About the Webinar: Disputes often occur because professionals and families have radically different visions of what services and supports are necessary to attain IDEA’s four results of equality of opportunity, independent living, full participation, and economic self-sufficiency. When dispute resolution results in the need to make extensive change in services and supports—creation, implementation, evaluation—often parties are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task and feel immobilized in putting recommendations into place. In this session, Ann Turnbull will focus on a process for mobilizing a “village” comprised of family, educators, other professionals, friends, and community citizens to work together on a regular basis over time in order to orchestrate significant and sustainable change. Ann refers to this process as Group Action Planning, and she will share her own family experience in using Group Action Planning to transform her son’s, Jay’s, life from the array of segregated adult services (sheltered workshop, group home, disability-only recreation) to inclusive community living (home of his own, supported employment, public transportation, sense of belonging throughout the entire community). Using a detailed handout and video segments, Ann will highlight five components of Group Action Planning—Inviting Support, Making Connections, Sharing Great Expectations, Solving Problems, and Celebrating Success. Ann will expand from her own family’s transition experience to highlight how Group Action Planning has been very successfully used at early childhood, elementary, and secondary levels to address a broad range of educational, recreational, religious, and socialization opportunities.
About the Presenter: Dr. Ann Turnbull has been a professor, researcher, and advocate for individuals with disabilities, their families, and service providers for four decades. She has authored 32 books and over 250 articles and chapters. In 1999, she was selected as one of 36 individuals who have "changed the course of history for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the 20th century." Her greatest learning has come from her son, Jay Turnbull, who she has always called her "best professor" about the needs of individuals with significant disabilities over the lifespan.
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