Defining “Family”…

The term “family” is used broadly here to indicate groups of individuals joined and self-identifying as members of a family.  This includes traditional nuclear, extended, single parent, foster, intergenerational, gay/lesbian and other family types, but most importantly, “family” includes the person receiving services – the individual self-advocate who is the central decision-maker about their own lives and who, like all human beings, may need specific types of support to assist them in their decision-making.  Collective family governance is therefore dependent on societal recognition of supported decision-making which recognizes the primary roles of adults with a developmental disability in making choices for themselves, as well as the supporting role that families and others play across the lifespan.  Family governance as a concept assumes that families and familial experiences are relational and multiple – changing, complex, a platform for shared, multi-person, multi-family, multi-group experience.  As conceptualized by VCC, in collective family governance models families pool their funding, knowledge, networks, and other resources in order to collectively develop services and supports for a small group of individuals with developmental disabilities.  Whereas before the advent of more individualized forms of service funding only families of means could direct and control their services, new government funding mechanisms mean that individuals and their families across income levels can develop personalized services and supports.  Collective family governance further leverages resources using a community development model.