A Letter from the Director

Dear MO-FEAT supporters,

I've been thinking a lot lately about how families and professionals work together, and sometimes don't work together to the extent that they might. Can we make effective and efficient progress in Missouri without family-professional partnership? If families and providers each work for change on their own, will the outcomes be what we want for people with disabilities?

Researchers Ann and Rud Turnbull at the Beach Center on Disability suggest that there is a continuum of power. They explain their idea as follows:

• If providers and families try to make change on their own, their power to make lasting change is limited. Here providers have "Power Over" families.

• If providers try to make change and also recruit families to help, they tend to make some change. Here providers have "Power With" families.

• However, if providers and families partner together for change that is meaningful to BOTH parties, then—and only then—power becomes “synergistic” or "Power Through" each other. This means that their powers are multiplied to achieve strong, effective changes.

Take sandbagging, for example. If people work on their own to fill a bag of sand and haul it to the levee, the work is tiring and slow. If a sandbagger recruits someone to help him carry the bag, the work is a little faster. Yet, if sandbaggers plan their approach and share the labor, the work is quick and productive. One person holds the bag. Another person fills it. Someone ties it shut, and still others form a chain to pass the sandbags to the levee. Everyone is working towards the same outcome of helping the town, so it makes sense to join forces. Momentum and enthusiasm build as people see the progress they are making by working together in an efficient way.

Effective partnership relies on strong communication and planning in order to understand each other's perspectives and goals, determine how to work together and share resources, and agree on how success will be measured. The key foundation, though, is the desire to work together and a hope for what we can achieve with "Power Through" each other. Read more on Family-Professional Partnership in our March MO-FEAT News and Notes.

Anne Roux, M.A.,CCC-SLP, Executive Director