SmartHome Residents Testing Technology To Assist In Employing Those With Disabilities

The proceeds from the Special Appeal at Friday night’s Imagine! Celebration Dinner and Auction will go to support Imagine!’s SmartHomes. This unique project is providing the residents who live in Imagine!'s two SmartHomes opportunities to use technology to increase their independence and community interaction.

The SmartHomes are also serving as laboratories of sorts to test and refine technologies that can be used to keep other individuals with developmental disabilities in their own homes longer, and to provide staff efficiencies to other residential service providers.

Here’s a great example of that second SmartHome goal in action: Several residents of the Bob and Judy SmartHome are helping to test some task prompting systems that may assist individuals with developmental disabilities in gaining and keeping meaningful employment.

The residents have teamed with the engineering team at Assistive Technology Partners to test an innovative project funded by the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) as part of the RERC-Workplace Accommodations Grant. This project is exploring the use of two different task prompting systems that could aid an individual with a disability in successfully performing assembly line tasks. Task prompting is similar to creating a check list to make sure the proper steps are being performed in the correct order for a given task.

The job that was chosen involves packaging Chocolate First Aid Kits. The first aid kits contain chocolate bars and bottles of chocolate candy. The kits are sold in gift shops throughout the United States.

The SmartHome residents are using two different types of prompting systems, so the researchers can compare the two systems and determine if one is more effective then the other. In both systems, there is a checklist or sequence of tasks that need to be preformed. In the first system, the individual must determine if the task has been performed and then hit a button to check it off the list and proceed to the next task. In the second system, a tool is developed to determine if the task has been performed. The tool utilizes sensors placed in the environment to know what has been completed. If the task has been completed, the next step is automatically presented.

The researchers hope to discover that the second system is more effective then one which relies on a human to hit a button to advance to the next step. The use of this information will be valuable in helping devise future projects for helping individuals with cognitive disabilities be successful in employment settings.

Thanks to Assistive Technology Partners for providing the information for this post, and for allowing SmartHome residents to take part in research that may have a powerful impact on their independence and quality of life.

It’s Not Too Late To Join Us At The Imagine! Celebration

The Imagine! Celebration, the annual fundraising event of the Imagine! Foundation, will honor the Foundation’s first decade and promises to be bigger and better than ever! In order to accommodate 400+ guests and approximately 200 auction items, the event will again be held at the newly renamed Plaza Hotel Longmont (formerly the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center). Some proceeds from the event will support Imagine!'s SmartHomes.

It’s not too late to put Friday, January 28, 2011 from 5:30-10:00 p.m. on your calendar! Special activities in celebration of the Foundation’s first ten years and its raising of $4,000,000 are planned.

Thanks to its popularity and proven results, electronic bidding will make its fourth appearance! The Imagine! Foundation was one of the first non-profits in the area to try electronic bidding three years ago, and it is now showing up at more and more events. It’s easy, fun, and allows guests to enter their bids on hand-held “tablets,” check periodically to see what items they are winning, and find “bargains,” all without having to leave their table or group.

As always, the announcement of the Consumer of the Year will be a highlight of the event.

See you on January 28th!

More info here.

Purchase tickets here.

Online auction here.

Bid On Auction Items Online!

The Imagine! Celebration Dinner and Auction is scheduled for Friday, January 28. Even if you can’t attend, you can participate in an online auction to support this ambitious project.

To do so, just click here. Once you go to the site, just enter a maximum amount for each item you wish to bid on. This bid will be incorporated into the Live Auction on the night of the event. The highest bidder acknowledged by the Auctioneer shall be the winning bidder. If you are the winning bidder and are not present at the event, you will be contacted within 24 hours of the close of the auction (approximately 9:00 p.m. on January 29, 2011). If you would like to secure and purchase the item today, you may acquire it for the Buy It Now price.

The items available for auction are pretty cool! There are trips galore from California to Greece, a Mediterranean feast and several other catered meals in your home, an elk hunt (see picture), fly-fishing expedition, sailing lessons, Disneyland tickets, an African safari, many restaurant certificates and hotel stays, and much, much more!

Innovations Brings Children ‘Home’

Here’s a nice story that illustrates just one of the many ways that Imagine! supports members of our community, and why your support of the Imagine! Foundation is so important. Thanks to Kristina Mondragon for sharing this story.

Note: The name of the individual used in this story has been changed.

Bob was nineteen years old and beginning to despair. He had been in the child welfare system for five years. For much of that time, he was hoping that he would find a foster home, but it hadn’t happened. “I didn’t know if there was a family out there for me,” he said. Then his caseworker referred Bob to Imagine!'s Innovations for Children department. Shortly thereafter, things began to change.

Bob was placed in a foster home in November, just before Thanksgiving. Bob’s foster parents opened their hearts and home to him and immediately made him part of the family. “I feel like I’m their son, and they support me in my goals,” Bob stated.

Over the past several weeks, Bob has enjoyed spending time with his new brothers and sisters, and has developed relationships with his foster parents’ extended family. Bob also started volunteering at a local food bank where he hopes to “learn job skills and help people who really need it.”

Just before the holiday season, Bob told his Imagine! placement worker, “This is the first time I have a family for the holidays and I think this year I will be happy.”

Imagine! Celebration Dinner And Auction Set For January 28

The Imagine! Foundation reaches its 10th anniversary this year. The Imagine! Celebration, the annual fundraising event of the Imagine! Foundation, will honor the Foundation’s first decade and promises to be bigger and better than ever!

In order to accommodate 400+ guests and approximately 200 auction items, the event will again be held at the newly renamed Plaza Hotel Longmont (formerly the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center). Please put Friday, January 28, 2011 from 5:30-10:00 p.m. on your calendar! Special activities in celebration of the Foundation’s first ten years and its raising of $4,000,000 are planned. As always, the announcement of the Consumer of the Year will be a highlight of the event.

Meanwhile, new and exciting auction items are arriving every day!

We’ll have trips galore from California to Greece, a Mediterranean feast and several other catered meals in your home, an elk hunt, fly-fishing expedition, sailing lessons, Disneyland tickets, many restaurant certificates and hotel stays, and much, much more!

More information about sponsors, auction items, and all of the festivities is available on the Imagine! website and the Imagine! Facebook page. Check back frequently for the latest updates!

Ticket and table prices remain the same as last year at $95/each for tickets and $1,250 for tables of ten.

Purchase tickets quickly and easily online.

Reserve now, and we’ll look forward to seeing you on January 28th!