Welcome to PLAN Institute

The 2010 Paralympic Games begin officially this Friday March 12th.  Starting immediately there is a lot going on - more than enough to interest the sports fan, party enthusiast or arts connoisseur!  The combination of events will banish once and for all, any misconceptions about the talents and contributions of people with disabilities.

Don't forget Ice sledge hockey and wheelchair curling will be contested in Vancouver while the skiing events will take place at Whistler.  Here is my personal guide to make the most of what will be another fabulous two weeks in Vancouver and Whistler.

First be sure to bookmark the folks at CityCaucus.com   They had the most popular guide during the Olympics and thanks to Daniel Fontaine they intend to do the same during the Paralympic Games. Discover the most popular pavilions, where the free venues are and best bets for the sporting events, all in one place. http://citycaucus.com/pa...

PLAN recently published its monthly ezine for March 2010.  It revolves around leadership and advocacy for our loved ones with disabilities. Below are a couple of the lead stories, if you'd like to receive the newsletter regularly, visit PLAN.

The Quetton Family: "We realized suddenly and completely, that advocating for Theo was our job, would always be our job..."
Click here to read more>>

PLAN advocates for individuals and families both individually and through public policy changes. Greg's story highlights some of the key lessons PLAN has learned in advocating for individuals.

The Best Buddies Blues Band from LeBoldus High School in Regina will play three times in March in Vancouver and Whistler in conjunction with the Paralympics.

Please pass this information on to your PLAN and ACL members (and any others you think of), who would likely find this inclusive lively band encouraging and inspiring, as well as an awful lot of fun.

· Play at West Vancouver Secondary School – 1:30 – 2:15 Thursday March 18th

· Best Buddies Gig – 6:30 – 9:00 – we play the first 45 minutes. Friday March 19th at the Sandman Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Tickets for students and buddies are $10. Tickets for adults are $20. Doors open at 5:30 pm. Appetizers and drinks will be provided. Raffle prizes available to win. Tickets are now available from Vancouver Best Buddies Chapters.

· Play at Saskatchewan Pavilion at the golf course in Whistler – 3-4 Saturday March 20th

Here’s the contact for Western Canada:

Amy Lynn Taylor, Western Canada Program Manager
Toll Free: 778-318-3683
Fax: (416) 531-0325
info@bestbuddies.ca

The Family arm of the Disability Movement in British Columbia has a long and fruitful history.

Together we have: closed all institutions and segregated schools and invented numerous organizations, services and programs to enhance the safety and well being of our family members. But we have never written our history, shared, studied and learned from it. So we are launching a ‘Family Movement’ Wiki encyclopedia.

This Wiki is an opportunity: to study the deep patterns of successful social movements all over the world to write, honour and learn from the history of the family arm of the disability movement around the world and in British Columbia; and finally to chart the direction for the next stage of the family movement in British Columbia.

We encourage all students of social movements to contribute their knowledge, links, pictures etc. to this WIKI and help us revive a strong family movement. And of course we would benefit from your connections, suggestions and background on the history of the ‘family movement’ in British Columbia or wherever you live.   Better still, if you live outside BC why don't you submit an entry for the history of the family movement in your area?

The link to the Wikipedia entry is: http://en.wikipedia.org/...

Catherine Frazee is headed to the Vancouver Olympics to tell the hidden stories of disability in Canada with her art exhibit, Out From Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember.

Ironically, because of her wheelchair, VIA Rail can't accomodate her travel plans. So she'll be driving to Chicago, taking an Amtrak train to Seattle, and then driving to Vancouver.

The obstacles Frazee faces ahead of the Olympics underscores the many challenges people with disabilities face on a daily basis in Canada.

The art projects' co-creators, Kathryn Church and Melanie Panitch, will also be making the trip to the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, though by plane. The opening on March 8 is set to coincide with the Paralympic Games. 

Come, be amazed by the Kickstart Festival Experience!

Kickstart is thrilled to announce Kickstart Festival 2010 - an inspiring array of exhibits, performances and workshops that will be presented to Vancouver audiences, as well as to our 2010 Winter Paralympics guests, from March 8 to 27.

Visit www.kickstart-arts.ca or email us at info@kickstart-arts.ca for more information.

"In Canada and around the world, artists and performers with disabilities are contributing to one of the most radical and effective aspects of disability culture – challenging conventional notions of beauty, form and motion."

- Catherine Frazee, Professor of Distinction, School of Disability Studies & Co-Director, Ryerson RBC Institute for Disability Studies

By Nell Edgington
http://www.socialvelocity.net/2010/01/convergence-cant-be-denied/

There is a fascinating debate going on in the blogsphere touched off by Michael Edwards, author of  Small Change: Why Business Won’t Save the World and former director of the Ford Foundation’s Governance and Civil Society program.

In essence, the debate is about whether the convergence of the private (business) and the nonprofit sectors is a good or bad thing, whether market forces help or hurt social change efforts.  Michael kicked off the debate on Monday with the first in a week-long series of posts called “Should Civil Society Be Reduced to a Subset of the Market?” In subsequent posts he went on to attack the emerging social capital market among other things.  You can read the whole series here.

To share successful practices and facilitate networking across sectors, the Public Policy Forum, in collaboration with Social Innovation Generation (SiG), organized a national dialogue on social innovation with support from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), Imagine Canada, and MaRS.

Accelerating Social Innovation: Smart Ideas for Canada - Part One from MaRS Discovery District on Vimeo.

As many of you already know, familyWORKs is about families helping families to find innovative ways to create or find employment for loved ones that have intellectual disabilities.  The good news is that BACI and familyWORKs have arranged for its members to be able to access the CBI Customized Employment Course online. This is a good way to learn about the best practices in creating employment for people with disabilities.

To register for the course go to Customized Employment Course. When you are on the CBI page look for the register link at the top left. Once there, please make the user name your first and last name. Use the invitation code familyworks001 then provide your email and you are good to go.

Series: Seeking Community in Chaotic Times
Speakers: Peter Block, Paul Born
Location: via conference call
Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 12:00pm, Eastern

Details: Join Paul Born as he interviews Peter Block live about his latest book on community and belonging. Find out why Peter wrote the book, why he feels community is needed now more than ever and how we might work differently to change our communities for the better. Paul will also engage Peter in questions about the imperatives of our time: What is going on around us? How do we make sense of this together?