Thursday, September 05, 2019

Catch a Falling Star and Book Club...





I've written about the involvement I have with the Next Chapter Book Club hosted through the Utah Developmental Disabilities Council(U D D C. I worked real close with an individual named Amy Notwell from that program. Amy is a force to be reckoned with ; Amy always seems to have something going something in the pot something disturbed. The last time the book club met was in early August. I don't remember why But we took a break for the rest of August.I don't know why but I was a little nervous. The population of the bookclub has been diminishing the past couple of weeks. Whether or not there is any validity to my words but you know how I feel about being the great destroyer. I was really hoping I had not done the destructive touch the bookclub. I was kind of wondering if not having the book club Was a benign way of fazing the whole program out. I mean it could happen in them never tell me so I called today to see if we are still going to continue the program. Yes it seems were going to continue having bookclub and yes there was bookclub today.

When I called everyone is out of the office except Amy (already noted). Any sort of works out of that office but is not an employee of that office. Amy is an academic gunslinger from Utah State University running all kinds of programs for people with developmental disabilities to take charge of their lives. Amy is incredibly energetic, resourceful and sensitive. I think she works out of the Salt Lake office because Utah State University is too small to contain the amount of energy in he wields. When Amy develops a program conceives a new idea get out of the way things will happen. Amy spends most of her time in the field working directly with consumers. Amy is definitely a hands-on kind of person not trusting the system are the bureaucracy the system breeds. When I was working out of the Council office Amy's office was next to mine. It was rare that Amy was in her office choosing to be out directly working with people but when she was in-house we had great discussions. Thus was our conversation this morning. I had actually just call the office to make sure the program was still up and running I had An hour and a half before an easy catch my bus to head south for bookclub. We became totally involved in a conversation about developing and running a new program in the next couple months aimed at assisting people with developmental disabilities more independence and control of their lives in all manners of the word housing, financial and social. We talked fast and furious and soon ate up the 90 minutes and I had to beg off so I could catch my bus. We will be getting together the next few weeks to see what we can bring about. There may be even a few dollars in the mix for yours truly but really that's not my main interest. I'm somewhat regulated as to what I can earn a live here at the units. I think more than anything I'm excited having another shot at working with someone as dynamic as Amy and her ideas.

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