WORKSHOP 2 Family, community networks and brokering support for people using an Individual budget in

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WORKSHOP 2 - Family, community networks and
brokering support forpeople using an Individual
budget in their local communityAims To see
through families eyes, what the barriers are
Discover what community really means to each of
us Find out who/what is really In-Control and
how we can make this fairerOutcomesTo go away
with a clearer understanding of the task ahead
for individuals and their families who want to
achieve having a real life in their own community
with the support of an IB/PB.To have learned
what it really means to be part of your
community not just do activities in it!To
have shared your ideas and concerns about
Individuals and familiesbrokering for
themselves and come away with some possible
solutions.The Governments Personalisation
agenda is promoting the use of Individualised
budgets to enable Individuals to buy a more
Person centred Service that can be delivered in
their local community..
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Lets think about this for a moment.. A little
bit of background info to help set the
scene! When the boys were 14 12, we had lived
in Somerton for 16 yrs.. But was this our
familys local community? Did our community see
us as members? How much responsibility have we in
society to ensure families like ours are
included? Our sons did not go to the local
school but how much responsibility has society
to ensure they had the chance to stay locally in
their community to prevent this isolation? As a
family we felt extremely isolated but was it
our responsibility to go out there and get
involved? How difficult do you think that was for
us? Day services for Learning disabled adults
were 12 miles away, so there were no role models
who live in the town, staying to educate the
community and breakdown the barriers those in
the local residential home had their activities
brought in.
Now here we are, 7 years later and it is time for
Gregory to gain his independence from us as
Parents and full time carers.
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Why did we decide to take a Personalised
budget? Why did we decide to take on a
personalised budget and broker Gregs support
plan ourselves? Social services offered him 3
supported living schemes once again 17, 22 and
31 miles away from his local community! We had
remember, painstakingly spent the last 7yrs
building up Gregs confidence in his community
and theirs with him.. Why on earth would we want
to take up these offers for him to live in
communities that did not know him?! But the
majority of families do not have the advantage we
gave our son.. Low self esteem and poor family
identity Lack of options offered to them Lack
of confidence in their own community Lack of
Knowledge of whats available there Lack of
good stories of other successfully achieving it
Fear of not enough funding to sustain it
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Brokering in a community Its not always about
money.
As you can see from Gregorys support plan, we
have achieved the 24/7 cover we needed not by
buying in external agency staff, (we had no where
near enough funding) But by harnessing the assets
we knew about in the community and Gregory being
able to put back in by contributing his natural
gifts as a DJ and matching his need with a need
of another, we were able to achieve it. Brokering
is not always about being an individual who gets
buyers and sellers together and helps in
negotiating contracts for a client. I have shown
its also about a person who brings two parties
together where there is an obvious mutual
relationship of need gt lt supply - There does not
have to be a financial exchange involved, but it
is as important to ensure consistency and
commitment is still there Meals Greg needs to
be taught gt lt Many single, widowed people needing
the company (chapel) DJ Greg needs an audience!
gt lt Somerset youth Project need DJ for small
voluntary clubs Sleep-in cover Greg needs
supervision at night gt lt Student needed to live
close to college and work Shopping Greg has
support to shop/loves shopping gt lt elderly need
shopping done for them Work placement Greg has
been loyal and shopped there for years gt lt WP
soon to be a permanent paid day!
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In order for a family to fulfil this role
successfully and enable their loved one to stay
in their community, they need to know some vital
information What funding they have
available(RAS) What their community has to
offer! Where the resources are How to build
relationships with them Where to find and share
information Networking with other budget
holders Planning the future together with
their community-pooling ideas/resources/funds, to
achieve mutual outcomes Ensuring you are
benefiting from ALL of your communitys
assets! Mapping your communitys assets By
finding the assets seen and unseen within a
community, will give us a greater chance to
harness their energy and encourage them to
mutually support one another. We need to find out
who what they are, Where they are, What skills
gifts they have, Their capacity to participate
and support. You can guarantee they all in turn,
will have unfulfilled needs too!
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First asset - People In every successful
community story there are the local residents
Citizens We need to recognise everyone as an
individual, learn their different community
perspectives and identify the potential
partnerships Releasing unseen/untapped
potential Skills /gifts____________
Capacity_________ Need
Individuals Young families Youth/Students Seniors
Employers Self employed Disabled Unemployed
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Our Community Profiles

• Rachel Mason
• Wife, Mother, Consultant, Pictorial resource
  maker, Speaker, Tax payer
• Community tax payer, Resident/homeowner,
  Neighbour, Car owner, Customer, Member, Dog
  Owner, Community Organizer, Volunteer,
  Supporter/fundraiser, Employee, Private
  Landlord
• Hobbies/interests
• Walking, Meeting new people, Singing, Finding a
  bargain!

• Gregory Mason
• Son, Brother, Benefit user, Student, Work
  placementee!, DJ, Support worker user
• Resident, Tenant, Neighbour, Community tax payer,
  Neighbour, Public transport user, Customer,
  Member, Volunteer, Supporter/fundraiser, Employer
• Hobbies/interests
• Walking, Swimming, Gym, Gardening, Dog
• Walking, Chapel, Singing(badly), Meeting new
  people

