Wednesday, May 7th, 2025
2:00pm - 3:15pm
Room 612
Concurrent Session:
Collaboration, Planning and Accessibility: Setting Out to Engage New Learners of SRV
Collaboration, Planning and Accessibility: Setting Out to Engage New Learners of SRV
In 2022, Community Ventures in Living (CVL) and LEL Home Services set out to brainstorm ideas about how to make SRV more accessible and relatable to our team members. The mission was to better equip our workforce to fulfill this expectation by raising consciousness and developing a strong awareness about the power of social roles. After two and half years of brainstorming, collaborating and planning, the summer of 2024 introduced a pilot workshop at each organization, which came to be known as “Exploring the Power of Social Valued Roles: An introduction based on Social Role Valorization”. This workshop was held over multiple sessions and elaborated on selected concepts of SRV. (not SRV in its entirety). This presentation will outline how the workshop was organized, what key theme, values, and teaching experiences were included, and the impact that it had for the participants and the organization as a whole.
Presenters
Valerie Smith​
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Valerie Smith started her work in the Human Services field in Colorado in 2007 and has worked in a variety of residential and community programs. In October 2020, she took on the role as Executive Director of Quality Services at LEL Home Services providing support for programs across Indiana, Ohio and New Mexico. Valerie understands the critical importance of quality initiatives, sound performance measurement, ongoing process improvement, and strategic planning.​
Jennifer Maddux
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Jennifer Maddux is the Deputy Chief of Operations at LEL Home Services and has worked with people with intellectual disabilities since 1999. After graduating from Hanover College, Jenny became an Employment Specialist and then a day program manager. In 2016, Jenny joined LEL and through studying and teaching SRV has been given the opportunity to see life through a whole new lens.
Ric Brown
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Ric Brown is the Executive Director of Community Ventures in Living in Indiana. As part of the founding team of the organization in 1992, Ric has worked to create a service response that is founded on the principle of SRV through a collaborative team approach through all levels of the organization.
Thomas Dukes
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Thomas Dukes is the Director of Services at Community Venture in Living in Indiana. He was an Associate Professor of Counseling at Rhode Island College for 16 years teaching students in graduate school and prior to that practiced as a child, adolescent and family therapist for over a decade. He earned his MSW at New York University and completed his PhD in Developmental Studies at Boston University. Tom is a father to a son with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair for mobility.