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ROGAN #3

Where are we going as we make this shift?  What will help us to guide our practice?  Personally, 
I look at John O'Brien's framework for accomplishment to help center and keep us focused.  He 
talks about the need for people to have choice and control in their own lives. Whose life is it 
anyway?  [He talks about the need] for people to not only be physically present in the 
community and that's significant in and of itself, but also to be actively participating, even if it's a 
partial participation.  He talks about having valued roles, increasing status through employment 
and other status enhancing activities, that we as Americans value.  And he talks about, building 
those critical, social relationships that extend beyond paid service providers and taping the 
community for those kinds of natural supports.  

If we were to try to target some of the indicators as people roll through the change process, what 
would we reference?  What would be that litmus test or that North Star?  What would be some of 
the factors that help us make decisions and keep on the right path?  I believe strongly that zero 
rejection is a critical value, everybody is ready. You don't need to get ready for living and 
working in the community by being in a facility. No one's disability should be the basis of 
exclusion from community services.  

We also have mentioned, thus far and I'll reiterate, that the importance of those individualized 
services with the planning and schedules are designed around each and every person and know 
the basis for supported employment, customized employment, has always been and continues to 
be a focus on that match.  Not only with the tasks, the activities of a particular workplace, but 
also the environment, the context, the people therein and related to that, the importance of 
building connections.  Often we hear of people who have moved out of a facility lament the fact 
that they miss their friends.  That's no surprise.  That's a critical and meaningful connection that 
people have.  We need to be very thoughtful with the individual and his or her support network 
to actually work hard to facilitate maintaining friendships and connections and building 
additional relationships in the community.

Other indicators are appropriate supports. It's an art, I feel to balancing too much and too little 
support for each individual.  Other indicators are organizational responsiveness, being flexible 
versus rigid, being able to adapt and accommodate the needs of each person we support versus 
asking people to fit into our programs.  Cost effectiveness, of course, means being responsible 
with the precious public dollars that we have at our disposal.  The moral of this story, the cruel 
hard truth of it all, is that this is a complex process.  Conversion or organizational change really 
impacts all aspects of your organization. It doesn't entail just tweaking one piece, because they're 
interrelated and intertwined.  It doesn't mean tacking on supported employment to your 
continuum of services.  It requires an analysis of the big picture, all of those pieces, including:  
How will we pull in those stakeholders?  How will we accommodate staff? Who may have been 
with the organization for many years and bring on the talent that will drive us in the direction 
that we need?  How do we shift our organizations image where as we may have been perceived 
in the community as a place where people with disabilities go to a viable source of employees for 
the business community?  Conversion or organizational change means shifting and investing in a 
different sort of business relationship, not necessarily bringing in subcontract work, but finding a 
win-win proposition to meet business personnel needs.  The nature of services and supports 
obviously changes to those in the community and the funding structures, as I mentioned earlier is 
a critical piece.  How are we going to move towards individualized services and supports, when 
often times funding comes to us for a group oriented way to operate?