"THE POINT" OnLine
Newsletter Archive
MARCH (Spring) 2001 - Volume 3 , Issue 1
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Arkansas People First Receives Support from University
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
SPEAK OUT: OVERCOMING STEREOTYPES
State Board Maps Out Plans at First Meeting of the Year
Arkansas People First Receives Support from University
In July Arkansas People First (APF) started writing a grant with the University of Arkansas, Rehabilitation Continuing Education Center (RCEC), to present to the Arkansas Governor's Developmental Disabilities Council (DDC). The DDC has been supporting APF in the last few years, but APF was loosing other supports, so we asked the University of Arkansas-RCEC to hop aboard the self-advocacy train!
The DDC approved the grant in December. APF can continue to move forward.
Kim Worlow, who is a trainer at the RCEC, worked for People First of Illinois as a support person in 1993. Kim will be working with APF as the State Advisor. In Illinois, Kim helped start chapters, get people to board meetings, push wheelchairs at the International Conference in Canada, and anything else the group ask her to do! Kim will be working with Julie doing a lot of the same things she did in Illinois. She will be a great asset to have join APF!
Not only will APF have the support of the RCEC, we are also going to be working with the Independent Living Centers (ILCs) around the state.
There are four ILCs around the state: SOURCES in Fayetteville, MAINSTREAM in Little Rock, SAILS in Hot Springs, and DELTA RESOURCE in Pine Bluff. The ILCs will be able to provide local support for groups and self advocates in different areas of the state. SOURCES in Fayetteville is also the new location for the APF state office.
It is going to be a great year! APF staff will be traveling all over the state to help spread the word about self-advocacy.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey has been a bestseller for many years and has sold over a million copies. Seven Habits is also a management/leadership training used by organizations and corporations teach their employees to be more effective. Effectiveness is making something we want happen.
Recently a modified version of 7 Habits was developed for people with disabilities. Essie Pederson, formerly of Capabilities Unlimited, Inc. in Ohio, put together the modified version of 7 Habits with the help of self-advocates Tia Nelis and Mia Peterson. Essie, who is a certified 7 Habits trainer, wanted people with disabilities to learn this training and then teach it to others. "Learn It, Live It and Give It."
On December 18th and 19th, 2000, Essie and Mia offered a 7 Habits training schedule in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kim and Julie were invited to attend the training, so we could gain the great information and share it with the self-advocates in our state. The weather was not on our side! After ten hours of driving and a two hour flight, we made it to Cincinnati.
The training was awesome. It helps you understand how to be a better self-advocate. By going through this training you can become a more effective person in every area of your life. We hope we’ll be able to provide the 7 Habit training in Arkansas soon.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Habit 5: Seek First To Understand….Then to be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
SPEAK OUT: OVERCOMING STEREOTYPES
by: Gary Evans, Self Advocate from Fayetteville
This article is about the ways that people often treat people with disabilities, and how we can overcome them. Even some people who work with people with disabilities don’t know how to treat us or act around us. For instance, sometimes they assume that we’re all hearing impaired, so they feel they need to yell everything at us in a really loud voice when we are just talking. I’ve even had doctors and nurses who talk to me in a loud voice right next to my ear.
Also, some people treat people with disabilities like we’re little children. For example, they don’t talk directly to you, as if we don’t know what’s going on or what we want. Instead, they’ll talk with a family member or whoever else is there, letting them answer for us. We’ve got to let people know that they should talk directly to us, not to other people. Look at us and talk to us!
State Board Maps Out Plans at First Meeting of the Year
By:Eric Treat, Public Relations
Arkansas People First State Board mapped out the plan for success at the first quarterly board meeting on February 8th and 9th at Ferncliff Camp in Little Rock.
The meeting kicked off with an exercise to show the importance of teamwork. That afternoon Jeanne Miller from the University of Arkansas – RCEC helped the group make plans for People First. Each person wrote their ideas down. Then we broke into groups of three and discussed these six ideas: (1) Build a strong foundation through a united Board of Directors that represents the state, (2) Construct a Funding Plan that will take us into the future, (3) Develop Chapters across the state, (4) Do self-advocate training, (5) Advocate for the Rights of People with Disabilities, (6) Get the word out about what we do.
