The Northborough/Southborough, Shrewsbury and Westborough Special Education Parent Advisory Councils will be hosting a free workshop with Cheryl Ryan Chan on Being Person-Centered: for Families on Monday, February 3 at 6 pm at the Northborough Library located at 34 Main Street.
Each one of us dreams of living independently and with dignity, to the best of our ability and with the supports we need to be safe and happy. Person-centered planning provides the way to develop a structured plan that honors a person’s own vision for their future first and foremost; and accounts for those things that are important to and important for them.
Person-Centered philosophy must be the center of the planning process for loved ones with disabilities. It is how we steward the humanity of those we love. We live in a system-centered world where the focus is what is wrong, missing and what needs to be fixed. In this workshop, families will learn what it means to approach all planning and advocacy for those they love with person-centered approaches; how to shift the conversation, how to start with a person’s dreams, gifts and the contributions they can make when discussing what they need, rather than the other way around.
Cheryl is Mom to Nicky, a 26 year old man severely impacted by autism and intellectual disabilities. She has spent over 20 years in MA integrating her son and family into the disability community and becoming a well-known leader in community organization, legislative activism, mentoring and public speaking.
She has been instrumental in initiating the Nicky’s Law bill, which was unanimously passed in the Massachusetts House in January 2020. This bill will create a registry of caretakers who are accused of mentally, emotionally, or financially abusing a person with a disability. Nicky was beaten several years ago while at a day program for people with intellectual disabilities.
She has served on Boards for a number of nonprofit human service providers, mental health providers and Support Centers. Her work as a Person-Centered Planning Practitioner began in 2010 and has become her greatest passion. Cheryl has traveled to present, train and provide planning services in California, Wisconsin, Maryland and across New England.
Please RSVP to nspac1@gmail.com for our planning purposes by Feb. 1.
More info about the presentation can be found at http://personcenteredplanning.com/ and on NSPAC at www.nspac.org.