Call Me Al Podcast - Season 2, Episode 3 - Dori Ortman

June 6, 2019 Jeff Fromknecht

Al sits down with Dori Ortman. Currently, Dori serves as Family Faculty at LEND (Leadership Education in Neuro/Developmental Disabilities) of Pittsburgh, a program affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. She is also LEND’s Family and Self-Advocacy Training Director and Clinic Coordinator. In addition to her roles at LEND, Dori is a Crisis Counselor with Crisis Trends, Inc. and the administrator of Special Needs C.A.R.E., a private online group providing Community, Advocacy, Resources, and Education to its members. Members include parents, caregivers, siblings, and other family members of children, adolescents, and young adults with special needs.

Dori's career in program management began nearly 20 years ago. After encountering a series of personal experiences related to caring for individuals with special health care needs, she began to focus on working and training specifically in the field of developmental disabilities. She has since completed countless hours of continuing education related to disability services, including an intensive, proficiency-based leadership program through the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University.

Throughout the course of her career, Dori has developed a multitude of educational materials on topics such as inclusive recreation and education, increasing interactions between children of varying abilities, and more. These materials have been widely used in trainings and conferences, classroom settings, handbooks, and other venues imparting skills and knowledge necessary to work with and include children with disabilities in a variety of settings.

She has also authored and received multiple local and national grants focused on her efforts to provide appropriate training and assistance to families, schools, and community organizations to maximize the potential of children with disabilities.

Additionally, Dori regularly conducts parent workshops and networking events and serves as a consultant to families and school districts. She has been a featured speaker at conferences on the local, statewide, and national level. She provides both a professional and parental perspective on disability.

Dori's passion is working with children with diverse abilities and their families to empower them to strive for success in all areas of life.

For more interviews subscribe to the Call Me Podcast on itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/call-me-al/id1441852995

Season 2 of the Call Me Podcast is brought to you by CONNECT Communities. CONNECT’s mission is to Make Lives Better. We achieve this by providing complex and specialized services for people living with brain injury and stroke in a nurturing and innovative community environment. Through our Life Redesign Model™, we empower people by applying our knowledge and experience to coach, challenge and motivate each person to reach their unique personal goals and build a fulfilling life for themselves. CONNECT is one of few organizations accredited through Accreditation Canada using the Acquired Brain Injury standards. For more information visit their website: https://connectcommunities.ca/

What Type of Community is Your Organization Creating?

November 5, 2015 Jeff Fromknecht

Organizations that are the most successful in supporting individuals in the community have the organization community connections, systems, resources, and organizational knowledge in place. Staff at theses organizations understand the core values, and know that all of there activities are focused on the overall goal of providing people with the opportunities to get connected to his or her community.

In our work, we have identified 6 key domains for change that organizations should consider when examining their organizations commitment to building an inclusive community. These domains include:

Values
Leadership
Organizational Social Capital
Monitoring & Evaluation
Advocacy
Programs

Check out this organizational self-assessment to learn what type of community your organization is creating.

October 9, 2015 South Florida Symposium!

July 24, 2015 Jeff Fromknecht

On October 9, 2015 in Boca Raton, FL the Interdependence Network and the Unicorn Children's Foundation is conducting a symposium to look closely at the power and potency of social capital and community engagement for people with disabilities.

The Symposium is being held at Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center (201 Plaza Real Boca Raton, FL 33432). It will start at 9:00, with a continental breakfast being served at 8:30am. Lunch is included.

This symposium will be unlike the usual conferences you attend. We will be debating, discussing and creating interactive strategies and actions. You will leave this symposium with a personal blueprint for action in your community.

A limited number of scholarships for parents and self advocates are available. Please email us at info@buildingsocialcapital.org to see if you qualify.

TICKETS ON SALE! REGISTER TODAY

FOR A SNEAK PREVIEW OF THE WORKSHOP CHECK OUT AL'S TedXPITTSBURGH TALK

Building Skills in Self Direction with David Isitt

May 13, 2015 Jeff Fromknecht

A resource to support service providers in building skills and knowledge in the area of self direction. In this video, we see service providers working on the ground with people and management staff giving their reflections on a self directed model of service. More formal concepts and philosophies are provided to assist in understanding how services can move to a model of self direction.

Defining Culture

February 3, 2015 Jeff Fromknecht

“Culture is the learned and shared way that communities do particular things.”

Often when you think about community, the notion of culture is introduced. The term “culture” is dependent on community, as culture relates more to the behaviours manifested by the community. People bound together around a common cause create a community, and the minute they begin to establish behaviours around their common cause, they develop a culture. Culture is the learned and shared way that communities do particular things.

This basic approach to community and culture blends three features. One is the fact that community is a network of people and, often, these people may have great differences or even distances (diversity) between them. They can be different in age, background, ethnicity, religion, or many other ways, but in spite of their differences, their commonality or common cause pulls them together. The similarity of the common cause or celebration (commonality) is the second key feature of community and the glue that creates the network. Regardless of who the members of the network are as people, their common cause overrides whatever differences they may have and creates a powerful connection.

Finally, as the collection of people continues to meet and celebrate on a regular basis (regularly) they begin to frame behaviors and patterns and become a culture, the third key ingredient. These regular meetings bond the community members as they discover other ways that they are similar.

Defining Community

January 29, 2015 Jeff Fromknecht

“Community is defined as a network of people who regularly come together for some common cause or celebration ”

Community is defined as “a network of people who regularly come together for some common cause or celebration (Condeluci, 2002).” A community is not necessarily geographic, although geography can define certain communities. To come to an understanding of community is to appreciate that community is based on the relationships that form, not on the space utilized. In fact, space can be an abstract notion when it comes to understanding community. Think about the global community created by the Internet. These communities are not bound by geography, but rather are relationships formed in cyberspace.

The term “community” is the blending of the prefix “com,” which means “with,” and the root word “unity,” which means togetherness and connectedness. The notion of being ‘with unity” is a good way to think about the concept of community. When people come together for the sake of a unified position of theme, you have community.

Think now about communities in your life. All of us have a number of groups that meet the definition of community. Our families, for example, are a good framework for understanding community. These are people with whom we spend a great deal of time on common themes.

To help us just a bit more in understanding community, consider another definition of community from Robert Bellah (1985): “A community is a group of people who are socially interdependent, who participate together in discussion and production, and who share certain practices that both define the community and are nurtured by it.” Both of these definitions give us a solid start in thinking about communities in our lives.

Using the definitions of community, spend some time now identifying these groups in your life.

Newsletter Winter 2014

November 20, 2014 Jeff Fromknecht

The Interdependence Network (IN) is a collaborative, membership based advocacy group created by disability-based human service organizations from around the United States, Canada and Australia. Our purpose is to promote the full inclusion of people with disabilities in the community. We do this by:

Fostering the development of new approaches to human-service programs that focus on facilitating community engagement and the building of social capital for people with disabilities as a primary outcome.
Providing professional development opportunities to human service agencies focused on helping them implement an organizational culture that values and supports meaningful community inclusion.
Developing a program evaluation protocol to track social capital related outcomes.
Disseminating information, research findings, and resources to the greater rehabilitation community, including people with disabilities and their families.
Educating the business and nonhuman-service related community on how to be welcoming of people with disabilities.

The Interdependence Network’s founding organizations include:

Community Living and Support Services, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Community Living Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
communityworks, inc, Overland Park, Kansas
Connect Communities, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Hope Services, San Jose, California
John F. Murphy Homes, Auburn, Maine
Mamre Association, Brisbane, Australia

Our tips and strategies have been developed for those adults and children with disabilities who want to be more engaged in the community. A number of our tools are available for free download on the buildingsocialcapital.org website (http://buildingsocialcapital.org/toolbox/). Including:

1. Community Engagement Planning Tool
This tool is designed for parents, self-advocates and direct support staff. It is used to create a community engagement plan for a person with disabilities.

2. Tips on Getting Involved in the Community
This fact sheet provides an overview of the important steps involved in helping a person or child get involved in community-based activities. It reviews the 4-step process of community engagement.

3. Evaluating Community Venues
Supporting people to connect with others in the community begins with finding the right venue. This tip sheet offers suggestions on how to find places in the community that offer the best opportunities to build social capital.

4. Community Membership Scale
This tool helps staff and families evaluate current community engagement and offers steps toward increasing inclusivity.

These tools have been developed and used at our member agencies. All of the strategies promote our commonality, not our differences. They are grounded in the values of person centered planning and individual choice in decision making. Our approach does not concentrate on trying to fix or change the person with the disability. Instead, the focus is on helping individuals gain independence by developing and maintaining meaningful social relationships and social capital, based on the person’s interests and passions. Indeed, relationship-building is a central tenant of this approach and is just as important for well-being as traditional rehabilitation. Do you still have questions about why social capital is so important? Click here to read more about social capital and why it is a key ingredient in meaningful community inclusion: http://buildingsocialcapital.org/about-social-capital/.

In addition to the above, our buildingsocialcapital.org website also has a variety of additional free resources to help you and your organization, including:

Videos featuring, IN founder and lead organizer Al Condeluci discussing the importance of social capital.
White Papers on community inclusion and civic engagement from leaders in the rehabilitation community.
The View from the Field Blog, a forum for discussion and dialogue on strategies to help people with disabilities get more engaged in the community and to begin building more social capital.
A Speaker’s Bureau with information on speakers who can provide professional development training for your organization’s staff, management, and Board of Directors.

