Tova:: Welcome to Inclusion Revolution here on Eastlink TV. I’m your host Tova Sherman, welcoming you again and thanking you for joining us. This week we are very pleased to have a guest, Tim Vasallo. Tim is a published writer in addition to a screen writer and we’re really excited to have him here because as always with Inclusion Revolution, we have a focus on outside the box, unique programming and ideas that support the community in inclusion of persons with all types of disabilities and of all ages. So, we’re glad you could join us this week again, because we really think every week there is something important to share with you, our viewer, about how to include, when to include, and frankly how to overcome some of the stigma that our community naturally has around disability. So, welcome Tim.
Tim: Thank you very much.
Tova:: And Tim, now perhaps before I tell everyone why you’re here, for once I am going to let the guest tell everyone while you’re here. And that’s unusual for me, but as a writer I figure you can pull this one off.
Tim: Sure, well thank you very much. Well, the program that we’re talking about today – Redi Set Go, through reachAbility Association, is a brand new program just launched in December of 2009. It’s funded through Employment Nova Scotia, and really what we tried to do when we designed the program was look at what worked before, look at maybe what didn’t work, and then change it all anyway. And, you know, I know….
Tova:: You’re sounding mysterious Tim.
Tim: Not to sound nebulous at all, but people always use the term outside the box – I believe the term outside the box has now become inside the box. So, we’re shattering all that. Again, it’s not a reinvention of the wheel. It’s just using the wheel for something different. So, the three week program starts off with a – Redi Set Go. So, the first part of the program, which is the Ready, which is rediscover – it is spelled R-E-D-I and….
Tova:: Because I was wondering why it was spelled R-E-D-I. And you’re saying that’s to represent rediscovery.
Tim: Sure.
Tova:: Oh, that’s cool.
Tim: For two reasons. It is for rediscovery and it also makes people ask us what does that mean in that program. So, we get to explain. So, Redi Set Go is a three week program. The first week is rediscovering yourself. We work on self esteem, we work on confidence, we work on recognizing the stigma that we have lived with and maybe that we’ve actually used ourselves to describe ourselves with our disability or other people with disabilities. As well, what we do is we look at – you know, not to sound like the old pat answer of having the strength and weaknesses, but really, you have to recognize your weaknesses to really understand what your strengths are, how to focus on your weakness and how to change that. How to sort of maybe reprogram, you know, get around that problem. But a lot of people, they are being told what their weaknesses are all the time and they themselves don’t necessarily recognize what their weaknesses are.
Tova:: Right. So, what I’m hearing is that the first week, just to stay focused on that, the Redi part – which I thought was very clever R-E-D-I, I get it now, rediscovery – is about confidence. It’s about building up your awareness of your own transferrable skills, who you are as a young person with disability that perhaps, have faced like many of us with disability, have the stigma of being maybe picked on or put down or told you can’t do certain things. Or even coddled by parents who desperately don’t want us to feel that disappointment. So the first week is really an opportunity to come in and realize there’s wonderful things about you and that would be the rediscover piece.
Tim: Sure, exactly.
Tova:: Okay, and that must be an exciting week for the client in the sense that that discovery does happen. I mean, how’s that going? Like, do you find that there is a real, like, wake up call in that first week? – before we move on to the other two weeks.
Tim: Sure. I think the most important thing – maybe I should have mentioned this before – that one of the most important parts of the program is a daily journal. Whether online or written. So, the last half hour of the program every day, we focus on our journaling. Where we look at where we’ve been before, what’s happened to us, how we feel about where we are right now, the program, even the people in the program, what we’re learning. So, it allows people to express that, to get that out there. Maybe to see it on paper, it seems less daunting. As well, I give them little projects – journal projects either, you know, just taking a word and doing a fifteen minute free write on that word.
Tova:: Because you’re writer. So forgive me as not being a writer. I’m going to ask probably some very non-writer simple questions. So, you’re talking about journaling. Why is journaling – I mean, I’m not a writer – so why is journaling such an important element that you’re doing it every day and you’re even using, as you mentioned, some examples or words or things to work off of. Why is journaling so important in that first week of self discovery and confidence building?
Tim: I mean, first of all, journaling, full stop, is a very important concept because it allows you to express yourself, get things out there. Maybe to read them later on and see where you went wrong. Maybe you weren’t being honest with yourself or giving an accurate depiction of what was going on in your life. But especially during the program, it allows them to – maybe they’re uncomfortable dealing with the stigma of, you know, if they are visually impaired and their whole life they’ve had a stigma about that. Maybe actually, you know, getting that written down and hearing that back, makes it seem less of a problem. It makes it seem something that they can deal with and maybe they can see how they’ve distorted things in the past. As well, most importantly, journaling just allows you to be honest and just to get things down and if, for example, I had a traumatic experience today and I journaled about that. It doesn’t make that traumatic experience disappear, but it may allow me to process that a little bit quicker and more efficiently.
