http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter en-us Thu, 9 Sep 2010 13:15:42 GMT Caravel CMS RSS App http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200001.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 1 January 2000

[Note on 12 January 2007: Some of the resources listed in this edition of the Newsletter are no longer existent or no longer free.]

Happy New Year! It is my privilege to begin a second year of the Companion Resources Newsletter. This newsletter is an attempt to bring the latest technological resources to bear upon the task of building community right where you are. Often, I point to interesting web sites that feature an important model for community builders. This month, I will feature a mixture of practical tools for communication. As always, the links mentioned in this newsletter can be found on the Companion Resources web site at http://www.cresources.org

Communication, whether by phone or e-mail, is important to many community-builders these days. To be able to find information quickly and build networks of common interest around the world is a tremendously useful aspect of our modern technology. The resources gained offer a headstart in building communities in our local settings.

Whenever useful resources are free or at a very low cost, then we really have a winning combination! I would like to highlight some of the resources I have found most useful. I've started a new section of Companion Resources web site called "Free Resources" to collect some of the most useful links. I invite you to submit your own favorites for my review. You can find the web site at http://www.cresources.org/free and you can write to me at infocresources.org via e-mail.

Fax machines are a routine part of life for most businesses and other offices. However, not many homes have fax machines. Most folks realize that they can send out faxes via their personal computers. Anything that can be printed to a printer can be "printed" to a fax program instead, which automatically dials the number you provide and sends your document to any fax machine. In addition, with low-priced scanners available to hook up to your computer, a document available only on paper can be faxed almost as easily.

However, the disadvantage to having a computer fax is the awkwardness of receiving faxes. Most people don't want to keep their computer and fax program on all of the time, even if that program can sort out the signals and answer only when it's a fax, sending your regular phone calls ringing through to your telephone. Recently, a number of computer-based services now make it possible for you to give out a separate fax number and receive that fax via e-mail or on the web. I'll tell you about the two services that I use.

eFax
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*eFax* is probably the easiest and most sophisticated of these fax programs. The basic eFax service is free as is the software viewer that you download to read your faxes. eFax gives you a random number somewhere in the U. S. and when people send faxes to that number, they show up in your e-mail box as attachments to an e-mail message. You can then read those messages through the special viewer on your screen or print them on your printer. There are a few ads, but they are small and unobtrusive. The only downside to this service is that your eFax number is almost certain to be a long distance number for you and therefore likely for others most likely to fax you. However, many faxes are long distance anyway and because they go through quickly cost the sender only pennies.

The folks at eFax also have some premium options, which, for a low monthly fee, address these concerns and add even more sophisticated services. You can go to www.efax.com and read all about the options. I've found that the free service works fine for me. You can send a message to my eFax number at 815-333-0951.

uReach
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*uReach* is an even more amazing service! A uReach number is a toll-free number in which anyone can send you a fax _without_ paying long distance. The great thing about it is that for receiving only occasional faxes, your cost is also $0.00! Up to 30 minutes a month is free and accumulates to a maximum of 60 minutes. The other wonderful thing about uReach is that it also can receive voice mail messages and even e-mail! These messages can be accessed via your special web site at www.ureach.com or via telephone as you dial your own uReach number. In the last number of months, a whole array of services have been added that are even more amazing. Check it out for yourselves at www.ureach.com. There are other similar services out there, but none that I know of that give such a vast array of services for free. And if you need extra minutes (and I haven't yet) the rates are much less than telephone calling cards. Feel free to send a fax or leave a voice mail message for me at 877-214-9838.

*******
All of these services assume that you have both a telephone and a computer of at least Pentium class running Windows 95 or later. (Sorry, I'm not aware of how these services work with Macs; maybe someone who has one can let me know.) Anyway, if you need to upgrade either a phone or computer, there are a number of options on the Companion Resources web site. Let me just highlight CR Electronics, my newest online store, which has both. The site is easy to navigate and you can compare features side by side. You can safely use your credit card and the service is fast and easy, with products delivered right to your door. Go to http://crelect.vstoreelectronics.com and see for yourself.
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Free Internet Access
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Until now, many persons shied away from the World Wide Web because of the expense of $20-22 a month for full Internet access. Many people were able to get free e-mail from Juno (www.juno.com) and contented themselves with that. However, the picture is changing. Since the beginning of the year, Juno is offering full Internet access, including e-mail, the World Wide Web, and even space for your own web site for free! All that is needed (assuming you have Windows 95 or later) is an upgrade in software.

More services are emerging that offer free Internet access. Often it comes at the expense of having to put up with annoying ads popping up in windows all over the place (like the ones on Juno). However, there is at least one free Internet service provider (ISP) that is trying a different approach. Freewwweb promises no annoying ads as you browse; however, in exchange, their home page must be your home page. In other words, when you open your browser, you have to go through their home page to get anywhere else. Presumably, that page has plenty of ads that support their free service. However, that seems much better than all of the pop-up windows or banner ads on every page. And Freewwweb (which can be found at www.freewweb.com) has an impressive number of local phone numbers which make it accessible from almost anywhere in the United States. (Sorry to those of you in other countries, but most of these services are limited to the U. S. only.)

I have not tried either of these new services, so I don't know how they compare with regular ISP's or services like AOL and Prodigy. Your comments are welcomed. We can learn together!

Greeting cards
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Finally, there is something on the fun side (although genuine encouragement of others is certainly part of building community), free electronic greeting cards from Blue Mountain Arts. There are a number of sites that offer free greeting cards, but Blue Mountain (at www.bluemountain.com) is my favorite. There is more on this site than I can possibly describe including ideas for many holidays and occasions and cards available in many languages as well.

So now that you and your friend both have web access as well as e-mail, send a card!

