The Voice - PLAN Edmonton

Join VAD is learning about our membership with our first podcast in our membership series.

PLAN Edmonton, is an organizational member of Voice of Albertans with Disabilities.  Learn about this 'best kept secret' and how the organization works to eliminate social isolation in the disability community.

Transcript

00:00:00 Teresa
Welcome to the voice of Albertans with Disabilities, AKA Vad Societies Podcast for April 2022 I'm Teresa Jackson, your host and VAD’s program and services manager.
00:00:11 Teresa
Thank you for joining us today.
00:00:13 Teresa
In today's podcast, I'll be talking to Jamie Gore and Shefali Khoja from PLAN Edmonton.
00:00:19 Teresa
Jamie role with PLAN Edmonton.
00:00:20 Teresa
This network coordinator and Shefali is the President of PLANs Board of directors.
00:00:26 Teresa
VAD is, starting a series where we meet with our membership to learn about the resources that are available to our iVAD Members and within the disability community.
00:00:33 Teresa
I wanted to get PLAN Edmonton on the show to share their insights with you and talk about PLAN Edmonton and the resources this organization offers.
00:00:41 Teresa
Together we hold the power.
00:00:42 Teresa
Please welcome Jamie and Shefali hello.
00:00:46 Teresa
Please take a moment and briefly introduce yourselves and tell us about your role with PLAN Edmonton.
00:00:51 Jamie
Hi everybody, thank you so much Teresa for welcoming us onto the show. My name is Jamie Gore and I have been PLAN Edmonton network coordinator since July of 2020 and I came on board in the right stack middle of a pandemic.
00:01:11 Jamie
I met everybody in PLAN Edmonton and we had a great place to start and we had to figure out how to be adaptable.
00:01:22 Jamie
In the midst of a pandemic.
00:01:25 Jamie
And I'm really excited to say that we've survived.
00:01:30 Teresa
Thank you.
00:01:31 Jamie
No, I'll turn it over to Shefali.
00:01:33 Shefali
Thank you Theresa for such a warm welcome and again, Jamie has cleared a big part in our survival process with this covered for the organization and I'm the President for the board with PLAN.
00:01:46 Shefali
My journey actually started 10 years of over a decade actually.
00:01:50 Shefali
I started as a facilitator with PLAN and then moved up to be part of the board, so we've been kind of seen multiple sides of the organization, so we're glad to be here on the show with you both.
00:02:05 Teresa
Awesome thank you ladies.
00:02:06 Teresa
That was wonderful.
00:02:08 Teresa
I have a few questions about PLAN Edmonton to gather information for our listeners.
00:02:13 Teresa
So my first question is, according to your website, the primary work of PLAN Edmonton is to guide individuals and their families through the process of developing a personal network to support loved ones now and well into the future.
00:02:25 Teresa
Can you tell me how your organization does this?
00:02:28 Jamie
Yes, absolutely.
00:02:29 Jamie
I think it has to start with the origin of PLAN and bring it up to where we are today.
00:02:37 Jamie
PLAN actually originated in Vancouver over 30 years ago and it was a group of families that came together and they all had an adult with a disability.
00:02:48 Jamie
In their life, a son or a daughter.
00:02:51 Jamie
And they were all facing similar questions and concerns.
00:02:55 Jamie
They wanted to answer the question of what happens after my life changes or what happens after I'm no longer here to care for them.
00:03:06 Jamie
The way that I do.
00:03:08 Jamie
And so PLAN was born.
00:03:10 Jamie
And essentially what PLAN does is it works with the families to find out who that person is with a disability?
00:03:21 Jamie
What are their interests, what are their passions?
00:03:24 Jamie
Where are they today?
00:03:26 Jamie
And oftentimes, an adult with a disability has.
00:03:31 Jamie
Paid supports family, perhaps some peers.
00:03:36 Jamie
Perhaps some volunteers, but there's a huge gap PLAN.
00:03:40 Jamie
Basically works with the family and creates a work PLAN and we get started.
00:03:48 Jamie
There's a lot to it, but maybe I'll turn it over to you.
00:03:52 Jamie
To Shefali to see.
00:03:53 Jamie
If she, if you could.
