Good News Friday!

David Park is entering his senior year at Monarch High School this fall, and is also on the verge of receiving his Eagle Scout Rank through the Boy Scouts of America. To achieve this rank, every Scout must complete a service project, and David chose to partner with Imagine! for his project.

David’s sister, Gina, has been receiving services from Imagine! for over a decade. “Imagine! has given so much to Gina and our family that I wanted to give back,” said David. “They provided a platform to help Gina and that really struck a chord with me. She learned how to express her emotions better, helping us understand her needs.”

Imagine! provided Gina and her family a platform, and in turn, David literally provided Imagine! a platform by way of a refurbished second level deck at the Boulder CORE/Labor Source (CLS) site. After several meetings and a year of collaboration, David felt this was his best way of giving back.

“My Scout Master suggested that this project would be too big and he recommended I pick something else. But I saw how badly it needed repair and felt that it would have the biggest impact on services at Imagine!.” David recruited a total of 20 boy scouts and parents to help out.

“It was a labor of love on David’s part,” said Jeff Rodarti, CLS Coordinator.

David and his crew stripped the old and rusted baseboards and fencing, then CLS staff members gutted the mud and junk that was resting underneath the boards. The next three weekends involved all the construction and assembly. One weekend, David and his dad built and installed the railing on their own.

After four full weekends of hard work, David and his volunteers finished a job that was predicted to be too big of a task. David and Jeff Rodarti were determined to see this project through, putting in countless hours of preparation and labor.

“We are very grateful to David for his time and effort,” said Rodarti. “Not only was the old deck an eyesore, but it was slowly becoming a safety risk.” The counselors have already taken advantage of the new space, using it to complete documentation or make phone calls. The coordinators plan to schedule staff development activities on the new deck as well.

"If feels great to see the project finished," said David. "I learned how to be more flexible and that not everything will work out as planned." David has only a few merit badges to go before receiving his Eagle Scout Rank. "The hard part is over." The endless hours of planning and constructing are in the books, and Imagine! is grateful for his service.    

Systemic Hypocrisy

I think we can all agree that we’re living in a very unusual and contentious era in our country’s history. One indicator of the level of anger can be measured by the accusations of hypocrisy coming from both sides of the political arena, each directed at the other side.

This post isn’t about those charges of political hypocrisy. However it does make an interesting backdrop for today’s subject.

I’d like to talk about what I have come to see as systemic hypocrisy in the field of providing services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). I use the term systemic hypocrisy because I don’t believe it is driven by any one person, but instead, by a system that fails to recognize a clear contradiction in what we understand is our shared vision and the way we go about realizing that vision.

Our training requirements are massive – we do all sorts of background checks and training for our employees and volunteers, a good deal of it mandated by the State. And a good deal of those mandates don’t come with funds to cover their costs. Our reporting requirements are equally large and burdensome. Now, you may be reading this and thinking “sure, but it keeps the people we serve safe” or “it’s the only way to entrust Medicaid expenditure.” But here’s where the systemic hypocrisy comes in.

When we talk to families and the people we serve about what they want, one overriding theme comes up again and again: they want to be treated like everyone else. They want to be part of their neighborhoods. They want to engage with friends and families; contribute, shop, worship, explore, and learn just like everyone else. Heaven forbid a person engaging anyone who hasn’t had a background check, or received hours of training in how to react and report about their specific interaction – down to the 15-minute interval.

Unfortunately, so much of the training we provide, and so many of the regulations we operate under, are about what we can’t do. Those can’t dos add up after a while, and the result is fewer opportunities for the individuals we serve to become active, contributing members of their communities.

The hypocrisy is that most people in our field would absolutely agree that the vision we have is natural community membership; living in a neighborhood where people look out for one another, having a career, building relationships and establishing a legacy. How does this happen when our system has lifted the incredible regulatory environment of institutional settings from generations ago, and then dropped that same environment into our very neighborhoods. Who thinks like this?

