More Than a Place
Makom Is a Catalyst for Growth
By Laura Flynn, CQL Quality Enhancement Manager and Kristen Baughman, CQL Partner Engagement Coordinator
Summary: Makom, a Maryland-based organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), derives its name from the Hebrew word makom, meaning “place.” The organization embraces this concept by promoting the rightful place of people with disabilities within their communities through self-determination, informed choice, inclusion, and respect for individual rights. Founded more than 40 years ago by families seeking better opportunities for their loved ones, Makom has evolved into a comprehensive provider of community living, in-home supports, employment services, clinical care, aging supports, and innovative programs such as MOST™ for career development and MyPad™ for inclusive, affordable housing.
Following its 2026 CQL Quality Assurances Accreditation, Makom highlighted a significant organizational transformation centered on person-directed supports rather than provider-driven services. Leadership emphasized measuring success by the quality of outcomes people achieve rather than regulatory compliance alone. The organization has strengthened staff development, expanded services, and implemented systems that use Personal Outcome Measures® and Basic Assurances® to evaluate quality, improve accountability, and ensure continuous learning.
Makom’s values of integrity, excellence, inclusion, and self-determination guide every aspect of its work. The organization also prioritizes advocacy, community engagement, diversity, and family support through initiatives such as the Bruce K. Smith Sibling Network. Accreditation reinforced Makom's commitment to listening to the people it supports, helping them pursue meaningful goals, build relationships, and exercise personal choice. Rather than viewing accreditation as an endpoint, Makom sees it as an ongoing partnership with CQL that provides a framework for continuous improvement, innovation, and expanding opportunities for people with IDD to live lives of purpose, independence, belonging, and fulfillment.
Makom (מָקוֹם) is a Hebrew word that literally translates to “place,” “space,” or “location.” Beyond its literal meaning, it holds deep cultural, religious, and philosophical significance in the Jewish tradition, often referring to spiritual belonging or serving as a name for God.
At Makom, a Maryland-based provider of services for people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD), their use of the word is place. Their vision of the essential and rightful place of people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in society and the communities, places, and spaces has become a guiding philosophy, which is the foundation for Makom’s commitment to self-determination, informed choice, community inclusion, and the advancement of individual rights.
These values are evident not only in the lives of the people Makom supports, but also in its commitment to staff, families, and the broader community. Through creative partnerships, advocacy, and person-centered supports, Makom continually seeks new ways to expand opportunities and strengthen belonging, while encouraging people to discover who they are and who they want to become.
When CQL partnered with Makom during its first Quality Assurances Accreditation in February 2026, the organization stood out for its unwavering commitment to quality, its culture of collaboration, and its dedication to helping people live lives of possibility and purpose. Makom demonstrates how organizations can honor their roots while continually evolving to support greater rights, opportunities, and inclusion. Some of the innovative and transformative strengths identified were:
Fun, Faith, and Experience, a person-centered approach that supports people in building relationships, exploring interests, participating in community life, and experiencing meaningful opportunities based on their interests and preferences.
The Bruce K. Smith Sibling Network, which provides support, education, and connection for siblings of people supported by Makom.
Strong state and federal advocacy efforts that advance human rights and promote systems change.
MOST™, an innovative transition-to-adulthood and career development program that empowers and supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to build the skills and confidence needed to pursue meaningful employment and long-term career goals.
Intentional diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives.
MyPad™, an innovative initiative developed to address the need for affordable and inclusive housing opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
About Makom
Makom is a human services organization started forty years ago like many others, by families whose vision for their children with IDD were not being met by the community. Over the decades, this organization became much more than a place for people to call “home.” Today, they have continued to grow and evolve, recognizing the power of every person taking their rightful place in the community, and more importantly, that there is a place for everyone.
Their supports have grown to include a range of services such as community living, in-home supports, career development and post-secondary education planning supports (MOST™), clinical services, and supports for those aging with dignity.
Makom achieved Quality Assurances Accreditation. We asked David Ervin, Makom CEO, and Patricia Sastoque, Makom Chief Programs Officer, a series of questions about who they are as an organization, along with their experience with the CQL Accreditation process.
What are some notable changes in your organization over recent years?
Since the COVID pandemic, Makom has dramatically grown both our menu of supports and in our commitment to outcomes as the measuring stick of our success. At its core, this has started with questions being asked of people we support, none more central than “how do you want to live?” This took its shape out of a comprehensive strategic planning process, which resulted in reimagining the organization – from its name to its mission, vision, and values – and both the manner in which we deliver supports and our approach to measuring success.
We have expanded services, strengthened our formal leadership resources, invested heavily in our staff, particularly our direct support professionals, and increased our focus on person-centered supports, all singularly focused on aligning our supports with the aspirations of people to whom we deliver those supports. Most importantly, Makom has shifted from measuring success primarily through service delivery and compliance indicators to measuring success through the outcomes people achieve and the quality of the lives they choose to live.
Most recently, through our accreditation journey, we have taken a close look at our policies, practices, and quality systems to ensure they reflect best practices and support continuous improvement. While accreditation is still recent, the process has helped us strengthen organizational alignment, increase focus on measurable outcomes, and reinforce our commitment to person-centered and person-directed supports.
This has been colossal, a “down-to-the-studs” organization development—and is still very much in progress.
What are your goals as an organization?
Makom’s goals are grounded in our mission to support and empower people with IDD to achieve the quality of life to which they aspire, and our vision (our ‘Why’) of a world where people with IDD have the same options and opportunities for a well-lived life as all other community members. To these purposes, our goals include strengthening person-centered practices across all services, expanding opportunities for meaningful community engagement and fulfilling life experiences, enhancing our talent through robust training and professional development, and using outcomes data to guide continued evolution of the organization.
Our current strategic imperatives are to expand supports, to enhance services and supports in alignment with the needs and aspirations of people we support, and to build organizational capacity. These are supported by eleven initiatives that range from developing new services that address ‘system’ gaps (for example, our foray into clinical services) to improving availability and access to opportunities for meaningful relationships – including romantic relationships – to improving our employee career development pathways and workforce capacity.
Put simply, we want to learn, improve, and grow as an organization. Our core values, what we consider to be our organizational DNA, include basic principles like Integrity, Excellence (because ‘good enough’ is never good enough!), Inclusion, and Self-Determination. These values are reflected in every decision we make – from strategic planning and program development to quality improvement and individual support planning. Our focus, informed by these values, is to ensure that every person we support has opportunities to achieve outcomes that are important to them, while continuously improving systems and practices that promote person-centered excellence across the organization.
Makom is also focused on addressing systemic barriers that impact people with IDD, including access to affordable housing, meaningful employment, healthcare, social capital, and opportunities for lifelong growth and community participation.
What organizational values or practices are you most proud of?
We are particularly proud of our willingness to examine our practices, to be necessarily critical of ourselves (but committed to the notion that ‘failure is not fatal unless we want it to be!’), to make necessary changes that are informed by people we support, our staff at every level, and by our continuous pursuit of best-practice to better support the needs and aspirations of people.
We are also very proud of our journey as an organization—one that is only just beginning in many ways. Over the past nearly five years, we have radically changed focus from an historical model of system-determined and provider-determined services to person-determined supports. The journey has not been easy, and yet we remain committed to it palpably. We believe this reflects our core value of Excellence. We do not pursue perfection, as it limits creativity, a willingness to fail, and the extraordinary growth that frequently comes from abject failure.
Instead, we pursue Excellence. Relentlessly. We try new things. We succeed as people we support achieve outcomes that are important to them. And, we fail. We pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off. We listen. We learn. We grow. If the sages are correct that the journey is the destination, then we are happy to be on this journey.
How do you measure quality at your organization?
Quality is measured through multiple methods, including Personal Outcome Measures® (POM) interviews, satisfaction surveys (that are based in POM probes!), incident and risk management reviews, health and safety monitoring, regulatory compliance reviews, staff competency observations, and quality assurance reviews.
And, we talk to people—people we support, families, our employees, our community. Qualitative data and anecdotes are the stories that reflect how well or not Makom is supporting people achieving outcomes that are important to them. We amass this qualitative feedback, and we pair it with our data analytics, organizational performance indicators, and review outcomes achieved by the people we support. Findings drive continuous improvement efforts. Quality is defined not only by regulatory compliance, which is the minimum standard, but far more essentially by the extent to which people are achieving outcomes that are important to them.
Makom defines quality not by the services we provide, but by the outcomes people achieve, the relationships they build, the choices they exercise, and the lives they determine for themselves. While health, safety, and regulatory compliance remain essential responsibilities, they are the foundation – not the destination. True quality is realized when people are empowered to pursue goals that matter to them and experience lives of meaning, belonging, and purpose.
Why did you decide to pursue CQL Accreditation?
Makom pursued CQL Accreditation because of our alignment of vision and values. As we have leaned into our focus on outcomes, CQL became a natural partner in this work. And CQL Accreditation is a way to evaluate what we’re doing well in this journey and where we can do more and better. We wanted an internationally recognized framework that would help us strengthen person-centered practices, evaluate the effectiveness of our systems, and ensure that the people we support are achieving meaningful outcomes. Accreditation provides an opportunity to validate our strengths, identify opportunities for improvement, and demonstrate our commitment to excellence and accountability.
How did you prepare for your CQL Accreditation?
Preparation started years ago as we underwent a dramatic change in leadership and in a comprehensive self-examination of what we’d historically done well and what needed to be done better or, as in our case, differently. Major shifts in thinking, in setting priorities, and in the things on which we focus began in 2019! Then came the long work of creating an organizational culture that nurtures and is nurtured by new core values, a new mission and new vision, all designed around self-determination and commitment to outcomes as drivers in our work. This was all in preparation for our partnership with CQL.
