Values in Action MyCompass Planning Labs & Supporting the Good Life MyCompass Planning Labs For many years Skills Society has worked hard to be a fertile ground for fresh ideas, and radical innovations to emerge because of our strong values, focus on continuous learning, and the culture of creativity we have built together. A decade ago we set out to explore the following questions: 1. How might we enhance the engaged citizenship experience of people with disabilities? 2. How might we help support workers to think differently and see creative possibilities that could launch people they support towards a better quality of life? What emerged from our explorations was the Citizen Action Lab - a think tank process for discovering innovative ways to connect people with disabilities to meaningful citizenship roles and employment opportunities in community. The Citizen Action Lab is a process that helps unlock creativity in Community Support Workers so they can strengthen their approaches to supporting people with disabilities to uncover and connect with all the things that make life great. Iteration in Action Over the years we have refined the think tank process. Most recently, we have tweaked the process to make it compatible with MyCompass, an online case management and planning tool (another one of Skills Society’s social innovations). Just like Citizen Action Labs, MyCompass Labs bring support workers and diverse allies together to generate fresh ideas for meaningful citizenship roles and employment opportunities.
Over the course of one and half hours, a steward takes the group through a series of disciplined creative processes which enable them to first think and dream big and then slowly refine ideas into concrete, achievable goals and tasks that relate to a person’s needs and wishes and can be entered into an individual’s MyCompass plan. Ideas are always checked with people served before being acted upon. The labs spur people to think differently and encourage ‘outside the box’ thinking in 5 life domains that align with the MyCompass Pillars: 1. Paid Employment 2. Community Connections 3. Health and Wellness 4. Strengthening Relationships 5. Homelife Iteration and experimentation are important parts of navigating complexity. They are about placing small bets before big bets and being reflective. With MyCompass Planning Labs, we’ve been intentional about living this process. Ideas that came from leaders at different levels of the organization have been tested, reflected upon, tweaked, and tested again in a cycle of iteration and evolution. As a team of stewards, we’ve been flexible, adaptive, and responsive to what people told us about their experiences with the process. With iteration it’s not about the idea we like the best, it’s about the idea that works the best as demonstrated by its success.
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