Animals

We are every aware of the positive effects animals can have on humans. We have a Therapy Dog that teaches us many things. Today we expanded our animal therapy offerings with our new partnership with Trabyrne Miniature Horse Stud.

This is a unique type of Equine Therapy and we all love it. Our members had lots to say when they got back. Here's what they shared.

"We can learn about ourselves as we learn about horses. They teach about feelings and help people to take care of themselves."

"I loved feeding the horses and brushing the horses as well. It was fun to do it."

"I did feel the baby kicking the mare's tummy."

"Tracey was holding the baby foal. It was a brown colour. I went up him and patted him. The foal let me pat him. That means he loves me."

"The horse was too little to ride on. It was white. "

"This will be go program for me."

Look on our FB page for photos

The 2011 SEABL Season Is The Best Ever

What is going on with the 2011 South-East Australia Basketball League that prompts a post and the weighty declaration of “the best ever”?

Up front, I admit that my ‘best ever’ declaration is coloured by the facts that the 2011 competition is barely three weeks old and I've not actually followed any prior SEABL season. 

Regardless, I LOVE this season! 

I have only watched six games, but WHAT GAMES!  I’ve seen some great sports and I’m not just talking about the basketball games.

I’ve lost my voice from cheering, hurt my hands by clapping too hard, got sore cheeks from smiling so much, almost had an asthma attack from laughing and I can’t tell you how often I’ve had to swallow really hard to stop the happy tears.  

Yes, I’ve only seen six games so far, but, if the six games I’ve seen are an indication of what SEABL is like ... I'm a fan. 

Here’s the background. 

The Tertiary PLACE’s Physical Activities Program Director, Mary McKenna, and Spartans men’s Captain, Greg Vanderjagt, have been doing some incredible things for people with disabilities: SportSTAR; Aussie Hoops; BRW Triathlon; Functional Fitness; Assistant Manager (AM) for the Under 18 Rep Team.  Some other time I’ll talk about that stuff, but, their collaborations have led to this …

Each week one of the adults connected with The Tertiary PLACE, is welcomed into the sphere of professional basketball as one of the team.  As an AM, they sit on the bench for the Spartans women’s and men’s teams and the visiting women’s and men’s teams.  They fold the towels and hand them to the players, fill water bottles and do whatever else they can do to help.

I will share just two observations which have prompted the accolade of ‘best ever’. 

1. Being part of a ‘team’ is potent.

It’s taken some preparation to get our guys (who are staunch supporters of the Spartans) to assist on the opposing bench.  What I’ve seen is that our AM’s actually assimilate into the opposition teams and wholeheartedly cheer for them.  When the Geelong Supercats brought up team shirts for our AM’s to wear it was icing on the cake!

2. These professional athletes are very kind and thoughtful. 

Our AM’s have joined in the huddles, run on court with the team and no one got irritated when one of them offered this bit of friendly game advice, “Next time work more on your defence”.

This ‘best ever’ SEABL season is an amazing example of social inclusion.

Perhaps to really get it, you do have to be there.  You should come along and see for yourself.

Visit to Parliament House

Today some of us got the chance to go to Parliament House.  It was interesting to see the beautiful old rooms, all the art work and gifts given to the people of Queensland.

Andrew's report:
"We went inside. It was full of rooms. I did see a door that said “Private”. We didn’t go in there. We had to put a visitor’s badge on and sign the visitor’s book."




From back of Burke



Weights and measures

Government printing



Words are powerful

We are taking a stand against the use of the negative word retarded (and all of its variants).

Sadly, the r-word is fairly common and widely accepted.  Perhaps use of it continues because people don’t realise that the r-word demeans, insults and hurts people with an intellectual and/or cognitive disability and those who care about them. 

To quote our members, it ‘hurts their hearts’ and makes them feel sad and dreadful.  One offers this advice, “all people should use respectful words and not say retarded.  Retarded is an awful term which hurts many people.”

We stand firmly with our Members against this offensive and hurtful slur and are passionate about educating society to not use the r-word.  We will do what we can to bring attention to the need to stop the use of the r-word. 

Us with Minister Pitt and Di Farmer near the Speaker's Green

“Today we went to Parliament House.  We talked to the Minister and the others  [Di Farmer MP, the Minister’s advisors, and a representative from the Department of Communities] about why it is important to stop using the word retarded.”

Please join us in our efforts to eliminate the derogatory use of the r-word from everyday speech and promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with disabilities.

Together we can make a difference.

ben and angela

Music and Lyrics

 

Yesterday afternoon we had a visit from two of our state politicians, Di Farmer MP and the Hon Curtis Pitt, Minister for Disability Services, Mental Health and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships.

We are very proud of our PLACE and are always happy to show people around so, we took the Minister on a tour of TTP (Di of course has been here before – having officially opened our facility in January of 2010). 

We were glad that they came.  To quote one of our members, “it is important for all community leaders to recognise the valuable contributions that can be made by adults even if they have a disability”.

Here at The Tertiary PLACE, we are very passionate about providing authentic opportunities for our Members to take centre stage.  This was a chance too good to pass up, so we gave a couple of performances – a choir song “You’re The Voice” by John Farnham, a dance, an original song and a karaoke item.

Some people might wonder just how our choir works.  Some of our Members don’t have verbal language.  How can they participate?  What is the benefit for them?

Here’s a bit of an insight from one of our regular contributors, Ben.

“I am in a choir.  I am all about positive songs and music.  There are songs with all angry words and sounds.  Well I don’t like them.  The lyrics of songs can affect how you see the world.  I think I like the one we sang for the minister.  I like the words ‘we’re not going to sit in silence’.  I also like that I got to sing with the microphone.”

There is strength in unity and there is power is our combined voices.  We will continue to speak and sing the message of inclusion to all who will listen.

Today's Surprise

In the midst of a team meeting today we had a lovely reminder of how important it is to acknowledge the communicative attempts of our Members.

We were all busy writing about how important it is to have a positive outlook in life.  We talked about how some people find it difficult to look for the positive in life, and how perhaps sometimes we are all one of those people.

We came up with quite a list of our abilities:

• Basketball
• Playing piano
• Doing the haka
• Bowling
• Making people happy
• Helping
• Spelling
• Reading
• Advocacy
• All kinds of sport
• Typing

We were just talking, when one of our lovely ladies, stood up and determined that she had something to say. 

What a joy to share that moment.

It doesn't matter if someone communicates verbally, uses signing, keys on a qwerty board or relies on gesture, whatever the mode or method, their message is important and should be heard.

It's an honour to be part of moments like today when someone realises that their "voice" is valued.  Thank you TTP Wednesday crowd for reminding us of your abilities and sharing your lives with us.

The earth and her people

Today I want to discuss what is happening around the world.  Today it is impossible to see the news without seeing the devastation in Japan. It is difficult to watch all the images. There should be a warning on the news that the images are upsetting. The news of a tsunami and earthquake have been very alarming to the whole world.

There are things that are destroying the planet and we need to all do our part. People need to all work together so that our world is alright. I am not sure what needs to be done but I am sure that I am right about people needing to take care of the world. We should all always recycle.  We should not always be wasting power or resources.

There are things that affect the earth and there are things that affect people. I think that both of the issues that I have discussed in this post affect the earth and the people.

ben

Contributions to the World

How lovely it is to share time with such interesting and fun young adults.  Some of them we have known for quite a long time.  It’s a delight to watch them learn and grow and change.

It’s fascinating to talk with them and find out how they see their journey to adulthood.

Here’s one such conversation today.

“I want to talk about all the things I have learned since being a child.  I didn’t understand all the things about the world but now I am an adult I am more mature.  This is new for me to share myself.  I always thought that people didn’t want to hear from me but now I know better.  I do have things to share and I can contribute.”

And they certainly can contribute.

Today we had a long conversation with one of our Members about contributing to society.  It was interesting because he seemed to think that cleverness was his greatest, perhaps only contribution.  The conversation finished with the pleasant realisation that everyone has something to offer and everyone has value to our community and our society.  Being clever is not the “way we decide the value of a person’s life or contribution.”

I say AMEN to that!

A combined post by Angela and ben

Thursday's report

This morning we all went out in the car.  We delivered pamphlets.  We ran from house to house.  We cheered for each other.  I was soooooooooooooooooooooo excited to see my street today.  Then we had morning tea at Griffin Park where the Brisbane Lions practice.  They weren't there.

This afternoon at SportSTAR we had lots fun. We practised shooting, dribbling around the chairs and passing the ball.  It was hot.  We trained hard.

Then we played girls versus boys.  The girls were blue and the boys were red.  The boys made the most noise.  The girls got the most baskets.  Sara got the most points.  She is a great shooter.  The boys need to practice being good sports. 

lily

Insights

People with autism can feel driven.  What people with autism feel is that they are driven by their autism.  they want to be in charge of their life.  Too often they  must be at the mercy of their autism. This is annoying.  The thing that silly people say is that they should be able and capable of managing their disabilities.  They might sometimes be able to all but stop all the movement and sounds but will pay for it later with extra movement and sounds.  This is life with autism. 

There are things that people do not understand but I am always trying to teach.

ben

Working, working, working

Last Saturday, the 19th, we had a Bunnings BBQ.  It's great that Bunnings at Cannon Hill lets us do the BBQ there.  It's a good opportunity for fundraising.

It didn't rain on Saturday, but it was sure HOT under that little tent - no wonder the drinks were so popular.

