Announcement. Welcome to Spectrum, Shelley Nessman!

August 4, 2011

Dear friends;

We are very excited to announce that Shelley Nessman will be joining our teams as of Sept 12^th in a new position as Consultant on Strategic Initiatives for a one year term. Shelley comes to us with a long history of working with many different agencies in various capacities, most recently with Community Living BC for the past three years as their Self Advocate advisor. Her responsibilities included linking families, self advocates, agencies and aboriginal communities, among others, and she has quickly becoming a known and loved leader around the province. Before that, Shelley was a Microboard Facilitator for the Vela Microboard Association.

One of her projects most recently has been the facilitation of story-telling workshops around the province, at which people with disabilities and those who support them come together to tell their stories to each other and recognize the importance of sharing history and dreams.

In her work with us over the next year, Shelley will support the development of new initiatives that support our strategic plan. As well, she will continue to present to groups as a facilitator and workshop leader for special projects. Given her experience in so many diverse situations, we’ve also asked her to provide input on our leadership model.

We look forward to an exciting year of working together and forging new alliances around the province.

Yours,

Aaron

On behalf of Spectrum’s Directors and Associate Directors

About Aaron

After 30 lovely years as Director of Research, Training and Development, Spectrum Society during which I supported self advocacy groups and provided training and workshops to other agencies and groups, I became particularly interested in inclusive research groups and studied towards a MA and then, to my surprise, a PhD. I am the author/illustrator, editor and co-editor of a dozen books and currrently working on the 13th, which is about person centered planning. My passion is supporting networks to share person-centred alternatives in how people with disabilities can be facilitated to live lives where their gifts are necessary components in their communities. I currently do this by teaching at Douglas College where I have worked in the Disability and Community Studies program, as well as in the Indigenous Pathway and I have also taught at JIBC. These days I get to spend more time in my garden, traveling, reading and with my family.

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