What is the value of your work?

The Gift of Art

The greatest gift we can give our community is a pieces of our soul. All artists have a responsibility to be a creative conscious of society.  As an artists with disabilities I feel that acutely.  Visual art has a power that words do not. With a precious gift comes great responsibility.

If some one gave you a gift you never opened . . . you would deny yourself the potential joy the present has to offer,  That is how I feel about my work. . . hide it a home potentially robs my community of joy or an opportunity to heal. I my book a gift deserve to be shared. 

I believe inside each of us is a beauty inside all. One of the gifts art gives to the world is expression of joy, sorry, love, hate, judgements and a chance to help use laugh and smile!

Our world is full of judgement, self-righteousness, that produce hate and fear.  But in each of us has a potential to love.  Hare is not about our emery, hate is about ourselves and feelings of superiority and the protection of our rights at the expense  of the rights of others.

Whatever excuse that is given for war the bottom line is war is more about the aggressor - not the values of those they seek to destroy. Whoever fires first is wrong, no power is the judge of the entire world.  To assume that role is the greatest form aggressor.

As artists our role is to give expression to bring healing and wholeness. Winston Churchill when asked why he won't cut spending on the arts, asked what we are fighting for.  Love, freedom and an opportunity to heal are the gifts are gives to the world.

I will never earn enough money form my art to live on. . . that is not my aim.  Art is simply my gift to a broken world.

Off The Wall Gallery Light Graffiti - Freedom From Perception By Deb Chi...

We all share this wonderful world and have things contribute.  I am so blessed to have the opportunity to achieve this through my art.  Serval pieces here are still for sale.  Message me for prices and more information of click on my Esty Shop on the right to make a purchase.

Creating Creative Communities

I don't believe buildings and structures are communities, but merely the geographical mark where a body of people live work and play. What makes a community is the transformation of people to create a passion for living.

Communities are born from people's desire to share there passion and challenge our thoughts through creativity. The poets, writers, authors, performers', actors and artists should be the people giving birth to a community. They are our geographical conscious. For a community to become a living identity, the essential ingredients are a heart and soul and I believe Ipswich has the beginners of both.  

Now is the time for us to embrace our creative soul and celebrate what makes us a rich city. From within Ipswich I hear murrs about the lack of community spirit and connections.

Yet as I network with poets, authors, artists from outside the Ipswich region, the question is what's in your water, Ipswich breeds creativity. Our city council is the envy of artists across Australian, as we share ideas of projects and ways to fund our concepts, I say have to talked to your local council?  What, yes of course, the have no interest in the arts. What I down here in Hobart, because my council is looking for ways to build its resources through our precious community resources, artists like myself.

Our library is the envy of authors around Australia, authors and illustrates see Ipswich as a mecca, descending on Marburg every two years, for the Children's Writer's Festival. Our annual poets breakfast, attracts poets form Moree, Gulgong and Charter Towers.

Entries for the QT Ipswich Art Awards and the Ipswich Poetry Feast Awards continue to grow. Some of our local councilors are artists in their own write. 

Cr Paul Tully and Cr David Phaikie use poetry to spar in Councils Chambers. My artist friends from outside the region are jealous when I take them up town.  I can wheel up the street and local business owners know me by name.  I owe my community for the amount of investment their given to a number of my creative passions. Outsides marvel at the relationships I have made. I endeavor to sow back everything my community has given me.

0I didn't just show-up in 2013 and have success with grants and become the successful artist I am. I am someone whose proud of my Ipswich Heritage, I live here by choice.  I both see and feel our creative soul and the challenge our artists give the community.

To those who deny our creative identity I challenge the role and the investment they have given my community. It's all very well to sit back and dissect the lack of support from those outside the arts, and feel frustration of not being able to sell our work. However the reality is being in business as an artists is not that different to any other business, it is as I shared yesterday, a labor of love, driven by passion to continue to invest in other artists lives.  I know my local community and they know me.

We don't need more buildings to cement our arts community, a building only clothes the creative soul.  The collective passion I share with local teachers, librarians, artists, performers, café owners and councils are here.  What you need to do is to walk out of your creative space periodically, and share in the richness of the Ipswich arts community.  It is here waiting for you to come and embrace it! 

My door is now open for business, but you'll have a better chance of catch me drinking coffee or doodling at art time.  I live in my community and my community spirit lives in me.

Hope to chat to you in person soon!

On the road to the NDIS

Together with my ALARA coordinator and Terry at ALARA I been writing my NDIS plan.  I sure I will make more amendments to my plan before I get to meet my planner next year, but in essence the structure of my plan is there.

