We help organizations seeking to provide higher quality support to people through a focus on person-centered practices
Our Services
Our Approach
Person-Centered
Person-centered thinking (PCT) skills and person-centered practices are about supporting someone in having positive control over their life. The foundational skill of PCT is looking at what is important to and for that person from their perspective. This provides the opportunity for those of us who support others, to learn from them directly. This learning includes the ways in which one identifies themselves, what customs and traditions they value, and how they experience the world. Those are the keys to what is important to them. It is directly related to the quality of their life.
Provider Organizations & Person-Centered Practices
Person-centered practices come into play at all levels of provider agency work. Recruitment practices, matching staff and retaining staff can incorporate strategies based on principles that are reflected in the Charting the LifeCourse framework and Person-Centered Thinking system. Providers also play an essential role in helping to elevate the voice of the person who is receiving formal services by helping them prepare for person-centered planning meetings and, after the planning team meetings, co-designing best support strategies with the person.
Case Management
Case Managers have key responsibilities and core skill sets that should be anchored in practices that maximize the leadership role that a person takes over their own planning and services. The best case managers provide just enough support so that a person can communicate in their own way what their vision is for a good life as well as what is working for them, what can be strengthened and what is not working and needs to change or stop. Good support to a person means good support to their relationships, so family roles are important considerations in anyone’s life.
How We Learn
Sessions that are interactive and engaging take full advantage of the way that video-conferencing software allows the instructor and learner to work together. We can ask questions and answer through chat, share files spontaneously through links in chat or with document cameras, answer polls, use break-out conversations to work with fellow participants, whiteboards, group annotation and other new approaches. We can handle set up and registration for your online training with us or arrange to sign in to one of your existing online sessions to add a staff development agenda item. The standard PCT workshop has an online version.
Charting the LifeCourse Overview Online
This overview is provided by a Charting the LifeCourse Ambassador from Firstperson Services. It can be scheduled as a drop-in to your existing scheduled team meeting on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. Live and interactive; this session can get your team familiar with the basics.
Online Instructor Led PCT Workshop
The basic PCT Workshop designed by The Learning Community for Person Centered Practices has been adapted as an interactive and engaging set of modules where learners experience all of the components of the standard session in a virtual format. The full workshop is six 3-hour modules. There’s one coming up. You can also arrange one just for your organization.
PCT Workshop (In-Person)
The standard Person-Centered Thinking workshop in-person can be arranged into two full days, a set of four half-days or a combination of these. Let us know what works best for you and we will customize a training.
Contact
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Consultation & Support
Person Centered Thinking Facilitators
Credentialing workshop facilitators with
The Learning Community for Person Centered Practices
Service Provider Agencies
Strengthening your on-boarding, training and retention of valued employees with in-person workshops, video conference and webinars
About Roy Gerstenberger
A recognized leader in the field of developmental services and organizational development in person centered practices, Roy brings more than 35 years of experience to bear as he works to further person centered thinking practices. As Executive Director, Roy dedicated more than 20 years to advancing the capacity of Community Bridges, a major non-profit based in Concord, New Hampshire, earning accreditation from the Council on Quality & Leadership while growing the organization. In recent years, he served as the division director for the State of Vermont. He has completed Executive Education program courses at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government on performance measurement and leadership decision making and at the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Institute on strategic perspectives for nonprofit management. He is a credentialed mentor trainer with The Learning Community for Person Centered Practices.
