Community Engagement
A Necessary Condition for Self-Determination and Individual Funding
John O’Brien
1999
Contents
The call for change ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2
Five trends that shape the strategy ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Opposition to current policy and advocacy for individualized funding ……………………………………. 3
Desire to change faulty assumptions and the backward policies that result ………………………………. 3
Competing understandings of scarcity ………………………………………………………………………………… 4
Knowledge of better ways …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6
A deeper understanding of the change process ……………………………………………………………………… 9
Two models of the community engagement process ……………………………………………………………….. 11
Organizing relationships ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11
Shifting the circuits of culture ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 13
Possibilities for action ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 16
Create more family groups ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 16
Support leadership from among people with disabilities ……………………………………………………… 16
Tell more powerful stories ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 17
Keep person-centered planning vital outside the orbit of the service system ………………………….. 18
Develop more ways to gather and disseminate information………………………………………………….. 18
Maintain clear links to political action while pursuing a distinct strategy ………………………………. 19
Develop cooperative projects …………………………………………………………………………………………… 19
Offer formal learning opportunities …………………………………………………………………………………… 19
