Holiday list meme

[lisamoe]

Make a post that contains your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun ("I'd love a Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

Here is my entirely selfish list, in no particular order.

10) Any "Mr. Boffo" books by Joe Martin (Used would be fine!)
9) Bath stuff from Lush.com. Or a gift certificate for such.
8) Nice soft socks or tights in pretty colors.
7) An electric blanket.
6) Microsoft points to buy music.
5) Godiva chocolates. Maybe the dark chocolate assortment.
4) Stephen Colbert's I Am America and So Can You
3) Movie passes for me and the boys.
2) A DVD (with special features) of Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.
1) People to volunteer as advocates for my program at work.

Comments

[angel-ent.livejournal.com]

What are "advocates for your program at work"?

[lisamoe.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you asked, lol.

What I do is recruit, train and support volunteer advocates and guardians for adults with developmental disabilities who have no family members that can serve in that role. There is a pretty wide range of what that might entail and a very wide range of clients. I have 18 year olds who may have just aged out to child welfare, clear up to seniors who may have been dumped in an institution in the 50s and everything in between.

For some of my more high-functioning clients, being an advocate might be akin to what you'd do for Big Brothers/Sisters, like check on them once a month, either in their home or out in the community depending what you both agree on. And also when they have team meetings about their service plans with the state, you would attend the meeting with them and help them advocate for themselves and help explain things to them if they need clarification. That would occur yearly unless a special meeting were called for some reason.

For my clients that need guardians, sometimes it's like the advocate role where you are kind of their friend and do things with them, but also can be a responsible adult who can sign medical consents and approve decisions about their service plans. For some who are less capable or who are medically fragile, being a guardian might mostly entail being available to their care providers to sign medical forms and check on them ocassionally, but you wouldn't necessarily be hanging out with them. In either case, you'd go to their yearly team meeting to give your input.

The time committment really just varies by the individual. It might be an hour a month or several hours a month, depending on what one wants to do. And if someone has to miss a meeting or something, the coordinator (me) would go in the place of the volunteer. The training for either position take less than three hours and can be brought to your home or office on a laptop if you like, and then after that you just get help from the coordinator when you need it. Easy Peasy. :-)