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Families & Allies Working Together Newsletter
8-5-2007
In a Perfect World by Ellie Valdez Honeyman
In a perfect world, connections for people who aren’t your average “Joe” would be as natural as if they were an average “Joe.” But, we don’t live in a perfect world....far from it. People with disabilities are still treated with ignorance and pity and connections for them to the community do not “just happen.” When you have a disability and the school years are soon to end or have ended, you might be sitting on a waiting list for services. You aren’t able to find a job easily because you may require supports or services to assist you to find and keep a job.
Does this sound like someone you know or love? It’s a tough time for graduates with disabilities. Unlike the education system, services in the adult arena are not mandated. That means you might have to wait for some time before you receive paid services to help you connect to a job. It could be quite a long wait.
Families and Allies Working Together (F&A) and Grupo VIDA have teamed up to help adults with disabilities connect to the community through the formation of personal networks. A process of planning, called a PATH, is used to help form these personal networks around a focus person.
F&A and Grupo VIDA received a grant from the Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council (CDDC) to develop the concept of personal networks within the Latino Community. Since 2006, Grupo VIDA has facilitated three PATHS. The latest PATH was for a young man named César. César is still in high school, but is getting ready to transition to life after school. In an attempt to connect Cesar, his family decided to host a PATH session.
The session was facilitated in Spanish and eight immediate and extended family members attended. It was a wonderful opportunity for all present to learn a lot about Cesar that they didn’t already know. They learned these things from each other, but mostly they learned them from Cesar himself. The process was wonderful because it gave Cesar an opportunity to share his hopes and dreams for his future. This was the first time people were hearing these things from Cesar and they were impressed and surprised.
One of the most important things that came out of the session was that more people who are not family members needed to be brought into Cesar’s network. A neighbor was identified as well as a school mate who lives in the neighborhood and comes over to visit Cesar. Everyone agreed that, while Cesar’s family is large and supportive, he still longs for friendships outside the family. Goals were set for a year, the most important of which was to increase Cesar’s independence from his parents. Everyone agreed that the meeting was “eye-opening”. It was decided to expand the network to include these additional people and to meet often to insure that Cesar can meet his goals.
Cesar’s PATH was quite typical of what we expect to encounter as we develop the Personal Network concept within the Latino Community. Latino families can be very insular. They seek from within rather than from without for supports. But as we all know, young people, no matter their culture want to spread their wings. In so doing they want friendships outside of the immediate family. That is not to say that they want no part of their families, but they, like other young people, want to branch out. When you have a disability, this is much harder to do and it requires being much more deliberate.
We are very excited about the PATHs that we have facilitated and very greatful to FAWT for mentoring us in this project!
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