So, I was thinking the other day while on the plane to Little Rock for the International AER conference, the giant conference for my personal field of visual impairment education. My thinking went toward how things have evolved with the organization lately, and my last blog post, and ones before that. They've been pretty few and far between, and I feel like moving away from the personal, which is what, I think, attracted so many readers to begin with.
So, with the new direction comes a renewed commitment to "keep it real", and to also keep you up to date on my process of development. This serves me in that it allows me to gather my thoughts together, it really helps me think. It's also a really nice thing to go and read my "old me" from two years ago. I want to edit so BAD, but won't in order to preserve the integrity of the blog. I hope it also keeps you more engaged in the strides we are making to change the world for people with disability.
In Little Rock I did my best to meet as many folks as possible, and made some great new friends. I did not advertise Ability Beyond the Horizon (ABH) much at all, but to those I did talk to about it, the interest was genuine. It seems that there has been international efforts for O&M previously, but to date, they've been one offs. Meaning, a group will organize and go somewhere, they'll do some training and intervention, but then they come home, and that's it. This isn't criticism of these people, its just that everyone has "life" happening to them, and things can get hairy.
Look at me! I started this two years ago and still haven't helped the first person! I'm sticking with it though, and I think this investment of time now will pay in spades later (whatever that actually means). I had more than a few people recognize me from the article I posted last time that was in our big report, that was kind of neat :-) Most the people I spoke with were encouraged by my age, they said when they got older they realized they wanted to do something like this. Since I'm young, I've got a lot of time to make a splash. I hope to roll those people into the mission of ABH when I have a place for their talents. Its been a little while since I got so much "young pup" love from people, I felt a bit like an ambitious intern again. They don't know though, since we just met, that my energy level actually stays this way *grin*.
The website received some updated content, thanks to Shawn Laasch and Rachel Nickens. Shawn added a subscription box to the site so that newcomers can receive the blog easier, and we also redesigned a few pages. Rachel is an editing machine, and is helping me not to be so wordy. She's not touched this blog, so that's why you are having to read so much here :-)
I've been meeting with Paul Lewis, Sandy Lewis' husband, Sandy is on our board of directors. He's committed to helping me develop a solid business plan. We've met twice now, and will meet again on Friday, he's done a GREAT job at challenging my thought process and forcing me to put a finer and finer point on what I want to accomplish. He was one of my professors while in school and I've always liked his style of instruction. Now as friends, he's still teaching me a lot. There are conflicting opinions in the business world literature about putting together a business plan, but I've got to say, to someone like me that doesn't typically go in for all this detail, its really challenging me to truly understand what I want. We're essentially laying out the blueprint for the house I want to build, and I'm so excited about the possibilities.
Let me hear from you! Are you still reading?? Is this thing on??
~Mickey
Monday, July 26, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
We're headed in a new direction!
Well, I can be excited again when someone asks me, "So, what's happening with Ability Beyond the Horizon?" Because, honestly, for the past year now, I could answer that from a business side, as in, "well we've got our 501c3 status", which don't get me wrong, is great news, and very necessary, but I started this to help people with disabilities in developing nations to find independence, and respect in their communities, as well as lead lives that the community finds valuable. To date, I've helped exactly, none. That is really hard to deal with since we're coming up on our 2 year anniversary this month. Its been 2 years since I hatched this plan in that Vietnamese cafe. I can't believe it.
So the changes:
Dr. Sandy Lewis, our secretary, met with the regional coordinator for Asia/Pacific programs at Perkins International, a group that provides early intervention services, and services for children with multiple disabilities in developing nations around the world. They are endowed by the Hilton folks, as in Hilton hotels, so have a great bit of capital behind them. Debbie Gleason, the coordinator, has been so helpful, spending lots of phone time with me, trying to get us in a good place with the early intervention project. The end result is that I don't think early intervention is the best direction for ABH to travel at this time. Kind of weird, I know, but its for the best, AND the kids I wanted to help in Hue, will still get help anyway, so its a win win. With the new direction, you all can continue to support something that is very needed, and this time that we're the only ones really doing in such an organized effort.
Perkins is working in Vietnam, not in the area of Hue, but in the major cities Hanoi, and Saigon. They will probably begin work in Hue soon, so the kids there will get help. Apparently, they began work in Vietnam shortly after I searched in 2008 to see if there was a project there for early intervention, which is how I missed them before. After coming to the conclusion that maybe early intervention was not needed in Vietnam if Perkins was already doing such a good job, I asked Debbie where she thought we could be the most useful. Perkins works all over the world in developing nations, and so if anyone could tell me a niche to fill, she'd definitely be the one. Her thinking was that orientation and mobility (O&M) was a need not being met around the world, and one Perkins is not able to fill. Additionally, teaching people to be orientation and mobility specialists, is what I do here in the states, so it fits so well.
The commitment of Ability Beyond the Horizon is to work toward empowering people with disabilities in the developing world. Teaching orientation and mobility, which is the ability to independently travel an environment, from in your home, to around your city, and thus, giving people with visual impairment access to independent living, working, and traveling, definitely works toward that goal. If you can't move independently, you can't really do very much in life. Its a cornerstone to success. Imagine if you couldn't find your way out of your house, or to the bathroom. Would someone with this problem be employable? I think not. I also think we can do something about this.
So, I met with the board of directors last night to discuss this with them. And now, Ability Beyond the Horizon will be changing course, I'm very excited about this. The plan is to go to "centers for the blind" in developing countries and train center staff in the skills of Orientation and Mobility. Its what I originally went to Vietnam to do. We will go and spend a month to six weeks, working every day with staff at the school. Our staff will train these people in how to be O&M specialists, and then supervise their teaching of clients and students in O&M to ensure competence. We will then provide ongoing support to them via the Internet, and on site visits when necessary to maintain a high level of competence and safety, as well as to train additional staff if needed.
