Lisa Bridle Presenting part of Friendship, Connection & Importance of Freely Given Relationships

Lisa Bridle is a Brisbane parent of 3 adult children and has a professional background in community development and disability advocacy. Lisa worked at CRU for many years and is passionate about building inclusive communities where everyone's gifts and contributions are valued. In this presentation, Lisa will describe how her son Sean, who is now 30, began friendships at kindergarten and in Year 1 that are still going strong today. She will discuss the approach and strategies used to nurture opportunities for friendships from Sean’s early years to school and beyond, and how these efforts have led to a rich and inclusive adult life.

About the Workshops:

We can’t buy friends; we can’t make people be friends, but we can do some things that increase the chances for friendship and connection to happen. The stark reality is that for some, the only people who really know and appreciate them are family members and paid workers. Relationship and connection is seen as an optional add-on after all other ‘care’ is provided rather than a fundamental human need.

In this collections of workshops we will hear stories of people both preventing and remedying isolation. They contain intentional strategies that have helped people move from isolation to more connected lives. This is an opportunity for families and paid supporters to learn strategies that will increase the chances of connection.

Learning Objectives

When undertaken as training for people with disability, family members, carers or supporters this workshop will:

• Build capacity and life skills, or support others to build capacity and life skills to develop, sustain and improve relationships.
• Develop capacity including through peer learning, drawing from the experiences of people with disability and families around building connections and relationships towards greater, lifelong independence in the community.

Other sessions featuring Katrina Fredberg and Jenny Smith (coming soon!)

To find out more about the work of CRU please visit: cru.org.au