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Connection Project |
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SUMMARY
OF CAMPHILL WORKSHOP PRESENTATION BY CORNELIUS
AND ELISABETH PIETZNER
Click
here to view the full summary of the presentation.
(On
Feb. 28, 1999, Parents Planning Programs for
the Developmentally Disabled hosted Cornelius
Pietzner, President of Camphill Association
of North America, and his wife, Elisabeth, at
the Melbourne Beach Hilton to talk to
parents, educators, representatives of social
services and various organizations for the special
needs population of Florida. We have been
familiar with Camphill's impressive work for
30 years and have recently visited six of their
communities in NY, PA and California.
Our goal is to work towards creating a Camphill
model in Florida.. To realize this possibility,
we need to form a strong core of interested
parents and families.
We
are encouraged by Governor Bush's message of
"INNOVATIVE, CONSUMER DRIVEN, FAMILY ORIENTED
AND CHOICE-BASED" options.
The
Pietzners have both been directors of Camphill
communities for 15 years. They gave us
some background of Camphill's origin and philosophy,
showed slides, answered questions and discussed
issues which concern parents.)
The
following are a few of the highlights:
Elisabeth
explained that Camphill's foundation is a philosophical
one called "Anthroposophy," meaning human wisdom.
It has a strongly Christian orientation, but
is nonsectarian. "It is all about sharing
a life style that is vibrant with meaning, where
all members share a respect for spirituality,
social relationships, individuality and freedom
to grow." More than a place, Camphill
is a movement.
Cornelius
explained, "The staff or 'co-workers' at Camphill
are dedicated to building a life of community
together with people of special needs, in a
holistic approach to life, that is, a comprehensive
approach, where each person can find his or
her contribution to an integrated life."
This idea had its inspiration from a Viennese
pediatrician, Dr. Karl Konig, who fled Nazi
Germany in 1938 with a group of his colleagues.
They established the first Camphill village
in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Cornelius
explained: "The concept of community inclusion
was one that Camphill pioneered very strongly,
where residents and people of special needs,
their 'companions,' live together in the community
in as normal a relationship as possible.
There are approximately 90 communities worldwide,
10 in the U.S., each with its own individual
personality and function. All are charitable
organizations. All have their own programmatic
orientation."
Elisabeth
stressed that the underlying philosophy of Camphill
is the respect for human spirituality, the importance
of social context, that is, life-sharing with
family and friends and recognition of the worth
of the individual contributions. (But not
in terms of money. If you'd ever had your child
come home with a check for 18 cents, you'd appreciate
how demeaning that can be!) It accentuates
abilities rather than disabilities, and values
individual initiative.
At
Camphill formal schooling begins at age 6, at
Beaver Run, a Waldorf School, and continues
to age 18. From 18 to 25 the school concept
extends to a "college" at Soltane Community,
where students are trained in various vocational
skills, have job trainers and coordinators.
Some students are placed in different organizations
and businesses in the local communities to gain
work experience.
School
after age 25 in a larger sense is living day
by day in the many other communities like Copake
Village and Triform in NY or Kimberton Hills,
PA. Cornelius remarked: "Education
doesn't exist in a vacuum, but throughout life,
day by day at Camphill." As shown in Cornelius'
slides, school is "work that has a relationship
to the larger social context," whether it's
in the ceramic, woodworking, weaving or candle
making studios, where the surrounding woods
and rolling hillsides can be seen through soaring
windows. Work might be milking the cows,
farming on the many working farms, or in the
health food store, gift shop, coffee shop or
bakery. It might be interfacing with the
neighboring towns in marketing activities, or
in civic beatification projects or in the interchange
of cultural events -- concerts, performances,
lectures. "Wherever it is, work and social
interaction are at the core of educational growth."
Concerning
culture, Cornelius made this point: "I
can't underscore the strength and vitality and
the diversity of the cultural life enough.
There's a tremendous amount going on.
There's not a lot of television at Camphill.
People are busy from morning to evening.
There's a whole slew, a whole menu of things
going on. They're working or they're going
out or they are in this course or that program.
There might be sports in the evening or a film
club. By the time nine o'clock comes around,
they're all tuckered out."
In
the various craft programs at Camphill there
is, in Cornelius' words, "a lot of creative
expression and a continuity of process.
If you give someone a chance to do something
creative, it's amazing what's in there!
If you are craft oriented, you know that you
have to develop some very precise work habits
that require judgment, attention, application
and precision."
Concerning
the philosophy of vocation and work, Cornelius
states: "One of the things I have found -- I
don't know how this is for you -- is that when
the school district situation is over, at age
21 or 22 . . . and the menu shrinks and it more
or less dries up, what remains, basically, tends
to be some pretty dry vocational stuff, by and
large. . . . The vocational orientation, to
my mind, is certainly not something I would
want to do for the rest of my life. Camphill's
approach to vocation is a little bit more broadly
based. It's not just the teaching of particular
mechanical skills and functions, but it's really
trying to find work that has a relationship
to the larger social context, depending on the
particular skills and interests of the person.
That's really an important kind of philosophical
approach to vocation and to work. For
some people, their expression of work is milking
that cow which you saw in the slide, and for
others, it might be working in the Kimberton
Hills Health food store, unloading two trucks
a day and doing all the stocking. That
person is really a valuable employee.
