Reciprocal Relationships
The Good Life – Family and Friends
CRU exists to create and promote positive change so that people with disabilities can belong to and participate in community life. In this video CRU asked people what makes a good life.
Wellsprings of Person Centred Planning
John O’Brien talks about the history of the meaning of Person-Centered Planning and acknowledges the hard dead layers of habits of social exclusion. John describes how to find wellsprings of possibility by listening deeply to explore how people might experience more belonging, greater respect, choice, control and opportunities to share their gifts with their families and communities.
Right Relationships with Michael Kendrick
Genia Stephen, in her ‘Good Things In Life’ podcast series invites Dr. Michael Kendrick, an international community service consultant, to talk about how the concept of right relationships is at the heart of all successful, effective service organizations, even if it’s not a term that’s widely used in the industry.
The Star Raft Circle
Dave Wetherow is an advocate for full inclusion and is currently sharing ” Star Rafts” with the world. You don’t have to be a sailor to begin to appreciate the power of a Star Raft – especially when it can become a support system for a full life in the community. Circles of Support – Star Rafts are a metaphor that helps us to see what is possible.
Chris Klein – Building Relationships through the Tools of Communication
Chris uses augmentative communication to help support his work as a Motivational Speaker, and to be an active member of his community. Chris lives independently in Holland, Michigan and strives to live his life to the fullest.
A Guide to Circles of Support
This workbook from Belonging Matters contains guidance, tips and exercises to explore and establish a circle of support alongside a person. A relationship circle can play an important role in supporting a person’s decision making.
Microboards: Social Capital and Quality of Life
A Microboard™ is a small group of dedicated friends and family who work together to help an individual plan their life, brainstorm ideas, advocate for what they need, monitor services, and connects the individual to their wider community.
Microboards™, Social Capital and Quality Of Life
While distinct concepts, social capital and quality of life have multiple intersections. Social connections and relationships are a critical variable in quality of life outcomes. This research project sought to examine through qualitative interviews with Microboard members how MBs may help to connect people to their communities and serve as a means to enhance and sustain social capital and quality of life.
Invite Someone to Your Circle
How to invite someone in to your relationship circle.
Who is in My Circle?
The Circles of Relationship resource can be used to map out the people and relationships in your life.
Circles of Support: Getting Started
A circle of support is a group of people who create a gathering space around an individual to promote and support their goals by dreaming, thinking and planning together.
Circles of Support: Fact Sheet
This Fact Sheet is a brief description of a Circle of Support with the intentional building of relationships around a person who may be vulnerable.
Circles of Support
Sometimes a Circle is called a Circle of Friends, a Circle of Support or a Relationship Circle. A circle can work alongside people when they need support to make decisions. We can ‘organize’ virtual connections and build, refresh and renew networks of friends and colleagues thus diminishing isolation – including our own. This resource, originally developed in 2000, describes how circles of support can still be used as a tool for ongoing and intentional strategy for relationship building during the pandemic.
Relationship Circle
This relationship circle template can be used to think about who is important in your life.
Circles of Support – Circle Members
In this video circle members discuss their roles, interactions and how they contribute positively to a person’s life.
WAiS Supported Decision Making Principles
The Principles of Supported Decision Making in an easy to understand one page resource.
The 3 R’s of Social Care Reform
How constructive risk taking, respectful relationships and a sense of reciprocity characterised a positive response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper draws upon the TLAP Insight Group report, A Telling Experience and subsequent meetings with regional ADASS branches, as well as interviews with people for the case studies. It also draws on some of the rich conversations from the Social Care Future Festival, the National Children and Adults Services Conference (NCASC), as well as the ‘fireside conversations held with TLAP Partners, all at the end of 2020.
The Relationships Framework
This kit of resources is designed to help councils sustain and enhance the community relationships that emerged during Covid in a way that empowers rather than controls citizens. It is also intended to help councils look ahead to reimagine their organisations and services with relationships at their heart.
Relationships Project – Turning to The Light
Relationships are essential to all of us, in all walks of life. From schools to GP practices and big businesses to grassroots organisations, everything works better when relationships are nurtured. Find out more about the importance of good relationships through our bank of case studies or our collaborative blog.
A World of Good Relationships
The Relationships Project have set out a plan in this Prospectus that takes us through the months of reflection and recuperation post Covid, into a period of renewal and new building and on towards a vision for a generation. More than ever, the big questions are all about relationships. Their substance and character will determine the direction and quality of our lives. Imagine a place where good relationships are the central operating principle, the starting point for all decisions, the mechanism by which change is realised, the outcome we all strive towards. Think of your place, an organisation perhaps, a neighbourhood, a school, a council: what would change?
