Disability Resources
Videos
Nice work ‘Citizen Network’ in creating this fantastic video on citizenship!
This audio link is connected to an interview on CBC with Katie Rossiter, a Professor at Wilfred Laurier. She frames the inherent dangers of an institutionalized model of care and the painful experiences shared by survivors of Ontario’s institutions (Huronia) . While the interview is excellent, please note the inaccuracies in the closing remarks. The funding is not ministry based but is a direct result of class actions suits, in particular the remaining amount of funds that could not be claimed by survivors as they did not have a ‘voice’ in expressing the injustices they faced.
Click here to listen to the interview.
Organizations
People First of Ontario is the provincial organization representing people with intellectual disabilities. We are the provincial voice for people who have been labeled with an intellectual disability. We are about rights – human rights, citizenship rights, accommodations rights and language rights. The right to freedom, choice and equality for all.
Their Driving Force …
We want people in the community to see us as people first. The problem is, we are still being labeled with damaging words like retarded or slow. We have been taken away from our families and communities, and have been kept in institutional settings. We have been kept in segregated workshops and schools apart from other people in our community. People have forgotten that we have the same dreams and the same needs as everybody else.
Their Goals …
- To promote EQUALITY for all persons.
- To assist other people trying to speak up for themselves and making their own decisions.
- To teach the members about the RIGHTS, ABILITIES, and STRENGTHS of People First of Ontario.
For more information, contact: info@nullpeoplefirstontario.ca
The Ontario Independent Facilitation Network (OIFN) has a membership comprised of: people with the lived experience of having a disability or self-advocates, family members, independent facilitators and other community allies who support citizenship for all.
Check out OIFN’s Facebook Page, Instagram, Ideas and Story Blogs.
The network envisions a society where:
-citizenship
-choice
-control over one’s life
are afforded to all people. They imagine shifts within systems and society so that all people have equal economic power, political, and social rights and opportunities.
They believe in a Citizen Focused Framework which includes:
– individualized, portable, direct funding
-affordance and accessible housing resources
-staffing and administrative resources
-inclusive, quality education
– support in making sense for it all and planning for a good life in community through independent facilitation
The Special Services at Home program helps families who are caring for a child with a developmental and/or physical disability. It is funded and managed by the Ministry of Community and Social Services.
The program helps families pay for special services in or outside the family home as long as the child is not receiving support from a residential program. For example, the family can hire someone to
-help the child learn new skills and abilities, such as improving their communications skills and becoming more independent
-provide respite support to the family – families can get money to pay for services that will give them a break, or respite, from the day-to-day care of their child.
For more information click here.
Interested in more information about the Passport program, accessing an Adult Protective Service Worker, or Residential and Clinical Supports?
Click here to access the MCCSS website and information about these programs.
Social Inclusion of Persons with Developmental Disabilities Act, 2008 (developmental services legislation)
For more information click here.
ODSP offers:
-financial assistance to help you and your family with essential living expenses
-benefits, for you and your family, including prescription drugs and vision care
-help finding and keeping a job, and advancing your career
ODSP offers two types of support:
- Income support – Financial assistance provided each month to help with the costs of basic needs, like food, clothing and shelter. Income support also includes benefits, like drug coverage and vision care, for clients and their eligible family members.
2. Employment supports – Services and supports to help clients with disabilities find and keep a job, and advance their careers.
For more information click here.
Disability On-Line Resource for Transition into Adulthood
The long-term outcome of “D.O.O.R. 2 Adulthood” is to improve the process of transition to adulthood and to adult programs and services for youth with disabilities and their families in Ontario.
Outcomes/Measures
- to collect information about the needs, preferences and ideas of youth with disabilities, parents and service providers in Ontario for the different components of an online transition resource;
- to evaluate the use, utility and impact of an online resource about transition to adulthood for youth with disabilities in Ontario;
- to identify gaps in transition services in Ontario within and between multiple sectors, i.e. health, social services and education, and between child and adult services; and,
- to identify best practices for facilitating youth with disabilities in their transition to adulthood.