2016 TASH Conference

At KFI we believe that supports for people with intellectual disabilities must focus on full community participation; with opportunities to work, live and play alongside neighbors.  Yet people are most often confronted with cookie cutter services that focus on programs and goals that have little to do with real living.  The more significant challenges a person supported is identified with, the more mundane the goals and program tend to be.   For some unfathomable reason, it is thought a person with a disability must learn to say please and thank you, and tie their shoes before they can  earn a place in community.   Community, however, is not something we earn.  Instead of programs and goals focused on steps to get ready for life, KFI strives to identify meaningful outcomes to support each person to live a real life today.  This requires we accept that real life is messy, inconvenient, risky, and doesn’t always go as planned.  Meaningful outcomes set people on the path to their own dreams, with the expectation we walk that path with them.  And the measure is not the accomplishment of goals and programs, but living a good life.  Supporting people to engage in real community living starts with person centered planning, outcomes that matter, and a team that believes in the person and the community.  Progressive and proactive facilitation leads to a team that utilizes positive approaches  - to create opportunities for real homes, satisfying work, community life engagement, and belonging. 

At the end of the session, participants will be able to: Describe barriers to inclusion, systematic and cultural, for people with significant support needs. Discuss strategies to increase capacity for inclusion across the age span.  Describe how identifying person centered outcomes can lead to increased opportunities for inclusion.  Write meaningful/desired outcomes that move toward inclusion. Discuss how to support teams to do this work