“The future well-being of the planet depends significantly on the extent to which we can nourish and protect not individuals, or even groups, but the generative processes of relating.” Kenneth J. Gurgen
imagineacircle Collaborative is made up of Dr. Aaron Johannes and a number of partners, usually working on a few projects at the same time. Projects such as a research project for a school district, a series of workshops on “welcoming diversity and difference” around the province, hosting a new curriculum developed with and for people with intellectual disabilities which may become part of a community college offering, are a part of the variety of work they do together. We hope you will be able to make it to see this valuable workshop at Connecting to Strengthen Advocacy in Education, our 5th education advocacy conference held October 18th and 19th at the Civic Hotel in Surrey, BC.
Tickets available here:
Connecting to Strengthen Advocacy in Education Conference
Aaron Johannes, Ph.D., is an instructor in the faculty of Disability and Community Studies at Douglas College, and a Coordinator/instructor for the CFCS Aboriginal Stream. He is the former Director of Spectrum Society, which provides very individualised supports to adults in greater Vancouver. He has a long history of supporting self advocate groups and publishing their stories, not least as part of his doctoral research on how people with intellectual disabilities lead. He is also an ardent promoter and volunteer with the B.C. Family Support Institute, and has several adopted children with various labels. He often teaches and does workshops for various groups, on person centred planning, diversity, learning strategies and network development.
Laurel Charnetski is an Inclusion Support Teacher and graduate student, living and working in British Columbia, Canada. I get to do the fun and creative work of supporting school communities to create respectful, safe and unrestricted spaces where ALL students can learn, create, connect, have fun and be leaders in their learning. Prior to this I worked for 15 years in community living, having a number of roles but through all of of them, supporting youth and adults and their families to live active lives in their chosen communities. My current work is focused on differentiated learning (UDL), social-emotional learning, collaborative inquiry, trauma informed practice, developing asset-based class/school communities, strengths-based support and positive behaviour support.
Elizabeth (Liz) Etmanski is an artist based in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Having won an award for her artistic passions in Secondary School, she went on to become the first person with Down Syndrome to graduate from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. She also writes poetry, which deals predominantly with the themes of love and overcoming personal obstacles. One of her poems was adapted for the stage by Erinbell Fanore with the Kaleidoscope Theatre Company in Cork, Ireland. She hopes that one day her work will be published and displayed widely so as to provide further inspiration for people with disabilities around the world. She has travelled across Europe on holiday and is a medal-winning power-lifter with the Special Olympic movement in Canada. She loves travel and recently went to NYC and Graceland. Liz teaches art at BACI and often works with imagineacircle as a co-researcher, consultant and graphic recorder in this research.
Rhona Segarra, M. Div., is passionate about people. Her mission is to add to the joy and peace in the world through strengthened relationships with ourselves and others. In her presentations, Rhona encourages people to claim their own independence and inherent worth, to grow in empathy and acceptance of others, and to remain connected while allowing for separate differences. These strategies have the power to enrich all of our relationships. She was born in Cape Town, South Africa and moved to Canada in 1977 and holds a degree in Economics from the University of Waterloo and a Chemical Engineering Technology diploma from Lambton College in Sarnia Ontario. A facilitator for Healthy Congregations, Rhona is a MDiv. student with Unity Worldwide Spiritual Institute and will graduate and be ordained as a Unity minister in June 2019. She is currently Minister at Unity of New Westminster, BC.
Hayleigh Fleming is a Douglas College graduate-turned-Education Assistant passionate about intentional inclusion and honouring the whole child in the classroom. Hayleigh spent time in the Kaleidoscope program at Spectrum Society for Community Living supporting adults in the community until eventually finding a home in the classroom. Hayleigh is currently completing her Bachelor’s in Child and Youth Care at Douglas College with the ambition of becoming an elementary school teacher. When she isn’t working, you’ll find Hayleigh taking Olympic naps, pretending to be Cake Boss in the kitchen, and watching dog videos on the internet.
Workshop: Diagramming Circles of Support for Person Centred Planning
You will learn:
One Page Profiles, PATH and MAPs, and other person centred planning tools invite appreciative, inclusive discussion of the student’s goals and dreams with their networks. The Circles tool can show who is currently in the network, and also who might be involved. In this interactive workshop, participants will diagramming circles and generating plans to address gaps, gifts and aspirations.
This workshop will include everyone, of all abilities. The Circles Diagramming tool is elegant and deceptively simple in its importance, given the growing body of research about the importance of belonging; We will work with participants to create two circles diagrams and generate some ideas together about what we notice and what we can do; Participants will better understand how they might use this tool in person centred planning and IEPs that include social learning strategies.
They are on Facebook and Twitter @imagineacircle
Read all the details about our conference here:
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BCEdAccess 