00:03:54 Jamie
Add anything that I might have.
00:03:55 Shefali
Missed, sure, no.
00:03:56 Shefali
I think you covered it very well.
00:03:58 Shefali
The only piece I would add is.
00:04:00 Shefali
It's a family directed organization.
00:04:02 Shefali
If I can put it that way, right?
00:04:03 Shefali
Like people are the core asset for the organization, so all of our services or programs are guided by the needs of the individuals we support and we kind of find ways and customize ways to meet people where they are at and 'cause as you know.
00:04:20 Shefali
The world of disability and accessibility so unique with the experiences of individuals and families, so our organization is kind of there too just for people.
00:04:29 Shefali
And now we.
00:04:32 Jamie
Another thing I might.
00:04:34 Jamie
Add is that PLAN is not here to replace family.
00:04:39 Jamie
It's not here to replace Patriot supports.
00:04:43 Jamie
It's here to augment those things and to create a network of support to help an individual have a.
00:04:51 Jamie
Sense of belonging.
00:04:52 Jamie
And community and connection so that a family can go from having a sense of.
00:05:00 Jamie
Not being prepared.
00:05:03 Jamie
To a sense of Peace of Mind, there's a process involved to go from that Ground Zero to get to that place of Peace of Mind, and it's a moving target.
00:05:13 Jamie
At various times you might be fully Peace of Mind and at other times you might think Oh my gosh, where do I even begin so?
00:05:22 Jamie
One of the.
00:05:23 Jamie
Models of PLAN is PLAN can help.
00:05:25 Jamie
We want to make sure that families are ready to say yes because it takes.
00:05:32 Jamie
Us, it takes the focus person.
00:05:35 Jamie
It takes the family and it takes the facilitator and it takes the people involved to all be saying yes so that we can work together to create a good life for the net for the personal disability so.
00:05:50 Teresa
Sounds like a great organization.
00:05:52 Teresa
Specifically, what kind of programs does your organization run and who should get involved with them?
00:05:57
So when I.
00:05:58 Jamie
Came on board in the middle of the pandemic.
00:06:01 Jamie
Like I said, it was a great place to start.
00:06:03 Jamie
What we did is we created a lot of platforms which were all basically zoom.
00:06:12 Jamie
And one of the programs.
00:06:13 Jamie
That we got off to the races with was a monthly meet called Let's Connect.
00:06:19 Jamie
And it is every third Wednesday of the month.
00:06:22 Jamie
And it's a place for our focus people to bring their network members and our.
00:06:29 Jamie
Facilitators can attend and we just get together and have a nice evening.
00:06:34 Jamie
It's typically themed so a lot of our focus people love rock and roll.
00:06:40 Jamie
And or art so you know, we just get together and have a great time.
00:06:45 Jamie
When I met all of my families and I met some of the current facilitators.
00:06:51 Jamie
What we did was we sat down and we said what can we do?
00:06:56 Jamie
I'll give you a specific example of one of the things that we did with one of our focused people.
00:07:01 Jamie
She loves rock and roll.
00:07:03 Jamie
We made a rock and roll club that's been successfully going on for the last two years.
00:07:10 Jamie
She had some family.
00:07:12 Jamie
She had two sisters that lived in different places and So what we did was we set up a monthly family zoom so that they could get together.
00:07:24 Jamie
And it was really, really special to see that.
00:07:28 Jamie
One of the key.
00:07:29 Jamie
Key things about facilitation and is that it isn't support work.
00:07:34 Jamie
The facilitator is there to foster relationships.
00:07:39 Jamie
To come back to your question of how does one get involved currently PLAN Edmonton is posturing itself to widen the number of families that we serve.
00:07:50 Jamie
We wanted to spend a year to.
00:07:52 Jamie
Really see how can.
00:07:54 Jamie
We get this actually working in the right way.
00:07:58 Jamie
For our families.
00:07:59 Jamie
And so now we have some systems in place that really can show that.
00:08:05 Jamie
There is a value to what the facilitators do.
00:08:10 Jamie
So we're looking for new families.
00:08:12 Jamie
We're potentially looking for new facilitators.
00:08:15 Jamie
We're looking to create relationships with other organizations that are doing good work.
