Initiative Description
FAAST expanded its Regional Demonstration Center program from 6 locations to 11 in FY 2022. The expansion was part of FAAST's three-year Strategic Plan to improve equity amongst FAAST service by ensuring more geographical locations in Florida are being served. New partners hosting Regional Demonstration Centers are CIL Jacksonville, CIL of North Central Florida, CIL of Central Florida, CIL of Broward, and CIL Gulf Coast. Services provided by Regional Demonstration Centers (RDCs) are information and assistance, device demonstrations, device training, and short-term device loans. These new RDCs expanded FAAST's outreach to rural counties. Federal and state AT Act funding were used to support these new RDCs.
Lessons Learned/Replication
FAAST was able to provide roughly 2,000 additional AT services to Floridians. Onboarding new RDCs was a challenge. The last time a new RDC was added was in 2015 and none of FAAST's current staff were a part of that process. FAAST headquarters' staff underestimated the number of hours needed to bring a new partner up to speed on AT services. Many of the new partners took four quarters before they were fully delivering the number of services assigned to them. More Floridians had access to AT services as a result of nearly doubling the number of locations providing our services. Because new partners were Centers for Independent Living (CILs), this created a stronger collaboration between FAAST and the IL network in Florida. Awareness also increased among CIL staff. Before this expansion, FAAST was mostly serving six metro areas in Florida, with the entire southeast portion of the state being underserved. New RDCs were established in Gainesville, Lakeland, Ft. Lauderdale, and Ft. Myers. The partnerships were a success due to the diligence of both FAAST and CIL staff. These teams were dedicated to serving Floridians who have disabilities and worked to ensure that AT services were provided in their area. A discussion with the AT Advisory Council determined that doubling the RDCs was the best way to take advantage of budget opportunities and staff time. Though FAAST underestimated the time needed to onboard, it was an exercise worth repeating for any programs interested in expanding. FAAST was funding the RDC program for 6 RDCs at $90,000 each, with the same amount of services provided at each location. To invest in the expanded model, FAAST reallocated an additional $76,000 in its annual budget to support the expansion. The total RDC program budget went from $540,000 to $616,000. This amount was then divided among RDC locations based on the population of people who have disabilities living in each county in their services area based on the ACS 2019 data. This model is set to continue, with the hopes of expanding to additional locations when more funding can be achieved.