Tova:: So, processing, self evaluation, a sense of honesty that comes from your own journal.
Tim: Exactly.
Tova:: And do the clients tend to share information or is it a really a very personal thing.
Tim: I leave that up to the participant themselves.
Tova:: To their comfort level.
Tim: Yeah, exactly. Some of the people that we’ve had through the program that you would think would be perhaps a bit, you know, keep the cards close to their chest, they’ve actually been the people that wanted to express, you know, what they’ve written down. Some people are a little bit more private about it and it really is up to them. This is not a, I’m going to read their journal when they’re not there. The trust has to be there. They have to know that this is theirs. They can do with it as they please.
Tova:: And of course people never come with instructions. I always say that. So the person you most think might be most likely to not want to share comes up and surprises you or someone with a disability that everyone goes, oh, I know that disability means and I know what they’re going to want to do, continues to surprise me and I’m sure you as well, because we understand that people don’t come with a nice little set of instructions like Ikea furniture.
Tim: And even if they did come with instructions, they change all the time.
Tova:: They change all the time. I appreciate that. So, we’ve come through the first week and what’s the result at the end of the first week that leads them into the second week? Do you see what I’m asking?
Tim: Sure. We do – I do one on ones with each of the participants where we sit down and we work on a basically a personal action plan. A few things that they are going to work on during the program, usually three. I don’t have hard fast rules, so if they just have one thing they want to work on, we focus on that.
Tova:: Can you give me an example of some of things, without of course, you know, whose or what?
Tim: I had one particular young lady who felt like she was basically isolating herself from society in general, and her endeavor was to be a little bit more open with people and call friends from high school that she hasn’t spoken to in a while.
Tova:: And that came out of the journaling piece of that first week?
Tim: It did. And it allowed her to realize what it was is the more she was around people the more she liked people and the more she liked herself. Perhaps she had let some of the events of her high school days which are traumatic for most people, to wear her down and make her disconnect herself from the society at large. She started contacting family members, friends, people that she hadn’t before.
Tova:: Really great.
Tim: And even looking into volunteering at the local library, reading to children, extending her reach, getting out there into the community and maybe doing things that she wasn’t comfortable with.
Tova:: So, the first week, because I know we have two more weeks to talk about.
Tim: Sure.
Tova:: But the first week is really key because you’re building confidence, you’re building self awareness, you’re creating an environment where you can reflect on what have been some of the challenges you faced and then, of course, that allows you to start freeing yourself to look at some of the solutions to those challenges.
Tim: Right.
Tova:: And that’s very exciting. Now, before we come back for the second week, which would be called Set, because I know it’s Redi Set Go, and talk a little bit about that, what I’m really interested in before we go to break is for you to tell me some of the things that surprised you coming out of the first week, or has there been anything. Something that really was like wow, I didn’t even think that was going to happen.
Tim: I really was surprised how, I guess, how quickly they took to journaling. And I’ve not had one person yet in the program that journaled on a regular basis beforehand. I’ve been a regular journaler since my high school days and it’s really helped me. But I was really surprised how they took to it. I was afraid I was going to have to stand over their shoulder and, you know, you have to type, you have to write. And really what it is, it’s, you know, it’s five after three, your bus is going to leave, you’re going to be late, you’re going to…
Tova:: In other words, you’re telling them to hurry up or put away the journal.
Tim: Yeah, exactly. It’s time to put it away, we can get back to this tomorrow. So, that was the biggest surprise is how once they started to journal, how much they really appreciated what it was doing for them.
Tova:: That’s fantastic. So, just for everyone, we’re going to take a brief break here on Eastlink TV at Inclusion Revolution. We’ll be right back with Tim from the Redi Set Go program. You’ll want to hear the rest of this. We’ll see you in a minute.
[Music]
Tova:: Welcome back to Inclusion Revolution and Tim Vasallo and myself talking about a very unique program known as Redi Set Go. And that Redi is spelled R-E-D-I. I’ve been corrected. Now Tim, we got through the first week around journaling and self discovery and you being a writer, it must be very rewarding as well being able to bring that writing essence out of people, so that in itself must be very rewarding. But tell me what that leads to. In other words, week two of your three week program Redi Set Go.
