Residential Services

Residential Services provides home-like environments to adults with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities in Jefferson and Blount Counties. Training focuses on enhancing skills in areas such as personal care and hygiene, domestic, social, and leisure skills training. Four different living options are available, depending on each resident’s individual needs. These are:

  1. Supervised Community Living Homes
  2. Semi-independent Living Homes
  3. Group Homes
  4. Retirement Settings

The goal of the program is to assist each resident with becoming as independent as possible.

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)

Each year, Residential Services develops a CQI Plan to evaluate its services and programs provided to consumers and their families. Results are then used to determine the effectiveness of the program and as a guide for efforts over the next year.

During 2007, family members of consumers enrolled in Residential Services gave the program an overall rating of 5.5 on a scale of 1-7, with 7 representing excellent.

Training in the Residential Services program focuses on each resident’s personal choices, interests, and talents. Residents typically train on 3 or 4 objectives at a time, with every objective being person-centered according to that person’s individual preferences. When a resident meets completion criteria, an objective is considered to be mastered. During 2007, a total of 51% of targeted objectives were mastered by residents.

As residents developed the skills necessary to live more independently, they progressed to more independent living situations. During 2007, a total of 12 residents graduated to less-restrictive living environments, thus making them more independent in the communities where they lived.

Curtis Has So Many Possibilities...

Curtis lives in a semi-independent living setting and works at a local Taco Bell. For over a year now, he has gotten himself up each morning, dressed independently, eaten, and gotten off to work so that he can earn his own paycheck as a viable contributing member of society. Curtis is excited about the possibilities the future holds!

What Family Members Said about Residential Services

“This program gives my son the opportunity to feel more independent. It also gives him a place where someone will take good care of him when we are no longer around.”

“The staff does a wonderful job. My son loves the program. When he visits us at home, he always comments on the good meals he eats in his Arc home!”

“The staff keeps me informed about everything. It always makes me feel good when I drop in to visit my daughter…everything is always so neat and clean.”