00:08:20 Jamie
Another thing that I'll say is the board for PLAN Edmonton is a working board.
00:08:27 Shefali
Anybody who's looking to make a difference in the field of disability or supporting families closely and want to support relationship building and lifelong relationship building, that's the person we are looking for.
00:08:40 Shefali
Jamie kind of described.
00:08:41 Shefali
You can be a facilitator.
00:08:43 Shefali
You can be a network member.
00:08:44 Shefali
You can be a board member.
00:08:45 Shefali
So these.
00:08:46 Shefali
Are multiple ways.
00:08:47 Shefali
You can you.
00:08:47 Shefali
Can help them the way kind of our model works is really around building personal network right so?
00:08:54 Shefali
Anybody who's either looking to help in supporting that is one way, but then also folks who are needing that support right where there is where families feel exhausted with everything that has happened and we yeah, and like the whole world was a hit with pandemic.
00:09:10 Shefali
Not to add, you know the personal challenges with, you know wearing abilities, right?
00:09:15 Shefali
What am I going to do or how my family members going to be supported when I'm not around?
00:09:20 Shefali
To find the social isolation to find those challenges.
00:09:23 Shefali
Those risks is kind of appliance steps in and it's and it's an added support in amongst various supports that are already out there, right?
00:09:31 Shefali
And we take time.
00:09:33 Shefali
I think relationship building takes time and that's a model that we are comfortable with.
00:09:37 Shefali
We are confident in our model and I.
00:09:39 Shefali
Think folks who.
00:09:41 Shefali
join PLAN staying with PLAN in in in multiple ways so.
00:09:45 Shefali
So you know there are lots of opportunities to help and support, and we may be flexible too, because I think our work requires that because every family, every individual, and we call them focused people.
00:09:59 Shefali
So every focused person we support, their needs look different and we customize our PLANs.
00:10:05 Shefali
There are creative ways that we can keep people involved and engaged in that work based on their interests and match that as well.
00:10:13 Teresa
Do you only work with adults or
00:10:14 Teresa
Do you work with teens as well?
00:10:17 Jamie
That's a great question. Currently we serve ten families and they all have an adult with a disability. However, there's certain times in in a person's life where they're going through a major transition, and one of those is going from graduation from high school into that next step.
00:10:37 Jamie
Of life.
00:10:38 Jamie
And I don't think that we would say no to somebody.
00:10:42 Jamie
Who had?
00:10:44 Jamie
Is going through that transition?
00:10:46 Jamie
I'm always open to have a conversation with a family if they have a young one who they want to start that proactive decision making and find out.
00:10:58 Jamie
You know, maybe years down the road they're going to want to start to create that network.
00:11:03 Jamie
Of support so.
00:11:05 Jamie
That's who we are currently, yes.
00:11:07 Shefali
Yeah, and in the.
00:11:08 Shefali
Life span of the organization we've had supported.
00:11:11 Shefali
Individuals from different ages, so we really don't turn anybody away and we always find ways to see how we can support it.
00:11:19 Shefali
And then see if it's a match.
00:11:20 Shefali
So it's definitely something we are open to consider.
00:11:23 Teresa
PLAN's mission is to support individuals living with physical, mental and intellectual challenges and their families by facilitating social connections, intentionally building authentic relationships.
00:11:35 Teresa
What kind of activities do you host and how often are their families and clients engaged with the different programs?
00:11:41 Jamie
Where the work starts is if a new family is coming on board.
00:11:46 Jamie
Uhm, they work with me.
00:11:48 Jamie
And what we do is we sit down and we create something that's called a road map.
00:11:54 Jamie
And we basically look at all the different areas of that person's life, decide where they would like to go, what are their values, and what would they like to see that person in five years, 10 years and the rest of their life look like.
00:12:10 Jamie
And so then I match them with the facilitator and based on the interests and values and goals, the facilitator works directly.
00:12:20 Jamie
With the focus.
00:12:21 Jamie
Person, for example, we have a focused person who is actively involved as a university student.
00:12:29 Jamie
And love certain sports and certain activities and would love to belong to a church, the focused person and the facilitator are hoping to go out into those places and go from a sense of being a straight.
