Why Red Giraffe Exists?
Why Red Giraffe Exists?
Red Giraffe was named by our daughter. Her favourite colour is red. She is passionate about giraffes. Combine the two together and you get Red Giraffe.
As parents, when our daughter was born, we quickly learnt about the challenges she would face in her life. But like every parent we were determined that one day she would live as independently as was right for her. This meant her learning all the daily living skills that support independent living, having a purpose to her day and enjoying meaningful relationships. In short, all we want is for her to be safe, secure and live a rewarding and fulfilling life.
In the beginning, like many parents of children with additional needs, we didn’t have an answer. Worse still, we didn’t know where to look. But at those points of transformation, like moving schools, we realised we needed a robust plan for the future. If not, we could see that ‘cliff-edge’ becoming a reality, where her life would simply stand still after the structure of full time education.
This led us to think more deeply about her future. It led to the Expanding Worlds Podcast, the the Red Giraffe Route Map, our VOCAL method, and then to the What’s Possible? Plan A Better Future For Your Young Adult With Additional Needs book, where we share our knowledge and experience, to support other families just like ours.
As parents, when our daughter was born, we quickly learnt about the challenges she would face in her life. But like every parent we were determined that one day she would live as independently as was right for her. This meant her learning all the daily livings skills that support independent living, having a purpose to her day and enjoying meaningful relationships. In short, all we want is for her to be safe, secure and live a rewarding and fulfilling life.
In the beginning, like many parents of children with additional needs, we didn’t have an answer. Worse still, we didn’t know where to look. But at those points of transformation, like moving schools, we realised we needed a robust plan for the future. If not, we could see that ‘cliff-edge’ becoming a reality, where her life would simply stand still after the structure of full time education.
This led us to think more deeply about her future. It led to the Expanding Worlds Podcast, the four lines of the Red Giraffe Route Map, the VOCAL method, personalised training and support, where we share our knowledge and experience, to support other families just like ours.
Debra is a teacher, both in Australia as a University Lecturer and in the UK as a College Tutor. She has used her professional experience and knowledge to support her daughter to build the skills enable her to live a more independent life.
In 2017 she started the Expanding Worlds Podcast. She reaches out to families and professionals, across the world, to discuss different approaches to support independence around daily living, purpose, relationships and finance. She has always believed that:
1. every young person with additional needs should have the same opportunities as everyone else
2. every young person with additional needs should be able to decide exactly how they live their lives
Her aim now is to share what she knows works. She wants to help other families support their young person to develop and build the skills they need to live a more independent life.
Debra is a teacher, both in Australia as a University Lecturer and in the UK as a College Tutor. She has used her professional experience and knowledge to support her daughter, not only in school but also at home with skills that allow her daughter to become more independent and live her own life.
In 2017 she started the Expanding Worlds Podcast. She reaches out to parents and professionals to discuss different approaches to support independence around daily living, purpose and relationships. She has always believed that:
1. every young person with additional needs should have the same opportunities as everyone else
2. every young person with additional needs should be able to decide exactly how they live their lives
Her aim now is to share what she knows works. She wants you to be able to utilise the same tools she’s used with her daughter to support your child to develop and build the skills they need to live a more independent life.
As the father of a daughter with additional needs, Graham has personal experience of the challenges faced by families and the fears they have about their child’s future. He understands that the journey can be tough, frustrating, and lonely and that it’s often difficult to imagine a future where their child is secure, and has self-dignity, purpose, and a community around them.
Graham has owned multiple businesses, including a holiday park, and understands the value of planning and making sound decisions today that will impact the future. He realized that his daughter needed a life plan, which would provide clarity on what she wanted in the present and the future, making it easier to identify options and choose the ones that would enable her to live the life she wanted.
This led him to write “What’s Possible? Plan a better future for your young adult with additional needs” which is a guide to supporting young adults with additional needs to write a life and the route to creating an independent future.
He believes the legacy we leave to our children is not just the money we leave but also the skills and self-belief they can use to live their lives on their terms.
Graham is a parent and author of What’s Possible? Plan A Better Future Your Young Adult With Additional Needs (Coming Out September 2023). Owning his own business gave him time to spend with his children and even today he reads with his youngest daughter every weeknight and she believes he is much improved under her guidance. Through his writing he is aiming to share what has worked for his family in supporting his daughter with additional needs to live her best life.
