Overview
Borrowing from the experience of pilot projects around the world the academic and practice expertise of our Hunter/CUNY faculty associates, and in consultation with New York Alliance for Inclusion & Innovation, we have developed a facilitation model by which persons with I/DD can choose trusted persons—often family members, neighbors or friends—to support them in making decisions in a variety of areas.
In our process, a trained facilitator, supervised by an experienced mentor, works with the person with I/DD (who we call the “Decision-Maker” or DM) and his or her chosen supporters to negotiate and formalize an agreement, the Supported Decision Making Agreement, or SDMA that sets out the obligations and responsibilities of the parties.