Sector Training Activities

Self Direction in Practice - Workshop 1

Self-Direction means people with disabilities choose how and where they want to live as citizens.  For organisations that want to support Self-Direction, it is very different work than what we have been used to. It means we need to share power and responsibility with people with disabilities and the people who love them. . We need to be partners in the work of people finding their place in the community as neighbour, worker, friend, volunteer, home owner and citizen.

Neighbours Inc. is a creative organization that has shifted the work from being “providers” to being “partners” with people with disabilities and those who love them. Together we identify a vision of how and where people want to live, and then share in the responsibility to make this happen. To do this, Neighbours has created:

• an organization without an office
• a role for someone who serves as an Advisor to people and their families, helping them think, plan, and manage their life and support
• and we have rules and ways of working that make sure everyone knows that the people we are paid to work for are in charge of their lives

This new work means that all of us — people with disabilities, families and friends, advisors and personal assistants need to learn new skills so that:

• people can create a safe place called “home” — including the possibility of owning their home
• people can learn to manage the money that supports their life
• people can hire and manage the personal assistants who support them
• people can build a support circle of family, friends, allies, and staff that work together to support them and their vision of life

It is an exciting way of working that Neighbours Inc. has practiced since 1995 and you are invited to come along and learn practical steps about how you might make this happen in your life or within your organisation.