Safeguards Summit 2008

11th November 2008

This one-day event is designed to bring people from personalised services together to share their experiences, to explore the current Queensland context of approaches to safeguarding personalised services, and to share ideas and develop a Community Plan of Action for which CRU may take a leadership role in driving and supporting. The day will be participatory and interactive with guest speakers and facilitated discussions.

Safeguards Summit (Word format)

Common Ground

10th November 2008

’Changing from a traditional day program to individualised community-based support’

Mark Vincent and Scott Ryder work for Common Ground in New Hampshire, USA. In a refreshing, dynamic and experienced way, Mark and Scott will share their own experiences related to a values-based service and community change. They use a casual presentation style and compelling stories from their years of work to illustrate their message. Their passion, commonsense practicality and commitment engage and inspire audiences.  The essence of their story is the complete closure of a conventional day program and its replacement by entirely individualised community-based options.

Common Ground (Word format)

You are invited to participate in CRU’s Safeguards Summit 2008, and the Common Ground workshop. Both events are part of CRU’s Safeguards Project, designed to assist in the safeguarding and strengthening of the provision of personalised, individualised services and supports that lead to good supported living. 

Please note that although these two events are being held on consecutive days, they are separate events. You are welcome to attend one or both of the events; should you choose to attend both, you will need to fill out each of the registration forms.

Safeguards Project

CRU’s Safeguards Project has emerged out of a long standing concern about the challenges facing individual and family governed agencies, and those practices that are person focussed. In addition, the funding reform initiatives within the disability sector over the past few years. Whilst providing some additional funds to many people with disability, funding reform did not provide support, financial or otherwise, for the increased growth that many smaller agencies experienced.

Queensland is outstanding in terms of the number of services that are consumer and family governed – more exist here than in other states and territories. They have many excellent qualities which point to these forms of service being person centred, flexible and responsive, and above all, enabling high levels of authority in the lives of people being supported.

However, these services have also expressed that they are vulnerable to internal and external pressures. Some of the issues raised include: struggling to meet current trends in accountability requirements and funding processes; the capacity of Committee members to ‘keep on keeping on’; pressure to expand and/or limited opportunities to extend service (which means that it is very difficult for more people to reap the benefits of these small services without themselves forming either a company or an incorporated association).

Since its inception, CRU has made a commitment to assist in the safeguarding and strengthening of the provision of personalised, individualised services and supports that lead to good supported living. This “Safeguards Project” is aims to further this commitment, through providing opportunities for committee members and coordinators to:

• Explore those features of the service that need safeguarding, and how to do this
• Implement safeguards to ensure the sustainability of the essential qualities
• Discuss how these services might grow, without losing those elements which are so important to their quality
• Access training and mentoring to help the organisational development of the service e.g. management, auspice/Committee, systems level
• Participate in networks of like minded individuals, both regionally and across the state
  

If you would like further information please contact Kym McCallum on (07) 3211 5700 or email at kymmccallum@cru.org.au

 

Safeguards Discussion Paper 1 - June 2004

Safeguards Discussion Paper 2 - March 2005

Safeguards Summit 2005 Papers

• Individual Governance - A QDN Perspecitve
• What Happened in Queensland
• Acknowledging the Struggles
• How to Manage Organisational Change and Remain Person Centred
• One Small Agency's Experiences in Managing Organisational Change and Remaining Person Centred
• Ten Guidelines for Family Governance

 

Action-learning Papers

Ecology of thriving by Michael Kendrick

Community Safeguards Coalition

The Community Safeguards Coalition launched the campaign kit 'My Life, My Home, My Solution' on International Day of Persons with a Disability on December 3 2007. The launch was attended by over eighty people and the kit was launched by the Deputy Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, Neroli Holmes. A copy of the kit may be downloaded here.

Members of the Community Safeguards Coalition held a forum called 'Implementing the Wisdom - Learning from the Past' in November 2006, as part of International Day of People with Disability. The forum was an opportunity for people in the community sector to meet with decision and policy makers from a range of government departments, to explore those things that have helped people with complex needs who have lived in nursing homes or similar facilities to live socially included lifestyles. The Community Safeguards Coalition has a position statement on younger people leaving nursing homes. For further information, please contact CRU on 3211 5700.

In August 2006, members of the Community Safeguards Coalition gave a presentation at the Shared Visions conference on the Gold Coast, on the practical steps needed for the system to support inclusion of people with disabilities in the community. The PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded here.