Building Your Circle of Support

The Microboard Guide: Part 2 of 5

To call your non-profit corporation a microboard, a minimum of five directors are required.  Most families do not start with five people ready to serve. Building toward that number is a process that may take months or years. The formal structure comes later. The starting point is relationships.

Start with Who Is Available

A microboard can begin with two or three committed people. That might be a parent, a sibling or other family member, a neighbour, or a family friend. Professional expertise is helpful but not required at this stage. What matters is that the person cares about the individual and is willing to participate consistently.

Reliable attendance at meetings and follow-through on tasks and action items are the qualities that sustain a microboard over time. These qualities can come from anyone regardless of their professional background.

What If the Network Is Small?

Many families of people with disabilities experience social isolation. Relationships can narrow over the years as caregiving demands increase and social opportunities decrease. A small network does not prevent a microboard from being established.

Taking stock of who is currently available and what they bring is a practical first step. Some people in a family’s circle may care about the individual but have no familiarity with government funding programs or service navigation. Others may understand the system well but have no personal relationship with the individual. Understanding what the current network offers, and where there are gaps, makes it possible to fill those gaps as the network grows.

Where to Find People

Microboards Ontario (microboardsontario.com) is the most direct resource. Their programs bring families together with others who are going through the same process or who have already established microboards. Through these programs, families meet people who understand the model and may be willing to share their experience or participate in an advisory capacity.

Community Living Ontario (communitylivingontario.ca) operates local agencies that run family support programs and can connect families with one another. These connections are often a starting point for identifying people who may eventually join a microboard.

Family Alliance Ontario (family-alliance.com) is an alliance of regional family networks across Ontario. Their website lists affiliated networks organized by region, which can help families find peer support in their area.

Developmental Services Ontario (DSO) offices (dsontario.ca) are the single point of access for adult developmental services in Ontario and can provide referrals to local resources.

Professionals Already Connected to the Family

Professionals who already know the individual may be willing to participate in a limited or advisory role. This could include a support worker, a therapist, a social worker, or a physician who has a longstanding relationship with the individual. These people already understand the person and may bring knowledge of funding programs or service systems that the family does not yet have.

Accountants, lawyers, and financial planners who specialize in disability-related planning are also worth approaching. The Partners for Planning (P4P) Ontario Professional Services Directory at planningnetwork.ca lists professionals across Ontario with disability expertise.

Getting a Facilitator

A professional facilitator can make a significant difference, especially in the early stages. A facilitator is someone who leads microboard meetings, sets agendas, guides discussions, documents decisions, and ensures follow-through. This role is especially valuable when the family members who initiated the microboard are also the primary caregivers and cannot run every meeting themselves.

A good facilitator brings structure without taking over. They help the group develop its own capacity for governance and decision making. Some facilitators come from backgrounds in social work, community development, or non-profit management, but the most important qualities are organizational skill, neutrality, and the ability to draw out contributions from all members.

Facilitators with experience in microboards or disability services can be found through Microboards Ontario, the Ontario Independent Facilitation Network (OIFN) at oifn.ca, and Partners for Planning at planningnetwork.ca. The cost of a facilitator can often be covered through Passport funding, which allows up to $2,500 for person-directed planning.

The Children of Family Friends

One source of support that is easy to overlook is the children of a family’s own friends. These are young people who may have grown up around the individual without being close friends during childhood. The relationship between the families, rather than between the children themselves, is what creates the foundation. As these young people grow into adulthood, they often develop a deeper understanding of the individual’s life and needs. They may have watched their own parents care about the family for years. They bring a familiarity that is difficult to replicate with someone new. Some may eventually be willing to serve on the microboard, bringing a generational perspective and a long history of awareness.

Cultivating Relationships Over Years

A microboard network is cultivated over years. This can be as simple as inviting people into the individual’s life in low-pressure ways: attending a birthday celebration, joining a community outing, or spending time together. Not every relationship will result in a board member. The goal is to build a broad base of people who know and care about the person, from which a smaller group of committed individuals will emerge over time.

The Generational Shift

The network that supports a young adult in their twenties will not be the same network that supports them in their forties or fifties. Parents age. Siblings’ circumstances change. As the individual grows older, the microboard will need to draw in members from the person’s own generation rather than relying on the founding generation of parents and their peers. Families who think about this early, even while the founding members are fully active, position the microboard for long-term sustainability. The goal is continuity of care, knowledge, and commitment across generations, so that the person is always surrounded by people who know them well.