Tim: The Redi, as we said, we talked about the journaling and self confidence building, et cetera. The Set week is what we call the heavy lifting. This is where the hard work comes in which is why we lead into it with building people up, because we are going to deal with some pretty difficult issues. The second week, the Set week, we deal with disclosure. Disclosure and accommodations, which are two very – they are considered buzz words in the industry, however, they’re not buzz words. They’re very important issues that we have to talk about. So, what we talk about first, we do a little bit of disability awareness training. We have an expert come in, give us a little overview of, you know, the different disabilities that are out there. Obviously, you can’t do them all. But we just talk about some key things. Any questions people have. We then move on to researching our own disability. If there was a person who perhaps lives with chronic pain, we get them to investigate that. And, you know, it’s not just simply looking on Wikipedia as, you know, what does chronic pain mean, but doing research, looking at different maybe scholarly papers that have been written by universities, et cetera. We then move to disclosure. Disclosure is a word that’s used a lot, and really in this situation, disclosure means disclosure of your disability.
Tova:: To an employer, or somebody potentially.
Tim: To an employer, perhaps even when you’re attending university or college or training. You know, you go in. You have to know how to do it, you have to know when to do it. And really, a very important question is whether you should do it or not.
Tova:: All right, well I’m going to grab you on that, because that’s a big question that I’m sure many of our viewers are interested in hearing about. First of all, just to paraphrase just to make sure I’ve got it all. So at the beginning of the second week, the first thing is you want to research your disability and understand how it affects you. I’ve always been a little careful around clinical titles because I have lots of clinical names but I have found the research for me has been very important to identify what’s me, rather than just the term ADHD which can mean so many things. Which things are really Tova, you know?
Tim: Exactly.
Tova:: And so I assume that that’s sort of what’s happening at the beginning. Do you find, and I have found this, but I’m curious if you find a lot of people have very little information on their own disability. Have you seen that, or are you finding a pretty good self awareness around that issue?
Tim: I believe it’s a little bit of both, but I have noticed quite a few people that perhaps if it’s a long standing disability that was diagnosed, say in, you know, say in their adolescence, they’ve been burying that. Almost that it’s a stigma. And really, they don’t want to focus on it. For example, ADHD. You know, they know the negative implications of ADHD, they live with them. So, to read them again, it basically say, oh yeah, I recognize that, I recognize that, it doesn’t necessarily make them feel any better. That’s because they’re not doing it within the focus of a program such as this. Where we allow them to investigate the disability, the different treatments, et cetera, but to actually to focus on it for a change and not just to go yeah, I’ve got that, I’ve got that.
Tova:: So, to look into that more personally and what it means in identifying their own symptoms and challenges and being able to overcome them, because it’s certainly a gap that I’ve seen, and that’s why I was so excited about your program. It’s a gap that I have seen across the board. And that gap is self awareness of people with disabilities about what their disability is and, of course, most importantly, what they require through accommodation to equalize the playing field.
Tim: Exactly.
Tova:: And I know that’s sort of if we get into the research we can move to the next part which is that identification of what do I need. For instance Tim, if someone did the research and they had a physical disability like a back issue and they wanted to work in an office, what would be the process they might go through in week two to kind of discover the steps that you might take them through right up to that point of disclosure if you don’t mind.
Tim: Sure. Well, that is part of it. They do, not only just investigate their own disability, but the accommodations that are available. So they find, you know, a lot of them it’s their first time seeing, you know, what’s available. So, using your analogy of a person with a, say, with a degenerative back problem. You know, they would look online, they would see what’s available, the different chairs, the different set ups, maybe an ergonomic desk. And then there are agencies within HRM such as Teamwork Cooperative where you would go to them, you would speak to them about this issue. They would find out how they would find this accommodation. Perhaps it’s an ergonomic chair. How to find the funding for that, how to get that chair. That way when you go for your interview and you do disclose your degenerative back issue, which you don’t necessarily have to specifically label it, but you say that you have a physical disability that you necessitate an accommodation which is a chair. However….
Tova:: You’re not handing them a bill for six thousand dollars in order to employ you, you’ve already got that worked out.
Tim: Yeah, you’re giving them a solution as opposed to a problem. See, you’re coming in and saying yes, this is my concern, this is my accommodation. I can bring this myself to the table through connection with …
Tova:: Partnerships, yeah.
Tim: And really, my only accommodation is that nobody sits in my chair, or that this is my chair and that everybody understands why I need this chair and it is not to be shared amongst everybody on the staff.
Tova:: And it’s not a special accommodation, it is equalizing the playing field so I can do the work just like anybody else.
