Endorsements
I have enjoyed working with Peter Leidy for the past few years. He has spent much of his professional life working with and listening to people who provide direct support. His insights about what our system can do to better support them are illuminating and direct.
And he sings! It is hard for me to imagine anyone better able to sing about the foibles of our service system than Peter Leidy. That’s right — to sing about our historical wrong doings, our professional arrogance, the funny ways we waste our time. And to do it in a way that makes me laugh over and over again.
But that’s not the half of it. In every stanza, in every song, I hear hope about this profession and helping professionals. Peter believes in the likes of you and me. He knows we are capable of helping people to live real lives in ordinary, everyday places. He sings about our potential. He sings about our possibility!
Blacksburg, VA
www.dimagine.com
This process disrupts some of the negative calcifications we can create in our work that block us from participating with our full energy. I left feeling very energized. Lots of good takeaways about idea-generation skills and communication!
Group Health Cooperative of South-Central WisconsinMadison, WI
See the full card: A thank you from improv-for-life training
Goodman Community Center
Here at Blue Water Center for Independent Living, we believe that organizational communication and strategic thinking are keys to effective program development and dynamic consumer service delivery. Peter introduced the “Yes, And” and other improv principles to our staff. While there was some initial skepticism, we have used these ideas to complete tasks such as event planning, team building, the revision of publications — and most importantly, significant attitude change.
Blue Water Center for Independent Living
Port Huron, MI
I’m going to promote this training to my employer and try to get Peter back here. Everyone should experience this.
This is going to help my staff work better together, with more contributions from people who are usually quiet. I love it! I wish we had more time with this today.
At first it seemed overly simple. Then when I saw it modeled and started to participate, it was mind-blowing!
Omaha and Kearney, NE
Peter presented a workshop for direct support staff in Concord, NH recently. What impressed me the most was the creative and fun way that he started with a relatively simple idea (labeling people) and then went on to reveal more subtle variations and implications of that idea. And all the while, he invited the listener into the perspective of an individual with a disability, either by stories or understandings that were fundamental to the broader human experience. I found myself feeling entertained, educated, and inspired to think more deeply all in one fell swoop! Not since the days of listening to Herb Lovett had I experienced such an intelligence so embedded in compassion and humor. I think the best examples of this are in his songs, which are full of wit and humor but also cut deep into “uncomfortable” issues that rarely get talked about.
Monadnock Developmental Services,
Keene, NH
Thank you Peter for the awesome conference in Portland! It is great to know that someone who has been in this field for 25+ years still remembers and understands what it’s like to be a direct care worker. Often times I feel that my opinions and thoughts are swept under the rug, but during your keynote and sessions I didn’t feel that way at all. Jeez, I even got to have some fun — I could be myself and still be taken seriously!
Direct Support Professional
Westbrook, ME
Lutheran Social Service of MN has long believed that a person is a person, regardless of their disability. Through your conference, many of our staff were reenergized by the honest and open look at supports.
Your humor and outlook on what can be a difficult job at times for staff was wonderful. Thank you for being the voice for people that often do not have a voice and advocating that all of us can do the same.
Area Director
LSS of Minnesota
I used your DVD at a two-day forum with support workers from various regions of Western Australia.
I anticipated a good response, however the message was received with a huge level of enthusiasm.
Thank you!
Western Australia
I enjoyed the event very much – I found it very uplifting, interesting and mind blowing. In fact it was the best learning event I have ever experienced, and I feel very fortunate that we were given the opportunity to attend (although in all honesty I was not looking forward to it). It has enabled me to have this new passion, which hopefully I can transfer to others. Thank you all.
Just to say once again, a BIG THANK YOU for hosting this event. We are going to do our best to bring these issues to the forefront of our thinking as an organisation, both in an individual way and collectively, for how we think in our planning, and how we support people in their lives.
Thanks for organising an excellent 3 days. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was great to be with so many like minded people.
I just wanted to say I really enjoyed the course last week. The speakers were excellent! There were a lot of interesting discussions and I think everyone who was there really wanted to make a difference. I am already looking forward to the next one.
Edinburgh, Scotland
Jan 9-11, 2013
Peter was great! I wish I could bring in all my providers to attend this training. I would attend this training again because it is productive with ideas.
…wonderful combination of fun and practical information.
Peter is great at getting us to think about our intentions as providers; whose interests are we serving? Thank you Peter, for showing me what’s important.
Bethel, Alaska