Paul Kerr, together with his support staff, family and friends gathered to complete his My Plan and this time decided to do it a little differently. Wanda Dartnell, the manager of Paul’s home, explained. “We had done all the other types of planning in the past.” This time Paul and staff did a ‘World Café’, which was structured as a roundtable discussion, with a large focus on visually representing the goals. “Paul really likes visuals. We didn’t just sit around a table talking. Being able to see it is really important for him.” Paul also has a smaller,
laminated version of the World Café in his space. Wanda explained, “It’s for him to look at and for him to refer to when he’s talking to staff about what he wants to do.” Wanda explained further the motivation behind structuring Paul’s My Plan this way. “We wanted to focus on social and activities. We had a handle on medical appointments etc.” Paul really wanted to focus on being social again following the isolation of Covid. Wanda also explained the importance of getting staff on board, noting the advantage of having a diverse set of backgrounds, interests, and skills in support staff. “They’re more passionate. They have a special skill. They’re more likely to follow through with it and give it their best for Paul.” She also noted the importance of leveraging social capital in supports, noting they have the community connections to support Paul in getting connected in different areas. The World Café is more than a pretty picture and produced
something tangible. “The goals that came out of it are now in his calendar. We followed through from start to finish. There’s no guess work about what we’re doing today.”
