North Star Oregon

If you are new to Oregon's disability service system, you may have heard the word "brokerage" thrown around in a way that sounds almost transactional — like a stock brokerage, or a real estate broker. It's not that. A brokerage in Oregon's I/DD system is a local nonprofit organization that helps adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities plan, coordinate, and manage the supports they need to live the life they want. Brokerages are one of the most distinctive features of Oregon's disability service landscape. They are also one of the most misunderstood. This guide walks through what brokerages are, who they serve, what personal agents do, and how brokerage services fit alongside the care North Star Oregon and other providers deliver. A Little History (The Short Version) In the early 2000s, Oregon became one of the first states in the country to build a system for adults with developmental disabilities that emphasized self-direction. The idea was simple but radical: instead of routing every adult with I/DD into the same county case management system, give adults the option to direct their own supports through a local nonprofit that worked for them, not the state. Brokerages were the result. Oregon currently has a network of fourteen regional brokerages covering every county in the state. They are independent nonprofit organizations, but they are funded through ODDS and operate under state oversight. Some serve a single county; some serve many. The brokerage system is specifically for adults age 18 and older who live on their own, with family, or in other non-24-hour settings — people who want help planning and coordinating supports but who are not in a residential or foster-care arrangement. Who Does a Brokerage Serve? You may be a good fit for brokerage services if: · You are an adult with I/DD eligible through ODDS · You live in your own home, with family, or in a non-licensed setting (not a residential care facility or adult foster home) · You want an active voice in how your supports are chosen and used · You have a level of support need that does not require 24-hour supervision Brokerages are an alternative to county case management through a Community Developmental Disabilities Program (CDDP). Most adults in Oregon can choose either path. Children and adults who need 24-hour residential supports are typically served through their CDDP or through a comprehensive residential provider rather than a brokerage. Meet Your Personal Agent The single most important person in the brokerage system is the personal agent (often called a PA). A personal agent is your primary point of contact at the brokerage. Their job is to help you figure out what you want your life to look like, plan supports that move you toward it, manage the budget and paperwork, and adjust the plan as things change. A good personal agent does many things: · Leads your person-centered planning process · Writes and updates your Individual Support Plan (ISP) with you · Explains what services you are eligible for and what your budget allows · Helps you identify and hire providers like North Star Oregon · Reviews timesheets, service agreements, and documentation · Connects you with community resources · Advocates for you when something isn't working Personal agents typically carry a caseload of around 40–60 individuals, which is lower than most county case managers. That lower caseload is a deliberate design choice — it is part of what allows PAs to know their clients well and respond to their actual lives, not just to compliance requirements. Person-Centered Planning: The Heart of Brokerage Work The planning process at a brokerage is designed to start with the person, not the system. A good person-centered plan starts with questions like: · What does a good day look like for you? · What do you want to learn or get better at? · Who are the important people in your life, and how do you stay connected to them? · What do you want your home, work, and community life to look like in one year? Five years? · What is making life harder right now, and where do you want support? These questions may feel obvious, but historically the disability services system has worked the other way around — starting with what the system has and fitting people into it. Oregon's brokerages helped lead a national shift back toward putting the person first. The ISP that comes out of that conversation is meant to be your plan, not the brokerage's plan for you. What Services Can a Brokerage Fund? A brokerage itself does not provide direct care. What it does is help you use your Medicaid waiver dollars — your "support services" budget — to purchase services from providers. Common services funded through brokerage plans include: · Attendant Care — One-on-one help with activities of daily living, delivered in your home or community by an agency like North Star Oregon. · Community Inclusion — Support to participate in community life: volunteering, hobbies, classes, events, faith communities, and relationships. · Employment Support — Help finding, learning, and keeping a job in the community. · Environmental Modifications — Physical changes to your home (ramps, grab bars, accessible bathrooms) that support independence. · Transportation — Help getting to work, medical appointments, and community activities. · Specialized Medical Supplies and Equipment — Items not covered by standard health insurance. · Relief Care — Support that gives family caregivers a break. · Family Training — Education for family members on specific topics relevant to the individual's support needs. Your personal agent helps you decide which services make sense, how many hours you need, and which providers are a good fit. You are the decision-maker — the PA is the guide. How a Brokerage Works With a Provider Like North Star Oregon Here is where the two worlds meet. The brokerage plans and coordinates. Providers like North Star Oregon deliver. In practice, that means: 1. You and your personal agent identify that you need, say, 20 hours per week of In-Home Attendant Care and a DSA program three days per week. 2. Your PA shares a service agreement template with us, outlining hours, goals, and funding. 3. We meet with you and your family, talk through what support should look like day to day, and introduce you to caregivers we think will be a good match. 