Featured Stories

Always the consummate resource for families, BACI has created UNTAPE:

About UNTAPE

UNTAPE is a site where people with disabilities and their families come to share practical tips for cutting through red tape and getting the help you need.

Governments and bureaucracies are supposed to be there to help us. And the people who work there mean well. But systems, forms, rules and requirements can get complicated. And if you need to deal with more than one office... or, worse, more than one level of government... well, then it can become a nightmare.

That's where UNTAPE comes in. Every day, someone like you finds a way through the bureaucratic maze. And this site is where they can come to share what they've learned.  Do you know how to get services for people with disabilities? Found a way to get a permit quickly? A community program most people don't know about? A way to bypass a ministry's voicemail and talk to a human being? You can share all these and more here... and find out what people like you have discovered, too.

Tyze & PRACL: A Case Study

When PRACL began working on implementing a personalized life planning process for its members, they found that it this was tough to achieve for members who lacked friends, and whose families often lived elsewhere. The organization decided it was time to meet the challenge of their mission statement. Why Tyze? Helping personal networks grow has been in their mission statement “forever,” but PRACL knows from experience that friendship isn’t easy.

Located in a remote but vibrant BC city that is accessible only by ferry or airplane, PRACL, the Powell River Association For Community Living, has 250 employees supporting over 400 members. The organization has many strengths and there is plenty of inclusive social activity in the small city, but direct person-to-person connections with community members that extend beyond group activities have been less frequent. When PRACL began talking with individuals who lived in group homes about moving, they found that separating the voices of service providers from those of members was tough to achieve for members who lacked friends, and whose families often lived elsewhere.

The organization decided it was time to meet the challenge of their mission statement to ensure that the people they serve “have friendships and a personal network of unpaid advocates.” After evaluating various approaches, PRACL chose Tyze as the strategic tool to help make personal networks happen.  Read the rest of the story over at Tyze...

From Al's recent blog post:

In keeping with our interest and belief that Europe offers a great window and learning laboratory on how to tackle our social/economic and environmental challenges, I commend a refreshing European Union report: Reinventing Europe Thru Innovation. Download Reinvent Europe Thru Innovation panel_report_en-1.

Readers of this blog will know of my interest in nurturing a culture of continuous innovation. Through my work with Social Innovation Generation and the inspiration of my colleagues there, I have become a great believer in Einstein's observation about responding to the dangers of nuclear power:  The thinking that it took to get us into this mess is not the thinking that will get us out of it.  All invention and innovation starts with new thinking.  Thinking is indeed an important action not something to be treated as incidental. If poverty, environmental degradation aren't reduced by current efforts; if the health of our families and our communities are under assault we need a big re-think.

To get more and better practical social inventions and social innovations that can be implemented and scaled up, we should pay attention to the inner working of the innovators' mind.

The European Union Report uses John Kao's definition of innovation: “the ability of individuals, companies and entire nations to continuously create their desired future.” Innovation Nation (2007).  Read more below...

My wife Vickie Cammack is clear - our work at PLAN and in social innovation generally cannot succumb to 'either - or' thinking.  Instead she has infused a practice of, 'both - and'.  A paradox to be sure but one we see as necessary to move beyond the status quo and to address the roots of tough, incorrigible problems.  As a result our antennae are finely tuned to activists with the same disposition. 

Adam Kahane exemplifies such discipline and his new book, Power and Love - A Theory and Practice of Social Change provides insight, inspiration and illumination into dealing with complex, seemingly 'beyond hope' social/political/environmental challenges.

So much of our advocacy assumes a 'winner/loser' or 'good/bad' mentality. We analyze in a way that leads to that conclusion; we activate strategies that anticipate this and we inevitably get outcomes that reinforce this pre- judgement.  The result: frustration at dealing with big systems with much power and expertise at batting external threats away.  On the occasions when we do make an advance, we often conclude over time, nothing much has changed.  This can breed cynicism and subtly entrench a victim mentality in our work and campaigning.

There is another way.  Adam Kahane has worked on some of the toughest challenges in the world and Power and Love reveals a way of thinking and acting that is truly exhilarating.  Adam does not offer instant solutions, or miracle cures. His critique is penetrating and his insights are challenging.

Here's a book for Dad's - The Boy in the Moon - by award winning Globe and Mail journalist, Ian Brown. It's the story of a father who, while searching for the meaning of his 13 year old son's life, discovers the meaning of his own - as a father, husband, man.  For his efforts Ian has won the two biggest literary prizes for non- fiction in Canada: The BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction book prize and the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non Fiction.

Discovering ourselves through our children is not uncommon.  Who better to burst our preconceived notions and perfect construction of reality?  From vulnerable, dependent infants whose lives revolve around ours, or is it vice versa, to magnificent persons with unimagined gifts, powerful wills and a yearning for freedom. It is a journey all fathers are on whether we know it or not.  Ian Brown's talent as a writer reveals that journey with utter candor, and an eye for detail.  He is relentless in his search for the truth of his son Walker's purpose.  Fathers who have read, The Boy in the Moon are unanimous - this is a book they can relate to.

CBC News - The National - In Depth & Analysis - The Boy in the Moon

Here is the speech Al gave in Vancouver [on June 9th] at the first ever Public Salon presented by Sam Sullivan's Global Civic Policy Society.  The evening was full of great speakers, capped off by Al.  His words and our stories inspired the 500 people present, thus i thought i should share them with you:

I have seven minutes to convince you that people with disabilities represent an untapped resource to address our pressing social and environmental challenges.

Here’s how I came to that certainty.

Twenty – one years ago, a small band of parents came together to address a seemingly unrelated question:  What will happen to our sons and daughters with disabilities when we die?

It won’t come as any surprise to you but behind every person with a disability are a Mom and a Dad who worry  about them, forever.  Who nag, Sam, if you don’t eat your vegetables you’ll never grow up to become Mayor or discover eco-density! Rick, how are you going to wheel around the world if you don’t get enough sleep?

We created Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN) to address the future well being of our sons and daughters with a disability.  Little did we know we were just ahead of a demographic tsunami – thanks to medical advancements and higher social expectations the world is witnessing the first generation of people with disabilities to outlive their parents.  Since then our social invention, our books, our ideas have spread around the world to over 40 locations....

On May 13 – 14, 2010, the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation hosted a meeting of the ‘Social Innovation Lab’ in Toronto.  Here is Vickie Cammack telling the Tyze story and offering insights gained throughout.

Vickie Cammack on Tyze from J.W. McConnell Family Foundation on Vimeo.

As posted at citycaucus.com: Sam Sullivan hosts another salon June 9th and you are invited,

Since the ending of his term as Mayor of Vancouver, Sam Sullivan has been changing the dial of his life and concentrating on his passion for dialogue and ideas. Part of that expression goes into his Global Civic Policy Society, which has hosted a number of "speed speaker" lunches. In those invited occasions, Sam gives a line-up of guests to provide a very strict 5-minute talk on a topic, with the hope of getting everyone out of the room and back to their offices in just over an hour.

Those familiar with non-political side of Sam Sullivan know about his passion for the Salon. The Salon was made famous by 18th-century Enlightenment Paris where leading intellectuals and movers and shakers would come together to share ideas.

He has hosted these affairs for over a decade, with most of them at his dining table. Now Sam wants to take his salons to a larger stage. On June 9th between 8:00 PM and 9:30 PM he's hosting his first public event at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre. Some of the fascinating personalities that make Vancouver the special place that it is will be giving a glimpse of their experiences and ideas at a public salon hosted by Sam. Tickets are affordably priced at $15, and you can reserve your seat by following this link.