thoughts on Kathie Snow

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

I had the chance to go to a day long seminar here in MI yesterday where

Kathie Snow spoke. I am sure many of you on this list have heard her. She

made some good points on People First Language...I had heard alot of this

before. What was most interesting to me were comments at the end from her

and various parents about finding jobs in the community.

This whole area is really concerning me since Gene is now 14 and in MI we

have mandatory spec ed till 26. This presents a problem...the intermediate

school districts basically operate like community mental health services and

say they are " teaching " job readiness skills but do it in a sheltered

workshop type setting. I adn manyother parents are not looking for this for

our children because we have always tried to keep them fully included in

school. When the students " graduate " from this " voc traing program " at age

26, they basically just move to sheltered workshops. The intermediate school

districts don't track job placement figures after graduation and I have heard

that basically no one actually gets a real job in the community. It bothers

me greatly that all this money is put into programs that are not effective in

the minds of many parents ( although i know there are some who do not have an

issue with this).

Some of the things discussed yesterday dealt with " self employment " . The

woman across the table from me had a 9 year old daughter with Down Syndrome.

This past summer, they bought a hot dog cart and got permission to put it in

the courtyard of a hotel in Midland. Her daughter was helping with the

money, learning lots of real job skills, etc. Kathie Snow mentioned that

self employment is the way to go. She knew one man who owned several vending

machines and made $4,000 a month! Another parent talked about purchasing a

popcorn cart to take to events. As I thought of this, it seemed like a great

way to find something a person really likes....(like gene love popcorn and

food) and turn it into something productive.

I think Gene could do something like this now and in the future if he is

supported by another person. To this point though, I have thought primarily

about him doing supported volunteer work in adulthood, but perhaps something

like this is workable. I am wondering if any of you have any stories to tell

about people with disabilties you know of who are creativily self employed or

working like this with their families or other support people? Our county

does not do much supported employment and I am meeting with some people

tomarrow about ways that the intermendiate school district can do some things

differenntly. Any cool and innovative ideas?

Lauri, Mom to Gene 14