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You'll find these links to these resources and more by going to the Companion Resources home page (http://www.cresources.org). While you are there, check out some of our online stores. You can order quickly what you need and have it delivered to your door. You also help support the ongoing work of Companion Resources!
*******

Next month, I hope to review one more "freebie" and also do a book review of an interesting book I am reading. Until then, keep building community!

Paul D. Leichty
Fort Wayne, Indiana
PDLeichtycresources.org

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Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****



Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:21:41 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200002.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 2 February 2000

Warm greetings from Companion Resources! In this month of love and hearts, I would like to highlight a book that spoke to me of the courage and love of a mother and son. This is the first time I've done a book review in this newsletter.

*******
At Christmas break, my daughter brought home a book from her college library and invited my wife to read it. Soon I was being encouraged to read it as well. I decided it was time to get our own copy. It came in time to wrap up as a Christmas gift.

Reading A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage by Beth Kephart has been a gift to me. More than once, I was overwhelmed to tears. I commend the book to anyone interested in an honest, yet uplifting look at what it is like to live with and love a child who is different.

Beth Kephart is a writer by profession, but the story she tells is anything but the objective technical writing she describes as her daily job. In an unusual first person, present tense style, she brings the reader face to face with the myriad of emotions she experienced during the early childhood of her son, Jeremy. At the same time, she attempts to step into Jeremy's world, thereby allowing us as readers to understand more fully what it is like to perceive the world so very differently than most of us do.

Kephart gives us her son's diagnosis right up front in the first sentence of the preface. It is a diagnosis that frustrates many parents (including my wife and me at one point). The older term is "autism" but that is not precise enough for the medical community these days. However, the catch-all term, PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified) can be even more frustrating. What it mostly says is that a child has some of the features associated with autism, but cannot be pigeon-holed into any of the existing categories of what medical community now considers a continuum of "autism spectrum disorders."

In many ways, that lack of specificity is fine with Kephart, who constantly battles the perceptions associated with autism and PDD by insisting that her son is unique, intelligent, and creative. Her seven-year struggle, chronicled in this book, is to shape Jeremy's environment in ways that will allow him to communicate and express who he is. The stories will make you laugh and cry as they unfold.

While Beth Kephart emphasizes the courage of her son, it is her own courage and tenacious love that is just as striking. Most of all, it is the honesty with which she faced her own weakness and emotions that grips the reader.

More than once, I ached for this mother and other parents like her, that they would have a more supportive community around them. For in many ways, even with a loving father in the family, their journey as mother and son was a lonely one. How, I wonder, can we as a society do more to support parents on this kind of fearful and wonderful pathway in raising a child who is different?

Yet, at the same time, I see in Beth Kephart, like many parents raising a child with special needs, a resourceful mother who launches out and builds her own community of support around her son. In doing so, she goes through all of the thoughts and feelings of a parent struggling between protecting and letting go of her precious child.

A Slant of Sun illustrates vividly, that even with all the awareness and study of disabilities that we have in our culture, there are still some simple tools for overcoming. Active unconditional love, a love that listens to the other person, is the most essential ingredient. Beyond that is simply good common sense.

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Some major changes are in the works for our family and will undoubtedly become the source of further issues of the Companion Resources Newsletter as we continue into this millennium year. A sneak peak is available on my personal web pages accessible through the Companion Resources home page.

And remember, I always enjoy hearing your responses as together we become "People using Technology building Community."

Give someone a hug today!

Paul D. Leichty
PDLeichtycresources.org

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Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****





Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:23:22 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200003.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 3 March 2000

Curing or caring? Which is most important? I have some thoughts to share on that in this month's Companion Resources Newsletter. Thanks for coming along on our journey to build community!

A most unusual envelope arrived in the mail the other day. It came in the midst of our packing up our belongings and getting ready to move on to new adventures. These two events set me to thinking about curing and caring.

The envelope was addressed to "The Leichty Family" and came from a person and address in a neighboring state that I didn't recognize. The envelope itself was made of a kind of filmy clear plastic that allows one to peek in on the contents. Inside was an invitation booklet consisting of several pages, tied together with an elegant-looking bow with the cover of the same plastic material. The invitation was to a "Gala" to raise money for research to cure a leading cause of disabilities. The event is sponsored by an organization that is highly respected and which our family has supported with some token contributions.

The gala itself features celebrities that I recognized in the roles of Master of Ceremonies, Special Artist, and Special Guest and Speaker. It was all very impressive, especially the price! A nice thought, I told myself, but far more money than I could afford. Besides, I don't have the "Black Tie Preferred."

Instead of the upward mobility required to attend such an event, we find that we are scaling down in these days. We are selling or giving away furniture and books, and we are sorting through mounds of paper and giving the folks at the recycling center plenty of business. Our two-story, three-bedroom house is on the market and we are preparing to move into a small two-bedroom apartment.

We are scaling down precisely because we care about persons affected by this and similar causes of disabilities. We are not really giving up all that much, because our new apartment is attached to a modest common living area. On the other side of that living area are three bedrooms for three young men with disabilities for whom we will be live-in caregivers. It is an arrangement that challenges me to truly live out caring for others in community.

Would I like to see these disabilities cured? Certainly! However, I have to ask myself at what cost. The fine organization that wants our family at its gala event is trying to raise thousands and millions of dollars to put into the latest high-tech medical efforts at a cure. At the same time, there are reportedly 6,000 people on a waiting list in our state alone waiting for basic care, particularly housing. My wife and I can care for three of them. When our new community is fully developed, it will still allow only 24 persons with disabilities to interact regularly with two to four dozen other persons. Clearly, our efforts are a drop in the bucket.

Yet, I am happy to put my life into the "caring" efforts. Perhaps all of the money will eventually bring some cures, but right now, I know there are real people right around me who will never benefit even if those cures come, but need the kind of healing that comes with caring. I'm glad there are persons who put their money as well as their lives into caring as well as curing.

