About Us

The LifeCourse Nexus

The Charting the LifeCourse framework was developed by families to help individuals with disabilities and families at any age or stage of life develop a vision for a good life, think about what they need to know and do, identify how to find or develop supports, and discover what it takes to live the lives they want to live.

The LifeCourse Nexus Vision

The framework is human-centric, meaning the principles are designed to reflect the needs of people. The key principles were initially developed to drive person-centered change for people with developmental disabilities and their families, but it became clear very quickly that LifeCourse framework and tools applied to everyone and that they could be used to also drive transformational change in practices, organizations, policies, and communities.

We know that to accomplish our goal of creating a framework that represents all populations, that we have a lot more work to do. The LifeCourse Nexus was designed to support this work. We hope that you will join us as we continue to refine, enhance, and develop LifeCourse resources to support transformational change for all people.

Why “Nexus?”

nex·us /ˈneksəs/ noun the central link or connection of two or more things:

LifeCourse Nexus: The intersection of ideas, collaboration, and transformation
The Charting the LifeCourse Nexus (LifeCourse Nexus) is a community of learning that brings people together to work towards transformational change within organizations, systems, and communities to support “good lives for all people.”

The LifeCourse Nexus serves as the central location for the network of people that want to come, share, learn, and develop strategies for getting LifeCourse into the world for the greater good. The Charting the LifeCourse framework and tools create a common language for shaping and supporting innovation in policy, practice, procedure, and culture.

The LifeCourse Nexus Commitment

The LifeCourse Nexus is committed to transformational change at all levels.

  • Individuals and Families: Enhance the capacity of family members (including the focus person) to reframe their understanding and expectations for a “good life” in order to plan, problem-solve, navigate and advocate for integrated supports that they need.
  • Professionals: Enhance the capacity of professionals to use the Charting the LifeCourse principles to reframe their conversations, problem-solving, and planning with the people they support and their families to have a “good life.”
  • Organizations: Create a cultural shift in every level of organization framed around Charting the LifeCourse principles.
  • Networks: Create collective impact through the development of networks locally, statewide, and nationally focusing on social change driven by the Charting the LifeCourse principles.
  • Policy: Align federal and state policies with the principles of the Charting the LifeCourse framework.
  • Research, Evaluation, and Data Sets: Enhance existing and new research agendas and data sets to focus on the person within the context of family and other principles of the framework.

Get Connected with the Charting the LifeCourse Nexus

Join our community of learning and exchange knowledge, build capacity, and engage collaboratively.
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