Deohaeko Support Network is a group of seven families that meets regularly to share ideas and plan for ways that our adult sons and daughters might live good, full, and contributing lives at the heart of their local and larger communities. We work toward developing a meaningful life for and with our sons and daughters, who each have a disability. We consistently work toward a secure and welcoming home, a range of relationships with many people, and varied typical and valued ways to contribute to their community as citizens. We do all of this with a combination of family support, interaction with friends and neighbours, and some consistent paid support.

We are a family group… not a service model or agency. Board members are family members or chosen allies/representatives. Each person’s life is very unique and is supported as an individual. Paid Supporters work for each family separately. Families help their sons and daughters hire their own Supporters, plan their own schedules, and remain in control of their lives. Supporters work directly with people in their homes and communities, providing support in the events of their daily lives. Deohaeko operates through board meetings and communication rather than through an office. Coordinators connect with people and families in their homes by invitation and in their communities whether that be in places of paid work, volunteering, recreation or local establishments.

Deohaeko is not a housing option, although we spend good time and energy focusing on the importance of home and what that means to each individual.  It is about the capacity of families, both individually and collectively, to be creative and innovative, to have a vision and follow it through.

Deohaeko families intentionally explore, discover and develop abundance within our communities no matter where our son or daughter lives. We all need faith in the presence and possibility of such a community, and a principled, relevant and reliable approach with strategies to keep us there. We appreciate and enjoy life in the present and continue to plan for the future.