Welcome to this course on Collaborative Teams for Optimal Outcomes. I'm your host, Sarah Pruett. I'm excited to educate you about how working together across industry lines benefits people in their homes and throughout their communities. I hope you learn something new!

Hey there! I'm Sarah, and I'm an occupational therapist and the program director at the Universal Design Project. I'm excited that you've chosen to join me in this seemingly simple, but in reality, difficult topic of collaboration. 

If you haven't joined us before, I encourage you to check out our other courses in this universal design series. They all have a different focus from explaining the need for more functional housing, to giving examples and tips and tricks for making homes easier to use for a wide variety of people. We aren't trying to hide the fact that these features will be helpful for those with a disability, or someone who has an injury or illness, but we are passionate about showing everyone that the benefits of universal design extend to more than just the disability community, or to older adults.

If you've never heard of our organization before, or don't know exactly what we do at the Universal Design Project, our mission is to provide easy ways for communities to implement universal design in places not regulated by accessibility legislation. Our major focus is on single-family homes that oftentimes lack important functional features for people who may need them at different points across their lifespan.

Unfortunately, we do not see new homes being built with these important features, leading to a lack of choices in the residential home market. That leads to our vision, for every community across the USA to have a surplus of homes and opportunities for social participation, that are universally and financially accessible.

How amazingly refreshing would it be for anyone to easily find a home with features for their needs already incorporated into the house, without the need for expensive remodels or renovations? That's our vision, and this course will help us dive deeper into the path that we've taken to work towards that vision.

This course is also designed in a way that you can watch individual videos of the content at your own pace, video by video, and you can even check off each lesson after you complete it and keep track of your progress. I will guide you to do that after each lesson. If you're really getting into a groove, you can binge watch the entire course in one sitting, as well. 

By the end of this course, you will have a greater understanding of the importance of a universally accessible home, the concept of interprofessional collaboration, and how co-designing between design and healthcare professionals improves the functionality and beauty of a home, the importance of having people with lived experience with disabilities involved in the design process, the barriers and facilitators of collaboration within the design industry, and tips for the co-design process. Each of these concepts will be covered in individual videos, so you can go back and re-watch or access important information later. 

Our organization believes that co-designing homes for universal accessibility, aka collaborating between industries, is the best way to ensure that the next wave of homes in our communities actually meet the needs of people living in them.

Whether you're new to the idea of people in different industries collaborating together for the outcome of functional housing, or it's a concept in which you have already latched onto, I think you'll find some new information in these lessons to apply to your personal or professional situations. 

I am glad you're here, and let's get started!