We live in a society that wants quick fixes for everything. Unfortunately, our yearning for a fix sometimes diverts the dollars to a relative handful of professionals who appear to have the ability to create this fix.

Certainly, any parent with a child with disabilities would like see that child live a normal life. At the same time, families struggle as much with the social effects as with the disability itself. The struggles are with questions of housing, employment, socialization, and religious opportunities for those who are different right now. If we as a society could learn to accept and live with differences, we might find that genuine healing and real community come not so much from the attempt to "fix" everyone to be "normal" as from valuing the differences and learning to live interdependently in a community where everyone can offer their gifts.

That is what our family hopes to do more fully in the months and years to come. I trust that you will also find ways to be companions in the communities in which you live.

Until next month, may God bless you with the true healing of those who care!

Paul D. Leichty
PDLeichtycresources.org

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Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****




Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:24:20 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200004.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 4 April 2000

Goldenrod. It is the name of a wild flower that I know very little about. (After this summer, I hope to know more!) But "Goldenrod" is also the name of a community, a community where our family now lives. "Goldenrod" is already an important word for us and will become even more so in the years to come. Goldenrod will undoubtedly affect the content of this newsletter greatly. So it is only fitting that I begin to introduce it to you. First, though, a word about the future of Companion Resources.

The seemingly endless noise of traffic has been replaced by the clip-clop of horses pulling their buggies. Instead of squirrels running up and down the walnut trees, there are bunnies hopping across the fields and cows grazing contentedly across the drive. There are also birds--remarkable creatures of many varieties with amazing habits. This is just a sampling of life in the Crystal Valley, the heart of Northern Indiana Amish country. Although having descended on one side of the family from Alsatian Amish-Mennonite roots, I do not know my spiritual cousins very well. But I have a feeling I will gain a new sense of what community is like as I live here.

However, while we will be neighbors to and learn from the Amish community Goldenrod is a community of a different sort. It is built around the needs of persons with autism spectrum disorders. Persons with autism and related conditions are often labeled by the modern medical establishment with the term "pervasive developmental disorder." An amazing amount of knowledge is being gleaned about a whole spectrum of conditions ranging from extreme mental retardation to persons who are intellectually brilliant but think so differently that they still find it hard to fit into our society and culture.

*******
To learn more about autism and autism spectrum disorders, go to http://www.companionresources.org/Learning/Autism. I hope to keep updating these pages with the best resources available on the "net."
*******

Goldenrod has begun with one duplex in the setting I've described. Each side has provisions for three residents and a set of caregivers, usually a married couple. My wife and I are the first caregiving couple and our son is the first resident. We now have a second resident and plans are underway for filling the third room.

But more than just a building, Goldenrod represents a vision. Signs on the 18 acre site indicate where three more such duplexes are to be built. Across the drive which is now a grassy field, at least 10 senior citizen duplexes are envisioned. Out our dining room window, we hope to see a community center that will seat 200 people for gatherings or meals. Across the way, a plot has already been plowed by our Amish neighbors for a community garden. The rabbits are coming soon and there are many more exciting ideas in various stages of development.

I leave you with one of the key principles of Goldenrod. Traditionally, persons with disabilities were thought of as almost completely dependent on others. In recent years, the movement of advocacy has put a lot of emphasis on helping such persons to be independent in their communities. However, the reality is that none of us are completely independent. Rather, we all use the abilities we have been given and seek out ways of making up for the things we can't do so well. We are inter-dependent.

That is how it should be for all of us. Goldenrod is a vision of a community in which persons with autism can be cared for, but can also learn to give of their abilities. Caregivers, volunteers, and "foster grandparents" will learn to give and to care for persons who are "different," but will also learn to receive of the gifts, simple yet profound, that persons with autism can offer.

That vision is just beginning, but I feel humbled and blessed to have a part in making that vision visible to more people just by living in love each day. My experience tells me that while it is not easy to live this way, it is possible as I allow the power of God's Spirit to be the primary force in my life.

We are in a season when Christians celebrate Easter, God's profound gift of new life shown in the resurrection of Jesus. That gift of new life is available to all of us as we give ourselves in love to all of God's children, no matter what their abilities or disabilities.

Blessings to all of you!

Paul D. Leichty
The Goldenrod Community
Middlebury, Indiana
PDLeichtycresources.org

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Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****



Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:25:17 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200005.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 5 May 2000

When a child is born, parents are naturally reminded of their own childhood and growing up years. Parents dream of a life that is just as good or better than their own for the baby they hold in their arms.

As I write, it is Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. Memorial Day is a day to remember and grieve for those whose dreams have been cut off. It is time to remember especially those who have died in war.

Yet, memories and grief are not reserved only for the dead. That is the subject for this month's Companion Resources Newsletter.

As I said, memories and grief are not reserved only for the dead. Some parents grieve for their living children.
* Sometimes the dreams die at birth as a child is born with a significant disability.
* Sometimes the dreams fade away in the early years in more gradual realization that this child is "different."
* Sometimes the hopes are shattered as teenage and young adult children start showing the signs of a mental illness.

Whatever the case, parents still have memories of what might have been. And even after years of loving and accepting a child for who he or she is, those waves remembrance and of grief come back in new ways to be experienced and worked through again.

This month I had a vivid reminder of that in my own life. As readers of this newsletter know, my family recently moved into a new rural community setting, focused around adults with autism spectrum disorders. My wife and I are caregivers and our son, our oldest child, is one of the residents.

However, this community is also very near to my home community. It's less than 20 miles from where I was born, grew up, and went to college. It was at college where I met my wife, we joined the church on campus, and got married there. Across the street is the hospital where both of our children were born. Every Sunday morning, the college radio station broadcasts the morning worship from that church and the major joys and concerns from a thousand people are broadcast to many hundreds more throughout the county and beyond.

