We Build Community For Relationship-Builders.
Your first step is to join a cohort for this immersive four-session course—20+ hours of learning that form the foundation of our work together.
It’s both intellectually and spiritually demanding, designed not only to equip you with practical tools tools for relationship-building but to cultivate moral imagination and courage in your leadership.
You’ll connect with like-minded people and be strengthened within a rich community dedicated to restorative action through relationship-building.
Read below to learn more about the course and apply today.
Still deciding? Join us for one of our Table Conversations to get a taste.
Session 3: Building the Pathway
This session explores Do For One’s intentional approach to social matchmaking—first identifying a Partner, then seeking an Advocate whose qualities, interests, and capacities align with the Partner’s needs and interests in efforts to foster a meaningful relationship.
The key takeaway is to understand how relationships are built through a relational rather than clinical process. Using the Partner PortrAit as a guide, participants will learn how to highlight a person’s strengths, interests, needs, and vulnerabilities, and how to recruit and orient Advocates in ways that set the stage for enduring, freely-given relationships.
“Things that belong together have been taken apart. And you can’t put it all
back together again. What you can do, is the only thing that you can do. You
take two things that ought to be together and you put them together.”
Session 4: Sustaining Relationships and Vision
This session focuses on sustaining relationships and vision through the guiding and strengthening—or “potentiating”—functions of relationship-building. You’ll learn the three phases of guiding Advocates: follow-up, follow-along, and availability, each essential for long-term support and trust.
The key takeaway is that relationships thrive when supported by a structured framework that gathers shared wisdom over time. By identifying common themes, building networks, and creating resources, we strengthen the foundation for enduring, freely-given relationships and lasting impact.
“Everywhere we see restless and nervous people, unable to concentrate and
often suffering from a growing sense of depression. They know that what is
shouldn’t be the way it is, but they see no workable alternative”
Course Overview
For more than 20 years, Andrew Oliver has helped people with disabilities and other marginalized groups find belonging and friendship within their communities. Since 2010, he has studied, taught, and applied the ideas of Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger (1934–2011), a pioneering thinker in human services and the creator of Social Role Valorization and Citizen Advocacy. Wolfensberger’s groundbreaking work provides the intellectual and ethical foundation for much of what this course teaches.
Building on that foundation, Andrew integrates insights from Asset-Based Community Development (John McKnight), the philosophy of Personalism (Jacques Maritain), and the vision of the Beloved Community (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.). This blend of education and experience has formed a unique school of thought that shapes the Lead For One curriculum—one that unites timeless principles of human dignity, community, and freely-given relationships.
Andrew Oliver, founder and director of Do For One, created and now leads this course alongside a dedicated team of colleagues. Read below for a more detailed description of each session or download the one pager PDF which outlines the course content.