The IN has been hosting a series of regional symposiums on social capital and civic engagement. Following Ancient Greek tradition, the IN symposiums are unlike other conferences. They gather like-minded people who come to debate, plot, boast, and discuss the actions and directions we can take to help people with disabilities enhance their engagement in the community and to build social capital. Participants walk away from the symposium with a personal blueprint for action in their community. In 2014 we held symposiums in:

Toronto, Ontario
Kansas City, Kansas
San Jose, California
Brisbane, Australia

In 2015 and 2016, symposiums are being planned for:

Vancouver, British Columbia
Portland, Maine
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania

Please check our website for upcoming dates and locations in your area (http://buildingsocialcapital.org/symposiums/).

Are you interested in community inclusion and want to get involved in our effort? We are building a catalogue of tools and resources developed by and for human service agencies that support a person-centered, function-based approach to community engagement. Please contact us today, at info@buildingsocialcapital.org if you are interested in sharing your community inclusion strategies and success stories with us.

Interdependence in Action: A New Focus for Old Programs

March 19, 2014 Jeff Fromknecht

John F. Murphy Homes, Inc.

Supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and Autism has been the mission of John F. Murphy Homes, Inc. (JFM) for more than 33 years. Priding themselves in delivering progressive services, JFM has developed a niche for providing safety and security to those who struggle with significant behavioral challenges. For a decade, its services focused on keeping people busy with leisure or lower level “work” activities and behavior modification interventions, for those who needed it. Helping people connect with each other and the community was not the primary goal.

More recently, however, JFM’s services have begun to shift from providing stability, to helping people thrive. This was the first step for the organization in taking a long, hard look at its services. How would it need to change the way it does things so that the people supported could make better and deeper connections? What information and skills did staff need to obtain? Were there ways JFM could modify the planning process to help create the outcomes they desired? Learning how to support people to move beyond very real barriers toward authentic engagement with the community became its mission.

Taking from new developments in Positive Psychology and Neuroscience and older theories like Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, JFM began to take a very holistic approach to social capital. They realized that a great many of the people supported had had difficult and often traumatic experiences. These have led not only to behavioral challenges, but difficulties with developing relationships as well. JFM began to look at how it could help shore up peoples’ physical, emotional, social and spiritual foundations to increase their capacity for relationship building.

JFM’s first step was to look at sleep, nutrition and exercise. Is each person getting 6-8 hours of good sleep a night and, if not, what types of support might be needed to achieve that? Are they eating a variety of brightly colored fruits and vegetables to improve their nutrition? Does everyone get outside in the sunshine for at least 30 minutes of healthy activity each day? These three areas provide an important foundation for good physical and mental health.

The next step was to assess whether a person has the skills to self-soothe when a situation becomes stressful. The traumatic experiences that many people with disabilities have experienced have sensitized them to stress, making them more likely to over-react or withdraw. Daily exercises in relaxation and mindfulness help increase the ability to maintain emotional balance—a prerequisite for developing and maintaining positive relationships. Gratitude journals help teach the skill of focusing on the positive and the things that are good and enjoyable, counteracting the brain’s propensity to focus on the negative. Providing these types of trauma sensitive interventions teach positive coping skills and widen the door of relational opportunity.

JFM’s third step utilizes the VIA Character Strength assessment (www.authentichappiness.com) to determine a person’s top five character strengths. This assessment is lengthy and not every person will have the attention span or the intellectual skills to comprehend all of the questions in the assessment. In these circumstances, the Person Centered Planning Team assists by reviewing the list of 24 strengths and determining together which strengths best describe the person. Determining each person’s character strengths has had a profound effect on the planning process. Often, services at JFM had been so focused on changing interfering behavior that we have failed to appreciate the strengths each person possesses. It has helped the organization make shift the focus on to how capable people are rather than what they need to change. Once character strengths are identified, they consider the person’s interests and passions. Combining strengths and passions has provided new ideas and inspiration for where and in what capacity people might connect with the community.

The ultimate goal has been not just to get people involved in the community, but to look for ways to help them gain a new role. JFM looked for opportunities for their people to serve or volunteer, not as an end in itself, but as a way to contribute to others. When people serve, their value increases in the eyes of others, moving them from a burden to someone capable of contributing. In addition, the person gains the opportunity to experience the joy of giving, something we have often robbed them of in our role as service providers. For a very long time, people with disabilities have been recipients of services, but have not been given the opportunity to reach out and give of themselves to help others. Engaging people and the community in this way has led to some surprisingly wonderful outcomes.

Through reflection and honest dialogoue about their services, JFM has began to change the culture of its organization. Here are a few stories of how this looks like on the individual level:

Tracy struggled most of her life to find her way in the world. Difficult/traumatic experiences coupled with intellectual challenges made coping with life more than she could handle on her own. However, finding supports that could keep her safe and provide stability proved nearly impossible for almost 40 years. But all of that changed 10 years ago when JFM. began supporting her. A very structured, behaviorally based program provided Tracy with what she needed to find stability. Healing, however, was illusive.