00:12:47 Jamie
Measure to getting to a sense of belonging.
00:12:50 Jamie
Basically our goal in vision is at the end of the day.
00:12:54 Jamie
The facilitator is completely.
00:12:56 Jamie
Out of the.
00:12:56 Jamie
Way and the network is running itself and the people are involved and engaged without any inspiration from the facilitator doing.
00:13:04 Jamie
It for them.
00:13:05 Shefali
Yeah, and to add I mean.
00:13:06 Shefali
If I could divide our.
00:13:09 Shefali
Events or services in like formal and informal, I think it's an organization we do.
00:13:14 Shefali
Number of formal activities.
00:13:15 Shefali
We do need apps, we do monthly conversations.
00:13:19 Shefali
The last couple years we've done a lot over zoom and then there are lots of informal ones that the networks build and kind of do depending on what's going on and is it.
00:13:29 Shefali
Visit a church.
00:13:30 Shefali
Or to a bowling alley or two.
00:13:32 Shefali
PLAN a rock and roll or whatever that looks like, right?
00:13:35 Shefali
So the, I think broadly, that might be an easier way to describe it.
00:13:40 Shefali
The formal and informal events and opportunities, and then annually, like once a year we meet all of our families as part of our AGM and that's kind of where everybody comes, including the board, the families.
00:13:52 Shefali
The focus individuals we support, so that's a.
00:13:54 Shefali
Another Ave to keep them continually engaged with the organization.
00:14:01 Teresa
If someone is looking to be part of Clan Edmonton, is there a referral process?
00:14:06 Jamie
So currently there is no referral process.
00:14:10 Jamie
We are typically a.
00:14:12 Jamie
Word of mouth UM.
00:14:14 Jamie
I would say someone knows someone and.
00:14:16 Jamie
Says hey, have you ever?
00:14:18 Jamie
Heard of PLAN Edmonton?
00:14:20 Jamie
And PLAN Edmonton is probably one of the best kept secrets in Alberta.
00:14:24 Jamie
We have a website and if someone is interested in how to become more involved they could definitely reach out to Shefali or myself.
00:14:35 Jamie
I have an email address and a phone number we could provide that information.
00:14:40 Jamie
If you'd.
00:14:40 Jamie
Like that so.
00:14:41 Teresa
Yeah, absolutely.
00:14:43 Teresa
That's my next question actually.
00:14:44 Teresa
Is can you tell our listeners how to get ahold of PLAN if they want more information?
00:14:48 Jamie
Yes, absolutely, so my email address is networkcoordinator@PLANedmonton.ca. I think that's probably the best place for you to get a hold of us. You can also do a.
00:15:04 Jamie
Reach out on our website.
00:15:06 Jamie
We have contact us.
00:15:08 Jamie
Page on the website as well.
00:15:11 Jamie
And Shefali you can go ahead and give yours.
00:15:15 Shefali
And the email address to reach me is president@PLANedmonton.ca and also give our contact number just in case that might also be easier. So the number is 7804882422.
00:15:31 Shefali
That's also another way to get a hold of us.
00:15:36 Teresa
Are there any upcoming events you want?
00:15:37 Teresa
To tell us about.
00:15:38 Jamie
Yes, absolutely.
00:15:40 Jamie
If someone is interested to know more.
00:15:44 Jamie
About PLAN Edmonton.
00:15:46 Jamie
They can definitely contact me, but this coming Saturday we have a zoom that is called family, friends and allies of PLAN Edmonton.
00:15:58 Jamie
And if they want more information, they can contact me.
00:16:02 Jamie
The zoom takes place from 1:00 to 2:00 PM.
00:16:05 Jamie
And it's for all of the people that are involved in our focused people lives, including.
00:16:11 Jamie
Their family and their friends and.
00:16:14 Jamie
And this is a safe space for people to come together and network with each other to ask questions like for example, perhaps somebody is looking for housing and then another family is on there and they've gone through all of that process and so it's a great place to come in informal way and exchange information.
00:16:35 Jamie
Let's see, we have the monthly left connects.
