Inside the FFC

Person Centered Planning

A Process for Creating Quality Lives     En Español

When you become a parent, the world is full of new adventures. When your child experiences a disability, those adventures multiply. Relationships change, family support looks different, and the paperwork can be overwhelming. Through it all, families seek to stay focused on their vision of the future for all their children.  Keeping that focus – with your child at the center of decisions – is essential. One way to do that is through a process called, Person–Centered Planning. Person-centered planning is an exciting and empowering process. Family, friends, and interested professionals whom you invite, gather to answer open-ended questions that lead to a vision for your child’s future. 

  

The FACT Family Center has partnered with Oregon Technical Assistance Corporation (OTAC) to ensure you have a chance to experience this process. To do this, we are offering workshops for families to learn about person-centered planning. During the workshop you will consider what your child does well, collect strategies for success, and focus on the strengths and gifts of your child. With this information, you will create a plan for your child to begin building a positive and practical portrait of ability. This process is useful in many situations and at all ages. It is helpful when considering the many transitions you will need to plan for in your child’s life: future school situations, jobs, living situations, and begins to collect and document the strategies for success. This portrait is helpful when introducing your child to new caregivers, teachers, friends (or their parents), and even people in the community. It is also a powerful way to communicate your child’s strengths, gifts, and capacity at IEP meetings. 

 

Past participants in the FACT-OTAC workshops say it has helped them consider new ideas and possibilities for their child, providing hope when there was none; dreams for the future when there was worry and despair. They were encouraged by having a vision in which their child’s disability was just a small part of the picture, allowing them to see their whole child, not a disability label. 

Family And Community Together (FACT) is a family leadership coalition working to facilitate positive change in policies, systems and attitudes affecting Oregonians with disabilities or chronic health concerns and their families. More about FACT ...