Presentable

Imagine!'s SmartHomes guru Greg Wellems and other members of the SmartHome team have been traveling across the state and the country giving presentations about Imagine!’s SmartHomes project to audiences at a wide variety of conferences and events. The desire of so many organizations to learn about this project serves as another reminder of how Imagine!'s SmartHomes continue to be recognized nationally as an innovative way to improve the efficiency and quality of services in the developmental disability field.

Greg is travelling to Ohio today and will be presenting tomorrow at the Ohio Association of County Boards Serving People with Developmental Disabilities Annual Convention. Greg will discuss the use of technology in the future considering the amendments to Ohio's waivers to allow for assistive technology becoming reality in 2011.

Good luck, Greg!

See more on upcoming, and previous, presentations by clicking here.

Mandy's Poetry

Mandy lives at the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder, and is using some of the technology in the SmartHome to write articles for the Imagine! employee newsletter. Here’s her latest contribution, an original poem:

The circle is round.
It was as round as a ball.
You can throw it on the beach,
Or you can put frosting on it.

A ball bounces on the ground.
It makes a very loud sound.
It makes a boom,
But the thread goes on a loom.

So, that’s the ball
That will fall
On the ground
And make a sound.

Who's Touring The SmartHome?

Last week, a delegation of health care professionals from Russia visited facilities across the Front Range, including a tour of the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont on Friday.

The delegates were selected to participate in the Open World program, an exchange program funded by the Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress.

An article about the Russians’ SmartHome tour ran on the front page of the Longmont Times-Call the following Saturday. Check out the article by clicking here.

And yesterday, Tom Darcy, Senior Consultant with IBM, toured the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder.

Gerald's Vegas Adventure

Check out these pictures from Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome resident Gerald’s big Vegas trip! Many thanks to SmartHome staff member Jessica Brennen, who did so much to make this trip a reality. The best quote of the trip is from Gerald’s Facebook page: “did not win big, but the best prize is waiting for me at home tomorrow! A big hug from my wife.”

The Russians Are Coming (To The SmartHome)

A group of Russian physicians are touring the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont today. Here’s hoping tour guide extraordinaire Sterling Wind will bust out his best Yakov Smirnoff impersonation: “In Russia, people take care of house. At SmartHome, house take care of people.”

Who's Touring The SmartHome?

Touring the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder on Tuesday: Benjamin Smith from the University of New Hampshire’s UNH Foundation. Pictured below, l to r: SmartHome resident Donna, Imagine! CEO Mark Emery, Benjamin Smith, and SmartHome resident Gerald.

Anthony Gets Social

Imagine! and members of the SmartHomes team believe that Social Media provides individuals with developmental disabilities opportunities to engage in community without barriers and without judgment. Check out this picture of Charles Family SmartHome resident Anthony as he updates his Facebook status.



Want more information on why we encourage our residents to use Social Media? Well, many different organizations serving individuals with developmental disabilities here in Colorado who use the word “community” in either their mission statement or even as part of their name. It is in Imagine!’s mission statement.

Social Media is all about community. There are groups out there on the internet for every interest, hobby, or pastime you can think of, and a lot more you probably never thought of. And technology has made accessing those communities relatively easy, even for those with significant disabilities. So it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for organizations with a stated mission of providing community access and opportunities for people with disabilities to not at least explore this new avenue of access to communities.

Is having consumers engage in Social Media is a risk-free endeavor? Of course not. But neither is taking a consumer to the recreation center, or to a baseball game, or even to work. We all accept those risks as part of what we do because we think it is important to provide opportunities for community interaction, and we take steps to mitigate those risks. Why can’t we do the same for Social Media?

And here’s an even more important consideration, the main reason Imagine! encourages consumers to use social media. In the virtual world, a person’s disability is invisible. Say, for example, a consumer joins a Facebook group dedicated to the Denver Broncos. All the other people in the group just see the consumer as a fellow fanatic – someone just like them. The consumer can engage in these online communities and conversations without barriers and without judgment. That meets Imagine!’s mission and goals in an incredible powerful, and empowering, way.