Stephen Whan Visiting from Malparinka in Australia
15 Feb 2011 1 Comment
Stephen Whan from Australia plans to visit us in late April of 2011 as part of a learning tour on personalized supports. He is part of an organization called Milparinka.
Milparinka is currently going through a process of reorientating from group service to assisting people to have personalized and self directed supports. They have quite a few arrangements in place but they know they can do better. Stephen is going to visit agencies in the states that have been doing this effectively, successfully and sustainably for 20+ years.
After Stephen spoke to Frank Crupi (Milparinka CEO) and Michael Kendrick (consultant) it was decided that the best way for Stephen to learn the how’s, why’s etc of individualised service design and provision is through a series of causal conversations.
His starting point is
- What works?
- How to spread it?
- How to keep it going?
The how, who, what, where, when and why of individualised service design and provision from a number of perspectives. As OCL does personalized supports that include people going to college, volunteering in the community, with paid positions in community businesses and with living in their own home, there will be much for him to explore. Many people have been supported for years now, which will show the changes and flexibility that is needed to keep services thriving in the long haul for a person.
Stephen plans to meet and talk with some staff, family members, people that OCL supports, community members, housemates and maybe some state officials. It will help to give him a number of perspectives.
May 06, 2011 @ 22:22:40
Just a quick post to say thank you very much for the time and for the opportuity to meet all of the people I did. You have a tremendous agency there that is having significant influence on many organisations including ones that have not visited you. I will be telling people who will not have the opportunity to visit OCL what I saw: individual mature thinking at a deep level and an agency that is very focused on ensuring it’s focus is on relationships and individuals. This will have a strong influence on the future of Milparinka. OCL is an internationally recognised leader in individualised services for a reason.