Narrator: Shifting patterns, a change in beliefs and attitudes among individuals, families, and our communities. These programs help people gain the skills, the knowledge, and the allies they will need, enabling them to take control of their lives.

Career Vision identifies the career skills and goals of the individual and finds career-oriented employment that will satisfy those goals.

Rochelle Turan: Currently Steven has three objectives that he's working on. These objectives are objectives that I write through Kaposia to enhance his performance on the job. Steven needs no assistance in performing the actual tasks on the job.

He's very independent and very, very on task, very into his job. In fact, often he has to be reminded to go to lunch, because he's a perfectionist. The areas that I work on with Steven are in the areas of grooming, you know, tucking his shirt in, looking good for the bank. Because it's a professional place. People are expected to wear appropriate attire, and that's real important to his boss.

Jenine Nordquist: We had two alternatives, two game plans at the time. One, he could work in our statement area and help generate or render the statement for our customers, the checking accounts and savings account statements.

It turned out that that wasn't a real perfect fit for him. We then went to our backup plan, which was to get him involved working in our filing area, and it was a good choice. It was a job he could do very well, and he has made an excellent contribution to our bank since that time.

Jan Anderson: How are you coming with your filing? Do we have all of our open files done?

Steve Hinderman: Do you mean the mortgage files?

Jan Anderson: The mortgage files? Do you have those left to do?

Steve Hinderman: I haven't gotten to those over there.

Jan Anderson: Okay. We'll get those. All of the installment loan files are filed away.

Steve Hinderman: Yes.

Jan Anderson: Okay. So what we'll probably have you do is file the mortgage files away and then have you work in the other vault.

Steve Hinderman: Okay.

Jan Anderson: Okay.

Steve Hinderman: Got ya.

Jan Anderson: All right.

Rochelle Turan: He started out at the bank being a temporary worker. And in order to work at the bank, you have to have so many hours in a year to be considered a permanent employee. And that's what Steven's working on now.

He started out working three days a week and now he's working four days a week so that he can have increased hours so that he can gain benefits and other things that the other co-workers of the bank earn. And I think that he deserves it. He does a good job at the bank and he deserves to have paid vacations and paid sick time and those other benefits.

Janelle Schaak: Brad went through his Career Vision program about two-and-a-half, about two years ago. And he was just coming out of school at the time when he went through that. So he does not have much of a career history, so to speak.

He's had two different jobs that he's been permanently placed at through Kaposia and then he's had a number of odd jobs, Minnesota Mutual being the second one that he's been placed at, and he's been there for about two-and-a-half months now.

Brad's primary outcomes from his Career Vision plan were independence and making money. Brad wanted to make at least $200 a month, which he is very close to right now at Minnesota Mutual, and he wanted to work about 20 hours a month. He is currently working more than 20 hours, but he is making almost the $20.

The other area was the independence, and Brad saw that as being independence, especially in the transportation area.

After the Career Vision plan was done, Brad was referred to our Kaposia, Inc. sales department. The sales reps then go out and look for employment for that particular person, making that job match between what their desired outcomes are and what the job has to offer.

Brad Duncan: I do the recycling and I take the barrels down. I pick them up from 21, I pick up eight from eight floors and then I take them down to the lower level, recycle them and stuff like that. It's a nice experience, and I get to explore the offices and see where everybody works and stuff like that. And I have Tim as a friend and everybody else, and it's a pretty good paycheck, I think.

Narrator: People First is an international movement of people with developmental disabilities advocating on their own behalf.

Irving Martin: People First is an organization of self-advocates teaching self-advocates to talk for themselves, to tell them that they have choices in life, and that their life can be rewarding by belonging to People First, and to be a good self-advocate.

To be a good self-advocate for themselves, to be a good self-advocate for their friends, and to know what this community is all about. Self-advocacy makes me feel good because it gave me a chance to talk out, it gave me a chance to speak on how I feel about things, and to be able to prove that there is a place in society for people who are so-called mentally retarded or so-called handicapped.

Things have changed. When I was a little boy, a lot of talk was institutions and now we're closing up institutions and what is that going to mean 10 to 15 years from now? I have seen change, and I have seen some good change, I have seen some bad change, but I have seen some change because we're talking about quality of life.

We're talking about people's happiness, their welfare. People are learning how to live in apartments and they're out in the community doing their thing, and they're being challenged.

In some cases, people in my life and my age bracket, I don't think we're ever really challenged very properly to the best of their ability and nothing more. And if they would have been challenged according to their ability, who knows what they'd be doing today.

Because many years ago, there was a lady that came to a self-advocacy meeting. She was very shook up, she started to cry, and she yelled, "Irving, will I ever get out?" It was a good thing there was a staff person there from the Arc there because I even started to cry.

This lady had a little boy. There was no father involved, and she was very frustrated, and she said, "Will I ever get out?" And she told me exactly what she wanted, and she was crying. She was [Inaudible]. She had a meeting with the social worker, and I guess the social worker and her had had it really out verbally. And because of that, today she is a very happy person.

