Steve Dowson, an independent social care consultant who has written and consulted extensively on the design and operation of human services, makes the case for independent support brokerage.
Interviews with Conference Presenters and Participants - PAGE 1
Margaret Rodgers, CEO with the Community Resource Unit in Queensland, talks about how her organization helps to create positive social change so that people with disability are welcomed, respected and appreciated in their communities.
John Agosta, PhD and VP of the Human Services Research Institute, talks about the natural tendency of human beings to cooperate to solve shared problems, and the opportunity it creates to rethink the organization of community supports needed by people with disabilities and their families.
John Agosta, PhD and VP of the Human Services Research Institute in the United States, identifies practical ways to assist self-advocacy groups to discover their voice on issues that matter to them.
Patti Chiappetta and Laurie Miller from Innovative LIFE Options talk about how their organization supports people with intellectual disabilities in Manitoba, Canada to use individualized funding to self-direct and manage their lives.
Marsha Marshall, Chief Executive Officer with Manawanui inCharge in New Zealand, talks about how this host provider supports individuals to use individualized funding to live the lives they want.
Dianne Mandeville, a senior consultant with Bespoke Lifestyles, a Host Provider in Queensland, discusses the role the organization plays in mentoring and supporting people with a disability and their families to self-direct and self-manage their funding and supports and to take control of their own lives.
Judy Hannah, Director of Strategic Initiatives with the Saskatchewan Association for Community Living and Gordon Kyle, Director of Policy with Community Living Ontario, discuss a framework created to support the effective implementation of individualized funding across Canada.
Valerie Bradley, President of the Human Services Research Institute, discusses the family movement in the United States in 2015 and what direction it may take in the coming years.
Paul Caune, Executive Director with Civil Rights Now, discusses the reasons why there is an urgent need for legislation in British Columbia that would guarantee that individuals with disabilities can gain access to individualized funding / direct payments.
Individual and Family Support
Individualized Funding
Independent Facilitation and Planning
Supported Decision Making
Leighton Jay, PhD, is a consultant and parent of a young man with a disability who lives in Western Australia. In this short video he talks about some of the benefits of individualized funding.
Steve Dowson, an independent social care consultant from England, talks about how individualized funding fits within the State’s obligation to provide funding to meet the support needs of citizens with disabilities.
John Lord, author, researcher, trainer, consultant and respected international authority on independent facilitation and planning, shares his thoughts on design and practice issues associated with this key system function.
Si Stainton, a parent from British Columbia, Canada who has a son with an intellectual disability, talks about the critical role that individualized funding can play in helping people lead more inclusive lives.
Valerie Bradley, President of the Human Services Research Institute, discusses the status of the self-advocacy movement  in the United States in 2015 and considers what lies ahead.
Linda Perry, Executive Director with the Vela Microboard Association, discusses how Microboards support people with disabilities to organize needed community supports and services and achieve self-determination and citizenship.
Disability Services Commission Director General Ron Chalmers discusses how Local Area Coordinators help Western Australians with disabilities, mental health needs and seniors and their networks plan,  organize and access needed support and services.
Eddie Bartnik, an international disability policy consultant with extensive experience in design and practice issues associated with personal planning, discuses some of the key features of planning in modern day human service systems.
Michael Bleasdale, Chief Executive Officer of Home Modifications Australia compares choice, control and personal outcomes for users of individualized funding with people who rely on block funded services.
Michael Bleasdale, Chief Executive Officer of Home Modifications Australia, discusses the need to increase the stock of available housing in Australia and other countries that are also facing a housing shortage.
Michelle Browning from the Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University in Australia explores different ways to safeguard against undue influence in the process of supported decision making.
Michelle Browning from the Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University in Australia discusses some of the many complexities associated with implementing supported decision making.
Judith McGill, Executive Director with Families for a Secure Future in Ontario, Canada outlines ways in which independent facilitation can help individuals and families create the conditions for change that are needed to pursue full citizenship.
Paul Caune, Executive Director with Civil Rights Now, considers the idea that disability is a social construct and explores this notion in the context of his lived experience as a person with a physical disability.
Michael Bach, Executive VP from the Canadian Association for Community Living, discusses the tensions faced by the disability movement in gaining acceptance for inclusion of Article 12 in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Audrey Cole, mother of Ian and Distinguished Associate with the Canadian Association for Community Living, argues we must increase the use of social ramps to enable people with disabilities to exercise their legal capacity, a right enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Audrey Cole, mother of Ian and Distinguished Associate with the Canadian Association for Community Living, reflects on her decades long journey to help make supported decision making a reality for people with disabilities.
Michelle Browning from the Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University in Australia shares some of the ways practice can guide law and policy makers in the implementation of supported decision making.
Inclusion International President Klaus Lachwitz outlines ways this global federation of family-based organizations is supporting self-advocates to influence global implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In this October 14, 2015 interview, Klaus Lachwitz, President of Inclusion International, discusses the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as it applies to people with an intellectual disability.
A self-advocate from Quebec, Canada who attended the October 15-17, 2015 Claiming Full Citizenship conference shares his concerns about euthanasia in the lives of people who live with a disability.
Michael Bach discusses challenges the legal system poses to widespread implementation of supported decision making regimes that would enable people with significant cognitive impairments to benefit more fully from Article 12.
This video explores how Inclusion Langley Society self-advocates created a plain language guide to supported decision making to help people with difficulty understanding their making decisions rights, or need support to make decisions.
On October 23, 1986 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Eve, a 24-year-old woman with an intellectual disability, could not be sterilized without her consent. Barb Goode and Tim Stainton discuss the impact the Eve decision has had on the global movement to fully recognize the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities.
Committed to
transforming human services so people with intellectual, physical and psycho-social disabilities and seniors can live as
FULL citizens.
Rights Based Social Policy