Take the lead and build your good life of inclusion, independence and purpose.
A Community Living facilitator will partner with you and your family. Together you will design and plan the home and community supports you need for your good life now and into the future.
You will choose, train and direct your workers.
You will be supported to live in your own home, and to explore, develop and maintain valued roles in your community.
Your Community Living facilitator will spend time getting to know you well. Careful thought will go into way your workers are recruited and guided.
We encourage you to “think big” about what’s possible in your life, even if it will take a lot of planning and overcoming barriers to get there.
Things we will talk about with you:
When engaged with Community Living Services the person with disability, and their family, partner with a Community Living facilitator to design and develop support services that will assist you to reach your life goals. Together you will consider the required roles and the qualities, skills and attributes you are looking for in workers.
The facilitator partners with the person and family to review the applications and decide who and how to interview and make the decision about who is the best match.
The Community Living facilitator continues to partner with the person and their key-loved ones to self-direct their support staff. The person and their key loved ones take the lead on how their supports are delivered.
The facilitator supports the person and their family to supervise and direct workers to ensure that services are delivered intentionally and purposefully in line with the person's goals.
The facilitator coordinates services and health care plans, worker training and certification requirements.
The facilitator partners with the person seeking support workers to review the applications and conduct interviews.
It’s always the person, with their family, who makes the final decision about who will work with them.
The person is supported to call the worker and offer them the role. This sets the tone from the beginning that it's the person and their family who will be directing the supports.
The Community Living Facilitator continues their role in the background. They support the person and their family with building their capacity and confidence to direct their team.
The idea of having your own small team of workers might raise questions about covering shifts and situations where workers have planned or unexpected leave.
Your Community Living facilitator will take this into consideration when scoping roles and a roster and recruiting workers for your team. They will plan ahead to have flexibility in your team or external resources to provide back up if needed.
In an unexpected situation, your Community Living facilitator will check in with you and your family how to ensure you have the supports you need - this could include support from family and friends or possibly support services from another agency.
With the right supports in place, a person can flourish and thrive in their own home.
Home is an expression of our identities, our talents and our interests. It's a place where we can be ourselves and feel safe, and bring our family and friends in to share time with us.
At CLP we believe that the role of the home maker - taking care of your home, having people visit and hosting them in your home is one of the most valued roles we can have.
Learn more about ways that people with disabilities have moved out of their family home or a group home at My Home, My Way, a website full of useful resources and videos, stories and podcasts.
Here's an example from My Home My Way, showing how Cameron started testing out what living out of home might look like.
CLP is guided by an approach that recognises the authority that a person's family members and key loved ones hold, and we encourage and support families to act on their power.
For starters, the family knows the person most deeply, with a lifetime of insight. Take for example the person's communication style and how best to support them with decision making. Anyone working in a paid role will learn about the person not only from them directly, but also from their family.
Families have a deeply personal stake in whether a service and experience is positive for the person.
For families embarking on making changes for their loved one, perhaps moving out of a group home or supported employment, it can take years of effort and coming up against barriers. We know that families can and do drive this change because they care are committed to holding the vision and setting the expectations for a good life.
Families bring their own fields of expertise, and contribute in a way that can complement and guide paid supports. Families are often best positioned to see how everything, in its entirety, adds up in a person’s life. They have insight into how different supports and services operate and interact with their loved one and can provide valuable input.
Dr Michael Kendrick has written widely on the natural authority of families. In this 6 Minute video recorded by Community Resource Unit, he discusses the topic.
"If we start with filling time, all we get is activities.
If we start with filling roles time takes care of itself!" Linda Shevellar
Watch the first few minutes of this video to hear Jack introduce himself and describe his valued roles and get a sense of how they shape a meaningful week for Jack. If you have time, watch the full presentation to hear how Jack’s family were guided by valued roles as they planned and supported their son into his first work role.
Neighbour is a role we all hold by default. We can elevate neighbour to a valued role. A good neighbour might -
A good neighbour makes a contribution to others. Then what might happen?
People get to know the good neighbour – know their name, know a bit about their routines and things they like to do. They might reach out to the neighbour when they have spare tickets to the footy, or to see if they need something picked up from the shops.
People value a good neighbour for their contribution. They might have previously made assumptions about the neighbour’s capacity, and now they know better. They might knock on the neighbour’s door and ask them to help with shifting furniture or other jobs needing extra hands. If they notice their neighbour hasn’t been out and about in their usual routine, they might check in and see if they are okay.
There are more roles we hold by default that can be expanded. Take for example family roles - what does a good cousin look like? Baking a birthday cake, collecting family history? Inviting to watch a favourite movie together? What could building on that valued role and connection lead to?
You might notice that when CLP advertise for support worker roles, there’s often a call for the applicant to have particular interests and skills – vintage cars, sewing, fishing, singing etc. This is because we recruit with valued roles in mind. We want to help the person to use their interests as a starting point to a valued role and connection.
For example – if someone likes drawing or painting, how could they move into the role of an artist? What do artists wear? What equipment do they use? Where can they meet up and connect with other artists?
We always strive for roles and settings that are typical for a person of that age and stage in life.
Once someone starts participating in a local club or group, we think about how they might start to take on valued roles that make a contribution and help the person to belong.
Watch the short video ‘no bias’ (6 minutes 30 seconds) and see the valued roles Michael has at his bowling club and how roles have led to connection.
Often people living with disabilities have been cast into negative roles – someone might be known as a burden, a client in every aspect of life, a child who will never grow up. As workers and allies, we bend over backwards to combat these perceptions. The best way we know to do this is to increase the person’s valued roles.
In this video Darcy Elks takes a deeper dive into the principles of valued social roles and how roles are pathways to full, meaningful, and inclusive lives. This video is 15 minutes long.
The principles of Valued Roles come from a theory called Social Role Valorisation (SRV), which was developed by Dr Wolf Wolfensberger. You can read more about SRV and valued roles at the Australian Social Roles Valorisation (ASRVA) website.
CLP delivers training workshops on Valued Roles and SRV. Check the Learning and Events page for upcoming dates.
CLP is an NDIS registered organisation and can provide services for people who are plan managed, self managed or agency managed.
Community Living facilitators, Micro Enterprise consultants and Circle of Support facilitators can be claimed through Capacity Building funds under the relevant category:
Professional fee structure 2025-26, Capacity Building (PDF)
Please contact us to discuss your circumstances if you would like a quote for services or have questions about invoicing.
Support workers and personal assistants to micro enterprise can be claimed from Core supports under:
Individual living options exploration and design is also under core funding.
Our facilitators and consultants work from home based offices and meet with people we support in their own homes and local communities.
This enables us to provide a good reach across metropolitan Adelaide, and into some parts of the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula.
We recruit workers for your team from your local area.
Please contact us to discuss your individual circumstance and consider if CLP services are the right match for your situation.
You can call us during business hours on 8384 7866 or leave your details for a call back using our Service Enquiry form.
The CLP admin team is based at our office at Christies Beach.
Workshops and learning events are held in a variety of locations.