Damian’s Relationship Circle
Damian uses his relationship circle to help him think about who is important in his life.
Alex – Feeling Included in the Community
Alex describes his way of engaging with others to feel a sense of belonging and friendship.
‘The Desire for Friendship Comes Quickly, Friendship Does Not’: An Exploration of Valued Roles & Relationships
There is professed enthusiasm – but little progress – for people with a devalued status to experience community membership and belonging. This article explores the links between the roles that people are in and the extent to which they are likely to experience community membership and belonging.
Reaching Out
Relationships are the key to citizenship because full citizenship can only be achieved when we are recognized as contributors. It is through relationship that our contributions are given an opportunity for expression and recognition. Full citizenship for people who are marginalized has remained elusive. This report is for people involved or interested in social network facilitation: families, individuals at the centre of network building efforts, facilitators of networks, network members, service providers, and the community at large.
Staying Socially Connected
Here are 5 ideas to get you started and to stay connected with people you are concerned about during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
No Bias – A Story of Belonging
In this documentary you will meet Michael, a valued member of his local lawn bowls club. Throughout his 12 year membership at the Elwood Bowls Club Michael has developed a multitude of Valued Social Roles through his participation as a competitive and social lawn bowler, and numerous volunteer positions. You will discover that the Elwood Bowls Club is a place where Michael can pursue his passion, feel valued, and develop life long friendships.
Community Circles
A Community Circle brings people together to help someone to live a more connected life, Community Circles support people to do what matters to them. They are about finding out what is important to the person, and thinking together about how to turn that purpose into meaningful action. It is also a way to help people self direct their lives through supporting their decision making, ensuring choice and control.
Five Ways to go Into the World
Tom Kohler has spent 40 years connecting citizens of Savannah, Georgia to one another. As Co-ordinator and Executive Director of Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy, Tom has introduced people who have an established place in community to people with disabilities who have found themselves placed on the margins of community life. Together these people explore how their relationship can change their lives, and impact the life of their community. In this video Tom shares skills that can be developed for this connecting work.
A Guide to Circles of Support – Easy Read
This guide is to help you start to think about circles of support. This group of supporters can help to support you to make your own decisions about your life.
Friends Info Guide – Easy Read
This is an info guide about friends.
It will help you
• Understand why friends are important
• Know who is a good friend
• Find out how to meet new friends
• Be a good friend
Building Community through Circles of Friends
A practical guide to making inclusion a reality for people with learning disabilities. Through circles of support, people are able to gain more control over their own lives and start to have more natural community relationships.
Guiding Principles for Circles of Support
The guiding principles and fundamentals for Circle Members.
Personal Relationships Between People With and Without Disabilities
People can establish friendships with each other, but it is not possible to create friendships between others. However , it is possible to create opportunities for people with and without disabilities to meet and spend time with each other in ways that encourage friendships to take root and flourish. Families and service providers can do different things to make such opportunities available.
Circles Of Support- Getting Started
This manual is a practical guide for getting started on building Circles of support , which are based on an understanding of the importance of relationships in our life and the need for strong support networks
CRUcial Times
This edition of CRUcial Times contains stories of people who have moved from isolation and loneliness to having friends; we hear of people working to prevent loneliness and promote belonging; and importantly we share some clues as to how that has been achieved.
PLAN Networks-Michael and Veronica
A Personal Network is the most important benefit of PLAN membership. PLAN creates a personal network of likeminded caring and committed people who join together in a relationship with your relative, other family members, and each other. Once up and running, the network bridges the gap between living on the edge of community and being a full and active participant in that community.
PLAN Networks
Relationships are the core of what we do. Al Etmanski talks about creating a network of caring relationships, a sound financial plan, opportunities for contribution and supported decision-making, and a place to call home.
Living My Way
People and their families from around New South Wales share their stories and create awareness for others living with disability. These stories offer a positive reflection of how a good life can look and that anything is possible with support from friends, family and community.
Loneliness
Loneliness is increasingly recognised as a national priority in the United Kingdom. This ‘must know’ summarises and updates information on the official ‘Combating Loneliness’ comprehensive guide for councils. It states that as individuals we need to take responsibility for building and maintaining our relationships.
Community Solutions to the Loneliness Epidemic
Shareable explores solutions to the current crisis of social isolation, loneliness, and civic disconnection through a series of stories.
When Words Don’t Come Easy – Dan
A presentation written by Daniel Nunn.
