Neurodiversity: Valuing Others Is At The Heart Of Welcoming Communities

15-minute presentation by Keenan Wellar of LiveWorkPlay on the occasion of the Brain Bonanza, June 9, 2018, a series of talks organized by the Ontario Brain Institute as part of the “Brain: The Inside Story” exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

I attempted to weave my 30-year personal and professional neurodiversity journey into an engaging narrative about the social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and autism in schools, communities, and workplaces. You can also view the slides on SlideShare.

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1310 News “An Hour To Give” talking LiveWorkPlay with host Sam Laprade, April 14, 2018

This is a terrific new Saturday morning show (7am-8am) covering the local charity scene (you can listen to future shows online as well as on the radio). Host Sam Laprade is helping bring some deserving profile to many outstanding but lesser-known non-profit organizations. Although LiveWorkPlay has always been a go-to organization for news media covering issues and events related to people with intellectual disabilities An Hour To Give goes a little deeper, exploring the people, culture, and inner-workings of organizations to understand what makes them unique and what gives them their particular edge!

“An Hour To Give” Tune In Saturday Morning!

This is a great new show on 1310 News with Sam Laprade that airs at 7am every Saturday. Along with three other local charities, LiveWorkPlay was offered the opportunity for one quarter of the airtime on the April 14 edition! You can listen on old school radio at 1310 on your AM dial, or more likely, you’ll be tuning in online http://player.1310news.com/. I will be on around 7:45 but tune in from the start if you can, it will be an interesting show with Habitat for Humanity, Youville Centre, and Serenity Renewal comprising the other segments. We will also be receiving a digital version of the show and will share it at a later dater if you don’t happen to be up and about on Saturday morning. Say something nice about the show on Twitter @1310News @GryphonReport (Sam’s account) @LiveWorkPlay @socialkeenan and hashtag #AnHourtoGive or on Facebook.

Power Lunch with Mark Sutcliffe and Jennifer Madigan, March 28, 2018

I don’t have the audio for this one, but we started and ended talking about sports (I got the Ottawa Fury in the conversation) and talked about the upcoming provincial election, fresh off the Wynne budget announcements. Although we seemed to share the same opinion a lot of the time, Jennifer is experienced in the news business and brought her expert perspective to the conversation. Time flew by!

A challenging but important conversation: violence and people with disabilities on CBC Ottawa Morning

1310 News Power Lunch with Lianne Laing and host Mark Sutcliffe, February 28, 2018

This was really fun, I had not seen Lianne in person for many years since doing an interview with her on the CTV morning show. You can find out what she’s up to now, and the Power Lunch questions of the day were all about politics – not my area of expertise, but it’s good to step out of my comfort zone from time to time. Also, apologies to the Ford family, I had just met Doug Ford ten minutes earlier, and I then proceeded to muck up his first name.

Click the image to access the audio!

COMMUNITY FIRST – Effective Approaches for Supporting the Social Inclusion of People with Intellectual Disabilities

A presentation to family members of students with intellectual disabilities in the Ottawa Catholic School Board, February 22, 2018. The focus was to support parents to have “community first” expectations from service agencies and the community itself. People with intellectual disabilities are not lesser citizens, they have the right to the same opportunities as others for living in homes of their own, paid jobs, and relationships with people and places in their community.

COMMUNITY FIRST – Effective Approaches for Supporting the Social Inclusion of People with Intellectual Disabilities from LiveWorkPlay