Sunday, January 30, 2011

An amazing event - Making the Invisible Visible


The Sprout Film Festival will celebrate its 9th year this spring at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. I had the pleasure of attending last year's festival with a good friend. The unifying theme of the films is developmental disabilities - a mix of documentaries, narratives, music videos, etc., starring or written by people with disabilities.
The year before (2009), I attended a traveling film festival in Geneva, N.Y., featuring several films. One of the films entitled "The King of Camp" had been written by and starred a cast of actors with developmental disabilities. The villain of the piece was a counselor who was condescending and micromanaging; every time he was thwarted, the audience roared its approval. At the New York showing, a frazzled and impatient staff person is outsmarted by his client with Down Syndrome. Again, the same reaction from the audience!
What a moment of revelation - clearly, this is a commonly understood complaint in this community (like wives complaining about husbands refusing to ask for directions)- but not one that I (a non-disabled person) was ever aware of! The festival is an amazing opportunity to learn, to appreciate, and to think in new ways. Check it out if you can!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

A wonderful idea to enhance communities

I heard of the concept of Time Banking at an inclusion conference in the Adirondacks this summer. The basic idea is this: you perform a service for a fellow member and, for each hour you serve, you bank an hour towards a service you need.

Say you are good at home repairs, but a lousy bookkeeper. You come in to a member's house to fix leaks, build bookshelves, etc. You can use your earned time dollar to have another member help you file your income taxes. You can work for or collect services from any member of the bank.

My conference group could immediately see the possibilities for our allies with disabilities. People with disabilities have many services they can offer and could benefit from many services offered by a time bank. A core belief of time banks is that everyone's time has equal value.

Check it out at:

http://www.timebanks.org

Thursday, January 13, 2011

A great story, worth re-posting



He's not heavy; he's my friend

A great story of a win-win-win situation. A little boy named Sam, who has cerebral palsy, lives with his family in a two-story house. His father used to carry him upstairs to bed every night, until his dad had heart surgery. The family reached out to a local high school for help, and a co-captain of the football team, Rudy Favard, comes to Sam's house several nights a week to carry him upstairs.
Sam and his family have help, Rudy has the appreciation and affection of Sam's family, and both young men have a new friend. Cost? Priceless.
Photo by the Boston Globe. Also check out the video on http://www.abcnews.com/

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

New Home

I'm hoping to create a new space with a name that's easier to remember! I'll post the link on my old blog, rationalistellipses.blogspot.com.