Tracy loves to cook and enjoys children. In the past, her personal challenges got in the way of pursuing these passions, but focusing on her strengths rather than those challenges changed everything. Tracy began meeting with a friend weekly to work on making blankets, which they then delivered to the Ronald McDonald House for the families who reside there while their children receive medical treatment. The feelings she experienced helping children in this way were new and positive. Then Tracy cooked a meal for the families and began bringing baked goods to daycare centers, nursing homes and a local mission. Within 6 months of beginning these new activities, Tracy no longer needed a gait belt to keep her from falling or a helmet to protect her if she did fall. And the number of days life overwhelmed her coping skills decreased by half. Tracy still needs a high level of support, but the impact of giving to others and focusing on what is good in her life rather than what needed to change has enhanced her life far more than the previous 10 years of behavioral interventions. Engaging with her community has not only increased her social capital, but she has experienced both the physical and emotional benefits from finding her purpose and giving to others.

Steve is personable and loves to learn and has a passion for history. He used to take walks through cemeteries and do rubbings of the headstones, but it didn’t help him make any new friends or give him a sense of purpose. In the past, our focus on ameliorating his intractable mental health issues clouded our ability to appreciate his humor, creative problem solving and people skills. Now, he is a member of the historical society in his town. He attends meetings and helps put on fundraisers. It has given him a sense of belonging and his meaningful contributions the society are valued by the other members.

Changing the culture at JFM has not come quickly or easily. It has and continues to be challenging to identify the best way to implement change. Training the 450 professionals who provide support in the residential services program is a big job, especially with ongoing budget cuts. And they continue to wrestle with how best to teach staff the practical skills needed to help people make meaningful connections in the community. But the successes JFM has had the privilege to witness and the contributions that have begun happening keep them pressing on to create more relational, strength-based supports that help people connect more deeply with their community.

Organizational Culture Change

March 4, 2014 Jeff Fromknecht

The first critical issue in any change effort is the awareness that we need to change. It is clear that providers of services to people with disabilities still do not have a solid understanding of social capital as a rehabilitation concept and outcome. Perhaps it is too simple, or maybe too “touchy-feely” – certainly, rehabilitation success with people who have significant disabilities can not be as simple as “more friends?” Yet, when we look at social capital from a broader perspective, or think about it in our own lives, the impact is clear. Friends are fundamental to our health and to having more opportunity in our lives.

Everyone associated with the organization must begin to critically re-think the purpose behind their work by asking the two questions ‘how is what I am doing helping a person that I work with to become more connected to their community’ and ‘what can our agency do with our existing resources to help people build more relationships and connections to the community?’

IN member CLASS led this visioning exercise by organizing the agency’s leadership, board of directors and folks being served to conduct a S.W.O.T. analysis of the agency as it related to Interdependence. A S.W.O.T. analysis looks at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats related to a particular initiative, in this case it was focused on helping people to develop community connections and building social capital. Everything the agency did or said was examined, including the agency’s mission and vision statements, the types of programs being offered, and how staff were being trained.

This process was the ultimate product because it infused into the fabric of the organizational culture the principle that relationships, and the resulting social capital were important. This was the first step in creating an agency culture in which relationships are the most important outcome. It is this simple change in perspective that sets the Interdependence approach off from the typical medical approach to services.

The Importance of the Gatekeeper

February 24, 2014 Jeff Fromknecht

The final step in cultural shifting revolves around the gatekeeper. The only way new people, ideas, or products can successfully enter an existing community is when they are introduced and endorsed by a viable gatekeeper. A gatekeeper is an indigenous member of the community who has either formal or informal influence with the culture. These gatekeepers can be formally elected or selected leaders, or they might be one of the members who everyone can count on to get things done.

These gatekeepers are powerful because they transition their influence to the person, idea, or product they are endorsing or rejecting. This transition of influence is the first step to the inclusion of the new thing into the culture. The mere fact that the gatekeeper likes or dislikes the idea is enough to sway other members to his or her side. Remember, 60% of the membership of any community is usually neutral (or slightly on the negative side) on issues. The gatekeeper uses his or her power and influence to persuade others to follow his or her lead. The assertive gatekeeper will readily offer his or her opinion; the unassertive gatekeeper usually must be asked.

To effectively shift a culture to accept something new requires that the change agent identify and then enlist a gatekeeper to facilitate the passage. This is simple yet complex in how it plays out. On the one side we know that gatekeepers are a part of any culture or community. We know that 20% of these gatekeepers are positive people interested in taking risks to promote things they feel good about. We know that when the gatekeeper endorses a person, idea, or product, other members observe this and open their thinking to the same. We also know that the more enthusiastic the gatekeeper is to the new item, the more apt others are to do the same. All of this makes sense when we think about culture and community. If you want to bring a shift in cultural perspective, the endorsement and support of a gatekeeper is absolutely essential. To this end, then, the ability to identify and then ask for gatekeeper assistance without being perceived as attempting to meddle or influence is a true art in changing culture. This may play out differently for people than for ideas or products.