But here’s the thing - heavy regulations and full community participation just don’t go together, and I believe it is hypocritical to ignore that basic fact of life in our field. We work with people who often have a difficult time understanding and communicating, and families who are overburdened and stressed. Instead of making a easier path for them, or for the organizations supporting them, we have layers and layers of rules, regulations, and bureaucracies that make everything more difficult and contradictory than it needs to be.

What do we want in the end? Natural supports helping people with I/DD to live in our neighborhoods, and who are able to work, volunteer, be creative, and contribute to our communities. Despite our best efforts, we have systemic hypocrisy which severely hampers our efforts to bring our shared vision to life.

Then again, what do I know?

Good News Friday!

Ian, who receives services from Imagine!, is a very talented artist. With the support of Imagine!’s CORE/Labor Source (CLS) department, Ian takes a unique approach to his art. He starts with a white canvas. He chooses colors using an iPad and CLS staff members mix the color into a spray bottle. Ian fills all the white space, emptying bottle after bottle. Once the canvas is full of color, he adds texture by spraying splashes of gold, silver, and other bright colors. What’s with the hazmat suit, you may ask? Once the spray and squirt bottles became Ian’s tools of choice, the suit, goggles, and tarps granted him the freedom to be as creative (and messy) as he wanted to be.

Check out the time lapse video below to see Ian in action.
 

If you are interested in seeing more great art by individuals served by Imagine!, visit our Etsy page: etsy.com/people/ImagineColorado 

And learn more about Ian from this article from the Longmont Times-Call.

Lesson Learned From An Ironman

Two Sundays ago, I completed the IRONMAN 140.6 Boulder.

The entire experience, from the very first days of training to the moment I crossed the finish line, was rich in lessons and takeaways that I believe can be applied to other aspects of my life. Today I’d like to share one of those lessons.

As soon as I began the process of training, I was surprised to discover the degree to which planning ahead was necessary. Diet planning, equipment, advice, training schedules, figuring out how to find the time to get workouts in while juggling work and family requirements. I was very consistent with sticking to the plans because that was the likely path to success.

But of course, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and my Ironman experience was no different. Leading up to the race, I experienced leg issues that at points made me wonder if I would be able to compete at all. Even worse, about four days before the race, the weather forecast indicated that it was going to be hot. Like, Colorado State record-breaking hot.

So as race day loomed, a lot of my planning went out the window and I had to adjust. I started slamming fluids (the healthy kind) at a much higher rate then I initially would have been drinking. I increased my salt intake as well, all to make sure my body was ready for the heat. Once the race started, and the weather forecast was proven correct, I made sure that I stopped at each water/food/aid station and replenished my fluids, as well as pouring a generous amount of water over my head each time and throwing ice cubes down my back to manage core body temperature. My initial plan to skip some of the stations to get a better overall finishing time went out the window.

Much of the race itself felt like a modification of my initial planning as well. My leg had never quite healed, so during the marathon I ran at a pace and a gait designed to minimize the pain but were not conducive to meeting my planned finish. When confronted with the question at mile 10, “How are you doing?” My response was, “I’m managing.” During the bike portion, especially, I was hyperaware of any signs of cramping and had salt products and electrolytes at the ready to ward off the cramps.

These adjustments worked, and I finished smiling, weary and uncomfortable but all in one piece. The experience exceeded my overall expectations.

When I reflect on the days leading up to the race and the race itself, I am aware that so much of what I was doing was “management.” Things didn’t go as planned, and adjustments were necessary for success. And I realized, to a degree that I hadn’t quite appreciated before, how much “management” means being able to adjust to new and unexpected circumstances.

The same is true at Imagine!, of course. If everything always went to plan, we wouldn’t have much need for managers. Planners, yes, but managers, no. Obviously things don’t always go to plan, despite our best intentions. Furthermore, so much of what impacts our work is out of our control (rates, rules and regulations, for just a couple of examples), making it absolutely vital that we have managers in place who are skilled at adjusting on the fly to new and unforeseen challenges and roadblocks. Those are the finer elements of management.

