Make a Difference: A Guidebook for Person-Centred Direct Support

Make a Difference - Guides a Learning Journey that supports action-learning about relationship building, planning with people in a person-centered way, supporting choice, & building community inclusion. MAD - Promotes discovery of meaning in the work of offering direct support. MAD - Encourages inquiry into the effects of beliefs & values on quality. MAD - Promotes reflection on day-to-day practice to guide improvement. MAD - Fosters the use of imagery, music & art as an aid to reflection & action planning. MAD - Honors the accomplishments of people with developmental disabilities and their direct support workers by presenting their stories & reflections. An Instructor's manual & materials are available Make A Difference believes that direct support workers make a difference by building a relationship that supports a person with a developmental disability to act as a contributing citizen. MAD supports people to have more choice & control. MAD assists people to develop their gifts & capacities. MAD asks how we generate respect. MAD explores how we can increase people s presence in community life. MAD supports people to be friends & become members.

John O'Brien and his wife and partner Connie Lyle O'Brien have been in the forefront of thinking and creating precedent setting innovations that helped to created full lives for people with disability labels the world over. In addition to developing many of the planning systems used internationally, training thousands of facilitators and human service workers, they have also been writers with enormous insight and sensitivity. Beth Mount: Founder and Director of Graphic Futures; providing consultation, training, planning, organizational development, and policy analysis for a variety of local, state, and national agencies and projects seeking to strengthen the values, implementation practices, and innovative policy initiatives related to Person-Centered planning and service design. Beth is a remarkable artist with a focus on quilts with meaning. She is also the author of over 50 publications related to Person-Centered Development.