After a long day of planning, Dr. Fray and his wife joined us for a lasagna dinner and told us that he supported People First 100%.
On Friday morning we put the legs on the six ideas to develop the game plan. The board also voted to adopted the AIM Project develop by Ann Fullerton. The board established a by-law committee and they will share recommendations at the next board meeting. The board is also in the process of putting together a self-determination conference.
MY VOICE….MY CHOICE
The Self-Advocate Leadership Network, at the Human Services Research Institute, has partnershiped with self-advocacy organizations to develop the project 21st Century Self Advocacy: Mobilizing for Self-Determination.
The project will allow self-advocates to gain information on self-determination, participant-driven supports, and organize for change. The project is starting with six participating states including: Illinois, North Carolina, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah. In accomplishing the goals of this project a curriculum was designed by HSRI and self-advocates. My Voice, My Choice was developed to provide people with developmental disabilities the information they need about participant-driven supports. In three states: Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina self-advocates have tested the manual to help make sure that it works well. They have demonstrated that self-advocates are ready to help shape policy and practice across the country!
All of this information is sequenced and presented in a plainly worded manual. At the Self-Determination Conference in Kansas City, self-advocates from Arkansas attended a workshop on My Voice, My Choice.
For more information on My Voice, My Choice you can call APF office 1-888-488-6040 or visit the HSRI web site at: http://www.hsri.org/leaders/leaders.html
by: Burke Fanari, President NW Chapter
I recently competed in the Special Olympics bowling competition in Little Rock. I took a few calendars to try to sell. A woman was asked if she would like to look at a copy of the calendar and said she wasn’t too impressed with People First. She told me she had attended our conference in Springdale. I was disappointed and mad because she told me the only thing she got out of the whole conference was People First wants to shut down institutions. She said that some people need them.
While some people may need a little more support than others. Don’t just lock up the people who need 24 hour attendants and throw away the key. I bet with the right kind of support, even the most challenging cases can obtain a level of independence. It’s the job of the agencies that provide services to people with disabilities to figure out the appropriate level of support to offer that individual. I hope the woman in Little Rock was just a nursing assistant who works in nursing home and not working for an agency that is supposed to care about supported living.
People First should be welcome in any supported living environment. As an advocate for People First I know People First would like to see the people with developmental disabilities who can stand up for themselves do so, and in turn help people who can’t always be vocal as they want. For example, some people may not always be able to express themselves in conventional ways, simply because their speech is a challenge for other people to understand. Others may use communication devices or may only be able to raise their eyes. When their staff’s supervisor come to visit them some may feel intimidated by their staff and say everything is fine when it’s not. I must admit I couldn’t believe what I was hearing in this time of political correctness. Censorship by my staff seems unthinkable to me. Because it’s something I haven’t had to deal with in my life on a daily basis.
It’s the kind of mentality expressed by that woman that scares me, especially somewhere like a Special Olympics competition. I just assumed if you were involved with the Special Olympics that you’ve broadened your thinking about what people with disabilities can do. If I thought for a second that People First’s only mission was to cause people with developmental disabilities, to be homeless; when they got out of the institutions, then I wouldn’t be here writing this editorial defending them.
People First Quick Link Menu
|Link to Statement of Beliefs| |Link to Mission and Goals| |Link to Local Chapters|
|Link to State Board Members| |Link to Announcements| |Link to Newsletters|
|Link to Calendar| |Link to Photo Album| |Link to Info and Resource Links|
|Link to Meet the Coordinator and State Advisor|
or
Arkansas People First
104 Arkansas Union
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72703
(toll free) 1-888-488-6040 (V) 479-575-4015 - Fax: 870-488-8004
Link here to e-mail at: peoplefirstark@yahoo.com
Julie Petty, State Coordinator Kim Worlow, State Advisor Kim Pace, State Liason
Leon Oehlers, MS, CRC, Webmaster
Link here to e-mail Webmaster at: loehlers@rcep6.org
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