News from the USA Hub

We're thrilled to share that the Self-Direction Center hosted the National Self-Direction Conference in Minneapolis from May 27–29. 

This conference has been bringing our community together for almost twenty years, and this was our first time hosting it as a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Just over 400 people joined us for three days of incredible discussion.

The feedback has been wonderful, and we think one of the keys to the event's success was our travel grant, which made it possible for many people who self-direct, and family members of people who self-direct, to be in the room.

Including people with lived experience in the conversation was critically important to us — as was bringing together a great mix of state administrators, provider agencies, financial management services providers, researchers, and national experts to dig into some of the stickiest, most important topics alongside the people the system is meant to serve.

One of the things we were most excited about, and one of the most popular parts of the conference, was our hackathon. In the lead-up, we polled the community to identify the five biggest challenges facing self-direction:

1. Ensuring everyone who self-directs gets quality Information & Assistance support
2. Making self-direction easier to use and less bureaucratic
3. Recruiting and retaining the workforce
4. Protecting programs from funding cuts
5. Taking back the narrative on fraud while maintaining program integrity

We held facilitated conversations on each, and participants are now carrying that work forward together with the Center — which will shape our work going forward. 

We look forward to continuing to collaborate with our community, and to sharing with the international network everything we keep learning.

Photography Credit: Justin Cox Photography