4. Our caregivers (W-2 employees of North Star Oregon) deliver services in your home and community. 5. We document services, invoice the brokerage, and communicate with your PA about progress, concerns, and any adjustments needed. 6. At your annual ISP meeting, the three of us — you, your PA, and our team — review what's working and update the plan. This three-way partnership (individual, brokerage, provider) is the core of how self-directed services work in Oregon. When it works well, it's one of the most person-centered disability service models in the country. CDDP vs. Brokerage: Which Is Right for You? This is one of the most common questions families ask, so let's be direct. Consider a CDDP if: · You need comprehensive 24-hour residential supports · You are a child (most children receive services through a CDDP) · You prefer a more traditional case management relationship with the county · Your support needs are complex and highly medical Consider a brokerage if: · You are an adult living on your own or with family · You want active involvement in directing your own supports · You value a lower caseload and more time with your case manager (personal agent) · You are looking for flexibility in choosing and changing providers Many adults are eligible for either path and can choose. You can also transfer from one to the other if your needs change. If you are unsure which is right for you, both your CDDP and your local brokerage will talk with you about the differences without pressure. Finding Your Brokerage Each region of Oregon has its own brokerage. In the Willamette Valley, depending on your county, you may work with brokerages serving Linn, Benton, Lane, Marion, Polk, and surrounding counties. ODDS maintains a directory, and your local CDDP can tell you which brokerages serve your area. When you contact a brokerage, you will typically have an introductory conversation with an intake coordinator who explains their services, walks you through enrollment, and connects you with a personal agent. Common Questions Do I have to give up my doctor, my providers, or my current services to enroll with a brokerage? No. Brokerages coordinate your ODDS-funded supports. Your medical care, therapies, and other non-ODDS services stay the same. Does the brokerage get a cut of my services budget? Brokerages are funded by ODDS to provide case management. Your services budget is used to pay providers for the direct services you receive. Can I change personal agents if we aren't a good fit? Yes. Brokerages are accustomed to reassignments. You can request a different PA, and in some cases you can change brokerages entirely. How often will I see my personal agent? This varies, but most PAs meet with the people they support at least quarterly, and more often during ISP development, transitions, or changes in circumstance. Why This Matters Oregon's brokerage system represents a deeply held belief: that adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are not problems to be managed but people with their own lives to build. The structure of the system — small caseloads, self-direction, person-centered planning, and real choice in providers — is the infrastructure for that belief. Understanding how brokerages, personal agents, and providers fit together helps you use the system the way it was designed to be used: as a flexible set of tools that you and the person you love get to direct, not as a set of rules you are navigating around. Connect With Us North Star Oregon works closely with brokerages and personal agents across the state to deliver In-Home Attendant Care and Day Support Activities for adults with I/DD. If you are enrolled with a brokerage and looking for a provider, or if you are trying to decide whether a brokerage is the right path for you, we are happy to help you think it through. Visit northstaroregon.com or contact our team to learn more. There is no cost to have a conversation, and we are glad to share what we know — whether or not you ultimately choose to work with us.

We are excited to share a milestone for North Star Oregon: our Day Support Activities (DSA) program is now open in Josephine County, serving Grants Pass and the surrounding communities. This marks our first location outside the Willamette Valley and the next chapter in our commitment to bringing person-centered, community-based programming to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) across Oregon. If you are a family, a services coordinator, a personal agent, or an individual looking for a DSA program in southern Oregon — welcome. We have been working toward this for a long time, and we are ready to meet you. What This Means Until now, our DSA programs have operated in Albany, Corvallis, Eugene, Springfield, Salem, and Tangent. Those sites have grown into communities in their own right — places where individuals come together most days of the week to create art, learn skills, volunteer, get outside, and spend time with people who know them well. Now Grants Pass joins that list. The Josephine County program brings the same model of care, the same commitment to individualized support, and the same belief that the adults we support deserve rich, meaningful days in their own community. We are enrolling participants now. Who We Serve in Josephine County Our Josephine County DSA program welcomes adults with I/DD — including Autism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and related conditions — who are eligible for services through Oregon's K Plan or 1915(c) Medicaid waivers. Referrals come through ODDS, typically via your Community Developmental Disability Program (CDDP) services coordinator or your brokerage personal agent. We support a wide range of participants: individuals who communicate in many different ways, individuals who use wheelchairs or other mobility equipment, individuals who thrive in busy social settings and individuals who prefer smaller group experiences. What unites our programming is a simple commitment: the day is built around the people in it, not the other way around. What a Day Looks Like Day Support Activities is not a place you drop someone off for eight hours of filler. At North Star, a DSA day is a calendar of real