Let me assure you I still have doubts and questions on my ability to execute my plan.  However I now have a map of where I heading.

As you know my passion is to engage with the local arts community to build a inclusive arts community. I love that the National Disability Insurance Scheme is to enable participants to actively engage in the locally community.

To achieve this the NDIA has given people with disabilities to chose how the want to be supported to achieve their goals.

For many this shift has caused confusion. Like me they have been enjoying just living life.  I am one of the luckiest people alive. Not only have found my life's passion, but because I am technically unemployable, I get to mess around with art supplies with others. However I also want to inspire others with disabilities to live their best lives.

Too often we let our fears prevent us from reaching our full potential.  In the disability sector we come from a culture when the government is responsible for the protection of people with disabilities. We routinely allow our eyes to judge people's abilities. Trouble is when it comes to disability, the range of impairments and individual skills is so varied and dependent on their life's experience.

Using myself as an example, my parents were determine to give me the same opportunities as my siblings and refused to let me diagnose determine the outcomes of my therapies, schooling or whatever choices I would make along the way. Apart from speech and physio therapy, I had little interaction in the disability sector.

Every time I did others wanted to place limits on me or say I am my parents lived in a fairytale world. If I was pull A 's in maths I was fibbing, I refused to look at post school options, and I was in for a shock when I didn't get into university. Maybe they assumed I was doing basic maths not calcus. Just to completely throw the rule book out the window, I  went to live on campus.

I never let my diagnose define who I was as a individual. I have made many choices others disagree with including my parents.  However, I have always followed my heart and now the NDIS is going to support me to go further.

Not too bad for a kid they said would never walk. If there's one thing I have in abundance is determination. I am well aware values installed in me by my parents and faith have made me the confident independent woman I am today.  My lifestyle choice continue to confound and amaze others. . . Then I picked up a paint brush.

The NDIS recognises people with disabilities are no different to any one else, we are as individualised as the stars.  It a sure bet  my NDIS plan looks very different to others.  Writing you NDIS goals is what will enable you to receive an individualised approach to your support.  The NDIS finally puts to bed the one size fits all approach to supporting people with disabilities. I will no longer be lying about my maths grades or my artistic abilities.

No prizes for guessing the arts are the centre point of my NDIS plan. Like most people I've included goals around lifestyle choices, work, training, health and well being as well as a plan to enable me to self-direct.

One goal I chose to put in my NDIS plan was to establish my own business, Ignite Artists Network. I guess that is why my plan is so advance, as I also writing and developing a business plan, in order to apply for some arts funding.  The NDIS is not going to pay for everything. my package will only fund the costs related to my disability, their not going to pay for my business set-up or my public liability insurance. However the will ensure I have a working wheelchair and support to get ready of work.  I also asking for assistance to transport art work and art supplies. But the not going to pay for my students art supplies or my art supplies for that matter.

In writing my goals, I thought about my life now. As I was already self-employed I had a business plan, so I just needed to twig that a bit. Then I looked at what comes next and I decided both in terms of my art practice and business I need some more training, and if I am intending to self-manage some people skills and human resource management training would help.

Self-care is a large part of my plan too! I don't want to be driving into self-managing at the same time a setting up a business. I know I am amazing, but I still need my beauty sleep. So I drafted - up a three year plan.  Manley around my goal to self-direct.  I needed to decide at what point I wanted some training to enable me to self-direct. 

As unless its part of a NDIS goal and a identified as a step in achieving your goal it will not be funded.  In the end I opted not to include it in my first plan as I first want to build my business.

Immediate goal:   service exit plans, news service agreements, and transition to the NDIS. Why?  Because, I need funding to train staff and buddy up shifts.  (not in your plan it won't be funded!)

Short term goal: Use a host provider and support service provider Why is this a step:  I need the NDIA to cover administration of my package.(not in your plan it won't be funded) As well as that training I was talking about.

Long term goal: To self-managed. Why?  I needed an end goal to work backwards to ensure all the steps were covered.

As you can see these goals seem a bit mundane. . . well the ones I sharing with you anyway. . . but they will stretch me and allow me to do some pretty amazing things.  However, I think we imagine goals to be the kind of stuff with fireworks at the end. Shh! Mines a study trip to Italy!

Goals are pretty much a dressed up word for things you want to like make art or climb a mountain. So my guess you already have a some ideas.  You might of chatted to you mates or already planned a fishing trip to the gulf at the top of Australia.  Maybe your looking to move out of home of find a job.

