Transcript - slide 2

What is the first step for getting parents on board?

• Provide information.
• Look at support systems.
  

Interviewer: What would you say is the first step in getting parents on board for organizational change?

Suzanne: I think the first step is to present the information about organizational change, and about how you are planning to approach community based employment. Make sure that they have a full understanding of what your plans are. How you are planning to make this change, and how you plan to accomplish it. I think, then, as you begin to look at the individuals within the organization that want to be competitively employed, you have to then look at their support systems. What we did actually was to look first at the people who had a support system in place. If a parent said "No way. I do not want this to happen", then we said "Okay." We will give it some time. We will let them learn. We will let them see what can happen. What we did first was to identify people who wanted to go to work. We did not really look at all of the things people talk about, IQ, functioning level, and all of those kinds of things.

Our philosophy is that everyone given the appropriate support can and should work. That is basically what we did. What we found, over a period of time, was that as it became the norm for people to go to work, a lot of the parents who at first said "No" began to say, "Why aren't you even considering my son or daughter as you go forward." First of all, we were surprised. It was like "Oh wow, we thought you did not want us to." Then it was, "We would be glad to. We would absolutely be glad to work with you". I think that you really have to look at the support system the person has and make sure that support system is going to actually be a support for the work situation.