Sustainability Tools
The following tools, resources, webinars and funding guides are provided to assist Lifespan Respite grantees and their partners in sustaining their Lifespan Respite grant and State Respite Coalition activities. The resources should be useful to others in the respite network as well.
Sustaining Lifespan Respite Systems: Lessons Learned and Practical Applications with a Checklist for Success
Author: Susan Janko Summers, PhD, ARCH
With technical assistance from ARCH and The Finance Project, eight Exemplar States chosen from among the Lifespan Respite grantees and partners, worked to develop comprehensive state sustainability plans for lifespan respite care. Through in-depth interviews conducted as part of an evaluation of The Finance Project ’s technical assistance efforts, the Exemplar States shared the wisdom they gained from their actual experience in developing Sustainability Plans. Their challenges and successes, along with experiences shared by other states undertaking sustainability planning activities, informed this document on Lessons Learned in sustainability.
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Infographic: What’s the Key Ingredient for a Successful, Sustainable Coalition?
Author: Casandra Firman, ARCH
As Lifespan Respite grantees and their State Respite Coalition partners work to build diverse and meaningful partnerships for sustainability, ARCH developed this infographic to reflect lessons learned.
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Tools for Sustainability: Financing Strategies for Lifespan Respite Programs, State Respite Coalitions, and Provider Agencies
This tool, Financing Strategies for Lifespan Respite Programs, State Respite Coalitions, and Provider Agencies, provides overarching strategies and proven practical approaches paired with real-world state and local examples that have been successfully implemented to sustain respite and caregiver support services. …
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Tools for Collaboration: Building and Sustaining Partnerships for Lifespan Respite Care Programs
This fact sheet provides definitions of different levels of collaboration and answers the questions: Why is collaboration a priority area for the Lifespan Respite Care Program? and What does collaboration in Lifespan Respite Care Programs mean? Also provided are state examples of effective collaborations…
Read More and DownloadThe Lifespan Respite Sustainability Toolkit, developed by The Finance Project in collaboration with ARCH, includes:
The Finance Project's Sustainability Planning Workbook, a comprehensive tool composed of five modules and a CD-ROM that helps users clarify their vision, identify key issues in sustaining their work, and develop strategies to achieve long-term goals. While the materials in the Workbook are focused on services for children and families, the strategies and training modules for sustainability planning are relevant across the age and disability spectrum.*
- Sustainability Planning Workbook Implementation Guide for Lifespan Respite Grantees and Partners designed to guide you through the Sustainability Planning Workbook. The guide highlights sustainability strategies specific to sustaining Lifespan Respite grant activities and State Respite Coalitions.
- A Matrix of Modules, Tasks, Tools, and Resources for Sustaining Lifespan Respite Systems serves as an interactive table of contents for the Workbook and its five modules.
- Worksheet 1: Workplan for Sustainability Planning to help you get started.
- A sample Sustainability Plan Outline to guide you through development and writing of your final plan.
- Finance Project Logic Model (posted with permission from The Finance Project)
- Financing Strategies Matrix
If you want to start more slowly with self assessment and figuring out what to sustain, see Getting Started with Sustainability Planning on this page.
Getting Started: A Sustainability Self-Assessment Tool
Sustaining initiatives such as Lifespan Respite programs, coalitions or networks depends on developing a clear, sensible, and convincing plan for marshalling the key resources that are necessary to continue (and often to expand) your work. However, in order to develop a sustainability plan detailing where you want to go, a necessary first step is to take stock of where you currently are.
The Uses of the Self-Assessment Process
This tool is intended to help leaders who are working to sustain respite services to assess their progress and identify areas that need extra attention, resources, or technical assistance. This diagnostic process can provide valuable information to guide the development of your sustainability plan, for example, to capitalize on the assets in your community, as well as to plan for the development of additional capacity in areas that need strengthening. This tool can also help you make decisions about how to target scarce resources to move toward sustainability. This tool is part of The Finance Project’s Sustainability Planning Workbook, a comprehensive toolkit for developing a sustainability plan.
Access the Sustainability Self-Assessment Tool
Getting Started: What to Sustain and the Needed Resources
Adapted from the Finance Project Sustainability Project
Acess the Getting Started Worksheets
If you don’t want to tackle the full Finance Sustainability Project Workbook and its five modules, it’s too overwhelming currently, or you aren’t sure you have the time, committed stakeholders, or resources to do so, a productive and much simpler way to begin is to figure out what you want to sustain and to brainstorm needed resources. Using these four worksheets is a pragmatic first step to sustainability planning.