We cooked sausages and onion all day.  We sold 65 kilograms of sausages!!!  That's a LOT of sausages. 

Thank you to all of our kind helpers.  If you came along you would have met some of our Members working hard to do the drinks and to help with the money. 

Bradley and Andrew started the day.  Sara took over from Andrew.  Kelly came at lunch time and Bradley took a break.  Lily finished the day singing while she worked.

We were all tired by the end, but Lily and Brad just went on and on and on.

See you all there in a month's time.

New Faces At TTP

Let me introduce a young friend of mine.  Let’s call him Ben. 

I’ve known my friend, Ben, for quite a number of years.  He’s approaching the end of his teen years.  Pretty soon he won’t be able to call himself a teenager.  Ben is a tall young man (or at least he’s tall to me, but I am on the short side of tall J) and he has very nice hair (I have straight hair so I do admire his set of waves and curls).

Ben’s an interesting conversationalist and he’s a bit of a deep thinker.  I think his mind is always full.  It’s not a simple thing for him to share his thoughts because it takes a bit of effort from him to get his message out and someone willing to spend time to hear what he has to say.

I think that sometimes Ben doubts himself and questions if people are interested in what he has to say.  I value his opinion and appreciate his thoughts.  I don’t always agree with what he says, and I tell him that.  I think he likes a bit of genuine discussion. 

Ben would probably tell you that I’m tough and make him work.  I hope he understands that my high expectations of him are because I do respect him.

I hope that Ben will share his thoughts, ideas, opinions and feelings with all of you through this blog.  I’m sure that you’ll enjoy them.  Here's his first post.  I hope there will be many more.

Ben in his own words ...

I have a condition which not everyone understands.

I need help to communicate.  I don’t speak.  I type.  It is called FC or Facilitated Communication.

The things that I need help with are to take care of myself and to go out into the community.  I like to go out but it can be stressful when people don’t understand my communication attempts.  I find the heat of the day and glaring light makes me feel tired and stressed.

I think that all sorts of people might read this.  I hope that we can all learn and share.

ben k

Amazing animals

Some of the things we have are based on animal senses.  For example submarines and sonar are based on the echolocation that dolphins use. 

Sometimes animals have better senses or abilities than we do.  For example sharks have receptors in their snout for detecting prey. 

Sometimes we can use animals for certain things.  For example, humans (primates) are the only animals that mammals that get affected by funnel web spider venom.  That means other mammals can be used to help make anti-venom.  Some people even use snake venom in medicines for strokes and heart attacks. 

Unlike us some animals never stop growing even when they reach adulthood – crocodiles don’t nor do snakes. 

Animals can have better basic senses than us.  Dogs can hear silent whistles that we can’t.  They also have a better sense of smell.  When we smell cakes, we smell a cake.  When dogs smell a cake, they can smell its ingredients like eggs and flour.

Animals don’t think like humans, but in many ways animals are more amazing than humans.  

Michael

Movie Review

I saw the movie, Tron-Legacy, the other week.  It was quite good.  It was a remake of an old movie where you got to jump in the 3D computer program and follow the main character round some futuristic levels.  It was very good.  I wished it didn’t end.

I didn’t recognize any of the stars I the movie.  I think they were good actors.

It was a dramatic movie and moved quite fast. 

The cinema was crowded but it didn’t affect my viewing pleasure. 

The movie was rated PG.  There was no swearing.  I think it is suitable for teenagers and parents.  There is a bit of violence in the movie so it is not suitable for young children. 

You can also see this movie in 3D.  I think it was good value to see the movie, not sure if I would buy the DVD.

I give it 4 out of 5.

Richard

Hello world ...

TTP can now tweet. 

Technology is helping us to interact and be included.  We all love our blog because we love to share about ourselves.  We have lots to say and are very excited for these new ways to share.

Many of the Members at TTP find it difficult to share their thoughts.  For some of us, verbal communication (speaking) isn't even the way we can or like to communicate.  Finally finding ways that we can share our thoughts is like finding our voice.

Typing on a blog or tweeting gives all of us a chance to talk.  Mr A said, "this is the best thing, giving me a turn to talk."

We don't know much about twitter yet.  It's a bit of a surprise package and mostly we like surprises.  We feel sure that this is going to be one of those surprises that we like.

Follow us on our blog, through facebook AND on twitter.  Hello world .... we've got things to say.

Validation

It was just a regular Tuesday really.  We did our regular Tuesday things – Functional Fitness, vocational activities, lunch preparation, swimming – nothing extra.  But, as we’ve come to discover there are many great moments, even in a regular day. 

Today’s great moment came as one of our new Members validated The Tertiary PLACE’s vision.   

Here are his own words, unsolicited, which he very carefully keyed on one of our donated computers:  “I think that I am an interesting and learning person.  I don’t like to be told that I can’t do things.  I understand that there are laws of the land that I must comply with but I don’t like being limited in my learning.  I might find that I don’t want to do any studies but I deserve the choice.  I do have interests in many fields and I would like to pursue learning in them.  I think that I am capable of giving to the world so I want to be an advocate for others like me.”

That’s why we do what we do. 

It means the world to us when our Members say things like, “Yes I can feel that I will be safe here with Angela and Nona and Mary and Chris and Hannah”.

As we take a deep breath and gather ourselves for the challenges of this year including the never-ending need for fundraising, we draw strength from our Members and their validation of our efforts. 

You’re more than welcome to join us on our journey.

Welcome to our new friends

Life does not stand still.

There are always changes.

Some of our TTP Members are at the start of a big change in their lives.  Tomorrow we welcome new people to TTP.

We all remember when we were like them and just finished school.  For some of us, it is a distant memory. 

Finishing school is a BIG change.

We all remember what it was like when we first finished school.  You miss your friends, but then you find them again and you can be friends as adults.  Some people from school we don't miss and we don't want to see again (unless of course they turn over a new leaf and become mature adults).

Some people are happy to leave school.  They feel free.   Some people are very sad.  Here at TTP we don't know how our new people will feel. 

We think that our new Members might feel scared.  Nervous.  Excited.  Anxious.  We will welcome them and do all we can to make them feel comfortable. 

We know what it feels like to be new.  When we first started at TTP we were new.  Now they are the new people.  We can teach them what we learnt, which is acceptance, tolerance and respect.

Here at The Tertiary PLACE, we're all in this together.  We hope you enjoy your time here.

The case of the missing tape measure

Have you ever had one of those days where you can't find what you're looking for?

We've had a week like that!

Our tape measure disappeared and could not be found.

We couldn't find it on Monday.

We couldn't find it on Tuesday.

We didn't even look on Wednesday because it was Australia Day and we were too busy celebrating.

We couldn't find it on Thursday.

We were going to give up on Friday.

Then the most amazing thing happened.  We all worked together as a team.

We looked high and low.  Far and wide.  Up and down. 

Vinnie looked.  Lily looked.  Crystal-Lee looked.  Sandra looked.

We couldn't find the little black tape measure ANYWHERE!!

There seemed little hope for our long lost tape measure.  How would we ever be able to measure again?  It was a tragic situation. 

The hero of our story started looking everywhere the tape measure shouldn't be.  He looked in the staffroom and in the art room and then finally .... the craft room.  There in plain view was the tape measure.  Who thought to look there?  Who is the tape measure hero?  Who is the finder of all things lost?  MICHAEL!!!!! 

Three cheers for Michael.  We know who we'll call next time something goes missing.

New year, new beginnings

2011 sure sarted with some drama.  The floods that affected Queensland upset us all.  We're glad to be safe and we'll do all we can to help people. 

Here are some of our thoughts about the floods.

"We need to save people's lives.  We raise money for donating.  We phoned people to check if they were okay."

"A man was in a boat and the boat sunk.  The man had to be rescued.  I saw it on the news."

"It really upset me and really upset everyone.  I saw people scrambling up onto rooptops to keep their feet and their stuff dry."

"The community got lots of volunteers.  Some people from Sydney came up to help too.  I feel happy because I know there are people out there who are willing to help me out."

"The flood was a natural disaster that flooded completely some houses."

"When I watched the floods, I felt that the weather wasn't fair on people.  It was like the wrath of the weather.  I thought about the farmers.  Some of them got hit twice."

"Some people drowned.  It is terrible for their families."

"The flood might be over for us but down south it is really copping some flooding.  They will need our help as well when the time comes.  It's the least we can do."

"I was really sorry.  It breaks my heart.  I saw it on TV.  It was really bad.  It was an emergency.  We needed the fire trucks, ambulance and police."

Now we have to clean up and take care of each other.  We can do that by helping our neighbours and our community.

Let's be kind and take care of each other.
Nathan, Nathan, Kelly, Ashley, Crystal-Lee, Vincent, Richard

What a wonderful world it would be!

The Tertiary PLACE is helping to Spread the Word to End the Word_™ (http://www.r-word.org/ ).  We are excited to join the on-going campaign to stop the use of the word ‘retard(ed)’ or as we call it, the “r-word.” 

We invite people everywhere to join us as we work to create a community of acceptance and inclusion for people with intellectual impairments by educating AGAINST the use of the r-word.

You can show your support in a number of ways:

1.     On our Facebook page, “like” us; “share” our status updates with your friends; or, “suggest” that your friends might ‘like’ our page

2.     Print and display the attached poster

3.     Talk to your network about not using the r-word, or

4.     Pledge to personally stop using the word and sign our Pledge Book at the Post-School Expo in March.

This is an important campaign and we hope that you can join us as we work to change the conversation.