 |
LiveWorkPlay
For People With Intellectual Disabilities
Making A Buzz In The Ottawa Community
We've Been Growing Together 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 29: Day 22
"The most REAL piece of writing about LiveWorkPlay that I've ever seen."
That was Julie Kingstone's instant reaction to the article in today's Ottawa Sun by AJ Blauer. There's been lots of great articles written about LiveWorkPlay by many talented writers over the years, but there's something special about this one.
AJ spent three hours with the group on May 25, and although he got lots of background information from staff, it's obvious that he really listened to the participants, because that's where the story came from. There are quotes from Rachel, Ryan, Moira, John, and Laura but there's a bit of everyone in the article. This paragraph really captured the flavour of this year's project:
Most days though, it's the little things that make for the greatest challenges. Like balancing work, chores and recreation. Or building up the confidence to express personal interests and feelings, as well as approaching others to resolve small concerns before they become big problems.
But back to our regularly scheduled program...what went on?
Fran and Dale arrived around noon today to find that there were some concerns about how busy it has been in the cafeteria the last few days. But in the end most people decided to give it a try and it turned out it wasn't all that busy after all.
After lunch it took a while to get organized for the shopping, so the group ended up heading to Billings around 2:00. Rachel, Jenny and Jen
shopped individually for the first time, but continued to cooperate on staples like bread.
After grocery shopping there was a discussion about what people would like to do. Moira and Rachel were very happy that they had finished their laundry. Moira said "it was my first laundry!" There wasn't a lot of interest in going to the Lynx game as planned, so new plans were made. Some people wanted to play bocce, some people wanted to go for a snack or tea, some people wanted to watch the hockey game, and some people wanted to fly kites.
The group also decided that they were interested in trying the cafeteria at 5:30 to see if it would be less busy. It was! Grace joined the group for dinner, and afterwards everyone headed outside for about an hour to
either fly kites, play bocce or just hang out. Then everyone went back
inside to divide up into staying in or going out for the night.
Lucas, Moira, Cooper, Jenny, Warren, Ryan, Robin and Paul all wanted to go for a snack. The group headed to the bus stop just as the national anthem was starting at the hockey game. Paul was very interested in the anthems and left a bit later than the others. Elaine met up with the group at Billings, and together they discovered it was closed at 6pm so they walked over the Bank Street bridge to the Dairy Queen and Tim
Hortons. Elaine, Warren, and Ryan ended up at McDonalds.
Cooper, Paul, Robin, Jenny, and Lucas decided to walk back along Sunnyside instead of taking the bus. It was a nice evening so why not?
After that people trickled in and out of the lounge to watch the game or
check the score. Paul was still awake watching SNL when Dale and Fran left at midnight. See the picture below to see what happened next.
PICTURES!
What...I'm just resting my eyes!
The online version of AJ Blauer's article
[The article may not remain accessible after Sunday morning]
|
|
|
