Community Inclusion at UCP
"Choices" is UCP's community inclusion program. The program currently provides support to 60-70 adults as they participate in community-based recreation, leisure, education, or the pre-employment activities of their choice.
What is the mission of the Choices program?
To positively affect the lives of individuals in our program through community integration/inclusion, while fostering independence and confidence. To provide the people we support the resources and options necessary to live full, content lives.
For staff, what are the best things about UCP’s Choices Program?
The diverse group of individuals we provide services to. Our staff’s opportunity to keep in consistent contact with the people that we support. This is not the type of job that consigns someone to becoming a nameless face in a cube. In the Choices program, staff get to go out and interact with a plethora of interesting and unique people each and every day. Whether it is seeing the people we support as they arrive at the office for the day, chatting with them during lunch, or going out in the community to share in some new adventure, our staff are genuinely invested in their lives rather than just being a silent observer.
What does the Choices program offer the people who attend it?
The opportunity to interact and engage in their community. The opportunity to set and realize their goals, both big and small. The Choices program offers the people we support exactly what the name suggests: Choice. This is not a program bogged down by mundane and stifling micromanagement; it is one that gives the people in our services a voice in making the decisions that affect their lives.
What is a typical day like for the people we support in our Choices Program?
The good thing about UCP’s Choices program is there isn’t such a thing as typical. We provide services to about 70 individuals and each person has a different typical day. With a vast wealth of unique individuals and diverse personalities, a day in the Choices program ranges anywhere from volunteering at the local dog shelter, to painting a picture while hanging out with friends, to horseback riding and almost anything else you could imagine. Some people arrive at UCP on the Tri-Met Lift bus, some people get picked up at home, and some people get dropped off in the community, but the one thing everyone can be assured of, is that wherever they’re going, they’re going as a part of UCP.
Can you tell me success stories that the people you support have experienced while in your program?
Some of our biggest successes have been when individuals actualize their goals. Whether that’s finding paid or volunteer employment, completing an educational class or getting their highest bowling score, no success is small in the Choices Program.
Find Out More:
For more information about Community Inclusion (or to make a referral) contact:
Todd Redford, Choices Program Manager
phone: 503/777-4166 x331 or 1-800-473-4581
email: