Come to a day that will stretch your imagination, give you new ideas, and help work out some strategies to build toward a good, ordinary life in our community for your loved one with a disability.
Guest Speaker: Janet Klees (Biography below)
We will hear stories of real people in Ontario, have a chance to talk with one another, and begin to make some plans going forward.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Location: Christ Anglican Church
Nancy Street, Bolton
Supervision and fun will be provided to families who wish to bring any or all of their children.
Workshop registration is at 9:00 am. Families who require supervision for children, youth and/or adults (with or without disabilities) need to arrive at 9:00 am.
· The presentation begins at 9:30am.
· There will be a 45 minute break for lunch and two coffee breaks.
· Families will have lunch together. Volunteers and activity leaders will have their break.
· The presentation ends at 3:00pm
· There will be an opportunity to network informally from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Pre-registration: An RSVP is required along with a completed registration form and a $20.00 (Fee helps offset food costs, supervision, supplies, and ensures your commitment to attend) Cash or cheque made payable to CAFFI/BCCL
This workshop is hosted by CAFFI, BCCL and sponsored by many local community groups.
RSVP to CAFFI WORKSHOP
c/o Patricia Franks
patriciafranks@hotmail.com
905 951 0597
JANET KLEES, Biography
Janet Klees has been thoughtful and involved in the lives of people with disabilities, their families, and allies in community for over 30 years. She has been coordinator with the family-governed Deohaeko Support Network for 20 years – almost from its beginnings when families designed and built a 105-unit housing co-operative which seven of their sons and daughters with disabilities now call home. Janet has been deeply affected by the lives of the people with disabilities and their families that she has come to know within that group and through other life experiences. She is the author of two books which are directly rooted in the Deohaeko experience, (We Come Bearing Gifts; Our Presence has Roots) and which are now sold around the world to present the unique options of this family group.
Janet also works closely with other Scarborough, Ontario families, and several family groups and projects across Durham Region, including projects of family leadership initiatives, and on developing leadership in family support and planning. She has also been working with Michael Kendrick on the presentation of his Optimal Individualized Service Design course for the past four years, presenting some of her own material and working with the teams on courses in Canada and Ireland.
Janet’s work centers on individually-designed arrangements and she is especially concerned that families are well-supported to think through practical, principled ways to ensure that their family members live meaningful, involved and secure lives within their communities. Her work focuses on individually-designed arrangements for one person at a time, kept rich and secure through a principled focus on members living meaningful, involved and secure lives within their welcoming communities. Rooted in this experience, Janet presents, consults and teaches across Canada and in Holland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and other countries around the world.
All of my material is rooted in my understanding of social role valorization and based in my 20 years’ experience directly with families individually and in family groups (including 19 years with the family group, Deohaeko Support Network). Therefore, all of my presentation formats include much storytelling and sharing of my own experiences in many situations. I have been, above all, a practitioner and this comes through in my work and how it is offered.
My work and thinking focuses on each person as a unique being with gifts and contributions. Families – where present and supported – have great capacity to imagine, bring about and safeguard a good life for and with their family member. Relationship of many kinds – especially natural, typical and personally-committed and those strengthened by networks or circles – are key to a life of meaning, engagement, and belonging for people. Roles are a way of offering one’s contributions and being a true part of one’s family and community and these can be recognized, enhanced and/or built up and supported in intentional, respectful and ordinary ways. There is an abundance and richness in our communities so that, despite its imperfections, community is the preferred place to be – enjoying home, work, learning, leisure and relationships in typical and familiar roles and settings. What we can imagine in all of these elements, can be achieved.
