Our Services and Philosophy
The most common misconception about United Cerebral Palsy of West Central Wisconsin is that the organization only assists individuals living with cerebral palsy; on the contrary, only 1 in 5 people we serve have cerebral palsy.
Our services help a wide array of people with varying levels of ability, families of people with disabilities, the elderly population in our community, and those struggling with issues of homelessness or housing insecurity. We do this through multiple core services including our Self-Directed Services (SDS), Housing Counseling service, Independent Living Program (ILP), and our equipment loan closet.
Through our Housing Counseling services, we work with individuals experiencing difficulties with securing appropriate and affordable housing to ensure they can secure and maintain a lease. We also provide educational materials and services to these clients to enable them to live productive and independent lives and build healthy living habits.
Our Independent Living Program specialists provide essential non-medical care and in-home services to clients to enable them to live life as independently and freely as possible. We believe that our clients deserve the highest quality of life possible and reflect that in the work we do.
Self-Directed Services are the current lifeblood of our organization. The process starts with client referral from an external source, typically through a Family Care or Managed Care Organization such as Inclusa, MyChoice Wisconsin, or IRIS. We also accept referrals from Children’s Long-Term Support (CLTS) Programs through multiple counties.
During the initial stages of the process, we determine the specific and unique individual needs of our clients and analyze how we can best serve them. We work side-by-side with our clients to understand their situation and assist them in learning to self-direct their care as both a person and as an employer. We value the role of our clients’ agency in directing their own care and becoming self-advocating entities because we believe these changes have a real, tangible impact on our community and lead to a substantially better quality of life for our clients.
Once we’ve assessed the situation, we establish the client as an employer so they may select their own caregivers and dictate the type of care they need. UCPWCW acts as a fiscal agent, handling complicated processes for the client like employer tax processes and caregiver payroll. In all aspects of the process, our role is to support our clients’ decisions.
The caregivers that our clients employ are just as essential to our Self-Directed Services as the clients themselves— without them, none of this would be possible. That’s why caregiver payroll is a process that our organization takes seriously. While we have a set payroll schedule with deadlines for timesheet turn-ins, we understand that our caregivers are human, and so are our own employees; there are bound to be errors along the way.
Our payroll process includes multiple steps to prevent errors in payment. After submission, we provide a 48-hour window for caregivers to correct errors on timesheets. We work with caregivers that submit timesheets late because of extenuating circumstances to make sure they get paid as soon as possible rather than just waiting for the next pay period to come around. Pay stubs are sent out early to make sure that we have time to catch issues before payday comes around, ensuring that our caregivers are accurately compensated for their services.
What do we do when these preventative measures don’t catch an issue before payday? It’s simple; we make it right. If we find we’ve made a mistake, we’ll even go as far as offering same-day payment to address discrepancies. Caregivers can call our office any time we’re open and speak to a real, local person to solve their issues. Or, if they prefer, they can walk in during business hours to discuss their concerns. We’re a people-focused organization with a priority to address human issues with understanding service.
Since 2019, the services and impact we provide at UCPWCW have shifted drastically. As a regional affiliate of a national organization, there are bound to be discrepancies between public knowledge of our organization and the reality of the essential services we provide to our local community.
Most people remember us as an organization that held fundraisers and ran telethon events every year. With great consideration, we stepped away from these events with reverence for the people who participated in them and the generous donations from community members.
We’ll always look back on our past as an organization fondly, but we have grown and changed to meet consumer needs in our service area. Our services may not be the same as time goes on, but our philosophy remains unshaken—we serve our communities to provide impactful services that advance the independence and full citizenship of people with all levels of ability.