00:16:39 Jamie
We are actually having a face to face on May 11th at Boston Pizza on Whyte Ave and this is going to be a fun kind of a reunited after it feels so good, you know.
00:16:53 Jamie
So that's just going to be an informal, fun way to get together, share a meal and.
00:16:58 Jamie
Each other's faces.
00:17:00 Jamie
So anything else you might want to add Shefali.
00:17:03 Shefali
Well, everything you are welcome to come and just show up.
00:17:06 Shefali
Just drop in and you'll be welcomed.
00:17:11 Teresa
What is an interesting fact about PLAN Edmonton that everyone should know?
00:17:15 Jamie
I just want to come back to the specialness of PLAN.
00:17:19 Jamie
The fact that Shefali had mentioned earlier that it is a family LED organization.
00:17:25 Jamie
I think that is a really special thing.
00:17:29 Jamie
In that the family gets to make the calls and the shots, and when I first came on board, one of the really important things that I needed to understand is that.
00:17:41 Jamie
The families are my boss.
00:17:43 Jamie
The focus people are my boss and at the end of the day, if they say we need to take a pause from facilitation, then we take a pause from facilitation.
00:17:54 Jamie
I had one example of a family that's been around for several years and the facilitator was.
00:18:01 Jamie
Entirely engaged with the situation and the pandemic was changing and we had some great ideas.
00:18:08 Jamie
And then the family said we need to take a pause from facilitation and that's what we did.
00:18:13 Jamie
You know, the families have faced adversities that regular families have no idea what that's like.
00:18:22 Jamie
Just touching back to the history of people with disabilities.
00:18:28 Jamie
And if you take.
00:18:28 Jamie
A snapshot of time from 50 to 70 years ago to today.
00:18:34 Jamie
A person within an individual with a disability 50 years ago was institutional.
00:18:40 Jamie
Nice they were devalued.
00:18:42 Jamie
They were dehumanized and we have come a long long way and we have a long ways to go.
00:18:49 Jamie
So I think PLAN is doing really great work to help a person.
00:18:53 Jamie
Have a go.
00:18:54 Jamie
Hood included save human life.
00:18:57 Jamie
I've been very excited.
00:18:59 Jamie
To work with.
00:18:59 Jamie
PLAN and I just think.
00:19:02 Jamie
They're a great group of wholesome people.
00:19:05 Jamie
So I'm really looking forward to seeing what PLAN can do for families in the future.
00:19:10 Teresa
Do you guys have any final thoughts?
00:19:13 Shefali
I think I just wanted to leave the thought of the idea that people with disabilities have are important and they have so much to contribute and make a difference and organization like PLAN is just kind of there to cultivate to foster those lifelong living networks and relationships.
00:19:34 Shefali
That will support the person and create a community around them, so that's kind of a message of hope in in that sense of continuing that support for families.
00:19:45 Shefali
It's what I would begin with.
00:19:47 Jamie
I just wanted to say thank you Teresa very much for letting us come and just give the world a little bit of an understanding of what fun is.
00:19:57 Jamie
And I also just wanted to mention that PLAN is affiliated with PLAN in Vancouver and there's other.
00:20:05 Jamie
Agencies and organizations doing this work all across North America.
00:20:10 Jamie
We are affiliated with several organizations that are doing this work.
00:20:13 Teresa
Well thank you ladies for your time and energy today.
00:20:16 Teresa
Your support of.
00:20:17 Teresa
The community is of value to us.
00:20:20 Teresa
PLAN Edmonton is an organizational member of VAD and a link to their website can be accessed on our membership list online. Individuals looking to access bad members can do so at vadsociety.ca/social-action.
00:20:35 Teresa
Thank you again for joining bad.
00:20:37 Teresa
Podcast voice of Albertans with disabilities is across disability nonprofit organization oven for people with disabilities.
00:20:45 Teresa
That is guided by the principles of accessibility, equity and inclusion. Learn about VAD services on our website at vadsociety.ca or call 780-488-9088 For more information.
00:20:59 Teresa
If you have a topic you would like to hear more about in a podcast, please email Teresa at Vad Society.
00:21:05 Teresa
With topic ideas, speaker suggestions or your feedback, signing off for the day.
00:21:11 Teresa
Together we hold the power.