Belonging Matters Tip Sheets
The series of tip sheets below from Belonging Matters offer many ideas and suggestions for people who are thinking about how to build lasting friendships, how to create a meaningful, inclusive life after school, and how to experience belonging in their neighbourhoods and communities:
- Friendship Tip Sheet
- Life After School Tip Sheet
- Ways to Foster Belonging in the Community Tip Sheet
- Ways to Join the Community Tip Sheet
School Inclusion In Canada
By Judith McGill
Originally posted to the Families for a Secure Future website
For the past eighteen years in Ontario, Families for a Secure Future has been innovating with the role of Independent Facilitation in supporting adolescents who have a developmental disability to transition out of secondary school into a meaningful adult life.
“We are all ‘social beings’ who make meaning with and through others by telling stories about our lives. As children and adolescents, we are accustomed to others being the narrators of our story. Parents, teachers and siblings defining our potential, who we are and who we are to become, until at last, we reach adulthood and see the necessity of narrating and shaping our own story.
While there are many transitions that each of us go through and embrace throughout our lifetime, the passage from adolescence to adulthood is clearly one of the most necessary and difficult ones. For every person, it signals a shift in our relationship to others. We must consciously become aware of what it means to take responsibility for our lives and at the same time recognize what we rely on others for and how we want to contribute to the lives of others. Adolescents with developmental disabilities are no different, they yearn to find places in the world where they belong so that they can gladly make their contribution to others, build relationships and take up their adult lives. As an Independent Facilitation organization, Families for a Secure Future has had extensive expertise in supporting adults (18 years and older) with developmental disabilities and their families, to prepare for and manage change as they work their way through the numerous transitions that are part of a typical life.”
~ Excerpt from a contribution by Judith McGill to the book “Inklusion in Kanada – Perspektiven auf Kulturen, Strukturen und Praktiken (Arbeitstitel)” [Inclusion in Canada – Perspectives on Cultures, Structures and Practices], to be published by Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg.
The book will be published in German and English, over the coming year.
Read the full Chapter here.
What’s Worth Working For?
Leadership For Better Quality Human Services
By John O’Brien
An exploration of the Five Valued Experiences (John O’Brien and Connie Lyle O’Brien 1989), and Five Service Accomplishments that service agencies, and people interested in creating meaningful support, can aspire to as they assist people in moving toward a desirable future as valued citizen and community member.
Families and Planning
by Susannah Joyce
A guide for family members, friends and trusted allies, who want to support the person they care about in planning for their life.
Planning Together For Self Advocates
by Susannah Joyce
A plain language guide for self-advocates who are thinking about planning for their life and support.
Planification pour auto revendicateurs
by: Susannah Joyce
We Have Human Rights
A human rights handbook for people with developmental disabilities from the Harvard Project on Disability
Finding A Way Toward Everyday Lives (1992)
by: John O’Brien and Herb Lovett
This publication thoughtfully describes the foundation of person-centered planning and its potential for creating a better future for people and for influencing change. It also addresses controversies and fears associated with this new approach.
Person Centered Planning and the Quest for System Change
by John O’Brien
O’Brien considers an array of person centered planning methods, and contexts in which these practices are used.
ShareAUG
2022