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John's usual--
Thanks to everyone that joined us at CLI's Cornhole Tournament #1 of 3 this past Friday. If you missed it, you still have two more chances. Even if you don't play, you should swing by & hang out for a bit. Couldn't have asked for better weather on Friday evening! We especially appreciated the Facebook plugs from our friends at OPRA!
We'll be sending out a 1-call to remind everyone that CLI's regular programs will be closed this Thursday & Friday for the Indepence Day holiday. Please let us know if you do NOT recieve this call so that we can check to make sure you are on our call list. There will be no Good Works Cafe this Friday because of the holiday.
This week's question is about how we are doing on the ADS Quality Grant that CLI was awarded by the Ohio Department of DD. There are more details in that FAQ section, but the short answer is that it's going well, that we're doing exactly what we pledged to do, and it's starting to show positive results. CLI's day program quality has improved in measurable ways because of DODD's investment. But-- I personnally would like to direct our system's focus (which includes DODD, County Boards, and providers like CLI) to encouraging people to think about what they want across 6 months, or a year, or 5 years. We need to help people plan the life they want, not just a series of fun days.
There are at least 3 types of happiness, which often don't overlap much, or even might be mutually exclusive. There's immediate euphoric bliss, short-term fun, and long-term happiness. I've hear of at least one longitudinal study of parents that found parents of very young children to exibit all the symptoms of chronic depression. Yet when the researches asked those parents 20-30 years what their greatest source of happiness was, more often than not, they'd cite their children. This is not a commercial for procreation. But I do believe that accomplishing long-term difficult things is a factor in long-term happiness. Being mindful about your short-term choices so that you're balancing them against your long-term happiness is important. Healthy diets & lifestyles are a really good example. We should be helping 20 years (and younger) prepare to be healthy, independent 50-60 year olds.
The DD system (of which private providers like CLI are a part) are effectively ignoring long-term best interests of people in favor of supporting a short-term choice (from a very limited menu) that actually will make people less happy over their whole lives. This is a huge problem in adult services, but I think it's even a bigger problem with kids as we fail to provide families with the knowlege & tools to adequately prepare young people for adult life.
I'm proud of everything we've built so far. Haven is doing a great job, as are many other CLI staff. CLI staff do a really nice job helping our clients make so many new community connections and give back to their communities in so many meaningful ways. Real community-integrated day services are important and should be the defacto model. But, those meaningful, fun day services need to be part of each person's bigger picture of what they want their life to have looked like at the end. 99% of the people (staff) who work in our field are here because we're true believers. We all want to be part of the solution. But, if all we are offering is the best day care ever, I think we're unintentionally denying people with disabilites opportunities for personal accomplishment and real community membership.
Usual apologies for the soapboxing. It's (apparently) my weird spin on Independence Day. Have a great holiday weekend. Stay safe. We want to be able to count the same number of fingers on everyone's hands next Monday!
John
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