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By Marsha Forest, Jack Pearpoint & John O'Brien
Many people are asking "What is Person Centered Planning?" Basically, it is
a constellation of tools developed to help a person or a family who want to
make a purposeful and meaningful change in their life. Person Centered
Planning tools include; Individual Service Design, Lifestyle Planning,
Personal Futures Planning, Essential Lifestyle Planning, and; MAPS and PATH.
Person Centered Planning is a wonderfully clear three word name. No jargon.
Very straightforward. The planning is centered on the person.
Simple and yet profound. The planning is not for the convenience of the
service, the organization, or even the family (when a person not a family is
the focus). The plan simply serves the hopes, dreams and visions of the
focus person or family. This is very exciting work.
Is it easy? No. Does it always work?
No. A plan is simply that: moving from ''hope" for a better future to
specifying personal commitments that increase the chances of moving toward
that future There are no guarantees, only person-to-person commitments. But
the plan gives motion to the possibility that something real and meaningful
will happen. A good plan with no action won't take anyone anywhere.
The facilitator is a servant to both the person and the process. Imagine the
facilitator holding a set of empty containers and drawing the contents to
fill each container out of the person and his/her friends, family and
colleagues. Each of the different tools offers a somewhat different set of
containers.
The choice of method is more like choosing a musical instrument than it is
like selecting a hammer or a screw- a toolbox. Facilitators learn a method
that matches their gifts; they practice faithfully; they take master
classes; they carefully review their performance. Some facilitators, like
some musicians, learn more than one instrument as a way to extend their
range or deepen their skills in their chosen instrument.
The plan does not belong to a service organization or to the facilitator.
Both the process and the content belong to the person and those who are
committed to accompany the person along the journey the plan outlines.
The facilitator gives up any preconceived notions of what is possible or
impossible, even what is good or bad. The facilitator is not passive but
pushy about the process of getting clear statements and clear agreements
about which direction the person wants to move and which route the person
wants to take. The facilitator is never pushy about content: where to go and
how to get there is up to the person and the person's allies. This takes
practice. It's easy to stop the plan from truly belonging to the focus
person by standing in judgment. The only limits on what the plan can include
are the limits of imagination and commitment. The only limits on what the
planners can achieve are the limits of their ability to enroll and align the
necessary resources.
Some people ask, "What if a person makes a bad or illegal choice?" Others
wonder what to do if the person asks for the moon. Both of these questions
result from the same misunderstanding; both assume that the process belongs
somehow to the facilitator. But it doesn't. The process offers people a way
to clarify what they want and what they are willing to work make happen.
Those who know and care about the person, and often those who control
necessary resources, need to choose to sign up to help the person. The
process offers a way for people to surface and negotiate disagreements about
what is right and what they will consent to work on.
Of course, facilitators are responsible for their own ethics and can always
say no before beginning the process of helping someone who wants to take a
wrong direction like planning a crack selling business or putting someone in
an institution. Even in such challenging circumstances, it may be helpful to
listen under' the 'named goal' before outright rejection, because it may
turn out to be the only available term for deeper and richer dreams and
goals.
These tools are for all people; not just for people with disabilities. We
find that the more facilitators use the tools in their own lives, the less
dangerous they are. Dangerous facilitators impose their own words their own
images and their own interpretations on the focus person.
Good facilitators are good is teachers who see their role as creatively
helping people to design lives that reflect their gifts. That's what Person
Centered Planning is really, all about.
Reprinted from
http://www.reachoflouisville.com/person-centered/Default.htm
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School systems are responsible for assuring that transition planning becomes
a component of the IEP beginning at age 14; however, it may be necessary to
start transition planning much earlier in order to allow the student to
achieve meaningful post-school outcomes. (From the Georgia Department of
Education's Transition Manual) Read more about the topic in the
Roadmap
Transition section. |
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