See also the webinar on Introduction to a Framework for Sustainability Planning
Funding Sustainability for Lifespan Respite Programs, Part II: Examples from the States
Examples from the States As federal, state, and even private funding sources remain extremely limited, state Lifespan Respite grantees and their partners will have to work creatively to maximize and more efficiently identify and use available resources to ensure the viability of their Lifespan Respite…
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Introduction to a Framework for Sustainability Planning
The goal of the webinar is to introduce a comprehensive approach to sustainability planning for Lifespan Respite grantees and their partners. The interactive webinar presents a framework for sustainability planning that provides grantees with a process for working with their partners and other key leaders…
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Federal Funding and Support Opportunities for Respite
Building Blocks for Lifespan Respite Systems This guide provides information about each of the federal programs that provides or could potentially provide respite funding or support. It is meant to be used by state Lifespan Respite Care Programs and their partners as a sustainability tool…
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Medicaid Waivers for Respite Support
This information is currently being updated. For the most recent information, please visit State Waivers List on Medicaid.gov. State-by-State Summaries of Medicaid Waiver Information Author: Kathy Mayfield-Smith, Research Associate Professor, Division of Medicaid Policy Research, Institute for Families in Society at the University of South Carolina…
View MorePlease find state sustainability plans, logic models for sustainability planning and other written sustainability materials that states have chosen to share with their peers across states.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Lifespan Respite Coalition Sustainability Logic Model
Nebraska
Respite Sustainability Plans
- Respite Across the Lifespan
- Nebraska Lifespan Respite SFY 2017 Sustainability Plan
- Northern Region Respite Network
- Central Region Respite Network
- Southeast Region Respite Network
- Southwest Region Respite Network
- Western Region Respite Network
- University of Nebraska Medical Center - Munroe Meyer Institute
Work Plans
Logic Models
Nevada
Listen to the recorded presentation of Cory Lutz from the NV Lifespan Respite Coalition on this tool.
New York
Lifespan Respite Final Sustainability Report 2022
New York Lifespan Respite Sustainability Retreat Agenda
New York State Lifespan Logic Model for Sustainability
Lifespan Respite Financing Strategies Logic Model
Pennsylvania
PA Lifespan Respite Summary Report
PA Logic Model with Recommendations for
Sustainability Planning
States Share Sustainability Planning Process and Progress at the 2014 Lifespan Respite Grantee and Partner Learning Symposium, Nashville, TN
- Joan Rafferty and Amy Nazaire, MA Lifespan Respite Coalition, PPT Presentation
- Ellen Nau, VA Lifespan Respite grantee and VA Caregiver Coalition, PPT Presentation
The group meets on the fourth Friday of every month at 12:00 PM Eastern for one hour to share progress made in sustainability planning using the Finance Project Toolkit or other useful planning tools.
Discussions focus on challenges encountered by group members and strategies used to overcome barriers, successful collaboration building techniques, financing strategies, data collection and more. Participants actively seek guidance and suggestions from each other about the sustainability planning process, and share their own progress in real time. The group is facilitated by ARCH consultant, Susan Janko Summers, PhD.
Visit the Sustainability Planning Learning Collaborative for meeting recordings and shared resources.
To complement and enhance discussions of the Sustainability Planning Learning Collaborative (LC), the following documents and presentations were developed and shared by the LC facilitator, but may be of interest and use to others:
The Easy-Peasy Sustainability Planner for ACL-LR Applicants
Writing a Comprehensive Sustainability Plan and Finance Project Work Group Written Plan Case Study
Case Study for Writing a Sustainability Plan
Checking-in to Sustain Our Work
Defining Collaborative Communities
Contributions of time, talent and treasure in sustaining Lifespan Respite
Coalitions as a Tool for Advocacy
Sustainability Planning and Business Planning Compared
Forming, Building and Maintaining Coalitions
Respite Systems, Shared Leadership and Collaboration
What do you wish to sustain? Implications of Covid-19 on Lifespan Respite Sustainability Planning
Part 1: The Foundation for Sustainability: Empowering Leaders, Cultivating Partnerships, and Nurturing Mentorships
Part One of the Webinar Series on Sustaining Respite The Foundation for Sustainability: Empowering Leaders, Cultivating Partnerships, and Nurturing Mentorships This session offers guidance in forming and nurturing strong partnerships, the importance of shared leadership within and across organizations, and ways to mentor and support strong respite leaders over time. Presenter Talena Ford, Programs Administrator, Community Engagement & Coalitions, Community Living, Aging and Protective Services (CAP), Oklahoma Department of Human Services Read more about the Webinar…
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Part 2: The Evolution of Sustainability: Planning, Measuring, and Pivoting
Part Two of the Webinar Series on Sustaining Respite The Evolution of Sustainability: Planning, Measuring, and Pivoting This session offers practical guidance in respite systems planning — including who, when, where, how, and why; finding and working with a facilitator; and the importance of circling back and revising plans based on data that informs wise decisions. Presenters: Abbey Derepentigny, Caregiver Support Program Assistant Director, Division of Policy, Planning, Program and Outcomes, New York State Office…
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Part 3: The Art of Sustainability: Developing and Maintaining Resources
Part 3 of the Webinar Series on Sustaining Respite The Art of Sustainability: Developing and Maintaining Resources This session offers practical guidance in developing and diversifying resources from the ground up, ways to reduce risks and threats to sustainability, and strategies for securing funding and using it to build lasting respite infrastructure. Presenter Tracy Cieniewicz, Alabama Lifespan Respite, a Project of UCP of Huntsville and Tennessee Valley New Resource: To supplement the webinar information, please…
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