DISABLED PEOPLE, EVERYDAY LIVES
CONTENTS
A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
FAMILIES
COMMUNITIES
SUPPORTS
LIVES
CONTACT
ImagineBetter
is a not-for-profit charitable company
A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
It is with great pleasure that I am
able to introduce you to the work of
ImagineBetter.
“There will be
moments when we
simply must move
beyond what is to
what might be.”
Michael J. Kendrick
ImagineBetter works with disabled
people, their families, service
agencies and communities to
both ‘imagine better’ and act on
‘better’ in sharing the richness of
our community with all people.
Our primary endeavour is to
challenge how New Zealand society
understands the life potential and
opportunities of disabled people.
ImagineBetter encourages people
to imagine and realise a lifestyle
of supported independent living
within the ordinary world. We do
this by means of thought leadership,
education, individual service design
and mentoring.
We believe that we are all citizens
with our own resources, abilities and
support networks. We encourage
people to move from accepting
a dependent lifestyle within a
closed world of disability. We are
not a hands-on service provider.
Disabled people and families use
our organisation to help imagine
and articulate their vision for the
future and then go on to enlist help
from ourselves or other service
organisations to realise this future.
ImagineBetter operates four major
strategies for change:
1.
2.
3.
4.
ImagineBetter – Families
ImagineBetter – Communities
ImagineBetter – Supports
ImagineBetter – Lives
This small publication is designed to
provide a brief overview of what is
available through the ImagineBetter
network.
Lorna Sullivan CEO ImagineBetter
FAMILIES
“No one knows
a person with a
disability better
than a loving,
supportive
family. They
have the greatest
commitment,
staying power and
knowledge about
that person.”
Jill Hole, the Homes West
Experience
ImagineBetter believes that
advancing the capacity for families
to have control over their destinies
and personal decisions is the key
to securing equality of opportunity
for young disabled people and
launching towards self sufficiency,
independence in living and full
participation in society.
Families engaging with
ImagineBetter are supported to
develop and attain a positive future
for themselves and their disabled
family member; to recognise the
impact of social isolation and
loneliness in people’s lives and to
better prepare for when as families
they are no longer able to be there.
ImagineBetter does not work
with families as ‘clients’, rather as
active partners in change. Our role
is to stand with families to sustain
their own sense of resilience, to
ensure they are well informed,
well networked and have greater
confidence, that it is families that
have the power and authority to
change futures.
As professionals we are there to
assist, but direction always belongs
to the family.
“ImagineBetter not
only gave us the
tool to capture our
dreams, but also
the road map to get
where we wanted
to be. It is pivotal,
empowering and
appreciated beyond
words.”
COMMUNITIES
“We must realise
that competent
and beloved
communities just
don’t happen. They
are made
and sustained
by the work of
dedicated citizens.”
Jimmy Toyama
Despite all of the rhetoric, policy
and good intent the lives of disabled
people continue to be lived very
much at the margins of our society.
Their lives are typically being lived
within the managed spaces of
segregated and congregated service
environments, while the rest of us
live within the shared spaces and
abundance of our neighbourhoods
and communities. For our
communities to be whole the gifts,
strengths and capacity of disabled
people must be recognised.
ImagineBetter works directly
with community to support the
development of opportunities
which create a ‘new conversation’ to
emerge. We believe that doing more
of the same (no matter how much
faster, efficiently or enhanced it is)
will not open access to the inner life
of community to those who live on
the margins.
We also believe that our
communities are replete with
individuals and collectivities who
desire to be engaged in a movement
for social change but they have
never been invited into a new
conversation about what that might
look like and what their role could
be. By supporting neighbourhoods
and communities to have the
confidence and competence to
engage in sustaining relationships
with disabled people and their
families, a true sense of belonging
grows through our shared humanity.
“Community is about
the experience of
belonging. We are
in community each
time we find a place
where we belong.”
Peter Block
SUPPORTS
“There is more to
life than services
… and our leaders
seem to have failed
to appreciate
that there is an
abundance of
resources that they
don’t control.”
Bob Rhodes
The lives of disabled people have
increasingly become defined and
determined by the programmes and
services they receive.
What would a good life look like to
you?
What is really important to you?
What really matters?
These services are generally
disability specific, government
funded and operate in ways in which
people’s lives become determined
by what it is the service is able to
provide. As such, many disabled
people live their lives with very few
freely given relationships, little or
no influence over where they live
or who they live with, in situations
where their gifts and capacities are
secondary to the stereotypes and
assumptions held about them.
Imagine services and supports that
no longer ask “What services and
programmes do you need?”, but
rather ask:
ImagineBetter works in support of
agencies and services:
- to enable them to become more
skilled in thinking outside of the box
and in responding to what people
really want and need rather than to a
menu of services.
-to better recognise the need
everybody has for:
family, friends, loving and caring
relationships
respect, contribution and
participation in community
hope for the future which has
purpose, aspiration and ambition
a home of their own
a sense of safety and security.
“It is wisdom that
is at the heart of
the selection of the
values that are most
likely to lead to
authentic service.”
Michael J. Kendrick
LIVES
“While they were
saying among
themselves it
cannot be done,
it was done.”
Helen Keller
ImagineBetter recognises that:
where a person is surrounded by a
loving, committed family;
where they have found a place
in their community where their
uniqueness is acknowledged and
their contribution and
participation accepted;
where the supports they receive
are offered with dignity, humility
and a genuine desire to be of
service;
then good lives for all people,
irrespective of their ability, are
possible, attainable and already
being lived.
ImagineBetter believes that:
good lives are possible for all
people
planning for the future for
a person with a disability is a
courageous act as it is a key step
in letting that person go; letting
them grow and enabling them to
become the person that is
possible for them to become all
that they can be
the initiative, dedication,
creativity, tenacity and
commitment of families are the
key to the creation of a powerful
future for any child, irrespective of
ability
the wishes, dreams and desires of
disabled people will come to
fruition when those supporting
them are committed to being of
service to that potential
communities have inherent
within them the capacity and
competency required to nurture
the lives of all of their citizens
regardless of ability.
“A good life may be
a mystery, but it is
a delicious mystery.
It is not the kind of
mystery that can’t
be solved, but a
mystery that must
be approached with
the heart and soul,
not just the head.
It is a mystery
best approached
with curiosity and
openness, not logic
and certainty.”
Al Etmanski
P O Box 13227
Tauranga 3141
New Zealand
0800 787 587
info@imaginebetter.co.nz
www.imaginebetter.co.nz