Person Centered Planning
This section features information on Person Centered Planning. This section also features resources for people with disabilities in King County to connect with Person Centered Planning Services.
Person-Centered Planning is a vision-building process and future planning tool which discovers the kind of life a person desires, creates a plan for how their dreams may be achieved, and identifies ways to access needed supports and services. The focus is always on the vision of what the person would like to be and do. The planning focuses on the strengths of the person rather than his/her weaknesses.
The process brings together the people who are committed to helping the person articulate his/her future vision. The people who care most deeply about this individual are called together to form a team to contribute ideas, solutions, connections and action steps to achieve goals.
The kinds of people to bring together are parents, siblings, friends, school mates, relatives, community friends from church, clubs, work, educators, business people, human service representatives, work colleagues, and anyone who can make a difference in the person’s life. Usually a person centered plan is created with the assistance of a “facilitator” guiding the discussion and helping to reflect the outcomes of the planning process. A facilitator should be someone who is a good listener, is creative and a community builder.
Person Centered Planning allows individuals to create a path to having the life they want, giving an individual control over their own life decisions and helping to identify who is involved in a person’s life. Plans should be designed according to the individual, with the goal of making it accessible to the individual and the people in their life. Person centered plan could be in the form of a scrapbook, a power point, video, vision board, or a document.