They really count on him to be there and he
feels that. And that's important that
he feels that. His sense of fulfillment
and participation are there! . . .
Camphill has a huge array of opportunities for
work and for vocations, regardless of whether
it's urban or suburban or rural. Camphills
don't work without people with special needs.
It's a working community. We're equal
partners. Everyone has a part to play."
Social
life at Camphill may be a Mardi Gras celebration,
a film club, visiting at someone else's house
for lunch, a dance, games after dinner, a play
by one group or other. The accent is on
activity and interaction. To quote Cornelius:
"The proof of the pudding is: Are the people
happy? Does this make a difference in
their learning skills? Is there a sense
of fellowship, a sense of friendship, a sense
of belonging? I think these are the barometers
in terms of success."
(If
you go to the Camphill Communities in NY and
PA as we did last June, you will be struck by
the overall peace and tranquility and a sense
of the aesthetic. You see it throughout
-- in the artwork, gardens, farms, and architecture.)
Cornelius
points out as he shows a slide of the stunning
cultural hall, "There is a high quality of care
in the use of building materials and in the
overall standards."
Concerning
long-term care and continuity of service, Cornelius
explained: "Camphill is open ended and
multigenerational. Some folks have been
there for over 50 years. For the past
40 years, there are quite a few instances where
the parents have passed on and the villagers
are taken care of. It's our responsibility
to make sure that whatever the next step might
be, is the right step."
Concerning
location, the question was asked if Camphill
could be done in an urban setting. The
answer was, yes. Cornelius' wife, Elizabeth,
said she would love to have the opportunity
to start an urban Camphill, that it had all
kinds of possibilities for a vibrant community
life. Cornelius stated, "The thing to
emphasize is that people don't just go off and
start a Camphill, because it's not a franchise
business. It takes a lot of time and work
to start a Camphill community. These are
working communities."
How
to start a Camphill?
Cornelius stated, "I really
try to encourage and empower parents to actually
dare to use their imagination. So much
depends on them to bring along people who are
working at agencies and in the state system.
. . . Talk about it. . . . Do some group
work and some community building. That's
what we did in California, which is a highly
regulated state. We've had a huge challenge
to help some of the state regulators understand
that we want to partner with them in whatever
opportunity that presents itself."
His advice to parents: "Put together a
good solid idea that's cost effective, package
it and present it. . . . My interest is not
to have a Camphill in Florida necessarily, not
that I am not interested in it, but to see how
we can work together to see what is real for
the situation here and the people here.
Everything has to be indigenous to the situation.
That's the way the best Camphills happen.
Camphill Botswana is very different from Camphill
Finland. So Camphill Florida is going
to be very different from Camphill California
or Camphill Pennsylvania. . . . I know
that you have a new governor and that there
is 210 million dollars available. From
the material that was sent to me, it looks like
there might be a window of opportunity if there
was the possibility to mobilize and to present
a case why your wishes and your interests might
be of advantage and might be of benefit to the
citizens of the state of Florida."
"But,"
he added, "the hardest part is not going to
be the money, but the co-workers, the people
who will do it day by day, who will care for
our sons and daughters in the future.
How to strengthen and build that. The
key question is, how could you create such a
life that people would want to live it?
How are you going to attract the people who
have the integrity and are willing to do life
sharing? We've found that people come
for very different reasons. They are interested
in serving in an integrated and holistic lifestyle.
. . . We tend to get some highly motivated people
who have some ideals they want to try out.
One co-worker has been at Camphill for over
50 years. The average length of stay is
17 years."
What
about cost? "Cost structures at Camphill
are fairly uniform in the various communities,
depending on where the funding comes from.
Tuition ranges from $25, 000 to $28,000.
That may sound like a lot but most residential
arrangements cost upwards of $40,000."
(Our own observation is that our son receives
roughly $23,000 in funding if we add up Social
Security, day program, transportation, respite
care, support coordinator. This does not
include residential placement.) He stated,
"The reason for cost efficiency at Camphill
is because of a shared economy -- where co-workers
don't take a salary, as such, and because the
administrative overhead, which is typically
one of the largest cost items of running organizations,
is comparatively very low."
(Commentary:
We would ask the regulators
and legislators and people who are funding services,
to consider:
Do
we have places and programs for our children
that provide --
- a
total quality of life which includes social,
cultural and educational/vocational
development ?
- highly
trained, stable and accountable staff with
24 hour supervision?
- challenging
activities that develop creativity and self-expression?
- opportunities
to develop work skills that are functional
in the context of life style and community?
- aesthetic
and least restrictive work environment?
- family
and community orientation?
- opportunities
to develop feelings of self-worth that come
from being a contributing, integrated member
of community?
This
is what Camphill represents.
Gov.
Bush has recommended the allocation of $210,000
for programs that are "innovative, consumer
driven, family oriented and choice-based."
It's up to us, the advocates, to follow through!)
* * * *
If
you would like to be a working member of the
Camphill Connection Project in Florida, please
let us know. We need energetic people.
Any skills or experience you may have to set
this project in motion are very much needed.
Please respond via our
E-mail: parents@pppflorida.org
or Fax: (407) 953-6710 or Phone:
(407) 724-8899. A complete copy of the
text of the Pietzners' presentation is available
on request.
For
more information about Camphill call (610) 469-0933.
Or visit their
Web Site: www.camphillassociation.org
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