Resources and tools

Informed choice

Helpful links

• Choice and control: Reflections on informed choice (PDF). Choice and control are simple labels for complex issues. This article explains the challenges and nuances of informed choice.
• Facilitating choices (PDF). This step-by-step guide from MAINS'L helps support the choice-making process.
• NASDDDS informed choice resource library. Explore national reports, policy research, briefs and other resources compiled by the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services. 
• Informed decision making: Train the trainer curriculum. This training from the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals offers best practices for informed decision making. It's designed for direct support professionals, families and others to better understand the importance of supporting people with disabilities to make their own choices.
• Employment and employment supports: A guide to ensuring informed choice for individuals with disabilities. This brief from the Institute for Community Inclusion provides guidance on how to put people with disabilities at the center of the employment decision-making process, making sure they have the necessary information to make an informed choice about work.
• Guidance for conversations: Identifying and designing pathways toward rewarding employment (PDF). This booklet from the State Employment Leadership Network offers an introduction to guided conversations about employment — how to help people process information, draw their own conclusions and make their own decisions.

Supported decision making

Helpful links

• Introduction and guide to supported decision making. This video series hosted by Jonathan Martinis, a national expert on disability law and policy, offers an introduction to supported decision making and why the right to make choices is fundamental to our identity and well-being. 
• Finding the right fit: Decision-making supports and guardianship. This online course from the National Resource Center for Supported Decision Making provides interactive, user-friendly guidance on supported decision making based on realistic scenarios.
• Supported decision-making tool. This Charting the LifeCourse tool provides an easy way to review various aspects of life decisions and then consider the level of support needed for each. 
• How to make a supported decision-making agreement (PDF). This guide from the American Civil Liberties Union offers a step-by-step approach to supported decision making, including templates for supported decision-making agreements.
• My voice counts: A self-advocate's guide to supported decision making (PDF). This guide from the Self Advocacy Speaker's Network is designed to help self-determined people think about the ways in which their voices can be heard when making both simple and hard decisions.
• Guide to supported decision making in Minnesota: A resource for families and other supporters (PDF). This resource from the Volunteers of America covers guardianship and less restrictive alternatives, plus supported decision making in the context of guardianship.
• Supported decision-making resource library. This collection of resources from the American Civil Liberties Union includes general information, a video library, interactive tools and more.

Person-centered resources

Helpful links

• Focused on control and choice, the Disability Hub booklet What does person-centered mean for me? (PDF) helps people with disabilities talk about what they want with the people who support them.
• The It's my choice workbook (PDF) was created by the Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities to help people with developmental disabilities build their person-centered plans.
• Use the Charting the LifeCourse framework and tools to learn more about the people you serve and help them set goals, problem-solve and build plans for the future.
• Helen Sanderson Associates offers a full collection of person-centered thinking tools, including worksheets, videos, trainings and other tools.
• The Learning Community for Person-Centered Practices is a global learning community focused on person-centered thinking. 
• Positive Supports Minnesota is for all people who want to be respected, have choices and feel safe. 
• The Minnesota Department of Human Services person-centered practices page provides an overview of person-centered practices.
• The National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPSS) maintains a national clearinghouse of resources and monthly webinars that are archived and available to the public.

Minnesota's Olmstead Plan

Key activities to support life in the most integrated setting

Minnesota's Olmstead Plan is a broad series of key activities the state must accomplish to ensure people with disabilities live, learn, work and enjoy life in the most integrated setting. 

Related resources

Housing toolkit, work toolkit, reflections on informed choice

• Use our housing toolkit to help people explore housing options and reach their housing goals.
• Use our work toolkit to introduce the idea of work and help people take steps toward rewarding employment.
• Use our benefits planning toolkit to learn how benefits support work and help people get ahead through work.
• The article Choice and control: Reflections on informed choice (PDF) explains the challenges and nuances of informed choice.