I Want to a Start a Movement: It Helps to Know the Turns Ahead

One of my GPS apps gives me multiple choices: the fastest route or the slower one, which avoids tolls. Each app lets me pick which path to take, and I usually will base it on upcoming traffic, when I need to arrive, or whether I left enough time to make a stop or two. One GPS app will even show me congested areas using little icons to define trouble.

It helps to have these choices. But it also helps to be clear about those choices. Within our schools and services, we don’t always let the people we serve know all their options or direct them to make the best choice. That conversation and openness genuinely takes time to develop, and as a result, we miss destinations; we miss assisting people in getting where they would want to go.

For example, there once was a man who wanted to shower without a person in the room prompting him. At first, we didn’t know how we would be able to help him navigate in the shower alone, but we quickly realized that there are alternative routes that the people we support can use. Soon after, we found a way for him to shower independently, and many others wanted the same independence. So we faced the challenge of finding different methods to help them all be independent.

We discovered several hard rights. First, believing that the person we support could shower on their own, and secondly, thinking that another person we support could do the same if they had a different route. It was a challenge but also a wake-up call on WHY we are in the human services industry and how we can use our resources to make it happen.

At KenCrest, we stand for achievement, we value the need to discover what is possible, and we mobilize our resources to help make those turns happen.

Each one of these stories shows the dream we have empowered by making the right turns, and I hope that you help someone find an alternative route to make those right turns.