?

• When the desired outcome requires multiple levels of advocacy, a strong strategic plan will be a key for achieving success.

Strategic Planning

• Indiana’s process: – Once an obstacle has been identified, it is reviewed and

discussed by the Systemic Review Committee.– Several questions are asked including:

• Does it further the mission of P&A?• Will this impact the current set of goals and priorities?• What is the milieu surrounding this issue?• Does P&A have enough resources for fiscal expenditures and staff

time?• Does P&A have capacity and access to the needed intervention

strategies?– If leadership approves a systemic project to move forward, a

project manager is assigned and a strategic plan is developed.

The Strategic Plan

• Developing a strategic plan – What interventions will be used? Resources needed?– Strategic partnerships?– Cultural competency – is training needed?– Timeline?– Anticipated outcomes– Plan for research and evaluation once the plan is completed

Now, get to work!