Our inaugural book launch last year was a huge success, bringing together over 200 people to help celebrate our new social enterprise publishing house, specializing in books and media by, for, and about people with disabilities.

This year we are releasing 3 exciting new books and a set of 6 fun and motivational posters by artist, author and Spectrum Society director, Aaron Johannes.

Come and help us launch our new titles on October 13th, 2012 at the Bonsor Recreation Centre (near the Metrotown Skytrain Station) from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Meet the authors and have your books signed. Meet David Pitonyak and hear him speak. It will be a great way to wind up your Community Living Days week!

Here is some information about our upcoming books:

Getting to Community: supporting people with developmental disabilities in their pursuit of the good life by Susan Stanfield. Susan, noted educator, author and Spectrum Society founding director has written an important new book of best practices in community support, focusing on self determination and great lives for people with disabilities. Click here to order Susan's book now at a pre-publication savings. (Pre-orders will be shipped the week of October 15th)

This early review sums up Susan's work nicely:

"Susan offers an elegant and precise voice to a new era of supporting interdependence and authentic roles for people with disabilities as they make their own choices in in their homes, workplaces, neighbourhoods and associational lives. This is an informative and practical book that would be an excellent addition to the libraries of teachers in inclusive classrooms, parents, and those working in the field. We expect a great deal from those who support our citizens with disabilities in their daily lives, and this book is a welcome and respectful addition to the field."

Barbara R. Trader, MS,   Executive Director,  TASH: Equity, Opportunity, and Inclusion

The ABC's of Ability  Dr Susan Powell, creator, and Larry Wells, photographer, along with an amazing team of self advocate collaborators and models have put together a unique and thought-provoking ABC book for children of all ages, showing images of people with disabilities making valued contributions to their communities.

"From Ability to Zest, join six adults with developmental disabilities as they explain what is important to them about being part of every day life. Discover how they use words and photos to illustrate the many ways they participate in and contribute to community."

From Institutions to Individuals: On Becoming Person-Centred is an academic anthology which will be directed to college  students in Community Support Worker, Education Assistant, and Disability Studies programs, and new or experienced community support workers. The anthology is based on Susan Stanfield's popular essay of the same title. The list of authors is a who's who of some of the most influential thinkers in today's community living movement, including Michael Kendrick, David Pitonyak, Bill Gaventa, Susan Stanfield, and Aaron Johannes, among others.

Jim Reynolds

**We believe we are surrounded by evidence of kindness, sharing and abundance. If you’d like to share any of the articles or illustrations (not photographs of people or works which are obviously by individuals, who have only given us permission for here) from the Spectrum Press blog  you are welcome to do so for the uses of non-profits or social justice organizations, giving credit to www.spectrumpress.ca - a note letting us know either in the comments or by email or twitter (@101friendsbc) would be great! Copies of our books, posters and media works for use by groups are available at www.spectrumpress.ca  Inquiries about workshops or facilitation can be made to aaron@spectrumsociety.org  Spectrum is a charity, although Spectrum Press and Learning are Social Enterprises, and donations to our work can be made here – specify Literacy, or Research Training and Development if it matters to you, otherwise it’ll be used where it’s most needed. You can subscribe to Spectrum Society's monthly newsletter at www.101friends.ca.