Throughout the 5 years of the RRTC: Health & Wellness, staff at the Independent Living Research Utilization (ILRU) in collaboration with OHSU will plan and offer an interactive, needs-responsive health and wellness empowerment project that utilizes state of the art Internet technology. Offered as a series of topical webcasts 4 times each year, each webcast has a specific topic of interest, and topics are announced broadly through newsletter notices, faxes to disability organizations, and on a general listserv. The webcasts will include information, findings, and materials from the RRTC: Health & Wellness research and training projects.

Outcome: Increased knowledge and awareness of barriers and access strategies to routine health care, evidence-based health promotion programs, and standard health status measurement tools.

Target Audience: To date, an average of 40 people with disabilities from independent living centers participate in each ILRU webcast, with an additional 40-50 people accessing the archived materials.

Outputs: 20 webcasts, estimate 1600 webcast participants.

Venue: Internet.

Activities:

Develop webcast topics and materials: Center staff will review the results of research related to empowerment strategies and needs of potential participants, draft empowerment materials tailored to the webcast process, have materials reviewed by RRTC: Health & Wellness partners, and revise and refine materials as needed. (Yr 1-5).

Recruit participants: ILRU will recruits participants by advertising the training on its website and on the websites of training partners, and through its extensive listserv, and other links. The network of partners participating in the webcast series has grown since its inception 5 years ago, and will presumably increase in size over the next 5 years. Participants supported in accessing the site. (Yr 1-5).

Implement training: The training schedule is posted on the listserv and on relevant web sites. We will conduct regular webcasts with participants on a variety of matters relating to wellness, health and disability. (Yr 1-5).

Evaluate project, document and disseminate procedures: RRTC: Health & Wellness staff have worked with ILRU staff over the past 2 years to improve tracking of participants and solicit evaluation data. We will continue to use the latest technologies to gain additional information from participants about their experiences in accessing the information (Yr 1-5).