Tim: You can imagine if you were in an office setting and you needed to be seated for eight hours a day and you had a degenerative back problem, having an ergonomic chair that allows you to do that is really only evening and equaling the playing field.
Tova:: Sometimes it’s as simple as being able to stand up every hour or so and take a little stretch. And if the employer knows that.
Tim: Right.
Tova:: So, let’s get to the meat, which is how do you explain it. Because, let’s say we’ve done this wonderful success of you’ve identified your disability, you understand it, you see there is some really important accommodation, for instance an ergonomic chair, you’ve spoke to the powers that be about supporting you towards employment and getting those things, and I know that’s really important to me because I believe if we walk into an employer and we need to disclose, and in my belief if it affects the job at all, I believe disclosure is important, and I know you and I’ve talked about this. But assuming that the disclosure is necessary, I think it’s really really important that we’ve got our ducks in a row which is what Redi Set Go really does in that we understand what we need, we understand our disability and we also understand when and if it does or will affect us in, for instance, a mainstream work environment.
Tim: Right.
Tova:: So, they know all this, but how do you get comfortable talking about it?
Tim: What we do, one of the really useful techniques, is we do a script. We do a disclosure script. Just like anything else, it could be from, you know, anything that somebody might have difficulty saying. Perhaps, you know, rehearsal for a play. You have to rehearse before you go in and get the lines right. So, if you have your disclosure script in place, we practice it, we do it on video so we do mock interviews so the person knows whether they’re putting their hand to their face or looking away when they’re talking about important issues. That could, you know, make it uncomfortable. So, that person does that script. So when they go into the interview, just like you or I or anybody going for a job interview, you want to lead with your best foot. You want to go in and blow them away with what you can do, not what you can’t do.
Tova:: So in other words, you also address the when to bring it up, the how to bring it up, and of course by doing that advance work you’ve already built confidence and you’ve done some mock interviewing or practicing as you mentioned that really allows you. Now before we go to week three, which is Go.
Tim: Right.
Tova:: Always exciting to hear the word Go in a ready set part, and I guess what I want to ask you is at this point, where do you see the client right now. It’s the end of week two. How are we feeling? Because that’s a tough week. You mentioned that.
Tim: Well, I mean, a few people have used the analogy of the Oreo cookie. You know, you have the sandwiching two things – a difficult thing between the two issues. So, the middle week is the difficult week, it’s the heavy lifting, like I said. So, really, you know, we have to monitor it. I do check-ins. Rather than make people have to say they’re having a bad day. I check in which each person every day and find out where they are, how they feel.
Tova:: Are you still journaling? I guess I should ask that – that journaling keeps going?
Tim: Full three weeks is journaling all the way through. This week I find the journaling is more personal. I give them less assignments and more just personal journaling so they can express what’s going on because maybe it’s the first time they’ve ever had to deal with it.
Tova:: Right.
Tim: Because a lot of people do not disclose their disabilities.
Tova:: Understood. So, before we come back and talk about Go which is a really exciting piece of the program and one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you today, we’re going to take a quick break and we’ll be right back on Inclusion Revolution here on Eastlink TV with Tim Vasallo. Hope you will join us.
[Music]
Tova:: Welcome back to Inclusion Revolution with Tova Sherman and my guest, Tim Vasallo, who is about to tell us the punch line to the Redi Set Go program. We’ve talked about Redi, we’ve talked about Set around disclosure and understanding your own disability and being able to communicate that confidently, and now I’ m really excited to hear about Go, because I know as a screen writer and as a published writer as well, Tim, this piece is really something that is very close to your heart. Tell me about the third week, the week known as Go.
Tim: The third week, Go, we do – it’s basically a creation circle. It started off….
Tova:: A creation circle?
Tim: Yeah, it was initially going to be a writers circle. But just due to some situations where I looked at, you know, literacy skills, I wanted to focus on positives and not negatives, so I wanted to make it open. So, if the person wants to do – most people do choose creative writing. Poetry, even some of their journaling. I’ve had two short stories written. So, you know, they get to be a little bit more creative. But, however, if somebody say, is into arts and crafts, it could be something they’re knitting, they could be doing a knitting project.
Tova:: So wait. Why are we – so you have to connect this for me, okay?
Tim: Okay. Sure, sure.
Tova:: So I understand week one, we’re really getting their confidence up, self awareness. I get week two, we want to get under the disclosure piece, accommodation, how to communicate about your disability, when to communicate, why to communicate, all of those wonderful details that are tough but so key if you’re going to more forward into mainstream employment. And then the third week, you’ve talked about a creative circle. Why?
