Resources & Deep Influencers

A Gifts-Based Approach to Life

Creating Meaning in Life

Every person comes here as a gift and full of gifts. As we learn to identify and “try out” our gifts, other people become a sort of mirror, reflecting back to us their response to our gifts. As we find places with people that accept and appreciate our gifts, this creates a meaningful life. When our gifts are used in an appreciative context, they infuse our lives with richness and meaning; creating a sense of belonging and purpose. For each and every gift, there is a place that needs that gift.

clubEXPLORE

A sort of culmination of my learning and my work over the past 10 years working with adults with developmental disabilities, youth with disabilities, and at-risk youth. It is an amalgamation of many resources related to person centered planning and self determination; both of which are established as policy and practice in Michigan when providing services for individuals with developmental disabilities. As so often is the case with systems, the challenge is to move from Policy (compliance) to authentic Practice (quality).

Please go to the links below for more information on the wide variety resources and practices that are integral to the integrity underlying this approach. This is a reflection my own personal gifts based theory and praxis (understanding and embodiment) of my work; a matter of integrity.

Culture of Gentleness

I completed the requirements to become a State Certified Mentor for a Culture of Gentleness. I also spent 6 weeks in 8 group homes doing cultural assessment of a Culture of Gentleness through one on one interviews with staff and residents and through on-site observation to see if the required training of Gentle Teaching in order to create a Culture of Gentleness has actually changed the culture in group homes.

Are people, both residents and staff, regularly experiencing the feeling of being safe and valued so that they can learn to value others and become engaged in a meaningful life???

https://dbaronirvine.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/culture-of-gentleness/

Non Violent Communication

Based on the book and practice Non Violent Communication; a Language of Life by Rozenburg

Nonviolent Communication offers practical and powerful skills for compassionate giving and receiving. These skills are based in a consciousness of interdependence and the concept of “power with” instead of “power over” others.
NVC skills include:

  1. Differentiating observation from evaluation, being able to carefully observe what is happening free of evaluation, and to specify behaviors and conditions that are affecting us;
  2. Differentiating feeling from thinking, being able to identify and express internal feeling states in a way that does not imply judgment, criticism, or blame/punishment;
  3. Connecting with the universal human needs/values (e.g. sustenance, trust, understanding) in us that are being met or not met in relation to what is happening and how we are feeling; and,
  4. Requesting what we would like in a way that clearly and specifically states what we do want (rather than what we don’t want), and that is truly a request and not a demand (i.e. attempting to motivate, however subtly, out of fear, guilt, shame, obligation, etc. rather than out of willingness and compassionate giving). https://www.cnvc.org/learn/nvc-foundations

Based on the book of the same name and the global work of Marshall Rozenburg

The Center for Non-Violent Communication

Nonviolent Communication from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Appreciative Inquiry

Common appreciative questions include variations on the following:

  • High point experiences: Describe a time in your life (during participation with GR Friends) when you felt alive and engaged.
  • Valuing: What do you value most about yourself, this Meeting, and your place in this Meeting?
  • Core life-giving factors: What are the core factors that give life to this Meeting?
    What are the unique attributes of this Meeting, without which it would not be the same?
  • Wishes for/images of the future: What three wishes do you have to enhance the vitality of this Meeting? Imagine this Meeting five years from now, healthy and vibrant – what does it look like?

The 4-D Cycle: Discovery:

Appreciating and Valuing the Best of “What Is”
Dream: Envisioning “What Might Be”
Design: Dialoguing “What Should Be”
Destiny: Innovating “What Will Be”

(Cooperrider, David L. & Whitney, Diana (1999). Appreciative
Inquiry. In Holman, P.& Devane, T. (Eds.), Collaborating for
Change. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc)

Appreciative Inquiry is about the coevolutionary search for the best in people, their
organizations, and the relevant world around them. In its broadest focus, it involves
systematic discovery of what gives “life” to a living system when it is most alive, most
effective, and most constructively capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI
involves, in a central way, the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a
system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive
potential.

For more information: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx6CVC0HsUqyLVdaQlkwOGJUS0k/view?usp=sharing

Conflict Transformation

“Conflict flows from life. As I have emphasized above rather than seeing conflict as a threat, we can understand it as providing opportunities to grow and to increase understanding of ourselves, of others, of our social structures. Conflicts in relationship at all levels ae the way life helps us to stop, assess, and take notice. One way to truly know our humanness is to recognize the gift of conflict in our lives. Without it, life would be a monotonously flat topograhphy of sameness and our relationship would be woefully superficial.”
For more see: 

Person Centered Planning

I am a trained facilitator for MAPS and PATH person centered planning processes through the Inclusion Network and the Toronto Summer Institute on Inclusion

http://oasiscommunity.info/processes-for-life-planning/

Self Determination

I was a local coordinator for Kent County for the Self Determination Peers project, a year long training series for Peer Mentors and Local Leaders including statewide and local trainings.

Toronto Summer Institute on Inclusion

I attended the institute three times. Two of them were the general summer sessions. The other was a 5 day workshop on facilitating person centered planning through MAPS and PATH planning processes.

Make a Difference

This is an initiative based on the teaching of the Toronto Summer Institute on Inclusion. I was both a participant and a facilitator.

Asset Based Community Development

This is a foundation component of the Toronto Summer Institute on Inclusion that goes hand in hand with Person Centered Planning.

The BASIC Institute

on structural inequality

focusing on racism, classism, and ableism

BASIC = Building Alliances, SustainingInstitutional Change:
An Allies for Change Social Justice Institute 

Guideposts for Success

I was the local coordinator for this statewide grant to pilot MiConnections in schools in Kent County so that the initiative could go statewide. It is based on research from the US Department of Labor Disability Employment Policy; research based activities that improve outcomes for at risk youth and youth with disabilities.

Capacity Thinking

A way of thinking and seeing, a paradigm shift in perspective that opens up possibilities by seeing the gifts in all people and the possibilities in all situations.

https://dbaronirvine.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/guiding-principles/

Leadership Development

Leadership development was a large part of my work in transition where I worked in 27 schools in our county. I was the local coordinator for a statewide capacity building grant from the US Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy. See Guideposts for Success above

Career Development & Research

Career development was a large part of my work in transition where I worked in 27 schools in our county. I was the local coordinator for a statewide capacity building grant from the US Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy. See Guideposts for Success above. I am certified as a Global Career Development Facilitator and as an Employment Training Specialist. I have a Master of Management Degree with a focus in Career Development.

https://dbaronirvine.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/coaching-consulting/

  • “A career is all of the productive and creative activity a person does throughout life (whether paid or unpaid). In this sense, life, work, and the person become a seamless, integrated whole. Too often career is thought of only as one’s “job”, a money-making activity done in isolation from the rest of one’s life. When thishappens, people tend to leave part of themselves at home while they are at work. They become a cog in the machine. Only that piece of self is allowed to be present that is necessary for the task. I have a difficult time splitting myself like this. I prefer to be fully present in every aspect of my life; whether family, spiritual, work, or leisure. I call it living an authentic, undivided life.”  (by Ron Irvine; definition based on career research during certification for Global Career Development Facilitator through Ferris State University with curriculum from the National Career Development Association)
  • Career Development Process, see Career Development though Experiential Learning
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