So it was on a Sunday morning, that I, the former pastor and church leader, stayed home from church. I offered to stay home to take care of one of our residents who can't handle crowds while the rest of the family visited another church. So I listened to the service on the radio. Or at least I tried.

The service was a bit different this Sunday morning, for it was graduation Sunday on the college campus. One of the pastors, with whom I had gone to seminary, started announcing the names of the graduates who came from that congregation. Some were names I recognized from twenty-some years before...the little dark-haired girl, daughter of the professor...two fellows with the same first name as our son (and we thought we were giving a name not often used!)...the daughter of my oldest first cousin....

Suddenly, I realized that these were all children born around the same time as our son. It hit me in a new way that our son had just celebrated his 22nd birthday. This was my own alma mater. This could have been the day of my own son's graduation from college!

A deep sadness hit me, and before my wife could get out the door, the tears came. What would my son have been if he had that one chemical lacking in his brain? A musician like me? A writer like his sister? A computer whiz? Ready to head to law school like his uncle? Or even to medical school, perhaps? Would he have considered seminary training and become a pastor?

As the religion professor gave the sermon about all of the potential of those graduates, I had to turn the radio off. It was too hard to hear.

As I sat in the silence, I had to wonder what I was doing sitting there alone at the top of a country hill on graduation Sunday? There were many mixed-up emotions.
* I wondered whether and when to awaken our resident who needed to stay home.
* I wondered whether my son would find the right environment for a job.
* I wondered if I could ever balance day-to-day needs of the persons I was caring for with the organizational needs to keep a program going.
* I wondered if I was spiritually prepared to do all that I could to love my son and all of those others in my care.

I realized that I was probably feeling more sorry for myself than for my son.
* It was I who longed to feel proud of a college honors student rather than a person who struggled mightily to get through high school.
* It was I who wanted to feel the accomplishment of someone who would get a great job rather than just getting a job.
* It was I who wanted someone to follow in my footsteps rather than having to monitor his footsteps into adulthood.

Nathan's needs are simple. What brings him pleasure is simple. And the experiences I have had because of my son are tremendously valuable; I would not want to give them up. And yet, finding those emotions surfacing again, I need to acknowledge the sadness and realize that the dreams die hard. I need to face again in a new way both the simplicity of what I have been called to do and complexity of doing it in the world in which we live.

So I've decided it's fitting to grieve again. In grieving, I gain an even greater sense of the realism and the wonder and the honor in what I have been called to do--to build community with persons who usually are at the margins at the very center of its life.

*******
I wish I had more resources to suggest on the Internet for dealing with grief. Perhaps the most fruitful site I know right now is the Pathways to Promise site (http://www.pathways2promise.org/) which has some good articles on ministry to families dealing with a loved one with mental illness. Simply type "grief" into their search engine to find the articles.

Another article that I did find gives some suggestions on how to help persons with disabilities themselves deal with grief. It is found at http://thearc.org/faqs/grief.html
*******

Hopefully, I will get around to updating the web site sometime soon. Until then, may you find encouragement and hope through your own community of support, even in the midst of grieving. May the tears water the seeds of new life in your own community.

Blessings and peace!

Paul D. Leichty
The Goldenrod Community
Middlebury, Indiana
PDLeichtycresources.org

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Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
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Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:33:25 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200006.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 6 June 2000

Greetings to community builders! This month's issue focuses on the use of technology in the midst of our larger efforts to develop community life. Does technology simplify our lives or make them more complex? Before we answer that question, a word from our sponsor...(!)

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Perhaps that "timeout" symbolizes the issue that I have most grappled with in the last number of weeks. It is the issue of money. It is the issue of good management of resources. It is the issue of simplicity in community in the midst of a complex and fractured world. How do we find the appropriate balance?

After living most of my life in the city, I now live with a view onto a rural county road on which nearly as many horse-drawn vehicles as gasoline-powered vehicles drive. I am fascinated and drawn to my spiritual cousins, the Amish. I affirm many of their choices for the simple lifestyle that makes community possible in a far different way than I experience. Yet I have chosen to live in a way that is more in tune with the larger society and allows me to make a larger impact on that society.

I have encountered a number of challenges over the last few weeks that have driven me to ask some deeper questions. Can I live a simple life and use modern technology? Does the technology I use actually simplify my life or make it more complex? How do I make decisions on purchasing and using the latest technology? How do my decisions affect the community life I want to build?

I am in charge of helping the organization I serve think through the issues of technology and information systems and come up with solutions that help us pay the bills so we can continue building community. There are many ways to make our lives simpler or enhance our efforts through technology, but we have to be very selective simply because we can't afford most of them.

Do we need new Pentium III computers? Or can we make do with someone else's original Pentium castoffs? For the most part, we choose the used computers.

Are three computers in a new location enough to warrant a network? Are we all going to need to be on the Internet? Can we find ways to link back to the network in the home office? Always there are trade-offs between the easiest solution and the cheapest.

And how about ways to enhance our image in the visual age of the 21st century? How much time and energy do we devote to a web site? Do we need a digital camera and/or a camcorder? Does it make a difference whether the goal is public relations or training new and ongoing staff? How much should we spend? Will it simplify our lives or make them more complex?

Of course, the issue is always most difficult when something goes wrong. That's where I have been making more personal decisions on technology as well. My trusty laptop on which I previously relied for almost all of my work is in the shop for repairs. So the questions surface again: Do I as a computer professional need the latest system? Or can I get by with less memory, less hard drive space, and a smaller screen? Do I put money into renting to get by or taking the opportunity to upgrade?

