VLF PATH

The Vendor Leadership Forum met this morning to do a PATH exercise, essentially a quick planning activity to determine the VLF's vision of the future and how to get there. To see the chart, click on the photo above.

The PATH chart will receive periodic updates and we welcome input from everyone in the comments section below.

Joe D'Onofrio chaired the meeting.

Also in attendance were:
Cindy King, Almansor Center
Liz Harrell, participating on behalf of ELARC
Rodney Mojarro from PALS
Doug Pascover from ¡Arriba!

What is the VLF?

This is Doug's version. Corrections, disagreements and additional information are welcome in the comments section. Oh, and to people unacquainted with California's system for community-based support to people with developmental disabilities the following post will be approximately gibberish. Sue me.

Around 2000/2001 The East Los Angeles County Regional Center (ELARC) perceived that resources were not available to fully offer their clients the kinds of services (individualized, integrated and dignified) that clients were increasingly requesting. Frances Jacobs, ELARC's liaison to the vendor community, approached Yvette Baptiste, then employed by a major vendor and chair of the Vendor Advisory Committee, about the Regional Center's interest in stimulating innovative new approaches to serving clients. In response, and with ELARC's interest and support, Yvette founded the Vendor Leadership Forum (VLF).

Since that time, the VLF has grown increasingly active in innovation, reform and learning towards a future where people with developmental disabilities have ready access to whatever support is needed for a full and integrated life.

Now under the Leadership of Joe D'Onofrio, the VLF has chosen to position itself as containing the vendors' responsibility for innovative approaches to change, in partnership with the Regional Center, clients, families and other stakeholders. Specifically, we are working to broaden and deepen Person-centered Thinking (PCT) as an approach to the delivery of support.

Over the past year, the VLF has retained Michael Smull as a consultant, and begun regular meetings for the purpose of cooperatively learning about PCT and its delivery and for the purpose of effecting change, wherever necessary, to make PCT-based services available to Regional Center clients.

The team decided to start this weblog in order to make our work as transparent to the community as possible, to invite feedback from other stakeholders and to document our journey so that we learn better along it. Minutes of VLF meetings, notice of upcoming events, records of past events and other documentation will be available here.

Any questions?

New to blogging?

This post will explain the basics of what you are looking at and why the Eastern Los Angeles County Vendor Leadership Forum (VLF) created it. Another post, which you can read by clicking here explains what the VLF is.

What is a blog? The term BLOG is short for WEBLOG, basically a simple web-based journal with dated entries, typically with the most recent entries visible and the most recent one at the top.

What is the purpose of this blog? The purpose of this weblog is to allow anyone interested to follow the progress of the VLF, what decisions are being made and actions planned. Those who wish to, may contribute to the progress, decision-making and plans by giving feedback on this site. How to do that is explained below.

How can I give my opinions? Each entry has two sections. Immediately visible is the "post." This is the section which begins with the date it was posted and the title and continues in text and pictures beneath that title. On this weblog, the posts will be written by members of the VLF. Beneath each post, you will see small print giving a number and the word "comments." Comments are the second part of the entry and anyone can contribute their thoughts, ideas, questions, etc. here. Simply click on the word "comments" and you will be able to view the comments that have already been left and add your own.

What is the best way to read a weblog? For people who are merely mildly curious, read a post or two. For someone vitally curious who finds this site in the future, it may be useful to start at the beginning and read the whole site. In that case, it is useful to understand that a weblog is written backwards. To read chronologically, begin with the post on the bottom of the page, not the top. Also, only the most recent posts will be visible from the "front page." There are monthly archives available and linked to on the right.

What, if any, are the groundrules? The authors of this website understand that for many people, this system can be frustrating and opportunities to express yourself too rare. We do not require that commenters use a civil tone, stay on topic or praise anyone. We do wish this site to be comfortable for anyone interested, however, so we may exercise our power to delete comments if they:

1. Use profanity.
2. Include personal attacks against individuals by name, or if a single individual, criticized personally can be identified from the comment, or
3. Appear to be spam.

For instance, it is acceptable to say "All ILS providers are ravening wolves," or "One ILS agency I know of has an ugly Executive Director" but it is not acceptable to say "The Executive Director of ¡Arriba! ILS is an irredeemable scoundrel without hope of heaven," however obvious that may be to everyone,

Spam? Are you kidding me? Nope, like every other form of electronic communication, blogs get spam (comments not pertaining to the topic which promote other websites or businesses.) To make this site as accessible as possible we will begin without Spam filters, but may add some later. Available spam filters include a requirement that a commenter identify themselves through a blogger account (which may be itself anonymous) or that they type a code which is intentionally hard to read.

Introduction and Welcome

Friends,

This site is intended to be a journal of a coalition seeking to improve the availability and quality of person-centered support for people with developmental disabilities. The team-members and I hope that through this website, our efforts will be transparent to the community, a tool for learning and a source of feedback from stakeholders especially the people we serve and their families.

At the present moment, the team writing here will begin as:

Joe D'Onofrio of CHOICESS, a provider of supported living services to adults between downtown Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley.
Alana Hampton of Reach, a provider of Applied Behavioral Analysis in eastern Los Angeles County.
and
Doug Pascover of ¡Arriba!, a provider of Independent Living Services in eastern Los Angeles County.

We expect the team to grow over time to include other members of the East Los Angeles Regional Center Vendor Leadership Forum.

It's our hope that you enjoy this process. For those of you who are new to blogging, you may join the conversation by clicking on "comments" below any post.