VISION Home and Community Program
....is about Young People... Learning... Options... Relationships... Community

OUR MISSION -- to promote meaningful choice and diverse opportunity within public education by supporting the development of the optimal learning environment for each learner and the optimal teaching environment for each teacher.
 
At the heart of VISION is the Home and Community Program. Learners in the program develop an individualized learning plan in consensus with their parents and their Resource Consultant, who is trained and paid by the program to support the development of the learner's and family's unique interests. By building a trusting and cooperative relationship, the Resource Consultant can clarify personal intellectual, physical, and emotional goals and coordinate resources to support reaching these goals. The learner has access to multiple schools, home study, mentors, tutors, diverse curricula, public funds, networking resources and support programs. 

Learning happens at people's homes, in the library, on field trips, in art studios ... in essence, the whole community may be involved in the young person's education.  In July of 2005 VISION moved into a new building. There is a library, kitchen, and several rooms to use for classrooms. There are also plans for additional classrooms in the future. The new building facilitates just one more aspect of learning and teaching.

Accountability results from the integrity of relationships, documentation of learning and demonstration of skill.
VISION HCP HIGHLIGHTS

• Approximately 350 students in VISION in the 2007-2008 school year
• Enrolled 130 students in the first year. 125 of those were not previously served by the public schools.
• Promotes small class size and individual attention. Each student has their own Resource Consultant, unique learning plan and schedule.
• Integrates home-schoolers, alternative community schools, community-based learners and traditional public schools.
• Supports, empowers and educates parents and families.
• Works to integrate the entire community into the educational process and promotes learner integration into the community
• Empowers learners to take ownership of their own education.

VISION emphasizes integrity through relationships, communication and mutual agreements.

VISION AGREES TO:

• Conduct relationships based upon integrity and respect for participant's educational beliefs and methods.
• Find the highest quality Resource Consultants and fully support them in their role as advocate for the learner and family.
• Support each full-time learner with up to $2,150 in yearly funds for educational purposes.
• Offer diplomas.
• Continue to support choice and the home-school law as our school district allows.

PARTICIPANTS AGREE TO:

• Maintain a cooperative working relationship with a Resource Consultant and mentor
• Maintain and demonstrate integrity both personally and for the program in all required paperwork and relationships.
• Work with a Resource  Consultant to keep track of a learner's basic skill level and take state-mandated CSAP and ACT test at the learner's appropriate level once a year along with periodic Scantron assessment tests.
• Meet and document minimum requirement in a timely manner which include:
  • 360 learning hours per semester including 90 hours outside of the home.
  • Updated learning plan and schedule.
  • Documentation and follow through of learning with maintenance of portfolio and various other forms and agreements.

IS THIS PROGRAM FOR YOU?
This is a program for people who recognize and support a learner's right to choose and who are willing and able to accept the responsibility that comes with choice. Participants in the program must be age 5 - 21 and without a diploma or equivalent. Those participants over the age of 18 must be working actively towards a diploma.

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Each Learner has a Resource Consultant (RC) who works for the VISION Home and Community Program (HCP). Resource Consultants are VISION HCP Staff members who work directly with learners and families and who serve as liaisons between the learner and VISION HCP. Each RC forms an individualized written agreement with each Learner and family. The RC meets weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly for up to one hour to check-in with the Learner and parents. A longer quarterly meeting with the Learner and family is held to reflect on the Learner's work and Learning Plan. The RC serves as an advocate for the Learner and parents. This includes being available and maintaining rapport, opening doors of possibility, networking, listening, providing resources and consulting. The RC, parents or another trusted adult meets with the Learner for the specific purpose of checking in and working continually towards a deeper and more meaningful relationship with the Learner. This person is aware of the Learner on many levels and helps to find and provide necessary support. He or she is active in the development and revisiting of Learning Plans, Learner Schedules, portfolios, Weekly Journaling, basic skill-level assessments and funding decisions. The RC also serves as an active liaison to Educators working with the Learner.

The Learner, RC and parents develop a Learning Plan which shows what the Learner is doing now, how he wants to grow and how he is going to get there. The plan includes a Learner Schedule of activities and subjects that have been discussed and agreed upon by all parties. Each Learner has access of up to $2,150 to use to further his/her education according to the Learning Plan that is on file in the VISION HCP office. The money is used to support the Learning Plan, therefore, the Learner.

An Educator is a parent or a person from the community who is serving as a teacher, tutor, advisor or consultant to the Learner. Educators are supported in their roles by the RC and the VISION HCP staff.

Each Learner documents his/her learning in a continually maintained portfolio or other collection of work. The Learner chooses things that reflect the work he considers meaningful, significant or special. During meetings, the Learner RC, and parents discuss what kind of learning has occurred, how the Learning Plan is working out, and look through the Learner's work. Based on the these family check-ins and the input of the Educators, the RC helps to facilitate updates for the Learning Plan. The Learning Plan is revisited often and can be changed if the Learner, parent and RC have a discussion about potential changes and determine that the change is in the best interest of the Learner.