In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell reflects on the kinds of people necessary to move something from one level to another. The movement of ideas, products, or even people ultimately has a tipping point. Gladwell looked to understand how this might work. In his book he describes three types of people who move ideas, people, or products into the mainstream. He calls these folks “connectors, mavens, and salesmen.”

The “connectors” are the people with broad circles and those who can influence a lot of these people. These connectors are unique because their circles extend beyond the usual parochial boundaries.
The “mavens” are people who have a deep level of information and who are always looking to share this information with others. A key thing about mavens is that they get nothing for their information. They share important and useful things because they enjoy helping people.
The “salesmen” are passionate purveyors of ideas, products, or people. Salesmen may not necessarily have deep relationships, but they have the opportunity to share things.

A gatekeeper is a person with one, two, or all three of these qualities. Gatekeepers are the key to cultural shifting by promoting and rejecting things that push the community to a new level. The way they influence the culture can be either positive, when they support and endorse the new person, idea, or product; or negative, when they oppose or work against the new person, idea, or product.

Over the years anthropologists have attempted to examine what type of people lead to social change and cultural shifting. As new things help to develop or enhance the existing culture, the elements of positive gatekeepers become important to understand. The theory behind this is called social influence theory. This theory teaches us the following facts about gatekeepers:

They tend to be positive people. They genuinely like people and look for the good in everyone they meet.
They are social risk takers. They reach out to the underdog and are willing to take cultural flack if need be.
They reach out to new things, and they are curious and interested in why, how, and why not.
They tend to be younger people and not so caught up in dogma.
More often than not, they tend to be women. Men are usually more conservative and they become more easily set in their ways.
They are highly social and tend to be good mixers.
They tend to have respected influence with their community.

Positive gatekeepers are essential for the diffusion of new ideas, products, or people to penetrate into an existing community. The positive gatekeeper who steps forward to introduce or to endorse something new is critical to helping a new person in becoming a valued and respected member of a new group. 

The 4-Step Community Building Process: Step 3 Understand the Elements of Culture

January 20, 2014 Jeff Fromknecht

Step 3: Understand the Elements of Culture

All communities have key ingredients that make the community a community: These include common rituals, patterns of behavior, and, often, jargon. As we look at Step 3 in the process of making change, these elements of culture become critical to this thesis. That is, once a person has expressed an interest in looking further into something that excites him or her and discovers that a culture exists, the next logical step is to understand and then carry out the actions of the culture in an effort to join. When the actions of culture get defined in the following four ways it gives the newcomer clear things to consider in joining. The more one understands what the community does that is common, how its members move about in accomplishing those things, what words and phrases are used to communicate their actions, and the history that bonds its members, the more easily the understanding will become assimilated into the fold.

For cultural shifting with people, this process is best done by observing the community in action and being clear about your observations. These observations will help you to be able to clearly consider the actions you will need to do to be more easily included into the community. The sooner you come to know the rituals, patterns, jargon, and memory of the community, the quicker your passage.

In cases where you are considering the inclusion of people you work for or care about, the process is the same. That is, the observation and analysis of the rituals, patterns, jargon, and memory of the culture will help you gather the information to pass on to the individual you are helping. In many ways this is what we do with our children. Once we locate a possible venue for them, we gather as much information as we can to see how other members behave, move about, and talk.

In situations where new ideas or products are being considered, Step 3 is adjusted. The elements of the culture are important, but they must be framed around how the idea or product might influence or impact the rituals, patterns, jargon, or memory of the culture. Indeed, new ideas or products will always change or adjust the rituals, patterns, jargon, and memory of the community. These influences must be identified and understood so as to offset challenges by the negative gatekeepers. For example, if a new computer methodology is being introduced to a group and will influence how the group does its business, the change agent needs to know this and be ready to prepare members for these changes.

To this extent, with ideas or products the change agents must do a probability analysis of impact on rituals, patterns, jargon, and memory of the culture. They need to remember that most people will be somewhat resistant to this new idea or product. The sooner they can focus on the impact and prepare the group for change, the easier the new idea or product will be diffused.

Either way, for people, ideas, or products, understanding the elements of culture becomes a critical piece to the process of Interdependence. The easiest way to gather this information is to observe the culture firsthand. In this observation, the change agent wants to be open, receptive, and highly observant of the cultural nuances. He or she needs to make mental notes and, at times, formal notes if the culture is complex.

If observation is impossible, another way to gather information is to ask others. This type of interviewing will glean important information and perspectives from people who have had previous experiences with the culture. These leads can be invaluable. Be cautious, however, of the possibility of bias or bad information. Sometimes the informant may have an ax to grind or may be suspicious of your questions and intentionally skew the information he or she gives.

A third method for learning the elements of community is to read. Often information for prospective members is easily at hand. As with most written information, it is usually simple and abbreviated. Sometimes this abbreviation can be a problem as nuances are left out. Successful change agents will try to use all three methods. They ask, observe, and read as much as they can about the community. Usually if you do these three things, you will not go wrong.

The 4-Step Community Building Process: Step 2 Find the Venue

January 13, 2014 Jeff Fromknecht

Step 2: Find the Venue or Connection Point

Once the change agent has identified the positive capacities for inclusion or incorporation, the next critical step is to find the place that the person, idea, or product will relate. Quite simply, finding the setting where the person, idea, or product might be accepted sets the stage for inclusion and cultural shifting.

By “venue” or “connection point,” we are referring to the viable marketplace for the person, idea, or product. With ideas or products the change agent can think in the conventional framework of a marketplace. That is, if you have developed a product that is best suited for accountants, your potential marketplace would be with the fiscal offices of a corporation or with an accounting firm. These or similar marketplaces offer the best possibility that your product will be understood and, hopefully, purchased.

With people, the concepts of venue and connection point have equal importance. If you are looking to find a framework of new friends, you have a much better chance of connection if you take a hobby, passion, or capacity and join up with others who share that same passion. A good example is the efforts we make with our children when we attempt to broaden their horizon.

In a more formal way, this step works with agencies that attempt to connect people back to community. One example from our agency is the story of David. Al first met David while working years ago at our local county home for the aged. One of our first efforts was to help David begin to meet people and make new friends. Using the capacity model portrayed in step 1, we identified a number of things David enjoyed or had an interest in. One of these passions for David was oldies music. While at the facility, David listened regularly to oldies music on the radio. After he moved into his own apartment, we identified an oldies club not far from where he lived. This venue offered a good starting point for David because he had a natural affinity for the same common theme, which attracted others together.

The secret to step 2 is to find the appropriate venue that matches the interest or positive points of the individual. In many cases, this is anthropological work. We know that people gather for all kinds of reasons, but the most powerful reason is to celebrate that which they share. Finding the matching community for the interest is critical to meeting new friends and, possibly, changing the culture. In David’s example, finding the oldies club was a direct match to his interest in oldies. Often we have to look closely, but the process accelerates by asking people who might know. In David’s situation, we called the local oldies radio station to inquire. The resources are out there; we just have to find them.

One powerful strategy in Step 2 is found with the website www.meetup.com. Some of you reading this book might be familiar with this social networking website, but, if not, it offers a wonderful and easy way to find a community-based venue that matches the interest. When you log onto meetup.com, you will first be prompted to identify what country you want to search. As you know, the Internet has created a “global community,” and so there are meetup groups all over the world. Once you identify the country, you are prompted to identify a postal or zip code. This allows the meetup search engine to hone directly into your community.

Last, you then have a search bar to enter in a “keyword” that identifies your interest, passion, or affinity. When you hit the “enter” button, the search engine will display every club, group, or association that is registered with meetup in a geographical order starting with those groups closest to your zip or postal code. If this is not enough, the listings of groups are further developed with information about the groups’ patterns and expectations, and meetup even identifies some club members and offers their email addresses so you can connect electronically.

Now, one caution about step 2 must be addressed when applying the steps of cultural shifting to people, especially newcomers who have been excluded. The existing members of community may not see or understand the relevance for people who have been traditionally excluded. For example, people with disabilities have been historically separated from typical populations. Given this historic sense of congregation, the natural tendency, even for professionals in human services, is to keep these same people congregated. That is, if we discover in a capacity exploration from step 1, that our friend David loves the oldies, a natural propensity might be to see if there are other people with disabilities who like the oldies and then put them together. How many times do you see groups of people with disabilities doing the same thing together? This phenomenon is evident in our stadiums or theaters that have “handicap sections” where all folks with disabilities are herded to watch the game or show.

Even when we find the appropriate natural community venue, the energy to congregate people might unfold. An experience a few years back drove this home for us. CLASS was assisting a friend to connect in the community. Using step 1, we discovered that Jim had an interest in swimming. To build on this we went to step 2 and explored Jim’s community to find a swimming venue. We decided on the local YMCA near Jim’s home. When Jim and Al went to the YMCA to get him a membership and find out more about the swimming options, the membership director pulled Al aside. Using a soft voice so that Jim wouldn’t hear, he told Al that he could arrange for the agency to have the pool all to itself every other Tuesday evening. This way we could bring all the handicapped people we like and they could swim together. Even the YMCA membership director thought about people with disabilities in a congregative manner.

The bold fact of all these experiences is that people gather. They gather for all kinds of reasons and interests. For every capacity or passion there is a place that people gather to celebrate these passions. Once we get over our habits of segregation and congregation we can come to see that these places are ones that offer a wonderful starting point to culture. In these gathering places we can find the key to cultural shifting and the dispensing of social capital and currency.