So today I offer a tip of the hat to those managers and supervisors at Imagine! who consciously and unconsciously embrace this key aspect of their roles at our organization, and pledge to support them as they adjust and manage while working to meet our mission of creating a world of opportunity for all abilities.

Then again, what do I know?

Good News Friday!

Imagine! is a large and geographically dispersed organization, so it can take extra effort to ensure that we are supporting our employees in succeeding at their work and celebrating them in the way they deserve. Below are three recent examples of those efforts.

Imagine!’s Out & About Summer Camp and Summer Catalog 2018 has officially begun. We have a record breaking 42 qualified instructors and five interns ready and excited to go! To make sure the new staff members got started on the right foot, Out & About hosted a multi-day training and orientation, including a “Trust Run,” which, as the video below demonstrates, generated many smiles and much laughter.

   

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Every month, Imagine! Behavior Therapist Jonny Brennan organizes a voluntary "rapport" meeting for the staff members at Imagine!'s Longmont CORE/Labor Source site. "It's a place to blow off steam, laugh, and pick each others' brains about techniques and tips to help each of our individuals be successful. These meetings are not mandatory at all, but as you can see, staff still dedicate extra time to the betterment of our 'family' because they know our clients deserve that dedication and support." 

________________________

And finally, earlier this week Imagine! hosted a summer party coinciding with a Boulder recreational league softball game featuring the Team Imagine! squad. Imagine! fans packed the bleachers, waving their pennants and cheering on the team in what turned out to be an epic, extra inning, come from behind victory by the gang in grey and green!

Technology Tuesday

The good folks at Misty Robotics recently shot a short video at Imagine!’s Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont discussing the possibilities that robotics can bring to home health care situations. The video also features our good friend Geoff Cooper, CEO of Carasolva.
 

Good News Friday!

This is one of my favorite posts I get to make each year. Earlier this week, outside of Imagine!’s Dixons St. building, a group of kids and parents were allowed to embrace the sloppy side of life in the name of learning, courtesy of Messy Play Day.

What is Messy Play Day? Messy Play Day is one of Imagine!'s Dayspring department's Community Calendar Activities (CCAs). CCAs introduce young children with developmental delays and disabilities to places in our community that offer great activities and opportunities for children to meet their goals through fun and play. All activities encourage motor, sensory, social-emotional, cognitive, and speech-language development.

Messy Play Day is designed to introduce new sensory experiences to the children in a safe and comfortable environment. Learning occurs as children touch, manipulate, experiment, and talk about things, while interacting with people who facilitate without directing.

But the paragraphs above are just words. Take a look at the pictures below of some of the Messy Play Day sensory activities to see what the words look like in action.

Good News Friday Everyday

Here’s a quick quiz for you: In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world’s population living in extreme poverty has:

A) Almost doubled 
B) Remained more or less the same 
C) Almost halved

The correct answer is C. That’s right, in just the past 20 years, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in the world has almost halved.

But I bet a lot of you didn’t give that answer. I’m making that bet not because I’m Nostradamus, but because I have recently been introduced to the work of Hans Rosling. Rosling was a Swedish physician, academic, statistician, and public speaker, and one of the things he focused on in his later career was using statistics to argue that the world is, in many ways, better than we think.

Here are a couple of TED Talks by Rosling that show how great he was at spreading his message of well-documented positivity:

If you aren’t able to watch the videos, here’s some facts that may surprise you: Over time, the world has seen substantial increases in key indicators of progress such as: literacy, democracy, women’s right to vote, immunizations, and my favorite, guitars per capita.

Meanwhile, the world has seen decreases in: oil spills, plane crash deaths, deaths from disaster, ozone depletion, and hunger, to name just a few.

