News

Imagine if you were not allowed to make your own choices. What if decisions about your life - where you live, what you do, your health - were made by someone else, even if you felt capable of deciding for yourself? For many Pennsylvanians with disabilities, this is the reality under guardianship, a system that often removes personal autonomy.

To enhance the support it offers to people with disabilities, Achieva is creating an innovative supported decision making center that will offer individual support, resources, and policy/advocacy initiatives. This vital new resource will offer a person-centered alternative, empowering people with disabilities and their families with tools and resources to create plans that truly enable self-determined lives.

This free, person-centered support will meet people where they are, and will help them to identify what decisions they can make and what they need support with. This is a new tangible support option to help people create their plans for their life with the supporters they choose.

The initiative is designed to build strong, supportive teams, empowering people to make informed life decisions and using less restrictive options like medical or durable power of attorney. The Center aims to reduce the reliance on restrictive guardianship by fostering independence and ensuring voices are heard.

“I have Cerebral Palsy. My mom was telling me maybe I shouldn’t try to find another job because I had applied for several jobs and got rejected - she wanted me to quit looking, was afraid I’d get hurt. I don’t think my parents and family should be in charge of my life decisions - I would involve them, but I should decide. Achieva helped me to work through that with my mom, set goals for myself and my future decisions.”
- Kristen