For Parents of Teens and Adults

Parent Quest Programme

By popular demand, we're expanding our programmes to support parents of older children—teens and young adults. Join us and feel the energy and support of other parents like you! 

Program Overview

Your time matters—make it count! There’s a lot you can do to help your child live as independently as possible.

Now & Next is a 12-hour interactive program designed to help you create real, positive change for your child and your whole family. Parents and carers have the biggest impact, and this program gives you proven tools and strategies that really work. It was co-designed and trialed by parents like you, so it’s practical, relatable, and effective.

By joining, you’ll:

• Learn how to get more results with less effort

• Use your strengths to create small changes with big impact

• Boost your family’s well-being and resilience

• Discover strategies that have helped other families

• Get practical tools to make the most of your resources—even with limited funding

Who is the program suitable for?

• Families seeking positive support and guidance in formulating a life vision.

• Families raising children with ASD/neurodiversity, cognitive/learning disabilities and ADHD.

• Families from immigrant background.

• Parents and carers with neurodiversity, cognitive or learning differences and ADHD.

Parent Coaching Journey

The Now & Next Parent Quest guides you through the 4 levels of the Youth Quest programme, so you can coach your son or daughter as they grow and become more independent! 

We will describe how the Youth Quest milestones build on each other to give you special strength-based tools to coach your son or daughter.

Players move through 4 levels, completing personal and team challenges at each stage:

Six of the participants had attended the first Now & Next parent programme in 2018, also sponsored by CCS Disability Action. Their testimonies show that the benefits afforded by the programme last over the years, but also that there is always more to learn as one's child grows up and faces new situations and challenges. All participants in this group reported having learnt critical new information from the other parents, be it ideas for future careers for their child or the availability of funding through the disability sector. Seven of the participants had a child or sibling attending our Now & Next Youth programme. See their feedback in the clips below.

The original version of the Supported Planning process was piloted with over 2000 participants. We built on our award winning programmes (Heyworth, Mahmic and Janson, 2017) to promote active participation, for families, children and youth. As a parent-led group, this was in response to concerns voiced from other parents on how their youth and adult children would give authentic input into what a good life meant to them. We also worked with youth to support their self-determination dreams. 

Since then, our group has received 5 innovation awards.

Co-design processes were supervised by two parents Dr Annick Janson and Sylvana Mahmic with lived experience and relevant professional expertise, as a form of targeted, family-focussed planning that they wished had been available when their own family members were growing up.  

In 2018, CCS Disability Action awarded us a Social Innovation Funding grant to work on Supported Planning work with Māori participants. This funding enabled us to carry out year-long research to gather valuable input from 13 Māori participants and 10 staff from organisations’ Māori teams, in partnership with a service provider. 23 people participated in the co-design process and discussed what a Supported Planning tool would include to be a culturally appropriate and respectful process. This project was run in collaboration with Colene Herbert, General Manager Midland Region, CCS Disability Action. Special thanks to Colene and her team for facilitating this unique process. 

The research included:

• Key people interview: families, CCSDA Māori professionals and other key staff

• Consultations with Māori participants of our Now and Next programme

• Co-design adaptations to reflect the Māori culture

Interviewees co-designed the Supported Planning process to be consistent with three Kaupapa Māori principles: Tino Rangatiratanga – Self-determination, Māori controlling their destiny; Whānau – acknowledging the knowledge embedded in whānaungatanga and the responsibility to act in ways that nurture these relationships and Ata as a guide to the understanding of relationships and wellbeing when engaging with Māori.

As examples, participants liked visuals with sky and stars, which allude to Matariki new beginnings. For some Māori iwi, Matariki relates the story of Tāwhirimātea’s ire, for other iwi, the seven stars are said to be a mother (Matariki) and her six daughters: Tupu-ā-nuku, Tupu-ā-rangi, Waipunarangi, Waitī, Waitā and Ururangi. In this tale, Matariki and her tamariki journey across the sky every year to visit their grandmother Papatūānuku (earth mother), who passes on her knowledge and wisdom so that each different star can make a positive contribution to the environment they live in. In this story mother Matariki guides and supports her children in all that they do. She is ultimately there to watch over her tamariki and ensure they use their grandmother’s teachings to become the best they can be.

Some interviewees mentioned that the stars used to write long term goals reminded them of the star sisters in the Matariki legend and that the boards used during the Supported Planning process reminded them of the many games they used to play during the New Year celebrations. Some noted that Matariki has become integrated in the New Zealand society and this theme was becoming part of the ‘Kiwi language’:

• “Matariki is an amazing metaphor for [this tool] because it symbolizes a new beginning and mostly because it goes across all Māori different tribes”.

• We feel the goal setting starting with family goals and not the child or personal goals is in line with Māori culture.

• In the past, it was the professionals, not the whānau or Iwi who directed our IEP conversations. Now we want to regain control over these conversations, “be the CEO of our child’s success” and better collaborate with professionals.

Please see more details on how this co-design process was embedded in this Supported Planning tool, including our final report to CCSDA on this page. 

Please also review the 2020 video testimonial of Rangi Hepi from the rural Manawatu explaining how the process empowered him to fill his kete. 

Our aim is to train future Māori and youth facilitators so that supported planning can be offered as one of the tools in their kete.

Recommendations from the Social Innovation Report

1. To add to the New Zealand Pictability a set of goal cards with the Maori themes suggested by participants.

2. To continue working in partnership with Maori families and embed in future projects ongoing consultation about what matters to Maori families in the process of planning for their child and family.

3. Most professionals also mentioned that this suite of tools should be rolled out across New Zealand as the goal setting we have to comply to government directives is “​old and stale​”. Evidence from this project is congruent with CCS Disability Action vision items (1) People can make conscious choices about education, training, home, work, real relationships, natural supports and (2) Growing more self-advocacy, confidence, knowledge and resources to bring the voices of people with disabilities to the fore.

• We interviewed 25 emerging leaders to collate their thoughts about community Inclusion. Their interviews were organised into a free online course for youth workers: "Peer Learning to develop leadership and build community capacity". This Virtual Role Model course (https://www.udemy.com/course/virtualrolemodels) explains to families and young people what impact they can have to connect disabled people to community and mainstream. The course is showcased by UNESCO. These e-learning programs were aimed at multicultural audiences and have reached a wide range of learners. Early successes brought new demand, with some programs reaching a combined attendance of over 10,000 online learners. Some were accessible via the Ted.com platform. Introduction clip.

• We interviewed 12 migrants to New Zealand with lived experience of disability. The Migrants and Refugees with disability storytelling project was Showcased in the 2013 New Zealand Race Relations Report submitted to the United Nations by the Human Rights Commission and was funded by the New Zealand IHC Foundation. http://fasttrackinclusiontrust.blogspot.com/p/disabled-refugees-stories.html