At this time of stress and challenges, we need to collect, share and celebrate the positive stories that emerge out of the chaos! We are sharing these below. If you have a story to tell, please send it to leanne@abilitiesmanitoba.org Please ensure that you have received permission to share publicly.
Positive Story #1:
Positive Story #2:
Brittany, a ImagineAbility DSP has been redeployed to work with Valerie in her home. This is a new experience and environment for the both of them. The other day they baked cupcakes and sent in this story:
Valerie loves baking and of course tasting the final product. Today she made red velvet cupcakes with Brittany. They improvised the process by using a pot as there were no mixing bowls at Valerie’s. Valerie mixed it patiently, and placed baking cups on the muffin pan. With cream cheese and icing sugar her father Gary brought over, she “inhaled” the cupcake just like she did with the chocolate muffins she made last week.
Brittany: “I’ve been really enjoying my time. Val and I built such a good relationship before her stroke, and haven’t really had the chance to rekindle it since. And these last two weeks have helped. And it seems that Val has been enjoying our time too. Whenever I start to say goodbye, she asks if I’ll be there tomorrow. On our walk the other day, she reached back to grab my hand. I’m so glad that I can be there and support her and help her build relationships with the staff at home. Thanks for the opportunity!”
Positive Story #3:
Jennifer joined ImagineAbility in late January 2020. Jennifer and staff Tiffany made an instant connection. They started working on Jennifer’s schedules and goals.
It was no surprise to Tiffany when Jennifer requested to have Tiffany’s support when the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Tiffany has been redeployed to Jennifer’s home since March 30.
They enjoy each other’s company and spend time like two girl friends hanging out at home. So far, they baked, dyed Jen’s hair, played cards, painted nails, and worked on crafts on top of daily coffee runs!
Tiffany said this has been a precious time connecting with Jen and learning
more about her. She says this was not possible to connect deeper and spend 1:1 quality time with Jen if not for this pandemic.
The thought of redeployment to a residential setting can be scary for DSPs in day services. With a change in perspective, this unfortunate pandemic situation could bring a positive outcome.
Positive Story #4:
ImagineAbility has supported Noah through their day program for the past year. Arcane Community has been supporting Noah two days a week residentially since July 2019. All of us (his whole support network) worked with the family and his social worker to make this ‘deployment’ work .
The story so far:
Background:
Anoop is an ImagineAbility staff that has been redeployed to support the family and the residential agency. Arcane is where he is being supported residentially two days a week. ImagineAbility has supported this since Monday, March 30 but worked on support with his family, his social worker and Arcane Community for at least two weeks before.
From Noah and Noah’s family:
“We are just delighted with how it has turned out and I’m really grateful for each one of your part in this solution.
Anoop is back said he felt good about transitioning the program between our house and Arcane. Noah has indicated he’d prefer LESS SNOW and BLIZZARDS but otherwise seems really happy.
On a personal note, I really should have video taped the first day Anoop came over. Noah was singing and so excited. Then Anoop left for his half hour 
lunch and when he came back, Noah was back singing and seemed really happy to have Anoop back for the afternoon. Thanks again for this creative and supportive response. Anoop is bringing a lot of consistency and support from our program to the Arcane house and it’s so good for staff there to see more of what Noah is capable of. We are so appreciative of the way this has turned out.
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to make sure this keeps working well.
Between Noah’s stomach issues finally abating, Wednesday evening coverage with Brittany and this day program, our family is feeling calmer than we’ve felt in almost a year.
Thanks again for all of your involvement in making this a success.
I was feeling so grateful, I posted about this on Facebook, if you don’t follow me there.”
Take care
Kalyn F (Noah’s mom)