Doña Pastora was ready for her meeting with Eva and myself. Eva, who is in charge of the day-to-day running of the activites club, and I myselfas the person ultimately responsible for what’s happening in the club, had invited Doña Pastora to evaluate the situation of her sister-in-law Rusby whom we have been observing for some time. Before the meeting we had prepared an end report (‘ sintesis’) which describes our impressions of Rusby: her gifts, her progress, the things she finds difficult. We then proposed which targets we could set for Rusby that would help her to develop further during the hours she has with us in the activities club.
Doña Pastora had a few days to study the report. We were of course curious whether our perception of Rusby matched hers, and wondered what she hopes for Rusby.
Consultations
This was the 6th meeting we have had with a person responsible for a participant in out activities club. And the conversations are always fully engaging. People feel encouraged that we would like to know more about their child or family member. For us it is valuable to get more background information and to assess whether we are all on the same track.
All the people we have met with are enthusiastic about the work we do and see positive changes in the home context since their child or relative joined the activities club. This also confirms to us that Eva is doing well in her job, that she knows how to motivate the participants. It is also clear that my support helps to maintain quality of work and to ensure that the individual needs of the participants are being addressed, so that we consciously work towards development and improvement.
Extension
We have had good results from the first months of the activities club. We are now ready to expand the programme, timewise and spacewise. The garage we use for the activities club only accommodates one group of four people at a time. So we need a more spacious room and we have started the search. At the same time we have started approaching families in our neighbourhood who have a member with an intellectual disability so that we can start a new group in the mornings.
Learn as we go
We see the path before us as we go forward. Plans for the future help to have a vision, but it is only in the concrete situation of the now that we learn whether it is wise to take the next step, when that step ought to be taken, and how. We may have a long list of desires, but whether they will actually materialize cannot be guaranteed. It is an art to flow with the stream. An intriguing process!