Child protection had to take that loved one away for the good of the welfare and for the welfare of her. They're back together today, they're happy, and that young man is perfectly normal, and he helps his mother read, and he loves his mother. And that's what this life is all about.

Narrator: Partners in Policymaking is an intensive course that teaches individuals to be community leaders. They use their new skills to obtain better services and to influence public policy.

Kurt Greniger: I said, "Well, what is Partners in Policy?" And they explained to me that it was an eight-month seminar.

Roberta Juarez: What the training did was it provided us with state-of-the-art information and top-notch experts from around the country.

Kurt Greniger: Personally, it has really sped up my life. I've really become busier than I wanted to, but, personally, it's kind of made life more gratifying because I was able to talk to people that I didn't know before and also have some influence on what's happening out there for people with disabilities.

I know from the level that I'm at, at work here, I'm able to work with people at management levels, influence accessibility type issues within all the facilities of the corporation. I work with plant engineering people. I'm a mechanical engineer myself, and so I was able to influence, you know, my environment.

Woman: Okay, we're rolling tape.

Steve Hanson: Hello, and welcome to the Diverse Ability Show. My name is Steve Hanson. I'm your host. Tonight we're going to deal with an organization called Capable Partners Incorporated.

Kurt Greniger: With our TV show, we're able to basically call up people, in the network that I have anyway, a list of people, and talk to certain organizations that want to be on the show. So we can bring them to our show, have a half-hour show and shoot that, and get the information about those services that they have out into the community.

The Partners in Policy group has taught me how to basically be able to talk to people. And I was always a very shy person before, and I think it's…the group has… You know, I was able to get up in front of a group at Partners in Policy, gave me the confidence to go ahead and do that with what I do here at work. Also what I do outside of work with the cable TV show.

Roberta Juarez: It was a really exciting thing. It was also exciting to learn how to work with different members of the political process. And that's something a lot of people don't get to do. And since I've done that, I have delivered testimony at local, state, and even federal levels. And that's been really quite exciting and rewarding.

Narrator: Through Personal Futures Planning, individuals envision a better future. With their circle of support, they focus on their unique gifts and capacities and map their journey to a new personal future.

Woman #2: This is your real [Inaudible].

Man #1: This is real world.

Wendy Annis: Usually what happens is that people will get together initially to develop a personal profile. What that is, is, it's just kind of like the person's life story. And so that everybody has some common ground and some common understanding about where this person's been, where this person wants to go.

Dan Crannell: Well, basically, you start at those meetings, at least the first meeting, anyway, with talking about your wildest dreams and things you'd like to do. Then you narrow…start narrowing things down to things that you actually can do and things you want to do.

Wendy Annis: And then there's a second meeting that's called the Futures Planning meeting, and that's kind of identifying some strategies, brainstorming, problem solving about how it is that we can help that person get to where it is that they want to be.

Dan Crannell: I'd like to get a checking account. I'd like to see if I can do better with this, this next one than I did with the last one.

Wendy Annis: Personal Futures Planning isn't kind of this miracle process that changes people into somebody that they're not. It's more of a process of strengthening persons' abilities to make their own decisions and to live happier lives and to be as independent as they can.

Dan Crannell: It helped me get to where I am today.

Narrator: Personal Futures Planning means defining life not by services provided but by relationships, the community, a career, a home, and a future.

Man #2: That's it, now your open. Here we go.

Narrator: Personal Futures Planning calls on people to act as friends rather than staff. It organizes people for action. And when the action starts, the changes can be dramatic.

Jenny Mateer: When I first got to know Charlie, he was living in a home with three or four other fellows who are developmentally disabled. He had some difficulties with his roommates. He had some problems with people as he would encounter them in the community. And things have really changed for him.

He doesn't have those problems anymore. He can go places and meet people and have regular conversations with folks. He can spend time in regular places like you and I do. That's not to say that there are not problems still, but they aren't as frequent or as intense as they used to be.

Probably one of the most exciting things that I've seen with Charlie is his ability to speak his mind and know what he wants. He makes it pretty clear to people. Now he tells us. In the old days, he might have done some pretty destructive kinds of things to let people know what he wanted. He has names for things now.

There are things that are important to him, like having a job, working, having friends, having a nice place to live that has nice furniture, and he lets folks know about that stuff.

Doug Jensen: Charlie's self-esteem, I think, directly relates to his sense of accomplishment. And in the few months that Charlie's lived at his home and has been involved with his Personal Futures Planning team, I think Charlie has really had an opportunity to have a lot of accomplishments, and I've seen his self-esteem and self-concept grow as a result of that. It's a nice thing to see.

Charlie Schlomka: [Inaudible]

Woman #3: Yeah, right here. Start with Charlie. That's Charlie.

Charlie Schlomka: That's me?

Woman #3: Yes.

Charlie Schlomka: That's my roommate.

Hank Schlomka: It's done a lot of good to him, especially living alone. Getting out of the group home type setting has helped considerably.

Carol Schlomka: His world was small and now it's growing and it's getting bigger. And that's helped because we're not the focus of his life like we were, and that has helped a lot. And this has helped, having this kind of a program for him. Because as you can tell from the people that are here today, they're all interested in seeing that Charlie's life grows.