LiveWorkPlay For People With Intellectual Disabilities Making A Buzz In The Ottawa Community We've Been Growing Together Since 1995 ON OUR OWN TOGETHER II Interdependence - Independence - Self-Advocacy The Innovative LiveWorkPlay Approach To Long-Term Housing For People With Intellectual Disabilities June 12: Day 36 All 14 participants took the bus to LiveWorkPlay Visioning Day today which started at 9:00 at MBNA Canada. It wasn't all that easy because there was a million things going on at Carleton and the buses were having a hard time navigating all the excitement. But everyone arrived on time and got started on a really important day. The first order of business was to just relax and connect with everyone. There were more than 60 people at this year's Visioning Day representing a broad spectrum of the LiveWorkPlay community. This included Journeys participants (ages 13-20) as well as other SMILE participants who are not directly involved in OOOT2. Then there are parents and siblings from each of those groups as well as volunteers and staff and board members too. How Visioning Day works is about a month before the date of the meeting everyone gets a questionnaire that helps them identify the sort of things that are of interest to them right now and for the future. The staff looks at all the answers and then organizes an agenda and a plan to try to tackle some key issues. This year there were four breakout groups: Journeys participants, Journeys parents and siblings, SMILE participants, and SMILE parents and siblings. The volunteers and staff work in teams to help facilitate each session. Journeys participants helped start a new partnership with OC Transpo, which is trying to learn more about how to support people with intellectual disabilities to have the best possible public transportation experience. They completed a survey about that, and then did some fun activities to help them get to know each other better. Spencer and Gillian spoke up at the end of the day and made sure everyone knew they had a great time! The Journeys parents enjoyed a visit from two representatives from Service Coordination who did a great job fielding some really difficult questions. What it all boiled down to is that everyone needs to do a great job planning for the future, and even if they do, it doesn't mean a government-funded service will be waiting for them, because the waiting lists are very long and getting longer and nobody really knows if the situation is going to get better. We can all help Service Coordination to communicate need with the Ministry of Community and Social Services by ensuring that their statistics are up to date. After the Service Coordination representatives left there was a really good discussion about services like SMILE, Employment Supports, and housing. A lot of the Journeys parents are just starting to think about what their children will do when they leave school, and they are really interested in what the participants in SMILE are doing. Some intend to come to the OOOT2 open house on Thursday to find out more about the housing project. The discussion was so interesting that the group went way overtime and did not come out for lunch until after 12:30. The SMILE parent group went overtime too. They talked about EVERYTHING. It was a really intense discussion, but incredibly important. Housing was just one of the topics, but of course it generated a lot of interest since OOOT2 is going on right now! One of the important outcomes was that everyone seems to be on the same page. This year's project has been critically important because it has demonstrated that future success is not really about skill development. Whether someone can do all their budgeting themselves or cook their own meals independently is not really what it is all about. Yes, everyone can and will keep on learning, but an intellectual disability is a lifelong reality so we need to start thinking about lifelong supports. Some of the parents talked about how hard it is to "let go" even though they know that they need to do it. What everyone wants is for their kids to be happy, so it's hard not to try to "save them" every time they are upset about something. But then how will they ever learn to deal with challenges? But then on the other hand, we all want them to experience success, and sometimes they get so overwhelmed with things, and they really do need help. So, surprise surprise, it's a big challenge being a parent, and it's even more challenging being a parent of a child with an intellectual disability. OOOT2 has been a lot different from OOOT1, and that's thrown some people off. But it is important to remember that this year the participants are really conscious that they are heading towards an incredibly dramatic life change. They don't know when it is happening and no one is rushing them, but that doesn't change the fact that it is weighing heavily on the minds. But what is the choice? They need to experience these daily struggles so they can make their own informed decisions. From that perspective OOOT2 has already been an incredible success, and this really needs to be celebrated. The SMILE participants, which included Mike, Angela, and Jordan (who are not directly involved in OOOT2) put a lot of their time into a discussion about courage and fear. OOOT2 has been, in a lot of ways, all about courage and fear. It's important to be open about this. Daily life is challenging for everyone, but a lot of people can deal with it by walking around with a mask on and not showing their fear. When the participants show their fear but find a way to "keep on going" that's a type of courage that is deserving of respect and admiration. Those who are supporting the participants have their own challenge, which is to respond in kind with the courage to help them find their way through. And everyone is doing a great job! After 3 hours of intense discussions, the whole LiveWorkPlay community had a wonderful lunch together. The room was really buzzing! In past years there was a formal "wrap-up" session but after a quick chat the organizing team figured out that everyone was so busy networking and sharing that it wasn't needed. Ian Murphy said a special "thank you" to MBNA Canada for hosting and sponsoring the event and then it was time to go. Most of the OOOT2 participants went back to Leeds by bus and relaxed. A bunny visited and came real close to the lounge window. Some people took a nap, which was good, because there was some fun coming up later. Julie and Keenan came by about 5:00 and checked in. The group decided to go for dinner at 5:30 and then go out to the movies at South Keys. With the timing of things it was Shrek 2 or Harry Potter. It was a beautiful evening for a nice walk from the O-Train stop to the theatre. The group arrived in plenty of time but Harry Potter was sold out. So, there was a bit of a "girl's night out" because Laura, Caroline, Moira, and Julie decided to go out for an evening that included a beautiful walk along the canal. Then all had a great time. The Shrek group ended up plastered to the screen in the front two rows, but that didn't ruin their good time either. It was a really funny movie. Jen Harris helped make it even funnier at one point. Keenan was sitting in front of her and was almost blasted out of his seat at one point when Jen blurted out "Hey, that's a product placement! Just like we talked about in Media/Marketing at SMILE!" [In Media/Marketing the participants had put together a list of different types of advertising and at the end the only one Keenan wanted to add to the list was when a TV show or movie puts an ad right INTO the movie or show...so...during Shrek 2 there is a funny scene where a giant gingerbread man crashes into a Starbucks, and thus Jen's poignant comment.] After the movie it was getting late and the walk back to the O-Train was looking kind of long, so the group decided to take the bus from the South Keys stop to Greenboro. Rachel was talking to her mom on her cell phone and at one point stopped to ask "Mom wants to know if I am at the bus stop or the O-Train stop." The group looked down at their feet and the road, Rachel laughed, and then answered "The bus." Just as the 97 got to Greenboro the O-Train was pulling out, so they stayed on the bus to Billings to get the 4. It was a 20 minute wait but it was a beautiful night. The upstairs section of the Billings transit station is kind of nice. There's a natural area on the south side and you get a view of the city from the north side, where a giant tow truck was hauling a bus away. Back at Leeds the was a bit of a party that broke out in the lounge. Maybe everyone was a bit overtired, but they were definitely happy. Ryan and Ian had been out doing a family activity so they reconnected with the group and got caught up on everything. Cooper was trying to watch TV but it wasn't easy, the chatter was at high volume. Then a video show came on later and most people were watching that, it was hosted by Hillary Duff. Someone did an imitation of Hillary Duff and the resulting laughter was such that it was surprising Carleton security did not come by in resonse to a noise warning! PICTURES! Networking Journeys participant visioning SMILE participant visioning SMILE parent visioning Run bunny run Good times Bumps in the road Tired and not tired Tow it away Happy guy Happy girls