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VISION HCP Learners can receive a VISION HCP Credit Diploma, a VISION HCP Community Diploma, a GED, or transfer to another program. VISION HCP builds the diploma around the Learner rather than the other way around. The goal is for Learners to graduate from the VISION HCP with knowledge of themselves, the qualities of character and the skills and support to successfully begin the next step of life.

The VISION HCP Credit diploma recognizes a variety of types of learning and ways of demonstrating knowledge. Credit toward this diploma can be obtained from testing, classes, challenges or world experience. To graduate with a credit diploma, each Learner needs the following:

• 24 credits demonstrated in the portfolio
• A public presentation or exhibit
• Demonstration of self-knowledge
• Demonstration of the means, skills and clarity to embark on the next step after VISION
• Proficiency in benchmark standards in reading, writing and math
• Agreement from the Learner's Resource Consultant and four adults other than the Learner's parents (or the In-House Graduation Committee) that the above criteria were met

The VISION HCP Community Diploma is based around nine qualities: Endurance, Excellence, Communication, Wisdom, Sustainability, Inspiration, Courage, Truth and Service. To receive this diploma the Learner must assemble a five-person graduation committee or utilize the In-House Graduation Committee. The committee offers support and guidance to the student along their path. Members of the committee have the power to recommend that a diploma be granted when they are in full consensus that the student is ready and qualified and has completed the following required components:

• Demonstration of a strong foundation for each of the Core Qualities and components
• A public presentation or exhibit
• Demonstration of self-knowledge
• Documentation of skills and accomplishments in a portfolio and on the transcripts
• Demonstration of the means, skills and clarity to embark on his or her next step after VISION

This program is based on the integrity of all who participate in it. This includes the Learners, RCs, Educators and the Learners' families. Building and maintaining a strong relationship is a very important factor in this program. The relationships in the program extend into the community when the learners work with Educators from the population and networks to provide diverse learning environments. The most important relationships for Learners are often those involving family and parents, and the program encourages parental involvement that will support and encourage the Learner throughout life. Anyone can strive for his or her dreams with a strong support system in place.

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The VISION Home and Community Program promotes meaningful choice and diverse opportunity within public education by supporting the development of the optimal learning environment for each learner and the optimal teaching environment for each teacher.

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We believe that children naturally learn and that given a safe, nurturing environment laden with opportunity and positive role models all people naturally grow to their highest potential.
Each person is unique and must be encouraged in his or her individual search for fulfillment. Each person is also part of a community and must be encouraged in their search for common purpose and ways to serve. These two searches are mutually strengthening and inseparable.
We believe that we will be served well by taking to heart the following principles:

• Support and trust each young person.
• Support and trust each parent.
• Approach and honor all others with love and respect.
• Never sacrifice the well being of a child for the future of the program.
• Program accountability is built on the integrity of individuals and relationships.
• Leadership that facilitates; membership that participates.
• Promote open and inclusive conversation. Strive for consensus.
• Do not hurry; the quality of the process is the goal.
• Maintain humor, humility and flexibility.
• Never give up on anybody; keep the door open.
• Do not do for others what they can do for themselves.
• The deepest learning often comes within the context of relationship.
• Facilitate informed, careful, and un-pressured choice. True commitment and a sense of responsibility usually follow.
• Examine carefully what we model, for that is what we teach.
• When mistakes are realized, be open and accept responsibility immediately.
• Worthwhile policies permeate every level of an organization.
• Meaningful future lives flow from meaningful present lives.
• Inspired teachers are learning, inspired learners are teaching.
• Listen well and do not respond until you find compassion and respect.
• Question everything, especially when the children's eyes cease to shine.
  
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In the summer of 1999, Dev Carey gave a talk to the Paonia Friends of the Library. There he shared what he had learned in eight years of working with North Fork Valley youth and outlined his idea for an ideal educational program. Judy Livingston was in the audience and she approached Dev after words and said, "Your ideas are very similar to those of my husband, Laddie Livingston, Superintendent of Public Schools for Delta County. You two should get together."

The two did get together and in the space of a few hours, the groundwork for VISION was set. In the fall of 1999, Dev was hired by the school district to write a formal proposal. Meanwhile, a local home-schooled youth, Magnus Schevene, had met Brent Cameron, founder of the Wondertree Program in Vancouver, Canada. Wondertree is very similar to the VISION proposal, so when Brent gave an inspiring talk and the message that this kind of education works, VISION was off and running. A series of public meetings followed in which the proposal was discussed and modified until all participants were satisfied. In February 2000, the local school board gave its official support of the proposal, and that spring the State Board of Education gave the district the waivers it needed to proceed. VISION was officially funded beginning that summer.

The real foundation for VISION, of course was set by the long history of home-schooling and alternative schools in Delta County. VISION was following the lead of the numerous courageous parents who were already trying new ways of 'schooling' and had bright-eyed, successful kids to prove that these ways worked. Moreover, it was the sheer numbers of kids outside the public schools in Delta County along with ongoing charter school applications that convinced Mr. Livingston that the future of public education hinged upon having real and meaningful choice within public schools.

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