Lessons learned from the October 25 Symposium in Pittsburgh

October 31, 2013 Jeff Fromknecht

INTRODUCTION

The challenge of self-determination, consumer satisfaction and community inclusion is front and center with most human service organizations today. Individuals and organizations have realized that the traditional public and private methodologies have not led way to the inclusive opportunities that are wanted. Consequently, new approaches must be sought and developed.

Interdependence is a concept that reframes the structure around human services. It is an approach that focuses on assets and looks to build partnerships and consensus. It suggests that the realities that surround people who use human services are often not the issues that services must be framed around. Rather, Interdependence appeals more to the realities of relationships and the basics of human values that we all crave as members of groups within our greater culture.

The concept of Interdependence uses a macro perspective that demands we understand culture, community and social capital. Using the metaphor of a bridge, we can better understand why people with differences remain in separate, offset places. Although a person’s difference might separate them from others, it is the passions, capacities and similarities of people that can create the foundation to build the bridge back to community. On the other side of this bridge is the community, with all of its customs, rituals and structure.

In order to be successful, we must look at community and how relationships are built. We define community as a “network of different people, who come together regularly, for something in common.” This definition helps us understand that building relationships is a process and as support people we can facilitate this process. The 4 key steps in the process are:

Identify the passions, interests, hobbies, avocations of the person. (Find their similarity)
Find a community or group that meets around the same commonality you found in the person you support. (explore www.meetup.com)
Study, observe or discover the key behaviors that are expected in this group. (So you might coach or prepare the person for what is expected)
Find a “gatekeeper” or influential member already in the group and ask them to introduce your client to the others. (so that their value spreads to your client)

It is important to appreciate the influence of these four steps. They create the process necessary for people to begin to develop social capital. The more time people spend and the more similarity they exchange, the greater the chances that a relationship will unfold.

More forward thinking individuals and groups are beginning to embrace and utilize the component parts of Interdependence to not only approach human service needs, but to build the very fabric of their communities. Such was the activity recently supported by the Milbank Foundation for Rehabilitation at the Interdependence Network Symposium in Pittsburgh on October 25, 2013.

Al Condeluci speaking the crowd at the october 25 symposium in Pittsburgh

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: IDENTIFYING STRATEGIES

Should Do

The first task was to become clear on what we should (vision building) do individually and collectively to build opportunities for all people to be more active in the community. Using an interactive, nominal process the groups identified many strategies that they should do:

1. Ask individuals what they want (assess needs on individual and community level)

2. Start from the beginning to focus staff efforts toward building social capital (language of job description, hiring, training, etc.)

3. Resource allocation (focus mission and reflect social capital (government funding and board dialogue)

4. Connect with churches, charities, and other existing infrastructure to continue community-wide dialogue(share stories and process)

5. Engaging in community mapping (understanding “local” and matching interests)

6. Brainstorm better transportation options (getting people where they need and want to be)

7. Model and bridge community engagement and relationship-building

8. Create and find work opportunities people want to do, not just what “we” think they should do

9. Educational curriculum relevant to the individuals

10. Network with other agencies

11. Putting energy into on-line vehicles(i.e. social media) to grow and support all people with disabilities in communities of faith and inclusion

12. Be an ambassador of and for people by gathering and circulating empowering information that connects the community

13. Initiate weekly “community connection conversation party” (getting to know who lives in the neighborhood, what the needs are, where the resources are, etc.)

14. Discard acronyms

15. Engaging the business community (social capital in the workplace) through education, reaching out, catalyzing opportunities for meaningful employment, etc.

16. Better educate people around socially connecting patterns, norms, actions, and ways to feel and experience belonging (teach the hidden “rules” of belonging I and to a community)

17. Run a cost/benefit analysis of accessible transformation vs. isolation

18. Tap into the power of storytelling

19. Promotion of individuals with disabilities serving on boards, community action groups, etc.

20. Eliminate site-based services, and shift paradigm from “disability” service to people service

21. Adapting building / redesign of facilities promoting the arts to become more accessible and inviting to our populations

22. Maximize inclusive options of places to live

23. Acknowledge and discuss issues as an organization

24. Eliminate the “us” vs. “them” language and mentality

25. Increase dialogue/interactions across staff/participants

26. Increase time/opportunities to meet/plan with individuals and family to discuss possible community connections (done with intention)

27. Introduce concepts of social capital from the ground up (state government)

28. Educate the greater community on inclusion and social capital as well as the smaller community we are connected with

29. Asking the people we support about relationships

30. Find ways to keep people safe in the community (including safety)

31. Imbedding social capital into government funding RFP’s

32. Help providers and family members understand, value and embrace relational safety as opposed to system safety

33. Define our compass point, and measure our success

34. Train staff to be community connectors

35. Peer-run education, support groups with opportunities, consultation, and staff (seeing people as individuals rather than consumers)