When Words Don’t Come Easy – Eli
A presentation written by Eli Dickenson.
When Words Don’t Come Easy – Matt
A presentation written by Matthew.
When Words Don’t Come Easy – George
A presentation written by George.
When Words Don’t Come Easy
Merger of Minds is a peer group of adults with Complex Communication Needs (CCN) in Perth, Western Australia. In this video, people in relationship with the Merger group members were interviewed about the contributions that people with CCN make in their relationships with others and in their community.
Interplay Wellbeing Framework
These analyses confirm statistically the holistic nature of wellbeing for Aboriginal people in remote Australia, and the importance of culture, empowerment and community to government priority areas of education, work, health and wellbeing. The evidence reported here demonstrates that all of these factors interplay through both direct and indirect relationships. They all interrelate -they all influence one another and exist as one entity. This research aims to statistically validate the holistic Interplay Wellbeing Framework and Survey that bring together Aboriginal-identified priorities of culture, empowerment and community with government priorities including education, employment and health.
Right Relationships
Michael Kendrick speaks at a presentation from Family Advocacy’s 2012 Odyssey Conference.
Is it possible to create a partnership between families and services that really works?
Towards Inclusive Cities and Social Sustainability
A scoping review of initiatives to support the inclusion of people with intellectual disability in civic and social activities. The aim of this scoping study was to map key concepts underpinning interventions to include people with intellectual disability in their local community, and the main sources and types of evidence available.
Belonging and exclusion in the lives of young people with intellectual disability in small town communities
The aim of this research was to investigate the lived experiences of belonging and felt exclusion for young people with intellectual disability living in regional (small town) communities. This article focuses on the findings from the project about how the young people’s experiences of connections to place, space and people influenced their felt sense of belonging and exclusion, and from this, implications for developing social policy which is more responsive to their priorities and lived experience.
Co Design – Reflective Resource
In 2020, LELAN and TACSI worked in partnership with people from the South Australian lived experience community to co-create a Philosophy of Care to inform the new Urgent Mental Health Care Centre (UMHCC) in Adelaide. This was commissioned by the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist SA. This reflective resource will be helpful for people looking to understand how ready, willing and able they are to embark on an authentic co-design process.
Where Do We Stand?
These images guide a renewal of intentions and relationships that encourage attachment to our sources of power, hope and joy in the work of building communities where all are welcome, each belongs, and every person and family has what is necessary to thrive as contributing citizens.
Foundational Patterns for Peer to Peer Responses
This toolkit documents the guiding foundations to consider when developing and scaffolding your own peer to peer responses.
Ten Actions for an Asset Based Area
TLAP’s first paper on the asset-based area laid out a clear case for adopting an asset based approach to care and support. This expanded version is action oriented, with examples of where councils and other organisations are taking practical steps to shift in the direction of an asset-based area. The resource will interest people working in councils, those who run organisations that provide support, and people who draw on care and support, including organisations that represent their views and interests. It is intended as a practical glimpse of what is being made possible in some areas and organisations, rather than a detailed blue-print.
The Asset Based Area
A briefing paper by Shared Lives Plus CE Alex Fox which describes ten features of an ‘asset-based area’ necessary for developing strong communities and sustainable public services. It will be of interest to council, clinical commissioning group commissioners and wider public professionals. An asset-based public body does not have ‘customers’ (whose only responsibility is to pay taxes), rather it views everyone, including people with long term support needs, as citizens, with rights and responsibilities.
Friends and Purpose: Evaluation of Camerados Public Living Rooms
Camerados is a movement of people in communities across the country helping each other through tough times and coming together in places and spaces called public living rooms (in this report referred to as PLRs) created and run by local people where they can form relationships that will lift them through a bad day or a life crisis. They are used by people at any end of the scale of tough times, from stressed students to bereaved relatives to homeless people. This evaluation has taken a mixed-methods approach, gathering quantitative and qualitative data to build a rich narrative on how, and why, the PLRs are making a difference to the people who are using them, and in the organisations and communities in which they are held.
Knowing as Fundamental to Interpreting Preferences
Dr Browning shares a story from her own research.
Understanding Will and Preferences
Dr Browning explains how the decision maker’s will and preferences can be understood and supported.
Assuming Decision Making Ability
Dr Browning shares a reflective exercise for supporters to practice.
A Different Starting Point
Dr Browning suggests a different way of thinking about how we respond to people living with a disability.
Rethinking Capacity
Dr Browning discusses the assumptions of capacity and decision making capability.