experiences — community outings, skill-building, creative expression, physical activity, volunteering, and social connection — guided by each participant's Individual Support Plan (ISP) and personal goals. In Josephine County, that means programming designed around the rhythms of southern Oregon life: · Trail walks and outdoor time in the parks and natural areas around the Rogue Valley, with accessibility and sensory needs built into every plan. · Art and creative expression — painting, music, crafts, and hands-on projects that give individuals room to try things, make mistakes, and create work they are proud of. · Community outings to local libraries, markets, museums, events, coffee shops, and gathering places in and around Grants Pass. · Volunteering — contributing to local organizations and causes, because everyone deserves the chance to give back. · Skill building — the practical work of independence, from using money to navigating public spaces to preparing simple meals. · Social connection — friendships, familiar faces, and the kind of belonging that comes from seeing the same people day after day. No two days will look exactly alike. That is the point. A good DSA schedule flexes around the interests, energy, and goals of the participants. A Regional Service Area While our Josephine County hub is based in Grants Pass, our program is designed to serve the broader county. We know that families in smaller Josephine County communities have historically had fewer options for community-based day programming close to home. That has been a real gap, and we want to help close it. If you live in a nearby area and you are not sure whether your location works for our program, please reach out. We would rather have a conversation than have a family assume the answer is no. Why Southern Oregon, and Why Now Expanding outside the Willamette Valley was not a casual decision. For years, families and professionals in southern Oregon have told us the same thing: there is real need for high-quality, person-centered DSA programming in the region, and not enough of it. Waitlists have been too long. Options have been too few. Individuals who want to be in their community have too often spent their days at home because nothing nearby fit. We cannot solve all of that at once. But we can show up, do the work well, and grow responsibly. Our Josephine County program will start with the capacity to support a focused group of participants and build out from there, the way we have done in every location we serve. Quality first, growth second. What Makes North Star Different If you are new to our organization, a few things are worth knowing as you consider whether we are the right fit for your loved one. We are a direct-employment model. Our Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) are W-2 employees, not independent contractors. That means they receive training, support, supervision, and benefits — and you get a stable, accountable workforce caring for your loved one. Person-centered is not a marketing term for us. Each participant's day is shaped by their preferences, goals, and ISP. We take the time to know people, and we adjust programming when something is not working. We explain the system. Medicaid waivers, ISPs, ODDS, tax rules for parent-caregivers, the difference between relief care and attendant care — these are the kinds of things we will walk you through in plain English, whether or not you end up working with us. We do both DSA and in-home attendant care. Many families use us for both. If your loved one attends our DSA program during the day and needs attendant care support at home, we can coordinate that care under one umbrella. We show up for the long haul. Services for adults with I/DD are not a short-term engagement. We build relationships with participants and families that last, and we behave accordingly. How to Get Started The path to enrollment is simpler than families sometimes expect. In most cases it looks like this: 1. Reach out to us. A short conversation tells us a lot. We will ask about your loved one, what you are looking for, and what has (and has not) worked in other settings. 2. Loop in your services coordinator or personal agent. If you are already receiving services through ODDS, your SC or PA will help with authorizations and ISP alignment. If you are not yet in services, we can help you figure out next steps. 3. Visit, if you'd like. Seeing a program in action answers questions that words on a page cannot. 4. Start slow and build up. We often begin with a small number of days per week and grow into a full schedule as the fit becomes clear. If you are not yet eligible for ODDS services and are just starting to explore the system, that is okay too. We can point you to the right first steps in Josephine County. For Services Coordinators, Personal Agents, and Community Partners If you work in the Josephine County disability services ecosystem and would like to learn more about our program, we would love to connect. We are actively building relationships with CDDPs, brokerages, and community partners in the region, and we believe strong coordination across providers is what makes services work for the people who depend on them. A Welcome Worth the Wait If you have been waiting for a DSA program in southern Oregon that takes the work seriously — the relationships, the planning, the dignity, the community connections, the quiet craft of a well-run day — we think you will recognize us when you see us. Our doors are open in Josephine County. We are enrolling now. And we would love to hear from your family. To learn more about our Day Support Activities program in Grants Pass and the surrounding Josephine County area, or to ask about in-home attendant care anywhere in Oregon, visit northstaroregon.com or contact our team. We are here to help you figure out the next right step — whatever that looks like for your family. --- North Star Oregon provides In-Home Attendant Care and Day Support Activities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities across Oregon. Our programs operate in Albany, Corvallis, Eugene, Springfield, Salem, Tangent, and now Grants Pass / Josephine County. Services are funded through Oregon's K Plan and 1915(c) Medicaid waivers, with referrals coordinated through ODDS.