Still stuck for ideas, flick through newspapers, ask your friends what their thinking of doing. 

Whatever you try, if you live in Ipswich especially if you're into art come to the Fresh Futures Market on 7th September,  their on at the Ipswich Showgrounds this year!

Hope that helps!

NDIS -Let's Go Shoppong

The power of Choice

Preparing for the NDIS is a little bit like writing a shopping list. We all have budget constraints, including participants of the NDIS. If you read yesterdays post, we talk about reasonable and necessary supports, in a sense these are the budget measures of your NDIS package.

However by now you know shopping for supports has been overhauled under the NDIS. You selection of support services will occur after your NDIS plan has been approved. May I suggest a little window shopping might be the way too proceed.

Your NDIS shopping list will be based on the resources allocated to you by the NDIA.  These resources will include:-

• Support hours
• Equipment
• Therapies
• Access to services
• Mobility Allowance

The budget you receive must be spent in the way it is set out in your NDIA service agreement.  This will be signed after you sign the service agreements with a support service or to self managed you own funds. Some resource will be paid for separate to the allocation of your package to pay for supports. Like your mobility allowance.  The way this is calculated has significantly changed too. The amount of your mobility allowance will be calculated on the hours of community participation you engage in per week.

What Can I Shop For

We are now seeing a major shift in the way participants are being supported in the community.  The NDIA is asking you to plug into life.  The don't want to pay workers for you to be inactive.  Of course they will continue to fund essential in home support. 

Support and resources are now linked to each of your nominated NDIS support goals. So if goals and steps are not outlined on you plan you will not be able to shop for those supports.  We have seen the NDIA will be only providing reasonable and necessary supports that are directly relate to enhance you life due to impairments related to your disability.

The way I explain that is if you have a goal to train as an actor, the NDIA will not pay for the expenses of your training. Any class you need to undertake you need to pay for just like any other trainee in your class.  However if you need a wheelchair, communication device or personal care to undertake your training then these are the reasonable and necessary supports the NDIA is talking about.

So what's not covered

• Any support related to goals not contain in your support plan.
• Any goals that can not be provided under best practise.  That's my learning to drive example for those who been following my blog.
• Any supports that do not support you or a family member to engage in the community.
• Any supports that the NDIA does not see as 'value for money'. Some times they will op for a piece of equipment or making your environment more accessible rather than support hours. The NDIA is looking at you becoming as independent as possible.
• Any expense incurred in obtaining your goal that is not a result of your impairments. If you are studying art this may be course fees, books and art supplies.
• Any service that is freely available in the community or provided by other government departments such as Medicare.

So as you can see knowing what you want (or your goals) and how you want to achieve it (the steps) and the supports you will need (resources) are important in writing your NDIS goals and you participant statement.

The better prepare you and your family or any other person you'd like to support you in the transition process are when you meet or speak to the planner, the more productive your session will be. This includes being prepare emotionally. 

Any change is scary and the results unknown. Thousands of Australians are embracing on the same journey as you and/or your family. It could be really helpful to talk to you peers and support each other.  You might be able to go NDIS shopping together!

Sharing information with others can impower them and if you share resources you might save time. It is equally important to grieve the past and for lost opportunities. That pain has been part of your journey until now, not to acknowledge and accept the NDIS is a new start could hold you back.  You don't want your time with the planner to be stalled by the emotions from the past.  To do this you might see a counsellor, have a family meeting or ask some from your current provider to assist. 

Also you want to ensure everyone who you have invited to your planning meeting is on the same page and they understand the goals you have chose and the steps you intend to take to achieve them.

One thing to keep in mind when writing your goals is the NDIA has a credit limit so if you have 25 goals in your plan they may ask you to list them in priorities. Before you start shopping there on more thing to add to you resources and that is the costs related to the administration of your package, this too may alter your shopping list you may need to shop for a host provider or you may need to recruit your own staff.  Here's a quick overview. 

