Circle of Support

Guess what? . . . . . My mom is at another 2 day conference to learn how to plan for my future. Today she heard many successful stories of how some families creatively supported their special needs sons and daughters to live on their own and to lead meaningful lives. One recurrent theme is that all of these families worked hard to build a circle of support for their loved ones.

This is an area my mom has not paid much attention to in the past. She is so bull-headed and fiercely independent that she has always tried to manage on her own. It will be a big change for her when she reaches out to connect to others to build my support network.

Just as her head goes a mile a minute to generate ideas to try and wonders what will work, she receives an e-mail about a workshop on learning bridge building skills for meaningful connections. She is going to be there for sure.

For me to build relationships, I need the opportunity to meet the same people at the same place on a regular basis. That means I have to hang out with my peers (people my age). They are generally at school or at work during the day. Transportation is a huge issue in terms of meeting up with them in the evening. I have registered for DATS (Disabled Adult Transportation System). However, they have imposed a condition that I am not allowed to ride on DATS with a support person. I am fine without support while traveling on DATS, but I need a support person with me when I arrive at my destination. My mom will have to figure out a way to "beam" my support worker there, like how they do it on Star Wars.

Many of my support workers do not have a vehicle. Even if I am lucky enough to have a support worker who can drive me, it is not going to work because PDD limits the funds for transportation to 15 km./day, which is already used up by the daytime activities.