To Secure a Better Future For Your Relative

The best guarantee of a safe and secure future for a person with a disability is caring, committed family members, friends, neighbors, acquaintance, and supporters actively involved in his or her life.

The resource capable of ensuring that someone is safe and secure, is responsive to changing needs, trends and laws, and can advocate for changes that are needed, is other people who know them.

Common characteristics of people with disabilities who are happy with their lives and connected to their communities:

• Individual desires and needs are strongly considered in setting up living arrangements.
• Individuals are involved in selecting where and how they make contributions.
• The individual is part of a community that knows and values them.
• The individual has a supportive group of people who are not paid to be involved with them.

Inclusive communities naturally make it easier to connect with others over time.

• They live in a diverse and collaborative neighborhood of private homes and/or apartments.
• The individual is friendly and initiates casual contact.
• The individual has a favorite space and participates there regularly so his/her neighbors recognize his/her interests.
• The individual and his/her champions promote and demonstrate his/her strengths and contributions.
• Neighbors engage together in indoor and outdoor spaces that support active and interdependent community life.
• Neighbors maintain regular contact with the person and have a good sense of who that person is and what they need or want.
• Neighbors become willing to step in and help resolve problems as they arise.
• There is more than one person willing to be involved, providing back-up and mutual support.