Earlier this week, Bridgeway was informed that they would be the recipient of the 2022 IPS Learning Community Achievement Award for their Community Employment Services. The IPS Learning Community Achievement Award is given to an IPS (Individual Placement and Support) site that has been part of the International IPS Learning Community for at least 2 years and has shown significant improvement in either the number of people who have received IPS or the number of people working in competitive jobs, relative to their context (e.g., rural sites, urban sites). This is an international award that signifies “best IPS site of the year.”
Bridgeway was nominated for this award by the Illinois IPS Training team through the Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health. Bridgeway’s Community Employment Services team has been very successful using the IPS Model, with 22 job starts in fiscal year 2020 and 28 job starts already for this fiscal year.
Community Employment is one of the cornerstones of Bridgeway’s diverse array of services helping their consumers lead lives of dignity, independence and respect by obtaining competitive employment. Bridgeway partners with countless area employers to help clients find jobs. They place individuals in jobs of their choice and help them achieve their personal vision of recovery and rehabilitation.
There are unique characteristics that make Bridgeway stand out as a leader in the IPS Field in Illinois. Bridgeway is the only IPS Provider who has an Agency Vice President, Sandy Wood, who has been certified as a Community Provider Fidelity Reviewer and she has been a Review Team Member on a number of Fidelity Reviews around the state. Bridgeway has stepped forward and implemented IPS in areas of the state where the local Community Mental Health Center has chosen not to provide IPS – Bloomington, Pekin, and now Rockford. Bridgeway has uniquely used tele‐psych to provide some of their psychiatric and clinical assessment services for their consumers in remote areas, as well as utilized podcasts and audio‐video to assist with training and advertisement. Bridgeway also serves a large population of persons with developmental disabilities using the IPS Principles and has been referred to as a “pioneer” for their service expansion to all people with disabilities.
Bridgeway will be presented with this award at the Annual International IPS Meeting in Detroit, Michigan in May of this year. For more information about Bridgeway’s services, visit www.bway.org.
***Report Courtesy of Bridgeway***
