Instructors:

Debbie Gilmer Orono

Dennis Stubbs Bangor

Lenny Berry Lincoln

Alan Kurtz 203 Corbett Hall

James Meehan Corbett Hall  james.meehan@umit.maine.edu

Kathy Son Kennebunk kathy_son@umit.maine.edu

Supporting Diversity in Our Communities: Leadership in Staff Development is designed for faculty and staff development leaders who prepare entry level personnel and paraprofessionals supporting persons with disabilities at the preservice and inservice levels. The course will provide course participants with knowledge and skill to teach to the changing roles of paraprofessionals particularly in the areas of empowerment and self-advocacy, building relationships and community, positive supports, and student/family/person centered planning. Course participants will also engage in instructional activities that they can use to share this information with their own students. The course utilizes a unique instructional model in which individuals with disabilities and family members act as co-instructors. Course participants will evaluate this model and learn how they can implement it effectively in their own educational activities and teaching.

Class Times: Wednesdays 4-6:30PM

Location: Room 220 Corbett Hall, University of Maine (This is the Corbett Hall next to the field house, not Donald P. Corbett Hall which is next to the Memorial Union.)

As a result of participation in this course participants will:

• Obtain information and become familiar with materials and activities useful for educating direct service personnel in person/family centered planning and support and community building;
• Learn how to incorporate into their instruction information about the changing nature of supports to persons with disabilities;
• Learn about state of the art developments related to supporting individuals with disabilities in the ways that they and their families choose to be supported as well as techniques for conveying that information to entry-level personnel;
• Become familiar with the most recent literature on techniques for supporting people with disabilities to take a more active role in advocating for themselves, in making choices, and in living more self-determined lives;
• Obtain information about instructional techniques and materials that will be useful in teaching entry-level personnel the skills they will need to support individuals with disabilities in becoming more active participants in inclusive communities;
• Evaluate the co-instructional model and develop a plan to deliver education to preservice students and entry level paraprofessionals in partnership with people with disabilities.

Assignment #1: In groups of two or individually, participants will present two separate instructional activities from the curriculum. Participants should also describe in writing how they might present the same information in collaboration with a person with a disability or a family member.

Assignment # 2: Prepare a syllabus for existing course revision or propose a new course consistent with a values based, culturally competent vision for delivery to paraprofessionals given a student/family/person centered planning supports model of service delivery.

Journal: Course participants will keep a journal throughout the course. The instructors will provide questions to guide journal entries. The journals will be used, in part, to evaluate the extent to which course objectives were achieved.

Readings (Course Pack): Readings in addition to the text are included for each week. In some cases you will have a choice between two readings — one relating to the support of adults with disabilities and the other to school aged children.

Technical Assistance Plan — Prepare a technical assistance plan describing how you will you use the resources of the Center for Community Inclusion convey some of the information learned in this course.

Objectives

Participants will:

Objectives

Participants will:

• Demonstrate ability to discuss some of the changes that have been made in the way supports are provided to individuals with disabilities in the last ten years.
• Demonstrate ability to discuss current trends in the provision of supports.
• Explore strategies and resources that can be used in teaching direct support professionals about current trends.

Readings:

Unit 1 of Curriculum

Objectives

Participants will:

• Be able to explain what Smull (1998) means by "sharing control" and "choice as a partnership";
• Demonstrate knowledge of the components of choice.
• Identify obstacles to choice faced by individuals with developmental disabilities (From summary information in Unit 2).
• Identify strategies that they can use to teach direct support professionals to increase opportunities for choice among the people they support; and
• Demonstrate the ability to discuss the complexity of choice in situations where direct support professionals must balance safety and control;
• Discuss the implications of O’Brien & O’Brien’s "Learning to Listen."

Readings:

Objectives

Participants will:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the two meanings of self-determination;
• Demonstrate knowledge of the four principles of self-determination;
• Identify and evaluate resources and strategies that can be used to provide information about self-determination to direct service professionals.

Readings:

Nerney, T. (2000, August). The poverty of human services. Available: http://www.self-determination.com/html/body_topics.html

Or

Wehmeyer, M.L. (1996). Self-determination as an educational outcome: Why is it important to children, youth, and adults with disabilities? In D.J. Sands & M.L. Wehmeyer, M. (Eds.) Self-determination across the life span: Independence and choice for people with disabilities. (pp. 17-36).

• Demonstrate knowledge of the foundations of all person centered planning;
• Demonstrate ability to explain how person centered planning is related to other concepts in this course;
• Identify resources and strategies for teaching direct support professionals about person centered planning;
• Demonstrate knowledge of how direct support professionals can support the participation of individuals with disabilities in their person-centered plans.
• Discuss the relationship between person centered planning and systems change.

Readings:

Unit 3 of Curriculum.

O’Brien & Lovett ( 1998). "Toward Everyday Lives." Chapter 15 in A little book about person centered planning.

O’Brien, O’Brien, & Mount (1998). "Person centered planning has arrived … or has it?" Chapter 3 in A little book about person centered planning.

O’Brien & O’Brien (1998). "The Politics of Person Centered Planning." Chapter 5 in A little book about person centered planning.

Readings:

• Identify and evaluate strategies that direct support professionals can use to help individuals they support to strengthen their community connections;
• Demonstrate ability to explain some of the characteristics of all meaningful relationships;
• Demonstrate knowledge of strategies that they can use to teach direct support professionals to strengthen community connection by focusing on strengths, talents, gifts, and capacities.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how direct support professionals can identify places in their communities where people with disabilities might connect with others;
• Demonstrate ability to explain the concepts, formal and informal supports, hospitality, and counterproductivity as they are described by Schwartz (1997).
• Demonstrate ability to describe how direct support professionals can stimulate hospitality.

Readings:

Readings:

Readings:

Schwartz (1997). Chapters 9-11 (pp.97-133).

• Identify and evaluate strategies and resources for teaching direct support professionals about assistive technology’s potential benefit for individuals with disabilities.
• Identify strategies and resources for teaching direct support professionals how to use person first language.
• Demonstrate knowledge of some basic principles regarding interaction with individuals who use augmentative or assistive communication.

Readings:

• Identify strategies they can use provide direct support professionals with opportunities to hear directly from individuals with disabilities or family members about the type of support they want .
• Identify strategies they can use to raise the expectations of direct support professionals concerning the potential for individuals with disabilities in their schools, communities, and jobs; and
• Discuss the changing role of direct support professionals in schools and communities where choice, self-determination, and inclusion are increasingly valued.

Readings:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the differences between various conceptions of positive supports;.
• Identify strategies they can use in teaching direct support professionals how to explore the unmet that may motivate challenging behavior;
• Identify strategies they can use in teaching direct support professionals

Participants will: