September 12, 2019 • 9 mins
“My hope is that this podcast will give people the information that they need to take that step forward … Because future planning doesn’t have to be scary and paralyzing. It can be hopeful and can have forward progress.”
Episode Zero of Focus on the Future is an introductory episode. In this episode, our host Allycia Wolff introduces herself and The Arc Minnesota, and shares her hopes for the podcast. She also explains what future planning is and why it is important to you. At the end of the episode, you begin future planning with one small, easy step.
You can find more information about Focus on the Future at arcminnesota.org/podcast. If Episode Zero inspired a question for an Arc Advocate, call The Arc Minnesota at 833.450.1494.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Music (00:06):
[ music playing]
Nicole Kadwell (00:07):
When your child turns 18 everything changes.
When he’s 18, he becomes anadult.
And along with that all of hisrights and things.
We just wanted to learneverything we can to make that
transition for him as smooth aspossible.
Music (00:30):
[ music playing]
Allycia Wolff (00:30):
Welcome to Focus on the Future, a future planning
podcast by The Arc Minnesota.
My name is Allycia Wolff and Iam the host of Focus on the
Future.
We are developing this podcastbecause there are a lot of
people that have children withdisabilities and want to learn
about how to start futureplanning.
Future planning is thinkingabout next week, next month,
(00:54):
next year and 20 years from nowand everything in between.
It’s about making sure that yourchild is living a good life
right now and has all of theopportunity and resources to
live a good life when you’re nolonger here anymore.
And that’s where future planningbecomes really scary to people
because a lot of people onlyassociate future planning and
(01:14):
planning for a time after theydie.
But future planning can beplanning for when a person is
gonna move into a new house orwhen they’re going to get a new
job.
So it’s all encompassing about aperson’s life.
Everything from what makes aperson happy to how to legally
and financially plan for thefuture.
(01:34):
That is future planning.
The Arc Minnesota serves peoplewith intellectual and
developmental disabilities.
We have offices throughout thestate of Minnesota that focus on
helping people in our communityget access to services and
supports that they need eitherthrough advocacy or information
and assistance.
We are here to help.
I call us the first stop shopfor anything disability-related.
(01:55):
A lot of times people feel likethey have questions about
services and supports, but theydon’t know what they don’t know.
You know, you don’t know what isavailable to you out there if
you don’t even know if it’s apossibility.
So often if people are havingquestions about something they
feel like is missing in theirlife or their child’s lives,
they can call us and just talkthrough that issue and advocates
(02:17):
can say, hey, what about thisoption?
Have you considered MA-TEFRA?
Or have you considered going toVoc Rehab?
All really small pieces ofadvocacy that we can help with
here at The Arc.
And it takes a whole team of usto have a good idea of how
disability services works.
And so to expect that a parentor a family can navigate that
(02:42):
completely on their own is kindof absurd.
So feel free to call and reachout to The Arc and our services
and supports whenever.
Visit us online atarcminnesota.org or call us at
(833) 450-1494.
My name is Allycia, I’m anadvocate and a planning
(03:05):
specialist here at The Arc.
I’ve been working here for aboutsix years now and currently I
work in the areas ofguardianship and future
planning.
So I help families and peoplethat have questions about
advocacy and want to think aboutand intentionally plan for their
future.
And my goal as well for thispodcast is to bring in other
expertise to this area.
(03:28):
Interview attorneys andfinancial planners and people
that know a lot about thesereally niche areas of creating a
future plan so that it’s notjust my knowledge or not just
The Arc’s knowledge that we’reoffering.
This is going to be a wholecommunity coming together to
talk about future planning.
Focus on the Future is not achronological podcast.
(03:48):
You can cherry pick each episodefor whatever you need in that
moment.
So if you want to learn abouttrust, you can just listen to
that episode if you want a fullknowledge about everything
future planning, if you have achild with a disability, you can
listen from start to finish.
So basically our hope in thispodcast is to help people create
their future plan.
(04:09):
To get people to put somethingdown onto paper and to move
forward with something that hasbeen causing anxiety for a
really long time.
People can think about how muchthey need to create a will for
10, 20 years.
And not actually move forwardwith it.
Because it’s a reallyintimidating experience to think
about your death and to thinkabout a time when you’re no
longer going to be able to carefor somebody that you love more
than anything.
And the reality of it is, is notcreating a plan is doing more
harm than the actual process ofcreating a plan.
And that emotional readinesspart is what I have found
personally, mostly out of fearand concern that something isn’t
going to happen correctly orthey’re not going to do
something right.
My hope is that this podcastwill give people the information
that they need to take that stepforward and meet with an
attorney and actually createsome meaningful plans for the
future so that people aren’tstuck in that space for quite as
long.
Because future planning doesn’thave to be scary and paralyzing.
(05:15):
It can be hopeful and can haveforward progress.
The Arc also views futureplanning as a three legged stool
of sorts.
Um, obviously a three leggedstool has three legs and if you
take away one of those legs orif it’s short or broken, the
stool doesn’t stand up.
When we talk about futureplanning, the three legs are
legal planning, financialplanning, and quality of life
(05:38):
planning.
And all three of those pieceshave to equally balance out for
a person to feel really securein what they have set up for the
future.
So it’s equally as important toplan for your financial security
and to do the legal planning ofyour will and then to also make
sure that your child is living agood life because you do so much
right now as a caregiver to makesure that your kid has access to
(06:01):
services and has people in theirlife that love them and is
happy.
And that quality of life pieceis just as important, if not
more important than the legaland financial planning.
And in this podcast we’ll talkabout all of those different
pieces.
Let’s start future planningright now.
Something that you can do inthis moment to start your path
(06:25):
of thinking about the future.
Consider your morning routine.
Think about what happens themoment your alarm goes off.
Do you hit snooze?
Do you, um, are you welcomedinto the day by your dog,
licking your fingers and wakingyou up?
Do you jump right into theshower?
Do you need coffee right away?
These are the things about yourdaily routine that you know
specifically and intimately andlikely, you know, if you’re
living with your child with adisability, you know what their
routine is.
And so, you know that the momentthat they wake up, they’re
really, really crabby and youneed to leave them be for five
minutes.
(07:03):
Like how I am in the morning.
[laughs] Or you know, that amorning without orange juice is
not a good morning.
Or, every morning when you wakeup your son, you ask him what
dreams he had.
And that’s a moment that youguys share together every
morning, you know, things as acaregiver that are in your head
(07:24):
floating around that areincredibly valuable to pass on
to future caregivers.
You know so, so much.
And part of the process infuture planning is writing that
stuff down because that morningroutine that you know so
intimately probably isn’tsomething that somebody else
knows quite as well.
And that’s something that youcan start with is writing those
(07:44):
things down and communicatingthat cause it’s usually the
little things that you don’teven think about that are the
most important things thatyou’re doing.
So here is your action item forthe next week: write down
morning and evening routines.
And if you don’t live with yourson or daughter, write down what
(08:04):
you do know to start the processwith a small little tidbit and
move forward.
In the next episode of Focus onthe future, we are going to be
talking about why families startfuture planning and how they go
about the process.
We’ll be joined by a family outof Minneapolis, Minnesota
talking about their experiencein future planning as their son
(08:28):
turns 18.
I will be explaining futureplanning, what concepts there
are overall, what you need to doin future planning, and how The
Arc can help.
The Arc has a variety ofdifferent services and programs
that we can assist families withas they’re thinking about the
process.
Tune in to our next episode.
It’s going to be great.
[music playing] Focus on theFuture is a podcast of The Arc
(08:49):
Minnesota.
Subscribe to the podcast on yourfavorite streaming service to
stay up to date with the newestepisodes.
You can find more about Focus onthe Future at
arcminnesota.org/podcast.
If this episode inspiredquestions for an advocate at The
Arc, please give us a call at833.450.1494.
[ music playing]
Nicole Kadwell (00:07):
When your child turns 18 everything changes.
When he’s 18, he becomes anadult.
And along with that all of hisrights and things.
We just wanted to learneverything we can to make that
transition for him as smooth aspossible.
Music (00:30):
[ music playing]
Allycia Wolff (00:30):
Welcome to Focus on the Future, a future planning
podcast by The Arc Minnesota.
My name is Allycia Wolff and Iam the host of Focus on the
Future.
We are developing this podcastbecause there are a lot of
people that have children withdisabilities and want to learn
about how to start futureplanning.
Future planning is thinkingabout next week, next month,
(00:54):
next year and 20 years from nowand everything in between.
It’s about making sure that yourchild is living a good life
right now and has all of theopportunity and resources to
live a good life when you’re nolonger here anymore.
And that’s where future planningbecomes really scary to people
because a lot of people onlyassociate future planning and
(01:14):
planning for a time after theydie.
But future planning can beplanning for when a person is
gonna move into a new house orwhen they’re going to get a new
job.
So it’s all encompassing about aperson’s life.
Everything from what makes aperson happy to how to legally
and financially plan for thefuture.
(01:34):
That is future planning.
The Arc Minnesota serves peoplewith intellectual and
developmental disabilities.
We have offices throughout thestate of Minnesota that focus on
helping people in our communityget access to services and
supports that they need eitherthrough advocacy or information
and assistance.
We are here to help.
I call us the first stop shopfor anything disability-related.
(01:55):
A lot of times people feel likethey have questions about
services and supports, but theydon’t know what they don’t know.
You know, you don’t know what isavailable to you out there if
you don’t even know if it’s apossibility.
So often if people are havingquestions about something they
feel like is missing in theirlife or their child’s lives,
they can call us and just talkthrough that issue and advocates
(02:17):
can say, hey, what about thisoption?
Have you considered MA-TEFRA?
Or have you considered going toVoc Rehab?
All really small pieces ofadvocacy that we can help with
here at The Arc.
And it takes a whole team of usto have a good idea of how
disability services works.
And so to expect that a parentor a family can navigate that
(02:42):
completely on their own is kindof absurd.
So feel free to call and reachout to The Arc and our services
and supports whenever.
Visit us online atarcminnesota.org or call us at
(833) 450-1494.
My name is Allycia, I’m anadvocate and a planning
(03:05):
specialist here at The Arc.
I’ve been working here for aboutsix years now and currently I
work in the areas ofguardianship and future
planning.
So I help families and peoplethat have questions about
advocacy and want to think aboutand intentionally plan for their
future.
And my goal as well for thispodcast is to bring in other
expertise to this area.
(03:28):
Interview attorneys andfinancial planners and people
that know a lot about thesereally niche areas of creating a
future plan so that it’s notjust my knowledge or not just
The Arc’s knowledge that we’reoffering.
This is going to be a wholecommunity coming together to
talk about future planning.
Focus on the Future is not achronological podcast.
(03:48):
You can cherry pick each episodefor whatever you need in that
moment.
So if you want to learn abouttrust, you can just listen to
that episode if you want a fullknowledge about everything
future planning, if you have achild with a disability, you can
listen from start to finish.
So basically our hope in thispodcast is to help people create
their future plan.
(04:09):
To get people to put somethingdown onto paper and to move
forward with something that hasbeen causing anxiety for a
really long time.
People can think about how muchthey need to create a will for
10, 20 years.
And not actually move forwardwith it.
Because it’s a reallyintimidating experience to think
about your death and to thinkabout a time when you’re no
longer going to be able to carefor somebody that you love more
than anything.
And the reality of it is, is notcreating a plan is doing more
harm than the actual process ofcreating a plan.
And that emotional readinesspart is what I have found
personally, mostly out of fearand concern that something isn’t
going to happen correctly orthey’re not going to do
something right.
My hope is that this podcastwill give people the information
that they need to take that stepforward and meet with an
attorney and actually createsome meaningful plans for the
future so that people aren’tstuck in that space for quite as
long.
Because future planning doesn’thave to be scary and paralyzing.
(05:15):
It can be hopeful and can haveforward progress.
The Arc also views futureplanning as a three legged stool
of sorts.
Um, obviously a three leggedstool has three legs and if you
take away one of those legs orif it’s short or broken, the
stool doesn’t stand up.
When we talk about futureplanning, the three legs are
legal planning, financialplanning, and quality of life
(05:38):
planning.
And all three of those pieceshave to equally balance out for
a person to feel really securein what they have set up for the
future.
So it’s equally as important toplan for your financial security
and to do the legal planning ofyour will and then to also make
sure that your child is living agood life because you do so much
right now as a caregiver to makesure that your kid has access to
(06:01):
services and has people in theirlife that love them and is
happy.
And that quality of life pieceis just as important, if not
more important than the legaland financial planning.
And in this podcast we’ll talkabout all of those different
pieces.
Let’s start future planningright now.
Something that you can do inthis moment to start your path
(06:25):
of thinking about the future.
Consider your morning routine.
Think about what happens themoment your alarm goes off.
Do you hit snooze?
Do you, um, are you welcomedinto the day by your dog,
licking your fingers and wakingyou up?
Do you jump right into theshower?
Do you need coffee right away?
These are the things about yourdaily routine that you know
specifically and intimately andlikely, you know, if you’re
living with your child with adisability, you know what their
routine is.
And so, you know that the momentthat they wake up, they’re
really, really crabby and youneed to leave them be for five
minutes.
(07:03):
Like how I am in the morning.
[laughs] Or you know, that amorning without orange juice is
not a good morning.
Or, every morning when you wakeup your son, you ask him what
dreams he had.
And that’s a moment that youguys share together every
morning, you know, things as acaregiver that are in your head
(07:24):
floating around that areincredibly valuable to pass on
to future caregivers.
You know so, so much.
And part of the process infuture planning is writing that
stuff down because that morningroutine that you know so
intimately probably isn’tsomething that somebody else
knows quite as well.
And that’s something that youcan start with is writing those
(07:44):
things down and communicatingthat cause it’s usually the
little things that you don’teven think about that are the
most important things thatyou’re doing.
So here is your action item forthe next week: write down
morning and evening routines.
And if you don’t live with yourson or daughter, write down what
(08:04):
you do know to start the processwith a small little tidbit and
move forward.
In the next episode of Focus onthe future, we are going to be
talking about why families startfuture planning and how they go
about the process.
We’ll be joined by a family outof Minneapolis, Minnesota
talking about their experiencein future planning as their son
(08:28):
turns 18.
I will be explaining futureplanning, what concepts there
are overall, what you need to doin future planning, and how The
Arc can help.
The Arc has a variety ofdifferent services and programs
that we can assist families withas they’re thinking about the
process.
Tune in to our next episode.
It’s going to be great.
[music playing] Focus on theFuture is a podcast of The Arc
(08:49):
Minnesota.
Subscribe to the podcast on yourfavorite streaming service to
stay up to date with the newestepisodes.
You can find more about Focus onthe Future at
arcminnesota.org/podcast.
If this episode inspiredquestions for an advocate at The
Arc, please give us a call at833.450.1494.
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