Cost of Administering your funds

Shopping Options

• The NDIA can pay your supports on your behalf. This is much like what happens with Disabilities Services now, except you'll be telling them who pay. You can not use this option if you are self-managing.
• If you are self-directing your funding then you may wish to shop for a host provider. A host provider will hold your funds on your behalf and administer them as directed by you. They will keep a record of spending, pay your bills, and assist with the reporting requirements for the NDIS.  The will charge an administration fee for this, which the NDIA will calculate into your package total.  Which is why how your funding is to be administrate is part of your goal plan.
• You may like to manage your own funding.  Essentially there are two choices: (a) Administration of your funding (accounting and reporting requirements) to buy services and supports. or (b) Administration of funds through directly employing your own support team. Choosing this option means you are electing to set-up your own business and thus become an employer. This means you are also responsible for all responsibility as an employer:- insurances, police checks, safety audits, work health and safety and ongoing staff training, if your interested in this option the NDIA may assist you with some training, so you need to add that to your shopping list.
• Or you can use a combination of administration tools. I am really keen to self-direct and eventually self-managed as I am already a small business owner, given my work commitments I have decided to easy myself into the new role. Allowing me to test my skills and up skill where needed.

Writing your shopping list for the NDIA

Although it is your choice where to spend you NDIS package, you  need to tell the NDIA what you are shopping for. As we have seen this will be determined by your goals.

So for some people this seems like a big hassle for little result. I certainly hope that is not the case for you. The NDIS is designed specifically to enable you to live your best life. Having said that if you happy with life you can chose to keep things as the are now. Provide you can articulate that in a format that suits the NDIA.

Keeping in mind that any goals you choose need to fit the NDIA reasonable and necessary support criteria. My suggested goal areas or dreams to start you thinking are:- Lifestyle - am I living where I want to live; work; learning, training (including preparing to self-managed training) and independent living skills or life skills; sport, health & fitness; hobbies and community groups and clubs.

If you think your happy with your life as it is: try drawing up some boxes and dividing your activities into my suggested goal areas, if your keen to do a little dreaming you could add a box and call it my dreams - that's where a overseas trip or moving out of home might go.

However making choices for the first time can be scary. To make choices we need to know the options. If you been doing the same thing since high school and mum and dad helped you make those choices, do you know and understand what choices other support services are offering.  Do you know what is offered in your local community?

Visiting other service providers, checking our their programs; visiting the tourist centre or local council to find out different groups,  visit a travel agent and grab some broaches, talk to other clients ask them what their thinking about doing; talk to your current provider make sure you understand what they have to offer.

The NDIS also means many changes for service providers will be transforming to offering differ things in different ways, so you might like to know if the choices your current provider may change under the NDIS.

The New Market Place

The NDIS will allow you to purchase your own services and equipment. So you will want to start taking a good poke round the market. Service providers will now need to advise and package their services.  So if your hoping to escape making any changes you might want to make sure those services will still be on the market under the NDIS.

As I explained choosing your service provider will be the last thing you do before you sign your agreement with the NDIA. However, it never too early to start your shopping list.  It may change and evolve over time. The more you understand the market place and the options available to you. The more you will be empowered to live your best life under the NDIS.

Happy shopping! 

How are your goals funded by the NDIS

Participants Goals

Establish and Extend Visual Arts Practice

Assist to grow arts communities networking in Ipswich

Reasonable & Necessary Supports

How are they funded

NDIS & CATS CHAT

Katrina Johnson is the CEO of Community Access  Transitional Services or CATS. From the start of my traditional journey I've been tuning into CATS Chat utub chancel.  I think may of us have been struggling with the term "Reasonable & Necessary".  So if you click on the above link you can to listen to Katrina Johnson pearls of wisdom.

• Reasonable and Necessary supports are linked to you NDIS goals, the NDIA will only be funding support that are linked to  your participant statement and NDIS participants goals.
• It is understood you participants goals should be about participating in life!  The key objective of the Scheme is to enable people with disabilities to fully engage in the community. So the NDIA will not be providing support for participants to sit at home.
  
  
• 
• The NDIA is looking to provide supports that are "value for money" while enabling you to achieve your nominated goals. The will be looking of the costs over your life span and investing in equipment may be choose over support hours particularly if that allows you to be more independent.
• The NDIA will fund support that is beneficial to the participant, under current best practise. In other words the NDIA is not going to funded supports where their is potential harm to the participant.
• The compasity of support to be provide by informal supports. Informal supports include support given by a carer, family member, friends or generic services found in the community. This information will be gleamed from your participant statement - this will be particular with older carers and where the disability impacts on siblings. 
• The NDIA will not fund support that can be more efficiently funded through other government or non government agencies.
• Any support funded must be directed related to the participants disability to assist them to achieve their NDIS goals.

Like all government departments the NDIA is responsible for t he efficiently of the way the money is spent.  In order to support a maximum number of people to live their best lives.

