An NDIS plan can be an important foundation for a young person and their family.
It may identify goals relating to daily life, communication, education, employment, relationships, community participation, independence, or future planning. It may bring together valuable reports, funding arrangements, support workers, allied health professionals, schools, and family members.
Yet many families and providers know that having a plan does not automatically mean that a young person feels understood.
This article is for: families, carers, support coordinators, educators, youth workers, and organisations supporting children and young people experiencing disengagement, change, or complexity.
A goal may look clear on paper but remain difficult to put into practice.
For example:
- “Increase community participation.”
- “Build independence.”
- “Develop social skills.”
- “Prepare for work.”
- “Improve daily living skills.”
- “Engage in education or training.”
These are worthwhile goals. But they are broad.
Before deciding how to support them, it is important to understand what the goal means to the individual young person, what social conditions are currently affecting it, and what strengths can help create a realistic way forward.
That is where socialisation provides a fuller picture.
A goal is not the same as a pathway
Consider a goal such as: “I want to participate more in my community.”
On its own, this may lead to a focus on finding an activity or allocating more support hours. Those supports may be useful, but they may not address the full picture.
A Human Flourishing Profile™ explores the social conditions around the goal. Are Modern Pressures making participation feel overwhelming? Is the young person adapting to a recent move, diagnosis, change in school, or change in support workers? Does the activity fit their Culture, values, interests, and sense of self? Is there an opportunity to learn gradually and contribute through Community?
This helps turn a broad goal into a practical, individualised pathway.
Participation is more than being present
A young person may be funded to participate in the community, but still find it difficult to take part in ways that feel safe, meaningful, or sustainable.
They may attend an activity but feel disconnected from it. They may have support hours available but decline to use them. They may be encouraged to join a group but find the environment overwhelming. They may want more independence but feel uncertain about how to manage change, unfamiliar settings, expectations, or relationships.
This does not mean the young person is failing.
It may mean that the goal has been separated from the social conditions that make participation possible.
Socialisation is the process through which young people learn how to navigate relationships, communities, expectations, culture, change, learning, and their own developing sense of self.
The Schultz Human Flourishing Model™ helps bring those conditions into view through eight interconnected elements:
- Modern Pressures
- Adaptation to Change
- Values
- Community
- Life-Long Learning
- The Individual/Self
- Culture
- Moral Thinking
The Model does not treat a young person as a collection of deficits or support needs. It asks how these elements are shaping their ability to participate and flourish in everyday life.
A familiar example
Imagine a young person I will call Mia.
Mia is 16 and has an NDIS goal relating to community participation. Her family would like her to spend more time outside the home and develop greater confidence. Her support workers have identified local activities and offered transport.
On paper, the goal appears straightforward.
But Mia has begun declining activities. She spends more time in her room. Her family is worried. Her support workers are trying to encourage her, but each suggestion seems to make her withdraw further.
It would be easy to focus only on the practical question:
“Which activity should Mia try next?”
But that question may be too narrow.
A Human Flourishing Profile™ would not begin by assuming that Mia simply needs more activities. It would explore the socialisation conditions around the goal.
Community: What kind of participation is meaningful?
Community is one of the eight elements of the Schultz Human Flourishing Model™.
For Mia, the important question is not just whether she is attending something in the community. It is whether she has an opportunity to participate in a way that is meaningful to her.
Does the activity connect with an existing interest? Does she have a role? Is there someone she already knows? Does she understand what will happen when she arrives? Does she have a genuine choice about how she participates?
Mia may not be interested in a general community programme, but she may have a strong interest in animals, digital design, music, books, gardening, gaming, or cooking.
A meaningful community connection may grow from that interest rather than from an activity chosen simply because it is available.
This is not about lowering expectations. It is about creating a pathway that makes sense to the person.
The Individual/Self: How does Mia see herself?
The Individual/Self is another essential element.
By 16, Mia may have had many experiences of other people making decisions about her, assessing her needs, or encouraging her to take part in things she did not choose.
Even when people are acting with care, a young person can begin to feel that their preferences do not matter or that they are defined only by what they find difficult.
Before expecting Mia to participate more, it may be important to understand how she sees herself.
- What does she enjoy?
- What does she feel capable of?
