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 10: Day 3 Well, everyone got up and got where they were supposed to go. Only Lucas, John, and Ryan made it out for breakfast this morning. Cooper, Jen, and Warren had all left for work and volunteer commitments before the cafeteria was open. Everyone else had a quick breakfast in their suite so they had time to get ready without rushing. The first morning of leaving the residence together was a great opportunity to further refine the group management strategy that everyone is trying to follow. Some keeners hadn't realized that group management only applies when people have agreed to be in a group. For example, at SMILE@night on Fridays, everyone who comes to the program has agreed to be part of the group, so they need to stay with their peers. This is different from the mornings at OOOT2, because each morning the group that wants to go to LWP together might be different. Some people will have work or volunteering on their schedule, and someone else might be leaving on an earlier bus because they are going to the dentist. There was a small misunderstanding about that, but now there's a new chapter to the group management manual and everyone seems clear on how it works. As mentioned on Day 1 and Day 2, the Carleton Tour and Conference Centre staff are just in the early stages of setting up the residence for visitors, and that led to a bit of a surprise today. The hallway entrance to the area where the suites is was locked! So that's why everyone got three keys this year (not because they were issued mailbox keys as we were originally told on Saturday). Once everyone got in, Julie and Fran helped them practice how to get out. You have to trigger a sensor for the door to unlock. It's kind of neat but it takes a little bit of practice with the timing. The weekday offerings in the cafeteria are even better than on the weekend. There's more food stations! After dinner it was time to review some of the project goals. There were questions about visitors, and most people remembered to organize their visits off campus. For example, Ian and Warren worked out a great plan where they are taking the O-Train to South Keys to meet up with a worker, and then taking the O-Train back after. "It doesn't make sense to be her practicing independence and then I get picked up and dropped off at the door," said Warren. "Yeah, we can take the train and meet half way," said Ian. There was some good news related to visitors, which is that the Open House event has now been confirmed for June 17. The plan so far is to have a casual open house in the afternoon, and something more formal in the evening. This was the first night for the tracking process. Everyone has a booklet and with support from staff they complete it each night. It's really important because it helps figure out if the whole idea of OOOT2 is based in fact or fiction. Is the peer support model really working? The data from the tracking sheets will help us to find out. Some more stories from today might be added later, but that's all for now! PICTURES! No pictures today. Please use your imagination instead!