Group Description
With the support of Pascal Cheng from the Howard Center in Vermont, individuals who express themselves through Facilitated Communication (FC) get together to learn new skills, make new friends, see old friends, and stay in touch with the latest FC technology to support their expression.
Cost: At this point, there is no direct cost to individuals participating in the group although many individual budgets, area agencies, and school districts provide support to sustain this activity. Please bring your own lunch.
During a recent FC Skill Builders Group Jeff Williamson, Kenny Affonse, and Andrew Dixon had a conversation about the importance of the group and the method they use to express themselves. These three men have been using FC to express themselves for more than ten years.
The group is a bunch of different things to me…..a bit of treating people like very smart people, staying in touch with other wordless people, there’s beneficial learning time, time to crack my jokes, time for facilitators to learn new skills because books are not as good as practice. We practice our bright intelligence here. Jeff Williamson
I like going to NH and seeing people here who talk through FC. People should read my article in Sharing Our Wisdom. People are impressed when they find out I can use e-mail. I like to type in class with my friends and to learn. Kenny Affonse
People who come to the group need to connect with each other because we operate the same inside and can speak about our issues of not speaking like most people. The point of group is to get good at typing and passing messages so more people believe that FC can work for people who don’t speak. Everyday we type more is a day to be better understood. The oscillating factors confounding people are people’s perceptions of how we act on the outside and what we say from our minds. Andrew Dixon