ODDC Banner

Making A Difference: The Art of Community Connecting

Seminar Workbook

"There is no being or becoming without relationship. From the beginning, we grow to sense the need and importance of relatedness. At birth, in total helplessness, we engage in our first coupling, mother-child, and from that time on, the more sophisticated our lives become, the more interrelated we become. In a sense, we spend our entire existence weaving one relationship into another until we've created, like the web of a spider, a complete pattern." -LeoBuscaglia

I. Introduction
When asked, "What are the most important things for staff to spend their time on?" individuals with disabilities said (Amado, 1993):

II. Current Perspectives Related to Community Connecting

  1. Pro-Social Skills Perspective
  2. Socio-Cultural Perspective
  3. The Robert Redford Perspective

III. Why work on Community Connections?

  1. The benefit of friendships
    1. Emotional
    2. Practical
  2. The current friendship patterns of individuals with developmental disabilities

IV. What is Community?

    What does community look like?

V. What is Client Land?

  1. The power of a label
  • Person born with a disability
  • Person labeled as deficient
  • Put in system based on deficits
  • Isolated and becomes a "client "

OR

  • Person born with a disability
  • Person seen as capable with abilities
  • Person is part of the community
  • Connects and becomes a "citizen"

VI. Becoming a Social Guide

  1. What you don't need
  2. What you do need
  3. What to avoid

VII. A journey not a destination

  1. Building Strands of a Web
  2. Three Stages of Community Integration
  3. Circles of Friendship

VIII. Developing a "River" Plan ? "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."

  1. You won't get this stuff at Harvard
  2. Common Sense vs. Common Practice

IX. The Components of the Plan

  1. Developing the Right Mind-Set
    1. A lesson from Ward and the Beav
    2. A lesson from a tree
    3. A lesson from your own life
  2. The Making a Difference Diamond
  3. Developing the Connection Plan
    1. Beware of the IP Disability
    2. Focus on Gifts, Interests, Talents, and Abilities
    3. The Relationship Map
    4. Exploring your Community
    5. Interest Expansion

X. Searching For Connections

  1. Elementary my Dear Watson
  2. Start asking...
  3. Introductions
  4. The Bridge Builder
  5. Let's try one

XI. Supporting the Development of Relationships

  1. Julia Childs can't help us here
  2. How do relationships develop
  3. A little reassurance goes a long way
  4. Ten ideas for supporting relationships (Well-Maybe Eleven)
    1. Briefing/Debriefing
    2. Encouraging and Assisting Reciprocity
    3. Friendship Contact Goals
    4. Using Social Prosthetic Devices
    5. 80/20 Rule
    6. Friend Biographies
    7. Time and Involvement
    8. Breaking Bread
    9. Educating and Encouraging Group Members
    10. The Bruised Tongue Syndrome
    11. Fading Out and Following Up

XII. A Final Note

  1. Lessons for Life
    1. Care more than others think you ought to
    2. Risk more than others think is wise
    3. Dream more than others can even imagine
    4. Expect more than others think is possible
  2. Action Plan

Return to the top of the page.

 

 

| Home | About Us | Calendar of Events | Grants and NOFAs | Links | Publications and Products | Site Map | What's New