36. Create opportunities to enhance and build already existing relationships

37. Stop focusing on group activities

38. Provide resources (booklet, Internet, etc.) to share with teams to ensure it is accurate and current

39. Educate the community on the integration and inclusion (campaign)

40. Continue to engage people beyond their presenting “need” to help them create strategies to build their social capital

41. Provide transportation into the community

42. Living support including support in the areas of living, learning, socializing, and working

43. Participants in every community activity/event/board/organization

44. Change the universal symbol for disability

45. Financial assistance for community events

46. Open Universities for persons with disabilities

Could Do

The next step was to reconvene and the same work groups converted their list of "shoulds" into ones they could actually do. This conversion created a new list of "coulds". This new list included real actions that group members think they can actually do in their daily life.

1. Individual assessment of social capital

2. Help non-profits to organize themselves into a symbiotic network of thought and positive action (connecting churches, charities, etc. to encourage a community-wide dialogue)

3. Refocus staff efforts (build bridges, consumer-focused lens, recruiting, training, etc. all reflecting social capital mission and take conversation to a board / state-funding level)

a. Engaging in community mapping (understanding what is in local communities and matching interests)

b. Regional events and education to shift perceptions

c. Model and bridge community engagement and relationships-building skills

d. Create and find work opportunities people want to do, not just what “we” think they should/could do

4. Be ambassadors of and for people by gathering and circulating information that empowers people and strengthens communities

5. Engage the business community (social capital in the workplace) through conversation, education, and advocacy to catalyze opportunities for meaningful employment

6. Better educate/inform people about social norms to help them feel more connected in social groups (teaching the “hidden rules” of belonging in and to a community)

7. Turn the focus of systems toward engaging people with disabilities and enhancing their social capital to facilitate social inclusion for all

8. Run a cost-benefit analysis of accessible transportation vs. isolation

9. Transportation (Information, access, spontaneous, on-call, staffing)

10. Inclusive recreation with in-place adaptations

11. Promotion of individuals with disabilities serving on boards, community action groups, etc.

12. Education on integration/inclusion/increasing comfort level of all individuals

13. Speak up (acknowledge and discuss collaboration amongst colleagues)

14. Educate stakeholders and community

15. Ask participants about their interests

16. Plan with intention of building relationships

17. Find ways to keep people safe in the community

18. Train staff on how to be community connectors

19. Define our compass (measure outcomes)

20. Stop focusing on group activities

21. Be more open and engaging when out in the community

Will Do

The third step of the process was to have the same workgroups identify the top 5 items that they "will" do when they left the meeting. The group then recorded their 5 "Wills”.

The final activity was a reconciliation of the "will do" strategies each group identified.

1. Ask individuals what they want (assessing social capital)

2. Educating the community about our work and finding a way to promote our specific populations through positive means

3. Refocus staff goals (build bridges to focus on consumers first i.e. recruitment, training, job descriptions, etc. to aim for reinvigorating social capital)

4. Engaged community mapping (encourage colleagues and find tools to share)

5. Network, Network, Network

6. Transportation and facilities maximize utilization

7. Speak up (acknowledge and discuss collaboration amongst colleagues

8. Ask participants – interests, participation so we can plan with the intention of building relationships

9. Define compass (measure outcomes)

10. Train staff on how to be community connectors

11. Measure success of social capital building

12. Formalize the measures (use of EHR, use of student interns, build structure to enhance focus, etc.)

13. Define our compass in the day programs, set goals, and measure outcomes

14. Empower individuals to self-advocate

15. Stop focusing on group activities

16. Conduct the social capital study in Central Pa

17. Work to share resources, natural supports networks, and information

18. Introduce the interdependence paradigm in the classroom

19. Being more open and engaging when out in the community

20. Peer-run education for community/peer-run support groups

21. Write a book about ASD and relationships

22. Create opportunities to enhance and build already existing relationships

23. Regular (weekly) communication (staff, families, people supported, community organizations) related to importance of relationships

It was exciting to see the similarity and diversity of opinion on this issue. One theme was abundantly clear, if we are to build a culture that truly finds opportunity for community inclusion, we must change some of our current behaviors.

THE PATH FORWARD

Change is never easy. People and organizations have a propensity to keep the status quo, reject new ideas and continue the course, even if it does not solve the problem. Yet to stay the same is to stagnate.

What you have just read is the fuel for change – the raw material of growth. The strategies listed offer us a map to a new place – one that is at higher ground, further evolved. Know, however, that the achievement of some of these solutions will not come easy. They require a conscious and direct effort. They also require that individuals and organizations have a warm and hospitable core.

Either way, we must step forward to address these issues. Rarely do people realize the opportunity we have to touch lives and, in turn, impact our culture. How fortunate we are – yet how serious the task. Thanks for all that you do and best of luck in continuing to build a community where each belongs.

Jeff Fromknecht & Al Condeluci