TABS Chat: Using LifeCourse Tools to Plan for Good Lives for Our Sibs, Our Families and Ourselves
July 19, 5:30-6:30 p.m. CT **NOTE UPDATED TIME**
The “Charting the LifeCourse” framework and tools (www.lifecoursetools.org) were created BY people with disabilities and families FOR people with disabilities and families to help them think about the future, set goals, develop supports, and plan for a good life. LifeCourse concepts and tools can be helpful no matter what life stage you or your loved ones are in. They create a shared language across different systems about what it means to live a good life with the supports that we each need. These tools can help organize and lead conversations both within formal service planning meetings and in discussions with our loved ones about current issues or future life stages. This session will focus on how siblings of people with disabilities might use LifeCourse ideas and tools to plan and problem-solve for our siblings, ourselves, and other loved ones we may support. Examples of tools and other resources will be shared.
If you’d like to practice using any of the free downloadable LifeCourse tools before the event, you can access LifeCourse tools from the first-person perspective here or those from a family member perspective (if you are filling them out for a loved one) here.
Presenter Emma Shouse Garton lives in Nashville and works for the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities as their Public Information Specialist. She also leads the Tennessee Adult Brothers and Sisters (TABS) statewide sibling support network (and state chapter of the Sibling Leadership Network), launched by the Council and Vanderbilt Kennedy Center over a decade ago. She is passionate about this work because she has two younger brothers, one of whom has disabilities and receives home- and community-based services. Emma has delivered trainings on the LifeCourse framework and believes the LifeCourse framework and tools are valuable for anyone thinking about goals, life transitions, and supports we and our loved ones need to live good lives.
TABS is led by the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities.