OK-AIM (Advocates Involved in Monitoring) offers an opportunity for adults with disabilities, their family members and other interested citizens to help improve the quality of life of people with disabilities who live independently or with assistance in the community. Volunteers throughout the state visit these individuals in their homes and talk with the people who provide services for them. All volunteers are trained and supervised by OK-AIM coordinators. Based on these visits, the teams evaluate the homes using a handbook which provides a framework for rating characteristics of a person's living situation. The characteristics are chosen to reflect quality of life in four areas: staff, regard for the individual, personal growth, and physical setting.

Following each visit, team findings are compiled by the OK-AIM coordinators and the results are provided to the Department of Human Services (DHS)/Developmental Disabilities Services Division (DDSD) and the service provider agency for use in increasing the quality of their programs.

For more information or to volunteer, call 800/688-8272, 918/582-8272 (Tulsa area), 405/557-1878 (OKC area), 580/223-8608 (Southern Oklahoma). OK-AIM is a project of TARC.

last modified: July 2000