Focus facts on community living, 09/2009

              CENTER FOR LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP
OKLAHOMA’S FEDERALLY DESIGNATED
UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES (UCEDD)
SEPTEMBER 2 0 0 9
United We Ride Oklahoma
The United We Ride Oklahoma website has two tools for those who need transportation services in the
state and in the Oklahoma City area. The website offers a list of the public transit providers in the state,
information about Sooner Ride, transportation for Veterans, and the tribal transportation services. Go to
the website at http://okuwr.ride.googlepages.com/ and click “Find a Ride in Oklahoma.” Another feature of
the site is a list of the Oklahoma City area transportation services, including Edmond and Norman. This list
can be accessed at http://okuwr.ride.googlepages.com/oklahomacityareatransportationservices.
Oklahoma Sibshops Schedule
The Oklahoma Sibshops will kick-off its 2009-2010 schedule in October with meetings in Oklahoma City
and Tulsa. Sibshops are for brothers and sisters of children with special healthcare needs and disabilities.
Two groups will meet at each location on alternating months, one for siblings ages six through nine, and
one for ages 10-13. The first meeting for both locations will be on Saturday, October 3, 2009. The loca-tions
and contact information for both sites is listed below.
Oklahoma City Tulsa
Children’s Hospital Effective Teaching and Learning, Inc.
Cafeteria Dining Room 2865 East Skelly Drive, Suite 100
1200 Everett Drive Tulsa, OK
Oklahoma City, OK 73104 (Between Harvard and Lewis in the 2900 Center)
Contact: Sandra Kirkpatrick at Contact: Lora Roberts at 918-227-1797 or
405-691-2928 or at sibshops@dsaco.org at blondie4203@yahoo.com
Training to Promote Person-Centered Thinking
The Center for Learning and Leadership/Oklahoma UCEDD and the Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities
Council recently collaborated to bring a trainer from the Learning Community for Person-Centered Prac-tices
(http://www.elpnet.net/contact.html), founded by Michael Smull to Oklahoma. Shelley Dumas, Ph.D,
provided a training-of-trainers in tools that promote person-centered thinking. Twenty-one people partici-pated
in the training-of-trainers, eleven of whom were family members of a person with disabilities. The
training addressed the need for families to put into writing the important information that they know about
their child/adult family member with developmental disabilities. The trainees learned about tools to identify
what works and what does not work in the life of the person with disabilities. The tools will help the family
and the person bring their information into planning meetings so that it is honored equally with the informa-tion
from the other members of the team. The overall goal of the training was to equip teams of a family
member and a professional to provide training in the community and in higher education that promotes
person–centered thinking and collaborative planning among professionals, persons with disabilities and
their families. The Oklahoma trainers have formed an Oklahoma Learning Community that will serve as a
vehicle to improve training knowledge and skills and to share opportunities to deliver training throughout
the state. For more information about this training, contact Vyonda Martin at vyonda-martin@ouhsc.edu.
Family Education Series: Parenting a Child with Autism
A series of classes for parents of a child with autism is being offered in Tulsa. The courses will be taught
by an educator and a parent of a child with autism. They will share hands-on activities plus strategies and
ideas to make living with autism manageable and productive. Topics include: Taking Your Child with Au-tism
Into the Community, Resources for Children with Autism, Strategies for Children with Autism, and
Organizing Your Life with a Child with Autism. Registration is required and there is a $10 fee for each
class. Classes are scheduled on Wednesday afternoons from 12:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. Most classes will be
held at Tulsa Tech, 3638 S. Memorial, Tulsa, OK. For more information or to register, call 918-828-5100.