- When does she feel most comfortable expressing her views?
- What does she want for her own future?
- What does she want adults to understand about her?
A goal is more likely to become meaningful when it is connected to a young person’s own interests, strengths, and aspirations.
Adaptation to Change: Is the goal moving too quickly?
Community participation often involves change.
It may require a young person to enter a new setting, meet new people, adjust to an unfamiliar routine, travel somewhere different, or manage expectations they have not encountered before.
For some young people, that change may be exciting. For others, it may feel daunting.
If Mia has recently changed schools, lost a friendship, moved house, had a change in family circumstances, or experienced a shift in her support team, she may already be managing more adaptation than the adults around her realise.
In that context, adding another unfamiliar activity may feel like too much.
A more realistic pathway may involve smaller, more predictable steps. Mia might first visit a place without needing to join in, attend with one trusted person, choose a short activity, or build familiarity before taking on a larger commitment.
The aim is not to avoid change. It is to support the young person to adapt to it.
Modern Pressures: What is happening in Mia’s everyday world?
The modern pressures affecting young people today are significant.
Young people navigate social media, online communication, public comparison, changing peer expectations, educational demands, family stress, and uncertainty about their future. For a young person with disability, these pressures may be compounded by inaccessible environments, negative assumptions, repeated appointments, or feeling different from their peers.
Mia may be declining activities not because she has no desire for participation, but because she is tired, anxious about being judged, overwhelmed by the preparation involved, or uncertain about how others will respond to her.
These pressures need to be understood rather than dismissed.
When a goal does not seem to be progressing, it can be helpful to ask:
“What pressures are making this goal difficult right now?”
That question often opens a more honest and useful conversation.
Life-Long Learning: Participation can be learned over time
Life-Long Learning reminds us that growth does not stop at school and does not happen all at once.
Young people learn through experience. They learn by trying, making mistakes, receiving encouragement, developing skills, and having opportunities to return to something after it has felt difficult.
For Mia, community participation may involve learning many small skills:
- how to decide which activity feels right;
- how to prepare for an outing;
- how to communicate a preference;
- how to manage uncertainty;
- how to travel or use transport;
- how to ask for assistance;
- how to leave an activity respectfully if it becomes too much; and
- how to reflect on what worked and what did not.
This kind of learning is most effective when it is paced, practical, and connected to a young person’s own goals.
Values, Culture, and Moral Thinking
Values, culture, and moral thinking also shape whether a goal feels relevant and achievable.
A family’s values may influence what independence means to them. Culture may shape the importance of family connection, language, place, spirituality, community responsibilities, or ways of making decisions. Moral thinking involves learning to consider oneself alongside others and to participate responsibly within relationships and communities.
These elements should not be treated as an afterthought.
They can help explain why a particular goal matters, why one pathway feels right and another does not, and how a young person can build participation in a way that respects who they are and the people around them.
From a goal on paper to a pathway in real life
The purpose of the Human Flourishing Profile™ is not to replace an NDIS plan or tell other professionals how to do their work.
It is a non-diagnostic, strengths-based process that can complement the planning already around a young person.
Through structured conversations and mapping, I explore how the eight elements of the Schultz Human Flourishing Model™ are operating in the young person’s life. The resulting Professional Written Report and Six-Month Flourishing Plan™ provide a clearer picture of the person, their strengths, their current circumstances, and practical next steps.
For Mia, the outcome may not be “more activities” immediately.
It may be a more meaningful pathway:
- reconnecting with an interest she already values;
- identifying one community setting that feels manageable;
- building familiarity before expecting full participation;
- ensuring support workers understand her communication preferences;
- developing practical skills gradually;
- helping family members and providers work from a shared understanding; and
- reviewing what changes are making participation more possible.
That is the difference between a goal that remains on paper and a pathway that begins to fit into a young person’s real life.
A young person’s NDIS plan may identify important goals. The Human Flourishing Profile™ helps explore the social conditions that can support those goals to become meaningful, practical, and sustainable.
The Human Flourishing Profile™ is not a diagnostic, functional capacity, therapeutic, or NDIS planning assessment. It provides a complementary, strengths-based understanding that may assist families and professionals to develop more coordinated and meaningful plans.