Pretty soon, the very thought of making all of these decisions makes life pretty complex. I am far from having all of the answers, but I have found that I can go back to a few basic questions to guide me:

1. What is it that I as a person or we as an organization are called to do? What is our mission?
2. What are the tools that we need to carry out that mission? Do we need high tech tools or are there other solutions just as efficient?
3. How are we going to communicate with each other in order to truly work together to accomplish what we have been called to?
4. How will having or not having a particular tool of technology affect our everyday life?

The answers are not easy, but we must continue to do two very difficult and seemingly contradictory things:
1. We must communicate on behalf of and build community around those who are most marginalized by our with our society.
2. We must maintain as simple a life as possible, swimming against the community-busting tide of materialism and consumerism.

*******
Living in this tension between building community and the all-too-common community-eroding effects of technology is what Companion Resources is all about. As always, I invite your comments on these issues so that we can learn from each other.

Back issues of this newsletter are also available by following the links on the Companion Resources Newsletter page.
*******

The questions about community and the use of technology are never easy. However, it is an exciting tension-point in which to place ourselves as we discover how to build community in the information age. Until next time, I wish each of you the blessings of the journey!

Paul D. Leichty
The Goldenrod Community
Middlebury, Indiana
PDLeichtycresources.org

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Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****



Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:34:39 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200007.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 7 July 2000

Greetings from Companion Resources! This newsletter is dedicated to building community, especially among those persons who are often marginalized by the larger community. However, recently, I've had to think through the question again: Are there situations in which a person simply cannot live in a community? Read on for some thoughts.

Human communities always enforce certain rules or norms in order for persons to remain included in those communities. If an individual doesn't conform to the norms of the community, there are punishments or sanctions meant to force the person to conform and fit back into the community. Across the ages, two forms of sanctions are reserved for the most serious deviations from the norm of community--exile and death.

In the most primitive communities, exile is nearly equivalent to death. Many societies in Biblical times, for example, had no place for a widow, a woman whose protector-husband had died. So she was left to fend for herself and often starved. The same was the case for any minor children. Orphans, as well as any child who was not "normal" or simply not wanted, were simply abandoned, facing death within days. Persons with skin diseases were treated as outcasts, consigned to the outskirts of a village to waste away.

In more modern times, exile was more humane. Exile remained, but at least offered the hope for physical life to continue. Orphanages were built to care for abandoned children. Nursing homes were set up so that the elderly could be kept until they died. Asylums housed persons with mental illness away from the rest of society. Prisons were constructed to house those who committed crimes. In each case, the community's "problem people" were relegated to an institution on the fringes of the community where some people were given the job to "take care" of these folks while the majority could conveniently forget they existed.

How much have things changed?

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we discover a God who is always working to free people from the prevailing patterns of exile. The Hebrew Bible is filled with admonitions to care for the stranger, the widow, and the orphan. Even murderers had a city of refuge to which to flee those seeking immediate revenge. In the New Testament, Jesus reached out and touched the "lepers" and ate meals with the outcasts of society. Christians, from their earliest days organized efforts to make sure that widows were cared for.

Many of today's institutions of caring, from hospitals to community mental health facilities to children's homes and adoption agencies, have their roots in this same desire to truly care for those who are outside the community norm. However, an institution can very easily turn into a form of exile, especially if it is located on the fringes of where people live and if it depends on professionalized services instead of community caring. It takes community involvement and community caring at all levels to mitigate against the institutional mentality that wants to hide people away that society doesn't want to deal with.

Companion Resources continues in a tradition that says that communities as a whole have a responsibility to do everything possible to include persons in community. We believe that a life-giving God constantly works to redeem people from the forces of exile and death. That is why we adamantly oppose the ultimate form of exile, currently popular in the U.S., the death penalty. That is why we work to help make neighborhoods safer through education and job opportunities, not by simply chasing drug dealers to another part of the city. That is why we work for full community inclusion for those with disabilities and mental illness. That is why we work to make the environments in which we live safe and clean for all.

But is exile ever appropriate? What about those who can't seem to live in community? Who has the ultimate responsibility for inclusion on terms that the community can live with? Is it the individual or the community? These are topics for another month! So stay in touch...and send me your thoughts!

There are many tough issues in building community. We need to work together and rely upon God's Spirit for discernment. I wish you many blessings as you continue your own efforts at community-building!

Paul D. Leichty
The Goldenrod Community
Middlebury, Indiana
PDLeichtycresources.org

****
Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****



Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:43:57 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200008.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 8 August 2000

Are you a "survivor?" Last month, I asked the question: Are there situations in which a person simply cannot live in a community? In light of all of the North American media attention to the recently-completed TV series called "Survivor," I would like to come back to our discussion of exile that we began last month. But first, a word about this newsletter. (Oh yes, be sure to read the P.S. at the end of this newsletter as well.)

Although I had heard about the TV series, "Survivor", I had not seen it until all of the hoopla got our family curious enough to watch most of the final episode. For me, there were certain fascinating aspects that paralleled life in society as a whole, but also plenty of things that illustrated some of the worst features of that "real life."

In the artificially created community on the island, the "game" was to be the last survivor. Playing the game required physical, mental, relational, and emotional abilities. Players had to cooperate in order to survive both physically and in order not to be banished by the others. However, cooperation to share the prize money at the end was not permitted. In the end, the goal was to think only of oneself to be the last one on the island. That meant that contestants had to both build alliances and break them when it served their purposes.

Too often, our Western capitalist mindset plays the game of life this way. The system is set up so that while certain alliances are necessary, the "winners" are not the ones who most fully cooperate and build community, but rather those who, at the right moment, use their power when they need to so they come out on top.

To that end, it is only natural that the powerful in our society have ways of banishing, exiling, or marginalizing those that don't serve their purposes or play by their rules. Obviously, there are certain rules, certain laws, that cannot be broken without destroying the very fabric of a community. Exile is appropriate for repeated behavior that harms or has the potential to physically harm others. But as time goes on and the game of life gets more intense, the natural tendency is to want to get rid of folks simply because of lesser abilities, personality clashes, ideology, or other differences.

It is at this point that we as human beings stand on the brink of judgment between human selfishness and true community. What happens when a child with a disability threatens to disrupt my "career" aspirations? How do I respond when my young adult child starts using drugs and descending into a serious mental illness? What happens when the "golden days" of retirement are met by a spouse with Alzheimers disease?

Do we find ways of building community around those weaker persons? Or is our natural tendency a kind of "survival mentality," a return to the "law of the jungle" where we seek to banish weaker persons to the margins of society while continuing to claw our way to the top of the hill?

"Survivor" takes to the extreme our short-term view of life's struggle. In the corporate world today, the game is not just about survival and profits. It is about _short term_ gains. It is about this quarter's bottom line, not about what is good for the company, the community or the world in the next 5-10 years or the next generation. The idea is to get rich in 40 days and then worry about both the consequences and the next few days after that.

A community-building perspective looks at the long-term good for the most persons possible. It tries to assess how what I do affects those right around me in the communities of which I am a part. Most of all, instead of trying to cater to the strongest, a community-building perspective looks out for those who are weak and marginalized.

*******
In today's world, we have many tools at our disposal. We have the choice of using those tools to get ahead and push and shove our way to the top in a kind of survivor mentality. On the other hand, Companion Resources is dedicated to the principle that many of those same tools can be used to build community, to empower the marginalized, and create a better world for everyone.

If you would like to explore computer and communications tools for your family, church, or community group, visit the Companion Resources web site at http://www.cresources.org or simply drop me a note about your needs at infocresources.org.
*******

The survival mentality is individualistic. What we need are many survivors--survivors without the "survival mentality." We need communities that go beyond short-term survival to endure and grow and nurture new generations. Communities need persons who help each other not simply to further their own agenda but out of love for other people, community, and God.

Blessings to all of you in your daily struggles to go beyond survival and grow together as a people!

Paul D. Leichty
The Goldenrod Community
Middlebury, Indiana
PDLeichtycresources.org

****
Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:46:04 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200009.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 9 September 2000

"We have this treasure in jars of clay..." - Paul

Working daily and intensely with persons with special needs can be a big challenge. It can also reveal many things about oneself. I'll share a few reflections in this month's Companion Resources Newsletter. But first a word about matters of time and money.

All of us live this life in bodies that are weak and perishable. We are like the jars of clay about which the great Christian preacher Paul wrote. Clay jars were the ordinary containers of ancient times. Most of us are indeed ordinary. Some of our "containers" may be more attractive. Some may be "broken." But all of us are weak and perishable.

It is awesome to think about the small differences in our lives that make a huge difference. Why does my body make a certain protein and my son's does not? Why can some people think in such abstract concepts and the person with autism can think only in pictures? Why can some persons walk away from what looks like a major accident with hardly a scratch and others end up paralyzed for life? Why do some people end up with extra genes or even extra nucleotides within a gene that leads most people to think they are strange? The difference between most people and the people we call "different" is really very small although the consequences can be great.

Yet for each person there is a "treasure" in those clay jars. There is some spark, some light, something that makes that person uniquely human. The Judeo-Christian tradition has called that the "image of God" and set it at the heart of what it means to be human. We have a treasure in jars of clay. It doesn't matter whether our jars are attractive or ordinary, nicely shaped or broken. Something of God, something that makes us uniquely human is buried deep in our souls.

As I live and work with persons who find it difficult to communicate that treasure for themselves, I am reminded how weak I am in seeing that treasure. It is so easy to get caught up in the brokenness, the problems, and the disabilities. It is so easy to get carried away with our own supposed competence and strengths.

Yet the difficulties that I have in relating to persons is not just their fault. I have to do my best to communicate, but I also need to take more time to simply listen. I am so weak myself when it comes to taking the time and putting forth the energy to understand the meaning of body language, the look in the eyes of another, the communication cues that are not verbal. And yet how quickly those same persons sense my own brokenness and my anxieties, seem to know when I am happy or when I am irritated.

I am sometimes even getting back a reaction to my own inner being, a reaction that I don't like that irritates me further. But if I can get beyond the jars of clay, I discover the presence of God who shows me the treasure in both the other person and in myself. Sometimes that treasure is right there in the weakest part of me.

So I'm learning to rejoice in the jars of clay. I'm learning to realize that there is treasure within those jars, even the ones I think least likely to teach me anything. I certainly haven't arrived at all the answers, but I am learning about what it means to be human with all of its strengths and weaknesses.

Life is sometimes a struggle, a struggle to deal appropriately with our weaknesses and allow the light of God in others to turn those weaknesses into strength. That shows again why we need each other in community. None of us are self-sufficient. We are all weak and needy. But the great mystery is how in giving of ourselves, even in our weaknesses, we find strength.

I wish all of you this strength of community as you serve others in the month ahead.

Blessings to all as you build community together!

Paul D. Leichty
The Goldenrod Community
Middlebury, Indiana
PDLeichtycresources.org

****
Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****



Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:48:38 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200010.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 10 October 2000

How do we get into this business of community-building anyway? For most of us, the reasons are very personal. I was recently asked to write a short article for a newsletter that goes to the donor base of the organization for which I work. It set me to thinking again about the factors that shaped my life and how I got where I am today.

In August 1981, our young family of four left our home area of Northern Indiana for me to further explore my calling into pastoral ministry. My wife, Nancy, had just given birth in March to our daughter, Renita, who joined her brother, Nathan, who turned three in May.

Before we left, we started the formal process of trying to understand Nathan's slow development and odd habits. Up until that time, we accepted the standard cliche about every child having their own timetable or marching to the beat of a different drummer. However, the gnawing questions begged for some answers before we moved out of a community where we had developed relationships of trust.

It was hard to hear the child psychiatrist's pronouncements that our son was "developmentally delayed for reasons unknown." It was even harder to hear the words "possible brain damage." We had no idea where we were headed as we moved out of our comfort zone and ventured forth into the big city of Chicago. From that time on, my life as a parent and a minister would be forever changed.

As I lived and worked in the city, I realized that the faith emphases of justice and community with which I had grown up needed to be translated into action, particularly for persons on the margins of our society. I also learned firsthand how hard that is as we struggled to find support and services for Nathan and ourselves, at some distance from our natural communities of support. Many times we felt alone. We wanted people to understand; yet we were puzzled how to explain our needs and accept help. How many times I thought about the fact that we were comparatively rich in resources of time, education, supportive families, and ability to access financial resources when we needed them in comparison to many of our fellow travelers in the social service system. I marveled at how those folks coped and ached when they lacked even some basic support systems that I took for granted.

It was in that context that I began to see my ministry as much more than preaching, teaching, and running a church. From my theological perspective, if God was relevant to this world of fractured communities and alienated people, then it was up to the church to shine the way by being a truly inclusive community of refuge and support. I began to see myself first and foremost as a community-builder.

Ah, but that's difficult! Along with a few successes came plenty of failures. How ironic it was that I could help get folks of three major ethnic groups and two languages together, but I couldn't get folks from the same ethnic group but different neighborhoods to agree on a common mission. In the end, the task of building community in the larger arena was taking its toll on the most basic building-block of community, my family.

*******
Yes, family has its place and if you are like me, most of your holiday gift-giving goes to your family. Yet, consider these suggestions for extending community in your gift-giving:
-- Donate those items you don't use to someone who will use them. Better yet, instead of getting that newer faster model for yourself, make do with what you have and donate the best to someone who really needs it.
-- Remember those community-building organizations around you who struggle financially. Challenge yourself to give at least a tenth and possibly even an equal value to those with special needs as you do to your own family.
*******

In 1997, after full-time pastorates in two states, our family began searching for our next place of belonging. By this time, Nathan had been diagnosed with fragile X syndrome ), had graduated from high school, and was beginning to learn how to fit into the work world. I dreamed and prayed about the possibility of more than just another church to pastor, but a place where we as a family would all fit and have a place to grow.

The invitation to consider the Goldenrod Community was an answer to that prayer. Yet it was difficult as well. Although I was coming back to my home county in Northern Indiana, it was not to a small church in the city. Instead, here I am on this small piece of land in the Amish countryside, connecting with my barely recognized roots of generations back.

Nevertheless, this is the opportunity to take the next step in a community-building ministry that focuses on those most in need. Here, Nancy and I as parents can help to shape a more permanent home for Nathan and for others. Here, my ministry becomes even more down-to-earth and practical as a caregiver. Yet I also have the opportunity to model and proclaim a message that is vitally important to the church and the larger community. By working together as a community of faith and hope, we can provide a safe environment for our loved ones with special needs to live and grow and share their gifts. We can even provide that community for those whom we don't yet know but will learn to love.

As the rhetoric of a presidential election draws to a climax in the United States, I am more convinced than ever that our ability to embrace in community those that are least able to advocate for themselves is the measure of the morality of our society. From my own faith perspective, it is the way we come to know God as we all gain further glimpses into the image of God in those that might otherwise be considered the lost and the least.

So on All Saints Eve, I invite you to look at the "holy ones" around you and give thanks for the gift of family and community.

Blessings!

Paul D. Leichty
The Goldenrod Community
Middlebury, Indiana
PDLeichtycresources.org

****
Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****



Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:50:00 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200011.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 11 November 2000

Time finally caught up with me! The November Companion Resources Newsletter is actually coming to you in December! I'm sorry about that--but I hope that the lateness builds some anticipation and will be an extra incentive for you to pay attention to the reason I'm late.

*******
Several months ago, I mentioned that I was taking a web design course. The deadline for the special project for that course was (you guessed it!) November 30. And...that project was a complete revamping of the Companion Resources web site! So stop on over to www.cresources.org and get your last look at the old site because in few more days you will see it no more. It will be replaced by a completely overhauled site with a nice green background.

More about the site later in this newsletter. However, as I took a look at Companion Resources again, I tried to think of the essence of what this newsletter and website is all about. I'd like to offer a summary of my thinking which will appear on the new home page.

I have re-focused the goal of Companion Resources a bit in light of my current calling to work with persons with special needs. The following text represents an abridged summary from the CR home page, interspersed with other features about the site.
*******

The goal of Companion Resources is to help ordinary people to meet the extraordinary challenges of living with a disability or relating to persons with disabilities.

Companion Resources is built on three key concepts:
         * Companionship
         * Community
         * Resources

Companionship

Persons with special needs experience most relationships as a client or patient with a professional person relating to them. Relationships of companionship, on the other hand, focus on mutuality. By learning to know each other as friends, we are able to learn from each other and help each other. The person with special needs feels safe and valued in the relationship and the person with more abilities is also able to learn and grow through the relationship by calling forth and naming the unique gifts in the other person.

Companionship is particularly important in dealing with persons with developmental disabilities and with mental illness. That is why Companion Resources will focus on these two areas. We will continue to offer more specialized information on autism and fragile X syndrome. Other specific issues may be added in the future.

