LivesthroughFriends
Supporting Self Determination, Encouraging Diversity, and Building Caring Communities
LivesthroughFriends was established very recently as a local social enterprise affiliated to the Inclusion Partnership and the National Brokerage Network. We will work to ensure that a wide choice of support options are available to people and families who use social care services and who wish to exercise self-determination and plan and commission their own support arrangements.
LivesthroughFriends believes that "Good Lives" for all of us have their foundations in loving and caring relationships and the "social capital" that derives from contribution to and acceptance within our personal communities. Long years of professional struggle have convinced us that these fundamental social needs are rarely met through the efforts of services. Indeed, immersion in ‘Serviceland’ tends to have the opposite, alienating, effect – leading to isolation, social exclusion and resource inefficiencies.
Hence, LivesthroughFriends, welcomes the growing interest in self-determination and the personalisation of funding/budgets. This offers a real opportunity for individuals and families to plan and commission to meet needs in ways that recognise the central importance of loving and caring relationships and social capital; building upon existing relationships and networks or actively setting out to create these where they do not exist.
Our other ‘big idea’ at LivesthroughFriends is diversity. Following long and innovative careers in the field, we can’t help but notice that focus and effectiveness is just about always lost when people try to scale up to serve large numbers of people through one system or approach. Information Technology seems to have contributed to this viewpoint with Social Care professional spending more and more time in front of a PC rather than engaging with the people they serve. Our alternative is organic, empowering, sometimes unpredictable, and inevitably messy. In our view, it is the role of the State to enable and stimulate and not to micro-manage. People have the best chance of a good life in communities that take a lead in being responsibility for their own, and therefore LivesthroughFriends is committed to encouraging the re-emergence of caring communities.
LivesthroughFriends will be using its proven knowledge, drive, and entrepreneurial experience to develop the services/initiatives in the area served:
For information about LivesthroughFriends launch conferences and Support Broker training go to www.livesthroughfriends.org
SERVICES
Support Brokerage – focused upon ensuring a good, self-determining life strengthened by sustained relationships, contributing/active citizenship, and comprehensive and creative planning. Family members to established professionals can become successful Support Brokers.
Family Leadership – assisting the formation and development of PLAN (Planned Lifetimes Advocacy Networks) affiliates and other forms of family led initiatives
Progressive and Included Lives for People who have acquired very challenging reputations – we have a track record, acquired over more than 2 decades, for enabling people to ‘escape’ from the vicious circle of segregation, institutionalisation, and isolation that so often characterises ‘specialist’ services. Our approach is based upon person centred approaches, individualised funding, and immersion in, rather than separation from, the learning and development opportunities of the everyday world
Self & Citizen Advocacy – to support existing agencies and encourage/actively promote the development of capacity/new agencies in respect of unserved groups and communities
New Social Enterprises – to develop and/or stimulate new enterprises to meet the changing requirements of the community where they are unsatisfactory or absent
CONSULTANCY & TRAINING
Professional Education – through the provision of Support Brokerage, Person Centred Approaches, and related training; and Supervised Practice Placement facilities for relevant professionals in training
Community Development and Organisation – working with sponsors, partners, local visionaries and activists; bottom-up and top-down!
Provider Development – assistance to Service Providers in adapting to and being pro-active in respect of evolving customer requirements – especially in the provision of truly individualised, flexible, reliable, and responsive arrangements – and developing sustainable businesses in changing market conditions.
Assistance to Purchasers and Commissioners – in the planning, conceptualisation, dissemination, implementation, and change management inherent in realising the personalisation agenda
COORDINATION AND NURTURING
Share, disseminate, advice, encourage, support – to be an effective ‘hub’
Research & Evaluation – ensuring that we are all learning from what we are doing and utilising external as well as peer processes, embedding participatory approaches from the onset.