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Mapping our personal assets
Focus on peoples Gifts Everyone has them but
our insecurities can overshadow them They can
remove negative labels diabetic / drug addict /
handicapped They can increase our sense of well
being something we succeed at The can
motivate us when we are down doing something we
enjoy They are not dependant on our IQ
/physical fitness/ financial status They can
bridge many boundaries, (cultural, age, sex,
religious)
We all have o Gifts o Talents o Dreams o Hopes o
Fears
Think on these gifts as your personal assets
Gifts of the head things you know about (birds,
movies, art history, professional skills) Gifts
of the senses things we share delight in
(music, food, views, aromas, touch) Gifts of
the hands things you know how to do (carpentry,
gardening, cooking, knitting) Gifts of our
stamina things we have the energy for ( sport,
walking, manual labour) Gifts of the heart
things you care deeply about (environment,
children, animals )
Gifts are not gifts until they are shared!
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Second asset - Groups Associations
In every successful community story, there are
groups of local residents who come together for a
common cause, activity or to mutually support one
another Some are not paid Human Community
Resources Volunteer orgs Clubs/groups Places of
worship Some are paid and provide a
service Emergency services Schools Colleges Social
opportunities Leisure/health opportunities Employ
ment opportunities Day centres Work
preparation/training schemes
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Third asset - Land buildings
In every successful community story, there is the
innovative use of a community building or asset
such as a piece of land to the mutual benefit of
an individual, a group and often the whole
community Community assets Buildings/halls Parks/
shared spaces Allotments Information
portals/libraries (parish magazines/internet) Comm
unity safety schemes Local amenities Transport
network Housing options Turning local
liabilities into assets Reclaiming abandoned land
space Recycling waste Mutual areas that could be
shared
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Fourth asset - Local Economy
In every successful community story, there are
examples where things are Shared, traded,
exchanged that mutually benefited one another or
the community itself. Employment Hiring
locally Local purchasing Identifying gaps in the
market - Creating new business/micro/social
enterprises Pooling human resources/skills Time
banking Volunteering Harnessing local
energy Credit unions Recycling
furniture/clothes Housing Open market/IS
Mortgages(estate agents) Shared ownership
schemes Social housing Private landlord Holiday
lets BB Lodgers Adult placements
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Where do we start? Your community will know the
answers! You have residents who have been around
for many years and seen many changes. There are
at least 3 generations in any community and the
oldest are the best chance we have of getting the
community spirit back in society. In 15yrs time a
whole generation (WWII) will have gone and we
will lose their expertise and knowledge of
camaraderie and giving unconditional support. Are
our Children of this generation too materialistic
to know what this is? Capacity and
willingness Volunteering needs to be introduced
and nurtured at a very early age, as the children
in our schools and colleges at the moment are the
neighbours, employers, shop keepers and decision
makers of the future! Their understanding of
inclusive communities and social responsibility
will dictate how successful Personalisation will
be for those that rely on their community for
support.
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Glass ½ Full or ½ Empty!
In the symbolic example of the glass filled to
the middle with liquid, the system needs the
empty half while the community needs the full
half.
The services system needs a client. They need to
create jobs and are dependant on your deficit
needs
The community needs a citizen with assets to
contribute
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Social Services vs. Community based
support(CBS) The major difference between the
social services model of looking at people and
the CBS model can be summed up as how each looks
at the individual Social Services model The
Social Services model says we are
clients/Service users (someone who is
controlled) o We are deficient/ disabled
people o Our disability determine the support o
We need to be fixed o We are dependent on this
one traditional way of doing things o We are
being given a gift and must be grateful
Community based support model The CBS model
says we are citizens (someone that is a valued
member of our community) o We can all make a
contribution o Community can take pride in
itself o Local relationships are important and
can be nurtured and improved o You and I are the
answer - we are the collateral o We are all equal
assets we can work together
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WORKSHOP Have you ever taken the time to stop and
think about how valuable a person you are ? Do
you always say to yourself What can I possibly
do to make a difference? When you go about your
daily lives, do you realise the amount of
opportunities you have to help others just by do
exactly what youre doing now ! Exercise 1 What
gift ( interest, hobby) do you have that would
surprise most people? What jobs have you done,
skills have you picked up over the years? (there
need not be a qualification to it) What really
good thing is going on in your community? Can
you begin to see how your assets could actually
benefit someone else with little or no effort
from yourself! Why do asset mapping? It is a
guide for relationship building, not just data!
Knowing others in your community that have
similar interests allows groups to gather for a
common cause Asset mapping is a very powerful
tool in community building.
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Exercise 2 What associations/groups are you a
member of? ( Formal and Informal) How often do
you find yourself suddenly seeing an
asset/opportunity in one environment that would
help you in another?! Where do you go where you
see lots of different local people gathering?
Are you beginning to see how where the overlaps
are? What motivates people? There are things you
probably already know about your own
communities! What have you done that has been
successful in your community that you could share
with others? what makes successful local
initiatives What made it successful? What are
the assets they used
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What Are Successful Communities doing right? They
make the right connections Connect communities
use peoples many gifts Have many active
groups Citizens have the final responsibility
of outcome work Group of local citizens join
together to create a vision with common goals
Discover what they have
Discover what they want to do
Decide how they want to do it
Take action and DO IT Harnessing
outside resources/grants to support local
development Implement vision, by identifying
roles Leader someone that can bring people
together to work on an issue Gift Giver a
person that is willing to contribute their asset
to work on an issue. Invisible Person a
person that has not yet been discovered or been
convinced to use their assets to help achieve
their dreams for or fix their concerns in the
neighbourhood. Connector an individual that
is good at discovering what people care about and
where their assets can be used.
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What Are Successful Communities doing right?
(Continued) They care Care,
unlike service, cannot be produced. Care is the
consenting commitment one has for the other,
freely given. Care cannot be mandated, managed
or produced as a service can. One of the great
errors in most policy making maps is the
pretension that systems can produce care.
Care is the domain of the unconditional voluntary
associational community. Finally they
Network! They communicate amongst themselves
They Share information in many different
mediums They offer the opportunity to build and
maintain friendships People /groups share
exchange their assets with no personal gain
They all look out for each other