Programs and services
This isn't a home aide who takes care of things for you. You're paired one to one with a Direct Support Professional who works alongside you, at home and out in your community, while you build the adult life you've decided on. What comes next stays your call.
Sometimes our job is to work ourselves out of a job. Some people get where they set out to go in a couple of years and get on with their lives. Some need support their whole adult lives, and the program is built for that too.
It's for you if you're an autistic adult eligible for services from the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS), with or without an intellectual disability. It doesn't stop at 22. It comes in two forms, and which one fits depends on where you live.
Living with family
This is In-Home Supports (IHS). The hours are usually fewer, and they fit around a household that already has its own rhythm.
Living on your own
This is Individualized Living Supports (ILS), for living on your own or mostly on your own. It comes with a regular block of hours, because more of the day-to-day is yours to run.
Reading for someone else
We know family members, guardians, service coordinators and other trusted supporters are often part of exploring and connecting with services. We welcome your involvement while keeping the individual at the center. Their goals, preferences, choices and voice guide the supports we build together.
In-Home Supports and Individualized Living Supports are DDS services, so the way in runs through DDS.
Approval from DDS
One of them has to be part of the services DDS has approved for you. Your DDS service coordinator, the person at DDS who arranges your services, sets that up.
A referral to us
Your coordinator refers you to us. There's no way to sign up directly, so the referral is how everyone comes in.
Funding handled
There's no way to pay privately. Your coordinator works out funding and approval with us, and that part isn't on your shoulders.
If you don't have DDS yet, our Family Support team will help you apply. It can take several months, and they'll be alongside you for all of it.
What you actually work on
Whatever matters for the life you're building. Here's how that tends to go.
You choose what matters
For some people it's daily living: cooking, shopping, budgeting, keeping a household running. For some it's getting out in the world: getting around, keeping appointments, working through problems as they come up, speaking up for yourself and having it land. For some it's people: friendships, hobbies, the parts of a life that aren't tasks. You don't have to take on all of it at once, and what you choose can change as your life does.
You map it in steps
We use a planning tool called Charting the Life Course, which comes out of the University of Missouri–Kansas City and which DDS uses too. It maps where you want to get to and breaks that into steps small enough to actually take. When life doesn't cooperate, you change the map.
You do the trying
The idea underneath all of this has a name: dignity of risk. A life you've chosen involves getting things wrong sometimes, and protecting somebody from that also protects them from learning. So your Direct Support Professional is there while you try, not instead of you trying, and getting something wrong is part of the work.
The point is the day you stop asking can I and say I can.
How to get connected
Your call
Your kitchen, your recipe, your call on the salt. Your Direct Support Professional brings ideas, and the decisions stay yours.
Questions people actually ask
Individualized Support is how Community Autism Resources (CAR) works with autistic adults who want more choice and control over their own lives. It's a partnership. Your Direct Support Professional doesn't take things over; they work alongside you on the skills, confidence and connections you choose. For one person that's cooking, budgeting and running a household. For another it's finding work, building friendships or learning to speak up for what they want. There's no set curriculum. It comes in two forms, In-Home Supports and Individualized Living Supports, both funded through the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS).
Where you live. In-Home Supports (IHS) is for adults living with family, usually with fewer hours fitted around the household. Individualized Living Supports (ILS) is for adults living on their own or mostly on their own, with a regular block of hours, because more of the day-to-day is theirs to run. Both are DDS services, delivered by the same team of Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) working the same way.
Autistic adults who are eligible for DDS services, with or without an intellectual disability, and who have IHS or ILS as part of the services DDS has approved for them. It continues past 22. If you're not connected with DDS yet but think you might qualify, our Family Support team can help you apply.
Through your DDS service coordinator, the person at DDS who arranges your services. Ask them for IHS or ILS with Community Autism Resources by name, since not every coordinator knows we offer it. They send the referral, and we work out funding and approval with them, so that part isn't on your shoulders. If you don't know who your coordinator is, call us and we'll find out with you.
We can help. Our Family Support team takes families through DDS eligibility all the time, and they'll tell you honestly what to expect. It takes time, often several months, and there's no shortcut. What they bring is knowing the process, sitting with you through the paperwork, and answering DDS's questions from your side of the table.
Direct Support Professionals work alongside you on whatever matters for the life you're building: cooking and meal planning, budgeting, shopping, running a household, getting around, making and keeping appointments, building friendships, hobbies, speaking up for yourself, or work. Those are examples, not a list to choose from. What you work on is your call. We plan it with Charting the Life Course, a tool DDS uses too, which breaks big goals into small steps you can revisit as your life changes.
Your DSP picks you up at home and you head out into the community, or you meet at the CAR office and work on something you've chosen. Sometimes it's an errand, but the errand isn't the point. You're at the grocery store because you're working out how to shop the way you want to, not because something needs buying. The same goes for cooking, appointments and community events. The activity is real, and the goal it serves is yours.
A home health aide or caregiver is there to take care of tasks. A Direct Support Professional is there so you can learn to handle them your way: cooking the meals you want, working out a budget that holds up, getting comfortable with errands you'd otherwise skip. Sometimes that means learning something new. Sometimes it means getting through something that's always been hard, with someone beside you until it isn't. The idea underneath it is called dignity of risk. Trying, sometimes getting it wrong, and trying again is how anyone builds a life, and support means the freedom to do that, not protection from it.
As long as it's useful. Some people work with us for a few years, reach the goals they set and move on, sometimes coming back later for something specific. Others need support for the long term, and the program is built for that too. What we won't do is decide for you that it's time to stop. That's a conversation you're part of.
You can. Each CAR program has its own approval from DDS, so start by telling your service coordinator what you'd like to try. Because DDS already knows you through CAR, that's usually a short conversation, and we handle the rest. If you're thinking about college, that might be the Gottschall Access Program (GAP). If you're already enrolled somewhere, it might be College Navigation. Healthy Relationships & PEERS® works differently, and its own page explains how to sign up.
One-to-one time is what surfaces what somebody actually wants, and once it's said out loud, we can do something about it. Inside CAR, this program is often the connecting link to everything else.
Moving to another program is planned, not starting over.
Each CAR program has its own approval from DDS. Tell your service coordinator what you'd like to try next. Because DDS already knows you through CAR, that's usually a short conversation, and we handle the rest.
Thinking about college?
The Gottschall Access Program.
Already in college?
College Navigation.
Friendships, dating, relationships?
Healthy Relationships & PEERS®.
Need a device to try, or a custom visual?
Assistive Technology.
Questions about your family, or a family member who needs support of their own?
Family Support.
