Hey everyone, we’re focusing our posts on CAREGIVERS this month. We know that one of the challenges faced by many caregivers is…connecting with other caregivers, and connecting those they care for with others.
So…here is a great resource!
The Family Support Institute of BC offers their Calendar for Connection, as well as several other, each month. We’ve posted their events before, but we wanted to make sure you’d heard about ALL their calendars!
Hey everyone, we’ve been posting about PivotPoint’s upcoming online training — don’t forget to sign up if you’re interested! This month’s topic is Behavioural Support Plan Management.
A really important part of self advocacy is standing up for your own rights. We have a whole page that talks about rights and responsibilities here, complete with help to understand different kinds of rights, like:
Everyone has rights as a person in Canada, and rights as a person in BC. If you have a disability and you are getting supports, you also have rights as a person who uses the services of Community Living BC (CLBC).
With all those different kinds of rights in mind, we thought this would be a good time to remind ourselves about this awesome conversation that helped explore rights and responsibilities:
If you’ve got questions about rights and responsibilities, please let us know or leave us a comment.
Hey everyone, October 24-31 is PRIDE WEEK in Kelowna, and there are a whole bunch of events going on to celebrate 25 Years of Kelowna Pride! You can check it all out here, including the bike derby, trans and non-binary storytelling evening and social, pride festival and pride cabaret.
You can find Kelowna Pride Society on Instagram at the link below, on Facebook here, and you can read about Pride Week on KelownaNow.
Hey everyone, we’ve been posting a series as part of Community Inclusion Month. Last week, we talked about where we’ve been in terms of disability rights and inclusion, and the work done by self-advocates who have brought the movement to where we are now. This week, we’re focusing on where we are by exploring some current issues and resources for self-advocacy.
Here is a news article from CTV News about a young man from Toronto who is part of the Dear Everybody campaign put on each year by a rehabilitation hospital. He (and a team of young people with disabilities) are doing a virtual tour of classrooms and workplaces to talk about ableism.
What’s ableism?
Here’s how the Dear Everybody website explains it: Ableism is the discrimination towards someone based on their abilities, often favouring those who do not have a disability and seeing less value in those that do. And it needs to stop.
The idea is to get people talking about ableism, in order to end it — and that’s where self-advocates come in! Self-advocates can start great conversations about what’s wrong and how to fix it. You can see the videos made to start the Dear Everybody conversation here.
The Easter Seals website has a great idea on this page that would help start important conversations (like Shelley’s interview and like Dear Everybody). You can invite people you know to watch TED Talks about different disability issues, different people’s perspectives, and different experiences, and the then start a conversation about it, or a video chat, or have a talk on the phone. Or, if you’re interested in exploring another way to safely try out online community, you could post on the video page, a message board, or Facebook page, or post a comment below!
Check out the Easter Seals 10 suggested TED Talks about disability, accessibility, and inclusion to get started (printable list below).
Hey everyone, Plan Institute is offering their Level 1 and Level 2 webinars about the Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) over the next few months.
Hey everyone, we have posted about driving safety and about home maintenance to prepare for winter — and to finish off our series on “gearing up for winter” we are sharing information about extreme weather!
While there are benefits to being able to be outdoors enjoying winter activities, it’s important to be aware of the dangers of winter cold. This article posted on the Government of Canada website talks about extreme cold, and the factors that may make some people more vulnerable than others. It’s important to know about windburn, frostbite, and hypothermia, as well as how to mitigate these risks.
Hey everyone, October 10th is World Mental Health Day. The World Health Organization (WHO) is highlighting how our experience with the COVID-19 pandemic has raised our awareness of mental health challenges.
Most importantly, the WHO wants to raise awareness about a mental health challenge that impacts about 5% of adults worldwide: depression. Below you can find PDF factsheets about depression, and about living with someone with depression. The WHO has video testimonials on their website about mental health and support, check them out here. They also have an entire page for mental health resources for the public, check that out here.
