The first time I met Cameron, I could sense his desire for information from the world around him. He seemed keenly aware of my presence and the comings and goings of the day. He is amazing and I can't wait to buy dog cookies from him at the store.
But let me take a step back and introduce myself.
My name is Rebecca Shields and I am the Executive Director of the Deafblind Services Society of BC. DSS provides intervention services to primarily adults in BC. Some of those services are in a community living facility and some are individualized day programs run out of family homes. DSS started in 1987. Currently, we support 18 congenitally deafblind adults, one acquired adult and are in the process of transitioning 4 more people into our services this year.
Our vision is Lives of Meaning and our mission statement states that we believe all persons with deafblindness should have access to the world through quality intervention. Thus, our team of management, deafblind specialists and intervenors work with individuals and families to develop completely individualized programs that focus on providing meaningful opportunities to the person who is deafblind by doing WITH them rather than FOR them as they continue to grow, learn and develop.
One year ago, I got a call from Shelly, asking to visit some of our residential programs in BC's Lower Mainland. Cameron was going into his final year in high school and she wanted to make sure that his last year would provide him with the learning he needed to start his life after school. I showed her our programs, talked about our family driven, individualized philosophy and the road map we'll travel on to put an adult intervention program in place for Cameron. Shelly looked at the uniqueness of our programs, our commitment to deafblindness and quality intervention and she told me, "Yes, let' do it!"
From there I travelled to Campbell River and met Cameron's CLBC team (the government funding partner) and worked out the type of program Shelly wanted for Cameron. Then, I came back to my office and drafted a proposal. Once we were all satisfied that we were creating something that would meet Cameron's needs we submitted it and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
There was moments of great tension, frustration and fear waiting to hear for funding approval. But then it came....(now I will tell the readers that it takes, advocacy, realism and true collaboration to bring the right people and the right resources together.) But, I will always thank Cameron and Shelly who ultimately inspired everyone to step up and put the program in place.
On May 17 we heard yes. That gave us just about a month to pull it together.
I will blog some more and tell the tale, from my prospective, of our journey to create an intervention program for Cameron. One month into it, I have learned a lifetime of lessons and have become more convinced that intervention is to the deafblind as the sun is to the light.
www.deafblindservices.com
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