“Every year, thousands of people with disabilities, family members and support professionals in Pennsylvania are interviewed by the Independent Monitoring for Quality (IM4Q) project to learn about the overall quality of life for people who receive support through the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) in Pennsylvania. The key objective of IM4Q is to provide information that might help improve the quality of life of people with disabilities.”*
The Institute on Disabilities at Temple University developed the program along with stakeholders, and it creates the surveys, provides training and technical assistance to the interviewers, analyzes the data, and produces an annual statewide summary report along with reports for each county program.
The Arc of Indiana County participated in the pilot program in 1999 and, in addition to Indiana and Armstrong counties, today manages the IM4Q program in five additional Pennsylvania counties — Clearfield, Jefferson, Forest, Warren and Potter.
*Institute on Disabilities, Temple University