If you watch Katrina on CATS Chat and I recommend you do, you will noticed that we interrupt some things differently.  When it comes to the dollars and cents stuff . . . some things are still unclear and some grey area requiring human judgement will always exists.

What is clear is the degree of work participants and there families need to put into the NDIS journey. Standing with your head in the sand will not make it go away. Unless you are able to express you goal clearly and demonstrate the way you will achieve them supports will not be funded under the NDIS.

So its time to think about your future.  Are you happy with the way things are now? Or could you make changes to enable you and or your family to live your best life!

Important Conversations

Time Join The Game

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is not another change to the way support services for people with disabilities is funded. It is a game changer. Traditionally ' medical model of care', has been delivered for people with disabilities needing assistance with everyday life. This has sent the message to society that people with disabilities have little to contributed to the life and fabric of the community. This is not true and the NDIS acknowledges that people living with disabilities should be active participants.

Disability and discrimination does not just affect the person, but the family unit often forcing them to live on the sidelines. Now it is time to join the game. To play the game we all need to learn the new games rules. The NDIS changes are change the whole community needs to embrace, this involves embracing diversity allowing all of us to fully participant in life.

Those supported by the scheme are referred to as participants and given the correct type of support it is expected that many will be able to live independently in the community for the first time, others may be able to study or work, more will be encouraged to participate in the community through voluntary work, joining community groups, sporting groups and clubs.

After decades of being 'carer for' and rarely invited to make lifestyle choices, it is now time to empower people with disabilities to determine for themselves what the want their lives to look like. The mind shift for those working in the sector is huge. Giving people with disabilities the power to make choices and make changes is mind blowing or 'scary times'.

Change creates fear for us all. However what cripples our thinking when it comes to discussing the changes is because someone has a disabilities the are in need of protecting. Seeing people with disabilities as 'patients' or 'infirm'  impairs our own ability to make sense of the complex changes occurring across the country.

Forced for too long to talk in terms of needs, assistance, dependence, hours and costs. Suddenly that has gone the question and focus now is what would you like to do and how would you like to do it? Even I as a participant have failed to fully comprehend the shift is thinking required by all of us.

The person now in the drivers seat of their lifestyles, choices and how the want to be supported is the person living with disability. Disability is a term that tells us a person has one or more impairment that stops normal functioning at some level.  Each of us if we stop to think about has some level of impairment that impairs our function.  The NDIS change the field we're playing on: We are now suddenly all engaging in the same game. 

People with disabilities are not sick or incomplete and need much less protection than we have cared to admit. They too have the right to choice and the right to fail and the right to get back up and try again.  These people are 'just like us' and just need to either do things differently or with assistance.

It is time to acknowledge the game rules have changed and to do that we need to 'converse', Not just talk!  We need to listen and ask questions, ask more questions and keep asking until we understand the change and what people with disabilities are asking for. A warning to be pre[are to be astonish by their knowledge and abilities, when I go in with a open mind the talents that have been look away are astontioning. We are about to see the opening of a community resources previous unknown.

If we doing start the conversations now and listen to the dreams and aspirations of these valuable members of our community, the time needed to truly listen will be lost. These people do not all have voices, if they do they've not always been allow to speak, some us words incorrectly or are well trained to answer in the way we want. Give people choice, first means we must enable them to fine a voice and tell their stories.

To tell their stories they may introduce you to people you did not know were in their lives.  To empower them and find out what they want may take some pretty hard conversations.  You may need to talk to a person you careful about things you never have before.

At the most the participant will have 1.5 hours to present their plan to the NDIA planner.  Pretty much that will involve you and them having written statements.  Here's the game changer, Their statement and goals will carry more weight.  This now about the partipants (pwd)  there goals.  Its not a round table you want to have debate at.  Those conversations are best have now.

The participant can chose who they can have at the planning meeting, it might best not to assume that will be you as the parents and primary caregiver will be invited to support the person you care for.  It is best especially if the participant or a key person in their life gets upset easily to know what everyone is thinking.  Tp make the most of your planning meeting the emotional stuff as best control as you can.

The time to get yourself ready for the NDIS is now.  Start the conversations. Ask the person you care for what the understand about the NDIS? As them how the day was.  Get support workers to take photos of them doing things, so you can see their reactions.  Talk as a family, especially if the NDIS may mean the person you care for will be moving out of home for the first time.  Talk about the hard stuff what happens if a key people in the family passes away.

Research and explore all the options the NDIS can offer you or your family.  Learn to play by the new language and get your head around the shift in thinking you need to empower yourself or a people you love to live their best life.