Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities

The Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities

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Third Annual Best Practices Conference
Sponsored by the Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities
in conjunction with

September 13, 14, 15th, 2006
Hickory Ridge Marriott Conference Center

The goal of the Institute is to promote best practices and good public policy through advocacy and unrelenting commitment. The Institute has brought together the best in research, government, advocacy and providers to highlight best practices taking place throughout the United States.

The Best Practices Conference has been approved for 15 hours of CEU credits for QMRP's, Licensed Social Workers, Licensed Nursing Home Administrators and Licensed Clinical Counselors.

*Agencies sending 6 people who all register for the same option will have one free registration. Agencies with 6 individuals choosing different options will have the least costly option as the free paid registration.

Preconference Workshops
Wednesday, September 13^th, 1-5 p.m.

Select one workshop to attend-registrations limited to the first 50 participants per workshop

WHAT HELPS KEEP PEOPLE SAFE? PEOPLE, PATTERNS, AND POSSIBILITIES
Tom Kohler, Coordinator of Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy, Co-author Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community, Savannah, GA

This workshop will serve as a forum to explore ways to help people who do not have strong personal relationships with unpaid people in their lives to gradually become important in the life and to the life of another person. Through stories and slides, the presenter will share the experiences of people who have come to know and matter to one another. Tom will discuss the thinking process that has gone into the work of inviting and encouraging people to become more important to one another. Participants will be encouraged to share their observations and uncover common themes. Participants who are willing to look for applicability to their own efforts as well as to consider the differences between the ideas shared and their own work will enjoy the exchange of ideas in this provocative workshop.

HOW DO WE GET THERE FROM HERE? PRINCIPLES - PRACTICES - STRATEGIES FOR ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
Jo Allard Krippenstapel, Consultant/Trainer/Facilitator, Loveland, OH

We all have a map in our heads about how to get to here from there. How we think about ‘organizational change” - our “organizational change map” - significantly influences our strategies and approaches. In the world of organizational change efforts, many of the maps we’re working with are outdated. They aren’t accurate, much less helpful. So we struggle along in our efforts at changing our organizations, taking two steps forward and three steps back. We get disappointed and frustrated --and tired. Others get disappointed and frustrated with us. Getting there seems impossible. What is needed is a new map and different way of thinking about the journey. The old way emphasizes the top down, selling change, creating buy in, and managing through incentives, oversight, and control. The new way asks the question: Whose organization is it anyway? Its focus is on ownership. choice, and commitment. Participants in this session will learn and experience new approaches to creating and sustaining organizational change as developed by Peter Block (business consultant and author) and the Society for Organizational Learning (SOL).

FROM FRIENDSHIP TO INTIMACY: HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS FOR SELF-ADVOCATES
Joe Meadours, Director, State ofAlabama Consumer Empowerment, Montgomery, AL

For all of us, developing relationships require meeting people, making acquaintances, and sometimes falling in love. We learn through our experiences, our successes and, often, our failures. For self-advocates, this is a much more complex process. For a very long time, self-advocates were discouraged, if not prevented, from developing relationships, especially if they might lead to intimacy. As a result, information, learning, and explanation were driven underground. which is unhealthy. This presentation will discuss various types of human interactions including: relationships, love, sex, and intimacy. Participants will learn about how to think about relationships which will include practical information about safe sex, preventing pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases. This is not a “how to” workshop. Rather, it is a sensitive and open discussion about love, relationships, and sexuality that self-advocates need to know in their lives in the community.

PREVENTING RATHER THAN RESPONDING TO CRISIS - THE PHYSICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC MANIFESTATIONS OF DIFFICULT BEHAVIOR
Sue Gabriel, PMHNP, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, Consultant, ACTS, St. Johns, MI

When a person with disability is in crisis, so is everyone else. The person’s daily rhythm and routine is disrupted as is that of those with whom he/she lives. Too often, there is response that focuses on the symptoms and not the problem. Plans are often hurriedly put into place which involve isolation, medication, hospitalization and institutionalization. The person sometimes stabilizes. goes back to the same situation, and the cycle repeats. The problem is that the person doesn’t have a life. Out of control behavior is often a desperate attempt to cry out that the person is not in control of his/her housing, day program, etc. This workshop will look at the physical, psychological, personality, and psychiatric aspects of difficult behavior. Participants will be challenged to develop strategies that look at physical symptoms, medication regimens and daily schedules as a proactive strategy to assist people with disabilities in getting a life – not just a program.

BEST PRACTICES CONFERENCE - DAY ONE SCHEDULE
Thursday, September 14th, 8:30 am-5 pm

THE BELOVED COMMUNITY: A CONVERSATION AND EXPLORATION
Tom Kohler, Coordinator, Chatham Savannah Citizen Advocacy
Co-author of Waddle Welcome and the Beloved Community

Jo Krippenstapel, Consultant/Trainer/Facilitator, Loveland, OH

The beloved community is not a utopia, hut a place ‘where barriers between people gradually come down and where the citizens make a constant effort to address even the most diificult problems of ordinary people. It is above all else an idealistic community. --Reverend Jim Lawson, Savannah

The word, “community,” has become so overused that its meaning can become lost or diluted. This day-long workshop offers a story of community that invites us to remember what we already know about what community means. Some people in Savannah have a story to tell about community. This story has recently been published in a beautiful book entitled Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community, which recently won the TASH Book of the Year Award.

8:15 to 12:00 noon: In the morning session, Tom Kohler, author of Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community, will share this story. We will not only hear about community, but will become one. We will engage in conversation designed to strengthen our own learning, create connections with others, and discover strategies that can help our organizations and staff rediscover and recommit to community.

12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. Lunch on your own

1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.: In the afternoon session, we will explore our own agency’s capacity to support meaningful social roles for individuals with disabilities. We will identify actions that can lead toward greater opportunities for the individuals we support. We will each learn to use the Social Role Inventory (developed by John O’Brien and Connie Lyle O’Brien) to assess our current capacity and build more constructive action.

This day may be unlike one you have ever experienced at a conference. We have struggled for 50+ years since developing “community” organizations to assist people with disabilities to move from being clients to citizens. We must redefine success. Community is more than the places you go. It is also the people you know.

Rethinking Training for the 21st Century: Critical Issues in Staff Training and Retention
Michael Mayer; PhD, RHA, Hilisborough , North Carolina

Serving People in the Community With Medical, Challenging and Complex Behaviors: Promises And Pitfalls
Kathleen Kovach, Community Living Services, Detroit , MI ;
Diane Ciric, AHS Community Services, Inc., Detroit , MI

Friday, September 15th, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

8:30 am to 9:30 a.m. Keynote
IT’S NOT ABOUT JOBS, IT’S ABOUT INCOME
Doreen Rosimos and Darcy Wilson, Income Links, LLC, Marlborough, NH
Doreen and Darcy have seen many individuals struggle to make a little more than nothing for their labors. They have dedicated themselves to help people with disabilities start and manage their own businesses. Together, they believe in “thinking outside the box” and that “failure is not an option.”

Breakouts 9:45 am to 12:00 noon

SHIFT HAPPENS: MAKING THE SHIFT TO PROACTIVE BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT (PART I)
George Seuss, CEO, Delaware County ARC, Walton, NY
Too often the approach to dealing with an individual’s difficult behavior is to “manage” the client. Staff and the environment are often reactive, restrictive and negative. This session will focus on developing non-aversive approaches that are proactive, positive, and common-sense. We not only need to transform the behavior of the individual, but of the entire organization.

GENERATING INCOME THROUGH A MICRO-ENTERPRISE: “IT DOESN’T TAKE MUCH TO MAKEMORE THAN NOTHING” (PART I)Doreen Rosimos and Darey Wilson, incomeLinks, LLC, Marlborough, NH
This presentation will give an overview of practical steps to starting a business with a person with a disability. The presenters will discuss: (1) Beginning the journey; (2)Why self-employment through microenterprises; (3) How do you get your enterprise; (4)How to develop a business plan; and (5)Where do you find the money?

12:00 Noon Lunch(included) and Keynote

VALUES BASED LEADERSHIP - MAKING PROFOUND CHANGES WITH SMALL PRACTICAL STEPS, NAMELY, COMMON SENSE AND HARD WORK
George Seuss, CEO, Delaware County ARC, Walton, NY
George will speak of organizational excellence, high quality supports and having fun in the process

About the Conference

Cost: Registration for the entire conference (including 1 preconference workshop on 9/13) is $249 until August 31st. After 9/1/06, the registration fee for the full conference is $275.

The two day conference (not including a preconference workshop) registration fee is $199 (after 9/1/06 - $225).

Registration for one preconference workshop is $75 (after 9/1/06 -$100).

Cost Savings: For every five registrants, an agency may register a sixth person free. if your agency is a member of the Institute on Public Policy, you may register a sixth and seventh person for free.

Cancellation Policy: You may cancel your registration without penalty until September 5th. After September 5th, no refunds will be given but an agency may substitute another staff member at any time.

Scholarships: There are a limited number of scholarships available to people with disabilities and their families. Please call Carol Dufresne of the Institute on Public Policy at 217-492-9999 for more information.

Questions? Please call Carol Dufresne of the Institute on Public Policy at 217-492-9999 or email her at cracarol@aol.com. The Institute fax number is 217-492-8888.

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Registration Information | Hotel Accommodations & Directions | View and Download the Brochure in PDF Format