We'll have volunteer O&M specialists here in the states that we can send to these locations maybe with an intern or two, they'll provide the training, and then come home to their regular jobs, hopefully wanting to do it again, then we can send them somewhere else in the world later. Sounds exciting doesn't it?!? I already have a few volunteers, and you'll see why soon.
I very much plan to stay in this mix of going to other countries and training, I can't let the volunteers have all the fun, and will probably be doing the training alone first, just to get the curriculum ironed out and any kinks that might come along. I teach people to be O&M specialists for a living, so this won't be difficult, but I'll need to provide support to the other O&M specialists who have never taught anyone else how to do their job before.
One of the best parts is that Debbie at Perkins International is going to put me in touch with people all over the world that have this need, these are good people, committed to progressive change for people with visual impairments. They've already been vetted by Perkins International. That is immensely valuable.
So how did we get all those volunteers? Ability Beyond the Horizon was recently the cover story for the AER Report, a publication for the field of visual impairment education that has a readership of 5000+ people. That's where all my volunteers came from. Download it here. That's me on the cover! Crazy...
So exciting changes are afoot, the website will be getting an overhaul soon, thanks to Shawn Laasch, we definitely need to change the content around. I will let you know when I hear more. Feel free to message me with any questions, words of support, etc :-) Until next time...
~Mickey
ps. if you'd like subscribe to this blog, so that you can receive updates in your email, please go to visionteachervietnam.blogspot.com and enter your email in the subscription box. Its a little clunky having to go somewhere else to subscribe, but Shawn is working on a solution for us.
So the changes:
Dr. Sandy Lewis, our secretary, met with the regional coordinator for Asia/Pacific programs at Perkins International, a group that provides early intervention services, and services for children with multiple disabilities in developing nations around the world. They are endowed by the Hilton folks, as in Hilton hotels, so have a great bit of capital behind them. Debbie Gleason, the coordinator, has been so helpful, spending lots of phone time with me, trying to get us in a good place with the early intervention project. The end result is that I don't think early intervention is the best direction for ABH to travel at this time. Kind of weird, I know, but its for the best, AND the kids I wanted to help in Hue, will still get help anyway, so its a win win. With the new direction, you all can continue to support something that is very needed, and this time that we're the only ones really doing in such an organized effort.
Perkins is working in Vietnam, not in the area of Hue, but in the major cities Hanoi, and Saigon. They will probably begin work in Hue soon, so the kids there will get help. Apparently, they began work in Vietnam shortly after I searched in 2008 to see if there was a project there for early intervention, which is how I missed them before. After coming to the conclusion that maybe early intervention was not needed in Vietnam if Perkins was already doing such a good job, I asked Debbie where she thought we could be the most useful. Perkins works all over the world in developing nations, and so if anyone could tell me a niche to fill, she'd definitely be the one. Her thinking was that orientation and mobility (O&M) was a need not being met around the world, and one Perkins is not able to fill. Additionally, teaching people to be orientation and mobility specialists, is what I do here in the states, so it fits so well.
The commitment of Ability Beyond the Horizon is to work toward empowering people with disabilities in the developing world. Teaching orientation and mobility, which is the ability to independently travel an environment, from in your home, to around your city, and thus, giving people with visual impairment access to independent living, working, and traveling, definitely works toward that goal. If you can't move independently, you can't really do very much in life. Its a cornerstone to success. Imagine if you couldn't find your way out of your house, or to the bathroom. Would someone with this problem be employable? I think not. I also think we can do something about this.
So, I met with the board of directors last night to discuss this with them. And now, Ability Beyond the Horizon will be changing course, I'm very excited about this. The plan is to go to "centers for the blind" in developing countries and train center staff in the skills of Orientation and Mobility. Its what I originally went to Vietnam to do. We will go and spend a month to six weeks, working every day with staff at the school. Our staff will train these people in how to be O&M specialists, and then supervise their teaching of clients and students in O&M to ensure competence. We will then provide ongoing support to them via the Internet, and on site visits when necessary to maintain a high level of competence and safety, as well as to train additional staff if needed.
We'll have volunteer O&M specialists here in the states that we can send to these locations maybe with an intern or two, they'll provide the training, and then come home to their regular jobs, hopefully wanting to do it again, then we can send them somewhere else in the world later. Sounds exciting doesn't it?!? I already have a few volunteers, and you'll see why soon.
I very much plan to stay in this mix of going to other countries and training, I can't let the volunteers have all the fun, and will probably be doing the training alone first, just to get the curriculum ironed out and any kinks that might come along. I teach people to be O&M specialists for a living, so this won't be difficult, but I'll need to provide support to the other O&M specialists who have never taught anyone else how to do their job before.
One of the best parts is that Debbie at Perkins International is going to put me in touch with people all over the world that have this need, these are good people, committed to progressive change for people with visual impairments. They've already been vetted by Perkins International. That is immensely valuable.
So how did we get all those volunteers? Ability Beyond the Horizon was recently the cover story for the AER Report, a publication for the field of visual impairment education that has a readership of 5000+ people. That's where all my volunteers came from. Download it here. That's me on the cover! Crazy...
So exciting changes are afoot, the website will be getting an overhaul soon, thanks to Shawn Laasch, we definitely need to change the content around. I will let you know when I hear more. Feel free to message me with any questions, words of support, etc :-) Until next time...
~Mickey
ps. if you'd like subscribe to this blog, so that you can receive updates in your email, please go to visionteachervietnam.blogspot.com and enter your email in the subscription box. Its a little clunky having to go somewhere else to subscribe, but Shawn is working on a solution for us.
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