Page 11 - Vibrant Living Scrapbook

Building Upon the Nine Essential Elements of the Household Model
This workbook builds on the nine Essential Elements of the Household Model developed by Steve Shields and LaVrene Norton and presented in their cutting-edge book, In Pursuit of the Sunbeam: A Practical Guide to Transformation from Institution to Household.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS
Learning Circle Questions
1. The household is each resident’s home and sanctuary.
How is this your home?
What do you want that will make this home for you?
2. The people who live here direct their own lives, individually and collectively.
How are you in charge of your life now? What else needs to happen for you to feel in charge?
3. The boundaries of the person and his/her home are clear and respected as a matter of course.
What can we do to respect your boundaries?
4. Grace, a shared sense of what is sacred about the house and its people, is deeply valued, consciously created and preserved. Ritual, spontaneity, friendship, spirituality, celebration, recreation, choice, interdependence, art and humor are all manifestations of a culture of grace.
What could we do to make it really good here?
Share a time when all was right with your world.
5. The people who live here are loved and served by a responsive, highly valued, decentralized, self-led service team that has responsibility and authority.
In what ways do you feel loved here? What more could be done?
6. Leadership is a characteristic, not a position. Leaders support and are supported by values-driven, resource bearing principles and practices as a way for each person to actualize his or her full potential.
Who do you think is a good leader in our house?
7. All systems, including treatments, exist to support and serve the person, within the context of his or her life pursuits.
How are we helping you live your life the way you want? How are we getting in your way of living your life the way you want?
8. We build strong community with one another, our family, our neighbors and our town. Each household is part of a neighborhood of houses, dedicated to continuous learning.
You know the saying, “Life-long learning?” Learning doesn’t stop when we get out of school. What do you want to learn? What do you want to teach others?
9. The physical building and all its amenities are designed to be a true home. Institutional creep in design and culture is treated as a wolf at the door.
What are the institutional things that are creeping into our lives? Our household?
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