So this week was pretty full on!

So my week went something like this….

Monday: Interview with Mike Pulman for his Livestream:

Full livestream can be found here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=493098714393801&id=222784628091879

Tuesday: Interview with Jade Farrar, then Disabled Person’s Core Group meeting.

Wednesday: Regional Leadership Group meeting for Enabling Good Lives System Transformation

Thursday: Catch up on housework, rest, then this happened…

Friday went mainly to plan as “rest day”, just with a whirlwind of emails and phone calls at times.

And today (Saturday) here I am writing. I’m trying to get it done as I’ve got another busy few days coming up!

On Monday I was interviewed my Mike Pulman for his liveshow on Monday night. The interview went well and we covered a huge range of topics. We talked Assistance Dogs, paraclimbing, education, employment and other “disability” related stuff including the Enabling Good Lives System Transformation.

Tuesday’s plan was meet up with Jade Farrar and do a quick livestream as a bit of a “this is what #branddisability is” and AntnzVentures will be doing more content in the future. Then head into the Disabled Person’s Core Group meeting in preparation for the Regional Leadership Group meeting that would take place on Wednesday.

Well as we all know, plans don’t always go to plan and we didn’t end up going live, thanks to the technology gremlins. We did however get some quick footage before our meeting began. Yes I did trust Jade Farrar with the footage even considering the Mike Pulman cucumber incident.

Before I start getting into the Enabling Good Lives System Transformation stuff I just want to address something. I know this blog and the Facebook page before the blog, were created as a means to follow “Antnz Adventures” and I will be following the EGL process within the privacy and confidentiality constraints on this blog (etc).

The Enabling Good Lives System Transformation is an adventure. It’s just not in an outdoors context which is why there is some excitement to it for me. I took to Google to seek clarity around what “adventure” actually is…

 

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Screen shot #3

For me the Enabling Good Lives System Transformation meets all those requirements. It may not be in an outdoor context or scaling an actual mountain but the scale of the work to do is huge and the outcome at this stage is truly unknown.

So while I’m talking about clarity, I know people are asking about the “content creators network”. There is no formal agreements, no catches, just a conscious decision to share each others content. We’re simply doing what we’re already doing, we just share each others stuff; be it video, audio, blogs, Facebook Instagram, whatever platform you’re on, if we’re there too, we’ll share it. It’s just allowing the “disability community” to tell their stories from their perspective, without a middleman, without some media spin. Just sharing content from people of where they are at, in that point of time, sharing knowledge, ideas and having conversations.

So, time to get back on track…

Tuesday and Wednesday the second round of Enabling Good Lives System Transformation Mid-Central prototype meetings took place. There are 3 “Core Groups” represented on the Regional Leadership Group; Disabled Person’s Core Group, Whanau/families Core Group and Providers Core Group. Other represented on the Regional Leadership Group are; EGL facilitators & Co-design members, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, ACC, Ministry of Social Development and Oranga Tamariki. The monthly updates released by Sacha O’Dea are an accurate account of where things are at when we gather for our Mid-Central meetings, and there are many different formats here: http://www.enablinggoodlives.co.nz/system-transformation/transformation-papers/system-transformation-updates/october-update/

For this round of meetings we had been given a few questions by the EGL team. These questions were taken to the Core Groups then to the Regional Leadership Group table. Topics included “terms of reference”, how should the Regional Leadership Group “work”, what qualities should a “connector” (one point of contact) should look like. The minutes of the Regional Leadership Group meeting minutes will be available on the Enabling Good Lives website once they have been signed off on by the 20 or so people seated around the table.

I ask for patience please, the scope of this project is huge. I, like everyone else sitting at that table are people, and one small part of a huge network of people all doing their little bit to try and make this System the best we can. This is very much a Disabled Person led process and sometimes things are just going to take a bit longer than we’d all like. At this point nothing is on or off the table. What I am bringing to the table as Disabled Person’s Core Group member is my willingness to carry your stories alongside my own as we work our way forward through this process. I bring my willingness to engage with this process to the best of my ability to create positive change for our community.

I acknowledge fully that many of us have had our lives negatively impacted by the current system and the ones before that.  I acknowledge there are systemic issues at play. I acknowledge I can only fully represent my own views, but I will do my best to also try to represent yours. I fully acknowledge that many people don’t want to engage in this process because they have lost hope in the system that is supposed support us. I acknowledge that many people have tried to engage the system before in the past and have not had their opinions listened to. I also fully acknowledge that I am human, I’m going to stuff it up somewhere along the line and say the “wrong thing”, I’m committed to arguing issues and not personalities or personal opinion, I’m open to new thinking and I’m expecting to have to work hard.

A lot of these meeting days, are a lot of sitting.

As you all know I’m not one for sitting for long periods of time in one spot, so add to that the concentration needed to do these meetings justice, by the end of the Regional Leadership meeting is done I am exhausted. I think this led to some of the frustration I expressed in my Thursday Vlog.

I was tired, trying to catch up on housework and it has been bugging me that a lot of people aren’t engaging in the process. I am going to be as transparent as I can through this process, it will either show the change or the lack thereof of, if the bureaucrats are listening or if the cynics turn out to be right. I totally get why people are cynical, I still am to some extent, but I’m going to give it a shot towards change in a more positive direction. I get people are angry and there are still a lot of historical issues to be addressed, I get there are so many problems with the current system actually sitting down and listing them all would take awhile. A lot of wariness towards the system transformation is because “we don’t know whats going on”, I hope that by blogging my experiences throughout the processes I can bring some light to what is going on.

Look at things from a different perspective

The main message still stands; we need to hear from you. We need to hear your perspective. We need what you would like to see from a new system. We want to hear what a good system looks like to you. I want to see people thrive and not just survive, and that looks like different things to different people. So get involved; comment, email, share, get involved in the work streams and upcoming public forums, because your input is needed. This also goes for blog topics! If you want my perspective on something just ask!

I’ve hit a bit of a brain block, and there is still stuff that is filtering around my brain of the Regional Leadership Group meeting, so I will be writing more about it. I left feeling there was a sense of mutual respect, that I was actually being listened to and being involved in the process. This is definitely just the beginning!

Stay safe out there adventuring people!
Antnz