The year was 2007 and Nathan was 20. Brimful of grand ideas but in the dark about just what his next step might be. Nathan had recently become a “Big Issue” vendor based at Belconnen Mall and was thriving on it. He had left Black Mountain School just before Christmas, spent some time on Post School Options, worked in the ANU Bike Co-op and was still searching.
Nathan sat in his lounge room surrounded by family and friends and for 3 hours, Nathan’s future was everybody’s concern. Aided by a trained facilitator and a grapher, Nathan started by articulating his vision or visions for the future. At this stage no-one looked for practical difficulties or concerned themselves with how these things might be achieved. They just helped him find the words to articulate his ultimate hopes and dreams. The grapher wrote these words and some simple pictures, deftly catching the essence of Nathan’s ideas for his own future.
Then it was down to comparing these visions with the actual situation as it was on the day. Where to be in a year’s time? Where to be in 6 months? And so on, back to what to start on tomorrow. But you can’t work miracles on your own and so much thought was given to finding the people who might help Nathan be the high achiever he’s hoping to be. His father, sisters, auntie, friends, support worker were all listed as allies in the great task Nathan wished to take on. And we found a short term goal; Nathan hoped to save enough money for a Spit Roast 21st birthday party. He had about 12 weeks to do it… He did it in six.
All of this was captured as a colourful diagram approximately 1 metre wide and 2 metres long. At the end the grapher and facilitator rolled up the PATH and gave it to Nathan. It was a bit like “this is your life”, but the future, not the past.
Nathan sat in his lounge room surrounded by family and friends and for 3 hours, Nathan’s future was everybody’s concern. Aided by a trained facilitator and a grapher, Nathan started by articulating his vision or visions for the future. At this stage no-one looked for practical difficulties or concerned themselves with how these things might be achieved. They just helped him find the words to articulate his ultimate hopes and dreams. The grapher wrote these words and some simple pictures, deftly catching the essence of Nathan’s ideas for his own future.
Then it was down to comparing these visions with the actual situation as it was on the day. Where to be in a year’s time? Where to be in 6 months? And so on, back to what to start on tomorrow. But you can’t work miracles on your own and so much thought was given to finding the people who might help Nathan be the high achiever he’s hoping to be. His father, sisters, auntie, friends, support worker were all listed as allies in the great task Nathan wished to take on. And we found a short term goal; Nathan hoped to save enough money for a Spit Roast 21st birthday party. He had about 12 weeks to do it… He did it in six.
All of this was captured as a colourful diagram approximately 1 metre wide and 2 metres long. At the end the grapher and facilitator rolled up the PATH and gave it to Nathan. It was a bit like “this is your life”, but the future, not the past.
1 comment:
Nathan congrats of the super speedy earning of funds for your Spit Roast Birthday Celebration. The description of your PATH development with friends and family will show others what can be achieved too. regards Sue, from WWDACT
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