Relative to the accreditation review itself, it was a comprehensive organizational effort. Leadership teams, managers, and staff participated in planning meetings, self-assessments, policy reviews, training initiatives, and quality improvement activities. We reviewed our systems against CQL standards, analyzed data, strengthened documentation practices, conducted internal assessments, and engaged employees in discussions about person-centered supports and organizational quality. It was then as it remains now a core part of the Makom narrative! The process encouraged collaboration across departments and helped create a stronger culture of continuous improvement.
What is one specific aspect/area of your organization that has improved as a result of your accreditation? How has it improved?
One specific area that has improved as a result of our recent accreditation is our approach to quality management and person-centered planning. Through the accreditation process, we strengthened and are strengthening our systems for collecting, analyzing, and using data to support continuous quality improvement and better outcomes for the people we serve.
The process also reinforced the importance of consistently elevating the voices of people supported in all planning and decision-making. We have become more intentional in identifying barriers to personal goals and developing targeted, actionable strategies to address them.
As a result, our approach is increasingly structured, person-centered, and outcomes-focused. We are better positioned to monitor progress (and to paying closer attention to the things that actually matter), respond to emerging needs and aspirations, and continue building services that support meaningful choice, independence, and quality of life.
What is the impact of accreditation on your organization as a whole?
Makom systems that drive us toward CQL Accreditation have been reimagined or created outright to strengthen accountability and improve systems of measuring quality and how those systems are resourced and supported. While we are in the early stages of implementation, the accreditation framework provides clear expectations that support continuous improvement and reinforce alignment between our practices, mission, and values—our Basic Assurances® (BA) and Personal Outcome Measures® (POM) Plans are operational roadmaps. The accreditation framework continues to center the people we support in all aspects of organizational performance.
It’s also given us good reason for celebration, an opportunity to pause for Makom, people we support, families, our Board of Directors, our staff, and our community to honor our journey and progress made and to embrace opportunities for continued growth.
What is the impact of accreditation on your employees?
Because we recently achieved accreditation, we are still in the early stages of fully realizing its impact. However, we have already seen increased employee engagement and awareness of person-centered practices. The accreditation process helped staff better understand how their daily responsibilities contribute to positive outcomes for the people we support. It has also strengthened communication, accountability, and consistency across programs while reinforcing the importance of ongoing training and professional development. As we continue implementing accreditation-related practices, we expect these benefits to grow and further enhance our organizational culture and service quality.
What is the impact of accreditation on people you support?
The accreditation process has reinforced our commitment to person-centered practices, ensuring that each person we support has a primary voice in decisions that affect their life. For some who know of and understand the importance of CQL accreditation, they view it as affirmation of the centrality of their choices, their autonomy, and their agency.
The practices Makom has adopted or created that support people exerting their agency will be the ultimate test of impact on the quality of outcomes they achieve. For Makom, it has sharpened our intentionality in listening to people, understanding their goals and preferences, and identifying opportunities to enhance supports and services that give people the greatest chance of experiencing lives of abundance. We believe accreditation provides a strong framework for promoting meaningful choice, full inclusion, personal growth, achievement, relationships and social capital, and other outcomes that people we support tell us are important to them.
How have the Personal Outcome Measures® (POM) affected person-centeredness at your organization?
We are in the process of implementing the Personal Outcome Measures® (POM) process across our organization. We have participated in POM interviews (and BA reviews) through our state’s Quality Improvement Organization (QIO), Liberty Healthcare. These experiences have produced outstanding outcomes and reinforced the importance of person-centered practices. The POM framework helps ensure that we focus on what truly matters to each person by listening to their goals, understanding their priorities, identifying barriers, and evaluating whether supports are helping them achieve the outcomes they desire. The process has strengthened our commitment to designing services around everyone’s preferences, choices, and vision for a meaningful life.
How have the Basic Assurances® (BA) improved your systems and practices?
We are still in the early stages of fully implementing and evaluating the impact of the Basic Assurances® framework. However, the accreditation process helped us review and strengthen systems related to health, safety, rights, risk management, staff training, and organizational accountability. It also provided an opportunity to assess our practices for consistency across programs and identify areas for continued improvement. As we move forward, the Basic Assurances® framework will continue to guide our efforts (and is now formally embedded in policy and the protocols that support its implementation!) to maintain important safeguards while supporting personal choice, dignity, and high-quality services for the people we support.
How do you envision the future of your partnership with CQL?
As above, we see our vision and values as intimately aligned with CQL’s—and we envision a thriving, growing, and mutually beneficial partnership with CQL as a substantial part of our journey. We will continue to use CQL’s tools, data, resources, and best practices to strengthen person-centered supports, enhance organizational performance, and promote continuous quality improvement. In this way, Makom seeks to rely on CQL as the bellwether to advance our work around supporting people to have meaningful opportunities to live lives of purpose, inclusion, choice, and self-determination.