Get More Skills Workshops - for people with intellectual disability

From NSW CID e-news, July 2016:
NSW Council on Intellectual Disability has been running groups for people with disability to help them prepare for the NDIS, make change in their community and meet new people. They are excited to be running two new groups starting in the next month and would love you to come along and be part of them. The details of the groups are below, and if you would like to come, please contact Brandon on 1800 424 065 or email brandon@nswcid.org.au

South West Sydney NetworkMeets at Revesby Workers Club on the last Wednesday of every month. Open to anyone with disability and co-facilitated by a CID member. Download flyer here.

Ballina and Wagga Wagga Networks
Contact Brandon for further details.

Food is provided at each meeting and they are a great way to make some new connections and get ready for the changes that are happening with NDIS roll out.

Love, intimacy and disabiity

We are increasingly hearing about people with Down syndrome and other disabilities in long term and intimate relationships, and/or getting married, but it can still be a difficult need to meet:

The barriers to romance for adults with disabilities
Chris Serres, Daily Life, 24th November 2015
... For people with disabilities like Rachel and Nicholas, such freedom to be intimate is rare. Disabled adults complain of having to overcome constant hurdles to engage in romantic activity and sustain loving relationships. The obstacles include arbitrary curfews, lack of transportation and segregated housing that cuts them off from mainstream social life and opportunities to date. Often, the barriers are imposed by group home operators that place safety above intimacy ...

Here comes the bride

Carly Findlay, Don't DIS my ABILITY (blog), 26th November 2015

I will be a bride in March. Although my parents encouraged me to be anything I wanted to be, I never thought I'd be a bride. I tried dating for many years, but it was hard to meet a man who was ok with my severe skin condition – Ichthyosis ...

... Outsiders often view getting into a relationship as the Holy Grail for people with disabilities. They see it as a big achievement, because disability is often portrayed as undesirable, unattractive even. Love is, in my experience, sometimes harder to come by because of disability, but not impossible ...

Friendship - A guide to finding friends and building community

Kay Mills, Centre for Welfare Reform (UK), 2015
Kay Mills is one of the leading experts in the UK in how to help people with learning disabilities overcome the risk of social isolation - by getting friends, building community and finding love. This guide is easy to read and packed full of good advice and inspiring stories.

Too little attention has been paid to love, friendship and community in the lives of people with learning disabilities. Instead organisations focus on housing or support services, but fail to deal with much more important issues of the heart and spirit. This is the next big challenge ...

Life Links WS

One of our members has said she 'highly recommends' Life Links WS, a new way of supporting adults with intellectual disabilities to make social connections in western Sydney. Visit their website for a calendar of events and a link to their Facebook page:

Belonging and Connection of School Students with Disability

Children with Disability Australia has released its latest issues paper Belonging and Connection of School Students with Disability by Dr Sally Robinson and Julia Truscott, online, before its official launch, with this summary:

All students want to feel like they belong and that they are valued in their school community. School is a centrally important place to young people — not only where they learn fundamental academic knowledge, but also where skills in making and keeping friends, relating to peers, and social justice principles are learnt and practiced. What happens when young people feel like they don’t belong? 

This paper examines a series of key issues about belonging and connection for students with disability and demonstrates research that shows:

• Feeling a sense of belonging and connection makes a positive difference to school life.

• There are a number of key elements to belonging and connection — friendship, peer acceptance, capability, being valued and supportive relationships with key adults.

• When belonging and connection are threatened, there are several areas in which the impact is seen. The friendships of students are limited; they are lonely; the places they can go within the school are controlled; there are tensions in negotiating support relationships; students feel and are excluded; and kid’s strengths aren’t seen by other students or adults in their school communities.

• Bullying is a particularly strong threat to a felt sense of belonging and connection.

Children with Disability Australia, 23rd January 2014 

The paper is available here.

Relationship Skills and Private Stuff: Awareness Course

This workshop will cover information through a variety of activities on dating, relationships, intimate affection, consent and safety. Going to a local coffee shop will be a fun activity to reinforce learning about organising and participating in social outings.

This course includes two sessions and is for adults with disability.

27th April and 4th May
Woodstock Community Centre,
Fitzroy St, Burwood NSW
Cost: $155 (Discounts available).

For more information: click here  or download this Registration form

Dating and disability: Life Matters, ABC Radio

Life Matters, on ABC Radio National this morning featured a ten minute segment on how people with intellectual disabilities can be supported to develop and sustain the relationships they choose:

The world of dating can be a tricky for anyone entering into it but for those with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to meet people can often be more limited. Liz Dore is a relationship counsellor who runs friendship and dating skills workshops and provides dating coaching for the intellectually disabled. Danielle Pham, who has (Down syndrome), has attended both the workshops and taken part in dating coaching. She met her partner at one of the workshops and has been in a relationship for three years now.

Image: Danielle Pham and Liz Dore (photo by Tracey Trompf) from the Life Matters website

Congratulations to both Danielle and Liz on a great interview.  Liz Dore's website is Relationships and Private Stuff, for more information on her counselling services and workshop.
The segment is available as a podcast, or for direct listening on the Life Matters website, here.

Weekend reading and viewing 23 - 24 June

A father's quest to make daughter's dreams come true - some wise people, including one of favourites, Dave Hingsburger, advises that we should not squash the dreams of people with intellectual disabilities in the name of 'reality', and have given some great advice on the purpose of dreams and how we can seek to incorporate them in real lives, just as this Dad is doing.

The Value of Work - people with intellectual disability speak for themselves about the value of work in this short campaign video from New Zealand.


