ACTIONING, INNOVATING, AND DREAMING ABOUT BELONGING

Supporting people with disabilities to feel and build belonging in their lives is a complex challenge Skills Society, and many others, including people with disabilities themselves, family members, allies, and advocates, have been working on for decades. Although we’ve made lots of progress on this front since times of institutionalization, there is still much work to be done in supporting people to live good lives rich with authentic social connections, meaning, and diverse experiences. This is why getting better at supporting deep belonging is named as a strategic priority of Skills Society - so we ensure we are always thinking about and exploring this challenge. What follows are some reflections on how Skills Society has, and continues to, action, innovate, and dream about belonging in hopes of improving the life experiences of people with disabilities.

Belonging is different for each person but there are also some similarities across people’s experiences of belonging that can help us know what it looks and feels like. People with disabilities have shared through participatory research5 that belonging is about:

• feeling valued, respected, and an important part of something,

• having friends with similar experiences, including experiences of having a disability, and

• having places that are safe, comfortable, and friendly to be a part of.

We can feel belonging to all kinds of people and places including friends, family, groups, our neighborhood, city, country, or most broadly, humanity. We can also feel belonging on different levels. For example sometimes we might just simply feel ‘in place’’ while other times we might feel really deeply connected to and emotionally moved by a person or place. Belonging is foundational to citizenship which is why we recognize belonging as one of four pillars in our Skills Society Citizenship Model (see page 7).

Belonging is sometimes talked about as the same as inclusion but at Skills Society we like to think of them as a bit different. Inclusion is more about helping people have the same rights and opportunities - access to the same spaces and activities - as everyone else. Whereas belonging is more about the feeling or experience we have when we are included. Do we really feel like we are a part of what is happening? Are we and our contributions valued by others? Do others really know us for who we are? Can we be our authentic selves? When we think of inclusion and belonging as related but different it reminds us that you can be included but still feel like you don’t belong. When we are supporting people with disabilities we need to always be thinking about both - are they included and accessing the same rights and opportunities as others and do they feel valued, connected, and known?