LiveWorkPlay Building Productive Lives Making A Buzz In The Ottawa Community Serving People With Intellectual Disabilities Since 1995 ON OUR OWN TOGETHER II Interdependence - Independence - Self-Advocacy The Innovative LiveWorkPlay Approach To Long-Term Housing For People With Intellectual Disabilities MAY 3: DAY -5 Today it happened that all of the SMILE participants in attendance were taking part in OOOT2. Since the SMILE schedules are still being worked out, the whole day was dedicated to getting ready for the project. In the morning the group went through a whole bunch of papers that are going home to parents. There's information about move-in day, about the problem-solving process, a suggest budget framework, and a detailed calendar with a support schedule. Each participant agreed it was their job to make sure the information got to their parents and that they understood it too! In the afternoon the discussion was about setting personal goals. Managing money was one of the more common themes, but a lot was said about safety, because that's an area that gets brought up a lot as an area of concern. Some of the safety topics included using the phone, using the door, and the importance of being where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there as a key commitment to safety that everyone can make. In the last half of the afternoon there was a lot of role-playing around how to respond when you are confronted with a situation where you feel you are at risk. Laura and Lucas showed they had "the pipes" when it comes to saying "no" with confidence. Jen was excited to find that her alarm bells are working, even if she would like her bells to ring a bit louder. The whole discussion was really positive even though it's not really a pleasant topic. The more personal safety gets talked about, the better people seem to feel. It makes sense, but for some reason most people say they haven't spent enough time talk about, whether it is at LWP, at home, or at school. And now that people are thinking about where they want to live in the future, it's more important than ever to spend time on it. When the SMILE chronicles were being collected at the end of the day, both Rachel and Moira were complimented for the calm manner in which they are approaching their first time in an OOOT project. PICTURES! No pictures today.