Let’s start by going on a visual journey. Picture a star and visualize the five points of the star. The five points of the star each represent a different type of support: personal strengths & assets, technology, community based, relationships, and eligibility specific. Now imagine for a moment that you have a dream of traveling, but you aren’t sure how to reach it. We can use the star and its five points to consider all the different ways you can get support to achieve your dream of traveling.
The Star, pictured above, comes to us from the Charting the LifeCourse framework. It provides a way to think about and plan for many different types of support that are possible. The image contains a description of each point of the star, which are also described in the article below.
The star that I am referring to is The Star Tool from the Charting the LifeCourse framework. This tool can be helpful during the ISP planning process and can be used in many ways. It can be a great visual to see all the avenues that someone can access for support. For more information, examples, and videos of the ways The Star is used, visit the Charting the Lifecourse website.
Below we will explore how the different points of The Star can help support a dream or goal that you might have. We will continue to use the example of traveling.
This point of the star is all about the skills, strengths, and assets that you bring to the table. What knowledge or life experiences do you already have that could support making your goal become a reality? What are you good at and what do others like and admire about you? Do you already have resources that can support you with your goal? We all have skills and strengths that we bring to the table that can help us achieve our goals.
For the goal of traveling, personal strengths and assets could include:
- Being knowledgeable about the place you want to visit
- Having a good sense of direction
- Having luggage that you can use
- Being able to use GPS to get around
- Knowing how to use transportation services
- Experiencing traveling with children, if you’re bringing kids along
Next, we want to consider those important connections we have in our life from which we can draw support to achieve our goal. This could be friends, family, acquaintances, or any person that you feel close with. Anyone that you have a connection with could support you with your goal.
For the goal of traveling, relationships could include:
- An aunt or an uncle that does a lot of traveling
- A parent that could help you do research
- A sibling who can provide childcare while you travel
- A friend who works at a travel agency
This section can include any technology that supports your goal. This could be personal technology that can be used by anyone, assistive or adaptive technology, or environmental technology that helps adapt surroundings. This could include a smartphone, tablet, laptop, video game system, smart watch, adaptive equipment for cooking, a wheelchair, scooter, electric toothbrush, glasses, and the list could go on. Tech can also be low-fi options such as an adaptive spoon, light switch, or lowered countertops. Technology can be useful in countless ways.
For the goal of traveling, technology could include:
- Using a computer to research about the place you want to visit and where you want to stay
- Looking up flight and transportation information using your smartphone
- Using physical maps to help you get around while traveling
- Noise canceling headphones and fidgets for adults and kids to reduce stress in new situations
In this section we want to consider places, groups, or resources that anyone can access to in the community. In general, this could include businesses, parks, membership organizations, public resources, schools, libraries, faith-based communities, or health care facilities.
For the goal of traveling, community-based supports could include:
- Travel agencies and travel groups or clubs (Joining a travel group could also then lead to more connections and grow the support you have from relationships)
- Using your local library to check out travel books for adults and for kids about the place you want to visit
- Facebook group of local travel enthusiasts
The final point on the star is the eligibility specific supports. These are the paid supports that can work with other points on the star to support someone with their dreams and goals. This could include government paid services based on disability or diagnoses, special education, Medicaid, Social Security, and many others. Eligibility specific supports include anything you are eligible for that not everyone in the community can access. Often times paid IDD services are the first thing we think of, but it can be valuable to look at other areas of support (the other points of the Star) so we get a full picture of the supports available to help lead to a good life.
For the goal of traveling, eligibility specific supports could include:
- A paid provider who could help with research and planning
- Attending a class trip chaperoned by school staff (for school age youth)
- Travel groups that are specific for someone with a disability, such as TRIPS INC
- Having a driver’s license to drive yourself to the airport
Conclusion
We have made our way around The Star and have identified so many different options available to us to help support our dream of traveling! The Star is just one of many tools available from LifeCourse. There are many uses for The Star from supporting a specific goal to getting a general sense of available supports in someone’s life. The star can also be used with additional LifeCourse Tools to support the ISP planning process. Check out some additional videos and links below that show people using the tools.
Additional Resources
About the Author
Lindsay joined the Arc Oregon team as an OTAC Trainer in August of 2022. She brings with her 7 years of experience working within the field of disabilities. Most of that time was spent working at a Foster Home providing direct care, and then as a Personal Agent at a Brokerage providing person centered case management. Lindsay is a Charting the LifeCourse Ambassador.