Shanti Miller - Shanti Miller Friendship Society

What the Vela Microboard Does

My Vela Microboard, the Shanti Miller Friendship Society, helps me plan my life. We meet and discuss what I want to do with my time. We talk about ways I can help others, the fun things I want to do and the things I need to stay healthy. Then the members of my Vela Microboard work with my staff team to make these things happen.

The members of my Vela Microboard are not paid to help me, they help me because we are family and friends. We all spend time together mostly doing fun things, but during that time we talk about how things are going and what changes I might want to make.

I am in a wheelchair and I need to have someone with me for support 24 hours a day. I need help with most of my daily activities and to stay safe. So with lots of help from Vela Microboard Association, my Vela Microboard wrote a proposal and asked for money from government to pay for my services. The government gave my Vela Microboard the money and they take care of that money for me. My Vela Microboard helps me find my staff and helps to train my staff. They help the staff write up a schedule and to sort out what needs to be done to help me have a life where I am happy, safe and health.

Vela Microboard Association helped us learn how to do all these things. The staff at Vela taught my board to:
how to plan with me; how to manage a government contract; become the employers; and, how to train and support my staff.

My Vela Microboard members make sure the money they get from government is spent properly. So they keep books and send in reports to my social worker and to my social worker's supervisors.

We meet to talk about my life and how things are going. During these meetings I say what I like and what I don't like about my life. My Vela Microboard and my staff help me figure out how to keep having a good life. We work as a team.

If we need some extra help managing the Vela Microboard, or to figure out a problem, we call Vela Microboard Association and they help us figure things out. They are always there for us to lend a hand if we need their help.

I really like having a Vela Microboard because it means that many of the people I love are there to help me have a life that I like. I am so much happier than I was living in a group home.