Postcards from Portland, last day

Today the session was divided into two separate presentations, one on educating law enforcement about people with disabilities and the other, from which this report comes, covers basics of the MAP and PATH processes for person-centered planning.

Insight of the day: "Considering the nightmare scenario helps every stakeholder understand what they need desperately to avoid." -Ruth Gordon, UK.

Today the conference only goes until noon at which point I'm to be turned loose on Portland on my own recognizance.

Postcards from Portland, Day IV

The morning began with presentations by family members including a parent-run group in Australia, a parent advocate from New Jersey and a group from Pennsylvania requiring their county to use ELP. The afternoon will be a "Learning Marketplace"

A presenter from the UK mentioned an interesting sounding book called The Keys to Citizenship by Simon Duffy.

Insight of the day: It's important to ask all the participants (including the professionals) before an ELP meeting what needs to accomplished for them to feel the meeting has been successful.- Ruth Gorman.(UK)

Special Bonus Insight: British people have many different ways of talking funny. -Your correspondent.

Postcards from Portland, Day III

The third day of the 2006 ELP Trainer's Conference is dedicated to organizational change. Primarily the agenda for today is made up of presentations by the personnel of agencies that are participating in the "Good to great" program presenting their stories. Speakers have been or are scheduled to be representatives from three Oregon-based organizations, Tri-Counties Regional Center and groups from Canada and the United Kingdom.

Michael Smull requested that the name "Good to great" be used very intentionally by only groups who have formally committed to a mutual learning process. I'm still waiting for the "insight of the day," and this post will be updated this afternoon.

OK, the insight of the day today comes from Dave Mulvay of Tri-Counties Regional Center in a private conversation (I'll check later if it's ok to share this) that the IPP and the ISP can be a single shared document providing the service coordinator assurance that they understand the focus of the agency's work and the vendor assurance that those areas where creativity and risk are accepted that creativity and risk will be tolerated.

Postcards from Portland, Day II

The second day of the ELP learning community conference was dedicated to person-centered thinking coaches. The emphasis is on not necessarily formal training but the roles that some people can play in informally habituating the new skills withing an organization. Topics include the need for coaches (making person-centered approaches ambient and habitual), some coaches training materials, supporting coaches and a feedback process (later today) meant to improve the coach training.

Insight of the day: Groups taking themselves too seriously can obstruct change- Alison Strong

Portland Post Card

Greetings from Portland Oregon and the Essential Lifestyle Planning Gathering 2006. Today's session began with a fast review of the planning tool changes created in advance of this year's conference. Well, it really began with positive productive meeting processes but I'm a poor reporter of such things.

The working lunch included a demonstration of ELP tools available on the intranet at Tri-Counties Regional Center (TCRC.) designed to make the identification and use of appropriate tools to be easier for ELP planners. This is an excellent resource for TCRC staff. It would be swell if something similar may be available on the ELP website.

Two instruments that have been used for essential lifestyle training. Graham Seaton, whose brother is an adult with autism demonstrated a movie-based ELP instrument done for his brother (which is available for a fee.) The next was a newsletter format Essential Lifestyle Plan written by a woman who receives support.

The final presentation is a discussion of "Life Plans" by the Pathfinders group from California.

Fifteen states and four countries are represented at this gathering.

Insight of the Day: In terms of the ELP corporate approach there is developing a use it or lose it approach to training certification. There is an emphasis on keeping abreast of changes which strengthens change.