Sangha Unity Network, Inc. (SUN), with funding from The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, is hosting "The Power of People" workshop led by Michelle Schwartz, M.Ed. CCC-Sp, and Katie Chandler, LCSW. This full day interactive workshop is designed for the people who work for and support individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This workshop will incorporate and build upon the work of John O’Brien, Connie Lyle O’Brien and Beth Mount through understandable content from the Five Valued Experiences and the Wheelpower model of strengthening self-advocacy.
We are encouraged as service providers to use person-centered approaches and practices in our daily work. To provide supports in this way, we must start with an understanding of who people are, what they’ve experienced, what they need, and their vision for their future. We will discuss several approaches that can be used to shift how people are supported, moving from having a “good, but paid life” to a “life well lived,” with new opportunities for people to contribute and to acquire and expand valued social roles while growing community networks and relationships.
Participants will leave with a plan to assist someone they know with an intellectual/developmental disability to have opportunities to belong, to contribute, to develop real relationships, and acquire or deepen a valued social role in the areas detailed in the WheelPower model (learning and teaching, work, neighborhood and community membership, home life, spiritual and religious life, family and friends, creative expression, and sports and adventure).
Participants will leave with a plan to assist someone they know with an intellectual/developmental disability to have opportunities to belong, to contribute, to develop real relationships, and acquire or deepen a valued social role in the areas detailed in the WheelPower model (learning and teaching, work, neighborhood and community membership, home life, spiritual and religious life, family and friends, creative expression, and sports and adventure).