All that ’ s gold may not glitter

The name, or the concept, of “group home” is not pretty. I’ve heard people say, “we need a new term for group home.” The term falls from the lips like something dry and dusty. It’s a dead end. Ugly. If a group home is run well, though, it is beautiful. Look below at a typical monthly calendar from Nat’s group home. What you should notice is that the activities are not necessarily blockbuster Disney-level exciting things. But this does not matter. AT ALL. What matters is that they follow this monthly calendar pretty much without fail. The manager gets it to us right at the beginning of the month so that the families can plan around it. The families let the manager know which weekend events their guy can go to. The golden nugget here is that there is communication among all involved. The activities are not glamorous, but neither are my family’s. A lot of it is just operations of daily living. The things they do are just what a home might do, night by night, just living a life together. Sometimes it’s food shopping — whomever of the housemates wants to go. Sometimes it’s just a movie on tv. Sometimes it’s baking. Sometimes, though, it’s a trip to Dave&Buster’s or Sky Zone. Is your Netflix binge so much more uplifting? In addition to the group activities, every individual in the home has one night a week that is one-to-one with the same staffer every time. This builds a relationship and a stru...
Source: Susan's Blog - Category: Child Development Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs