Reimagining Supports

Reimagining Supports: How to Develop Authentic Connections that Go Beyond “Services”

Tim Vogt

How do you use the time in Day Programs, HPC Services, Job Follow-Along, etc. to build into the future? By working toward using those services to develop connections that might become relationships, identities that can blossom and eventually be as strong as “disability” for people, and experiences that lead in ways we can’t imagine, but have a chance to be more than just “more services.” Going beyond “services” is about capacity building – paying close attention to creating space for explorations, going for easy wins, embracing failure and remaining optimistic, investing in where the energy leads, and establishing a culture that encourages it. We will walk through all of these concepts, and work with the world as it is, not in theory or in what we hope it would be. This isn’t an exercise in fantasy. Money just buys time and what we do with the time matters so much. Essentially, we have to hack how we’ve historically done things.  

Tim Vogt

Tim Vogt lives in Bellevue, KY with his family and works at Starfire, in Cincinnati, OH. He oversaw the organization as it grew from a small non-profit into an organization serving over 500 people. In 2009, he started a process of understanding Starfire’s work in perpetuating the segregation of people with disabilities. From 2009 to 2016, he led Starfire’s Board, staff, and constituents on a change process to reinvent the organization and reorient its resources toward personalized, hyper-local, long-term investments in inclusive relationships and community building. Vogt is currently working on how to authentically address the issues of scale and equity that pop-up when segregation is no longer a program design option. In particular, he has centered this work on family creativity and leadership.