WHAT WE’RE LEARNING ABOUT BELONGING

This means belonging is not something that can be ‘made to happen’ for people. It also means others can’t tell someone when they belong or not. Someone gets to decide for themselves if they feel belonging.

It is important to ask people we serve in different ways how they felt after an experience or encounter. If we can’t ask using verbal language we can use our observation skills to reflect on this. We cannot assume someone felt belonging just because they were included in the activity or space.

Need to find creative ways to measure and understand belonging from the perspective of people with disabilities. Rigid, quantitative measures like how many relationships someone has or how many commitments outside the house are not sufficient in painting a picture of someone’s belonging. Photos, stories, and arts based methods are examples of how a belonging experience might be better captured. MyCompass Surveys and Stories is an example of how Skills Society is exploring this.

Belonging is co-constructed - meaning it does not just happen by itself. It is something that requires input from the person seeking belonging and others accepting them. Belonging is created it doesn’t just always happen on its own. Often it needs to be supported and facilitated.

Because belonging is created support workers cannot assume belonging will happen just because someone they support is physically present in a space. Belonging needs to be actively supported and facilitated by support workers for it to happen - things like identifying others in the activity that the person you support might build a relationship with and helping make that happen.

Need to keep looking at ways of educating broader community members to shift unhelpful and harmful attitudes and stereotypes around disability so they are more willing to be partners in belonging.

Creating belonging often involves learning and sometimes renegotiating norms in a space and people with disabilities need help with this sometimes. For example, when you try a new activity for the first time or enter a new space you likely, without even thinking about it, scan the space to understand what is happening - how are people speaking and relating to one another? What are people doing? You might be silently negotiating your place in the group or space - where do I fit? Who do I know? Where will I sit? Supporting belonging is a delicate balance of recognizing and acknowledging people’s uniqueness (not assuming everyone needs the same thing or can do things in the same ways), whilst simultaneously recognizing people’s common humanity (we are all people deserving of respect, dignity, and rights).

Support workers can scan a space or activity on behalf of the people they are supporting and start to make decisions around how to help that person ‘find their fit’ in the spacecreatively generating ideas for ways the person can contribute to the space, helping them introduce themselves to others, making others in the group aware of what the person supported needs to communicate (e.g. This is Johnny, he uses sign language to communicate you can talk directly to him and I’ll translate). Support workers can also help find opportunities for the people they support to contribute to shaping the norms in the space - helping others in the space understand and become comfortable with different ways of moving or communicating and standing up for the people they support when discrimination or bias are present.

We all need to keep thinking carefully about finding the balance between asking people with disabilities to change themselves to ‘fit in’ and requiring community spaces and community members to adjust their norms to be more inclusive of different ways of moving, communicating, and being. We need continued advocacy for community spaces to be more accessible and inclusive - and for others to be aware of the needs of people with intellectual disabilities.

Because Horizon 1 and 2 innovations work within current systems and address challenges happening today, they face less resistance, are easier to implement, and are often prioritized. Though Horizon 1 and 2 innovations are equally important, we need to remember to not lose sight of our vision - to dream alongside the people we serve, families and allies, of a community where every individual is valued and belongs. Visions of a Horizon 3 future are at the heart of all our work, and Horizon 1 and 2 innovations lay important groundwork for transformative change.

To conclude, we wanted to share a few imaginings of what a future where all citizens experience belonging could look like, drawing on what we’ve heard from diverse perspectivesincluding people with disabilities themselves. This is not to say that this vision does not exist today - we see demonstrations of it within family units and communities here and around the world. But there is still much work to be done to ensure this vision is a reality for all citizens. We include these imaginings as a starting place and provocation. We hope you’ll join us in exploring what our imagined future could look like. On the last page of this booklet you’ll find a tear away worksheet where you can write (or draw) your ideas and share them with us!

All people have opportunities to contribute their unique gifts and talents

Disability is valued, and seen as part of the beautiful variation of being human, opening up generative ways of being and thinking in the world.

All people have a variety of freely given and meaningful relationships in their life

Communities are built around values of interdependence, community and care

• People don’t just live side by side but share their lives with one another

• People are seen - truly seenand celebrated for the unique and varied contributions they make to our communities

• Community members support one another in reciprocal ways

• Relationship is valued over productivity and efficiency

Community spaces are coconstructed by diverse people and continuously changing based on what people need and bring to the space

• People feel like they can come ‘as they are’ and show up as their full selves

• People feel ‘access intimacy’ - a phrase coined by disability advocate Mia Mingus.

All people have access to a place to call home and a living wage

• Access intimacy is not just the action of access or ‘helping’ someone but refers to being alongside people and a genuine desire to know who they are and ensure they are heard. By being in relationship people are empowered to share their access needs and people remember them and consider them beforehand, not after the fact.