Those are incontrovertible facts backed by mountains of data. And yet, many of us, myself included, can have trouble believing they are true. Furthermore, we tend to have a very pessimistic and dim view of the world and the progress we are making facing our biggest challenges.

Why do we have such a hard time believing things are getting better? Rosling argues there are multiple reasons:

• Humans have an instinct to notice the bad more than the good, 
• we tend to romanticize the past and feel that things aren’t as good as they used to be, and 
• we are subjected to never-ending cascades of negative news from across the world. 

I can’t do much about the first two factors listed above, but today, I’d like to do my small part to address the third bullet above, at least when it comes to services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).

I’m motivated to change some ideas at least in part because I recognize that I often use this blog to point out some of the aspects of those services that aren’t so great. I don’t apologize for that, as we can always do better, but I do want to acknowledge the amazing progress we’ve made. So here goes:

• Between 1977 and 2010, the number of residential settings that served people with I/DD increased by a remarkable 1,598 percent, with most of these new settings being small and privately operated. 
• In the same date range, the number of home and community-based services recipients outpaced residents receiving specialized Medicaid licensed intermediate care facilities (ICFs/IID) by 676.1%, while the number of people receiving ICFs/IID care decreased by 63 percent. 
• The number of people with developmental disabilities in public institutions declined from 149,892 in 1977 to 51,485 in 1999. 
• Ninety percent of individuals with I/DD now live in a setting with 15 or fewer people, 75 percent of which reside in settings of six or fewer residents and 49 percent in settings of three or fewer residents. 

What good news stats about how the lives of our fellow citizens with I/DD have improved over the last 50 years? Feel free to share them.

If you’d like to learn more, the links below help provide stats and background for this post.

https://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels2/pdf/00s/00/00-DPD-NCS.pdf 
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2014/07/16/people-as-pendulums-institutions-and-people-with-intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities/ 
http://www.ancor.org/sites/default/files/news/gwu_residential_report.pdf 
http://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels/  
http://gotoipmg.com/images/body-images/Lessons_Learned_From_History.PDW.01.16.2015.pdf  
https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

Technology Tuesday

The American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) has teamed up with Imagine! to present a webinar highlighting our long and fruitful collaboration with the University of Colorado’s School of Engineering. Details from ANCOR are below.

Partnering with Universities for Individualized I/DD Tech Solutions 

Wednesday, June 13 1:00pm - 2:00pm, ET 

Register here 

Universities can be an invaluable resource for providers. From professors to laboratories to students eager to innovate, universities offer a culture of critical thought that can aid providers and the person with I/DD they support. Don't know where to start? Learn how to partner with them during this webinar!

Imagine!, a private service provider in Lafayette, CO, cultivated a thriving partnership with the University of Colorado to provide person-centered technology solutions for use by the individuals that receive supports and services at Imagine!. Through this partnership, University of Colorado engineering students collaborate with Imagine! to create inexpensive, technology solutions that address everyday challenges faced by people with disabilities.

Presenters from Imagine! and the University of Colorado will share their experiences in creating this partnership, their lessons learned, and ideas on how you can create similar collaborations with local universities in your communities. A recording will be made available for registrants.

Presenters: 
Fred Hobbs, Director of Public Relations, Imagine!
Melinda Piket-May, PhD., University of Colorado
Brodie Schulze, DSP, Imagine!

Registration:
ANCOR member: $29 Non-member: $109

Register Here 

Good News Friday!

Participants of Imagine!’s Out & About adult program set a goal to walk a 5k, and spent all spring training for it. Every Thursday morning, the group spent time training and preparing for the race.

On the final Thursday before race day, they hosted a car wash to raise funds to pay for the registration fees. Bringing in over $350, their fundraising efforts paid for nearly the full cost.

Race day was a blast! It was a rainy and muddy morning, but everyone accomplished their goal. The event was full of smiles, hard work, rain jackets, pizza, slimy mud, and lots of fun! Congratulations to all the racers for crossing the finish line!