Safely Home: A Profile of a Futures Planning Group

Cultural Writing. Disability Studies. Compiled by Betty Atherton and Julie Shaw Cole. Edited by Julie Shaw Cole. Betty was up against the wall of her son Raymond's disabilities. Organizations and agencies in her community hadn't responded to her repeated pleas for support. She had knocked on every door and was about to give up when she found Jo Ann Boyle, whose fresh view of Raymond helped her see that things could happen for him that she had never let herself consider. Some members of the group that grew up around the new plans and ideas for Raymond were pioneers in the new concepts of "futures planning." They they worked together with Betty and her family to make Raymond's dreams real. States are now implementing through consumer-directed programs for people with disabilities what Raymond's group realized for him. It took patience, creativity, dogged stubbornness, an ability to dance with bureaucracies, and a taste for fried fish. Raymond's story shows others how this CAN be done today.