In relating to anyone with special needs, we have found that the model of Gentle Teaching offers a more consistent and humane approach than the standard behavioral modification models. So we will continue to offer

*******
It is often helpful to hear other people's stories of relating to persons with similar conditions. Therefore, the right column of each Companion Resources web page will feature links to other resources, especially to books.
*******

Community

More people today are making an effort to include persons with special needs into the larger community. However, "community inclusion" is more than just putting persons in need into settings that are more "normal." Community happens when companions build bridges from persons with special needs to other persons. Communities can be large or small, but true community means that all persons feel included and valued for whatever contribution or role they play in the life of the group.

Companions can learn much from community development models that start with the people instead of structures and institutions. The asset-based approach is particularly helpful because it consciously works at including persons who might not naturally be included in community life.

There are an increasing number of models of community life that start with building community around persons with disabilities and mental illness and then extend that community life toward the larger geographical community surrounding them. This is a new and hopefully growing edge of Companion Resources.

*******
The middle section of each Companion Resources web page is the main content of the page. In most cases, this content will consist, as in the past, of annotated links to the best in information and community-building sites on the World Wide Web. The new site features updated links with the hope of continually adding new ones (and indeed, new *pages* if necessary), particularly as you the readers send me your favorites.
*******

Resources

Families and companions build bridges from persons with special needs to the communities to which they belong. Often this effort requires specialized resources. Information is important so that companions can understand the special needs and communicate them clearly to others who relate to the person. Resources of support and encouragement are also helpful from persons who understand firsthand the challenges of a particular special need. Today's technology puts a wealth of information at our fingertips. The telephone and computer also enable us to build new kinds of communities (sometimes called "virtual communities") of specialized support to supplement our face-to-face communities.

*******
Each page will feature a link to other resources besides just books.
*******

As we approach the end of the second year of Companion Resources Newsletter's existence, I am grateful for the support and encouragement of you as readers. Your comments help keep me going. Blessings to all in this holiday season!

Paul D. Leichty
PDLeichtycresources.org

****
Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****



Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:51:39 GMT Paul D. Leichty http://www.companionresources.org/Home/Newsletter:CB2=cr200012.rtf@CB10 **Companion Resources Newsletter**
edited by Paul D. Leichty
Volume 2, No. 12 December 2000

As we mark the end of another year, another century, and another millennium, I note with interest a Christian radio program and a Sunday school discussion this morning. So I'll give you just a few thoughts as I bring this second year of Companion Resources Newsletter to a close.

The Sunday school discussion was about tradition and change. It seems that now that our baby boomer generation is sending our children to college, we look at change a bit differently than we used to. Maybe our children do as well.

The radio program called to mind the Judeo-Christian perspective that time doesn't just march on forever. Time had a beginning, created by God, and will also have an end. The commentator noted that images and thoughts about the "end times" are scary to most people. Our minds find it hard to grasp a state of being not connected to time.

What I think is missing in most of these discussions is the notion of how much we as human beings want to control our own lives. When we are young and exploring our place in the world, and especially when we have grown up with security and love, it is easy to be adventurous and we want vigorously to promote our ideals. We want to find a world which we can control, a place to "make a difference."

As we get older, we find that we can't change the world. We settle for control over some particular pieces of the world right around us. Once we find our comfort zone in a piece of the world that we can control to a certain extent, we become more defensive when the next generation comes along and points out that even that piece has to change to fit the ideals we profess.

Those of us who live and work with persons with special needs live more on the cutting edge day by day. Yes, we certainly can come to points of acceptance of persons for who they are and what they can do. This is good. But if we are honest, we are also very much reminded of all of the limitations, the disabilities, the imperfections that are a part of our world. We are reminded that we still live in a society that does not value persons for who they are, but for what they do and the economic value they create.

We continue to struggle to find ways to provide every possibility for the persons we love to be all that they can be without ourselves seeming to be beggars at every turn. It's hard to be on a waiting list for full funding for a person to live in a decent home where he is well cared for. It is awkward to have to say that we can't use the volunteer labor to finish the building in which we live until that extra few thousand dollars is raised for materials. It is a struggle to know what to do when organizations trying to do the work can't even provide the basic benefits that employees need.

Then I start multiplying the struggles that I feel many times over as I think about persons in other times and places who fare even worse than what I experience. It gives me a different perspective about the end times. I can understand how what is scary to some is indeed "good news" to others.

For I, too, look forward to a "time" when all persons will be treated with the utmost dignity and respect. I look forward to the "new age" when the needs of all people will be provided for. I long for a day when total love will prevail and what is "mine" and "yours" won't matter. I think in wonder about what it will be like when my son and his friends will all be able to communicate with me and all of us will understand fully.

If I think about the end of time in that manner, it is not as scary. I don't have to be the one in control; that is where my faith tells me that the One who is all-loving is already in control.

I also know that this is not just some new version of pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by kind of mentality. I love the life I have been given and the dream I have been given. My faith tells me that the best way to honor the ideals of a golden age to come is to be at work in the present with others to put them into effect as best I can. I can live and love and grow to the fullest as long as I have life on this earth. I can also rejoice and give thanks for the companions on the journey whose contributions are perhaps different than mine but also vitally important.

*******
To honor the spirit of these ideals, the newest Companion Resources page shares effective models of community that seek to include persons who have significant differences. I invite you to check out the Community Models page [not currently available] and renew your own sense of vision..
*******

So I count it at privilege at the stroke of midnight to enter this new marking of time we call 2001, a new century and a new millennium. Let's all give our loved ones a hug and resolve together to preserve the best of our traditions while inviting and indeed even initiating the changes that are still needed for all persons to feel safe, loved, and valued.

Have a happy and blessed New Year!!

Paul D. Leichty
The Goldenrod Community
Middlebury, Indiana
PDLeichtycresources.org

****
Companion Resources
"People Using Technology Building Community"
http://www.cresources.org
infocresources.org
****



Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:53:14 GMT Paul D. Leichty