Disabled Woman Dies While Awaiting Second Chance At Kidney Transplant - news report from the US


Killian and Laim: better together - a classic series of photos from a recent Special Olypmics event in Ireland


Do teens with Down syndrome give compliments? A nice anecdote, and here's the main link to the blog, because you might want to read more ...

Friendship and Relationship Workshop: Marrickville

For parents and carers of a person living with a disability. This workshop will give you:

• ideas for supporting people with a disability to feel good about themselves
• make friends
• develop relationship skills and
• keep safe

The workshop will be facilitated by Liz Dore, Relationship Counsellor and Consultant, who has 20 years experience working with people with disability and supporting people including 9 years counselling experience. For more information go to www.relationshipsandprivatestuff.com

Wednesday 9 May 2012 10am - 12.30pm
Building 3, 142 Addison Road, Marrickville, 2204

Cost: Free. Lunch provided after the workshop
RSVP: Contact Joanne on 9569 1288 or epdp_project@eccfcsc.org

Organised by Carers' Program, SLHD and Ethnic Child Care, Family and Community Services Cooperative Limited


Source: IDEAS

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Library Thursdays: Friendship Resources

Associate Professor Keith McVilly from Deakin University presented a seminar on friendships for people with Down syndrome on the weekend. As well as confirming the importance of friendships for every person and the difficulties faced by people with disabilities making and maintaining friendships, Ass. Prof. McVilly spoke about what friends are and strategies to help friendships occur and prosper. Research has found that the best long term friendships come from school and faith-based communities. He recommends using social stories, finding out what the person is interested in, finding others who share those interests and teaching useful social skills. He spoke about setting up circles of friends and support groups. These work best when initiated from home or in primary schools. He spoke about setting up a register of people and interests to match them. Small groups discussed all these ideas and set everyone thinking about other ways to support and foster friendships. Down Syndrome NSW will be looking at ways in the future to develop and support some of these ideas and inform our members of what others are doing. We look forward to hearing about your plans.

Ass. Prof. McVilly's articles, I get by with a little help from my friends and Self-advocates have the last say on friendships can be borrowed from the library.

Other resources in the library on creating circles of friends and peer support groups include:

Peer Support strategies for improving all students' social lives and learning by Erik W. Carter, Lisa S. Cushing & Craig H. Kennedy (Paul H. Brookes, 2009).

(This book is reviewed by Terri Mauro here)

An article by Erik Carter, Friendship Matters: Fostering Social Relationships in Secondary Schools, TASH, Nov/Dec 2008 can be accessed here.

Peer Buddy Programs: For Successful Secondary School Inclusion by Carolyn Hughes & Erik Carter (Paul H. Brookes, 2009). Setting up and maintaining peer buddy programs in high schools.

Creating Circles of Friends: A Peer support and inclusion workbook and Circles of Friends DVD by Colin Newton (Inclusive Solutions, 2003.)

Inclusive Solutions website also has some articles of interest.

If you would like to borrow any of these resources or any others or want more information, just email or call us.

That's what friends are for ..... supporting young people with Down syndrome to make and keep friends

- a workshop for parents and carers

Saturday, 29th May: Tamworth

9.30 am - 3.30 pm
Best Western Sanctuary Inn, Tamworth, NSW

presented by Susan Jones, Step Ahead Consulting

Flyer and registration form can be downloaded from here

• or contact Siena at DS NSW: ph. 02 9841 4411 or workshops@dsansw.org.au

Relationships and Private Stuff: workshops for early 2010

Liz Dore, from Relationships and Private Stuff presents the following workshops to support people who experience barriers to forming relationships:

Relationships and Sexuality (15 - 20 years)
Wednesday 8th January 2010, Burwood 10 AM - 3 PM.

Friendships and Puberty Stuff (10-15 years)
Friday 13th January 2010, Burwood 10 AM - 3 PM.

Friendship and Dating Skills (16 - 25 years)
Fridays 15th and 22nd January 2010, Burwood 3 PM - 6PM.

Friendships and Hugs (16 - 25 year olds with moderate - severe disability)
Wednesday 20th January 2010, Burwood 11 AM - 2 PM.

Friendship and Dating Skills (18 - 25 years)
Saturdays 13th and 20th February 2010, Chatswood 10.30 AM – 1.30 PM

Friendship and Dating Skills (25+ years)
Saturdays 13th and 20th February 2010, Chatswood. 3 PM – 6PM

Note that some dates are during the school holidays - it might be a handy time to meet some new people through the workshops.

For all enquiries ring 0416 122 634 or email lizdore@bigpond.com or visit www.relationshipsandprivatestuff.com

Library Thursdays: At the End of the Day: Lessons Learned in Inclusive Education

At the End of the Day: Lessons learned in Inclusive Education by Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, Mary Fisher, Debbie Staub (Paul H. Brookes, 2001).

This book explores inclusion via eight case studies. Two of the case studies involve children with Down syndrome but all of them are useful in seeing what is needed to make inclusion work for all children. There is plenty of cited research as to the benefits of inclusion. There is also a great emphasis on building social relationships--the importance of friendship, as well as how to increase the chances of real friendships.

One of the authors, Debbie Staub is also the author of Delicate Threads: Friendships between Children with and without Special Needs in Inclusive Settings, (Woodbine House, 1998) which is available in our library.

Interview with Marquita Grenot-Scheyer

Best Buddies Australia is a program to promote inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities through one on one friendships.

If you'd like to borrow At the End of the Day... or Delicate Threads or anything else from the library, please email us.