Tim: Well, I guess what it is, it gives them confidence. It takes them back to where they were in the first week where they’re developing confidence and self esteem. The second week is difficult and, you know, can be a bit arduous for some of the participants. The third week, it’s not just a touchy feely, you know, sort of thing. It’s actually to allow them to express themselves artistically which perhaps allows them to be more honest. They can take risks. They would do things maybe they wouldn’t do, you know, before. So it allows them to express themselves in a way that perhaps they’ve never done before.
Tova:: Are they going to have a focus – are you hoping that they’ll express their experience in the first two weeks, their experience around frustrations? Like is there a theme of any sort? Or is it really just whatever you feel like you can write about your dog, I don’t know, what is the purpose of that third week?
Tim: I don’t like to constrict people.
Tova:: Understood.
Tim: I like, you know, them to express themselves artistically. Perhaps I’ve been lucky in the first couple of run throughs of my program because I’ve had pretty spectacular people come through. They were very creative, very interesting, diverse creative minds. I think it’s just the fact that you let people color outside the lines because that’s when you see who they really are. So, it allows them to be the individual that they are, express themselves, to say I want you to do this, or I want you to do that, or write a story but only about your experiences here. You know, they’ve been told their whole life what to do. Especially if they’re just coming through school. You know, we’ve been told in school, you write about this, you write about that. We don’t always get to do what we want to do. This allows them to do what they want to do, to take the confidence, to say this is me, this is who I am.
Tova:: Have you found that they have been reflecting on the experience or that has been sort of kind of permeating into their writing or their creativity?
Tim: I’ve found, basically of the people that have gone through my program so far, only one has written something that would be considered to be outside of the program.
Tova:: Understood. Like just about something more personal or abstract.
Tim: Just about something else. So, you know, for the most part, they have written poetry about their experiences. Not necessarily in the program itself, but you know, before and after, where they’re going to go, where they see themselves. Perhaps it allows them to express something that they’ve been sort of – they found it difficult to express before.
Tova:: Now I understand that the work that they do, you then put up on the reachAbility website so that it’s actually published and anyone can check out some of the expressions from the clients that have gone through the Redi Set Go program at the reachAbility.org website. Is that correct?
Tim: That’s correct. Really, what it came down to was we wanted to do something that I’d been reading, doing a lot of research for the program, and I stumbled across the concept – the cyber quilt. Everybody knows what a quilt is, to say cyber quilt, that’s not a hard extrapolation. We understand. Each person brings their own “patch” that any, whatever their expression is, that’s their patch. It gets added to and added to, and it keeps getting larger and larger. So on our website when people come there, this expression is there for people to see all the diversity, the backgrounds, the uniqueness. No one patch is the same and that’s the dynamic thing about it. So, for example, I have a client that they want to be in the program, they want to know what it’s like, I introduce them to the website, I tell them to go online and have a look around.
Tova:: They get to review some of the materials. Can I ask you quickly, because we have to wrap up.
Tim: Okay.
Tova:: What’s happening after the program, if you can tell me, just in a few words. Like, are the clients coming out and moving on, what’s been the difference?
Tim: Really, what we want people to do is to move on to something – either school, self employment or employment. And right now, I’ve had some pretty good success. I’ve had one gentleman who has enrolled in the Holland College culinary program. His biggest step is not being in the program, it’s moving away from home and moving to another province.
Tova:: So there’s a lot of different outcomes that you’re seeing as a result of what would be, as you said, coloring outside the lines a little bit.
Tim: Exactly.
Tova:: And I really appreciate it Tim. We are going to quickly go to our news and poll before we have to sign off today. As everyone knows, our listeners every week, we have a little bit of news and a poll. And if you want more information or to put your opinion down, come to Inclusionrevolution.com. Today our news comes from the Chronicle Herald, and it says that the 2009 federal disability report states that the number of Canadians with disabilities has increased from 12.4% to 14.3. That’s 4.4 million Canadians or one in seven. Now, do you believe the stats from that report are accurate? That’s today’s poll, keeping in mind that’s who self identifies. So, before we sign off, remember to put your opinion on the website for the poll. We look forward to seeing you next week. We want to thank you Tim Vasallo for sharing, again, how to color outside the lines, and I know people will be interested in Redi Set Go, and if you are, how do they reach you?
Tim: They can reach me at Tim@reachability.org or they can reach us at our phone number – (902) 429-5878.
Tova:: Thank you Tim Vasallo and thank you all of you for joining us again for another episode of Inclusion Revolution. We’ll see you next time.