Actioning, Innovating and Dreaming About Belonging
This piece was written by Paige Reeves, Senior Leader of Research and Social Innovation; Rebecca Rubuliak, Senior Leader of Continuous Improvement and Innovation; and Anthony Bourque Incoming Senior Leader of Research and Social Innovation.
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.
What Do We Mean When We Say Belonging?
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.
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?
The Promise of Social Innovation for Supporting Deep Belonging
Supporting belonging in the lives of people with disabilities is complex work. This means there are no ‘silver bullet’ or ‘one size fits all’ solutions, there is little agreement on how best to do it, and it requires the cooperation of multiple different people and groups to make it happen. With complex challenges like this it rarely works to sit idle and say things like “if people would just…include people with disabilities in their lives” or “if people would just…be more accepting of disability”. Recognizing this, at Skills Society, we intentionally incorporate social innovation approaches into our work. Instead of wishing or hoping or asking people to change their behavior towards people with disabilities, social innovation brings people together to co-create solutions they want to be a part of. We also like that innovation approaches centre learning alongside people with lived experience of a challenge and strive to get the “right mix of the old, the new, and a dash of surprise”6, recognizing the importance of learning from those that came before us. In the next section we share some of our current innovation projects aimed at supporting belonging in the lives of people with disabilities.
Our Work on Belonging Spans Three Horizons of Innovation
As we think about future building and this year’s AGM theme, we’ve imagined how we might support deeper belonging through the Three Horizons of Innovation7. Horizon 1 and 2 innovations support people in the here and now by evolving and bending existing systems, while Horizon 3 innovations help ensure we don’t lose sight of our collective vision and keep us dreaming and imagining about what could be 8. Organizing our change projects in this way can help us:
See and be explicit about the different types of change each project is contributing to (e.g. change in the here and now versus transformative change)
Ensure all types of change efforts are valued
Keep our expectations in check - ensuring we are using the right approach, have access to the necessary resources, and have the appropriate expectations for the type of change we are seeking to produce
In order to produce meaningful change and make progress towards a better future where every individual is valued and belongs, we believe it is important that our work span all three horizons of innovation.
Horizon One Belonging Innovations at Skills Society
Supporting belonging through incremental changes that nudge people and systems
The MyCompass Missions feature provides guided “choose your own adventures” for the people we serve to try new things as an engaged community member. Helping people to learn by doing, the Missions feature takes people step-by-step through different experiences to try new things, and reflect on whether they would like to explore something similar or incorporate that activity into their routine. The Horizon 2 challenge that the Missions feature is trying to innovate around, is that often if people have been supported in services for a long time, it can be really challenging to know oneself, and imagine new hobbies, connections and possibilities. The Missions feature makes it easier to try things, reflect, learn and then make new connections that could lead to things like a felt sense of belonging.
How it supports belonging and systems change
Belonging is different than fitting in - belonging is being accepted for who you are. The Missions feature helps people to discover themselves, their gifts, their wishes - what makes them uniquely them! Creating space for self-discovery and exploration can be a launching point for creating opportunities for them to share their gifts with the community.
By listening to people with disabilities, we know that relationships play an important role in experiences of belonging. The Missions feature is rooted in fostering relationships, intentionally designed to spark moments of connection and support people in reflecting on how they might connect with others in different spaces.
Drawing on principles from behavior change science, MyCompass Missions can help support workers shake up assumptions (for example that people with disabilities can only go bowling or to the mall) and see different possibilities for the people they serve.
The Leadership Workbook helps staff grow their leadership practice and purpose, gain tools, and ultimately enhance their skills as allies to serve the people we support better. Currently in its pilot phase, the Workbook is soon to be rolled out to all Skills Society staff along with team meeting activities.
How it supports belonging and systems change
People can’t simply be told to hold values of belonging or a collective vision and expect that it becomes action overnight. People have to take time to listen, probe assumptions, and think of their own ways of how to put values and vision into everyday practice. By offering tools and resources, and creating space for personal reflection and learning, the workbook strengthens staff skills to support deep belonging and helps us come up with tangible ways we might support people in building belonging in their lives.
The MyCompass Surveys and Stories are short surveys for the people we support to reflect on the past year and share feedback with leaders at Skills Society using words, stories, and photos.
How it supports belonging and systems change
Belonging is a subjective experience, and is therefore best understood by the person experiencing it. As supports and allies, it is important that we truly listen to the people we serve in diverse and meaningful ways. Centering the voices of people served, these stories and insights help influence positive change towards supporting belonging, by helping Skills leaders to get a sense of what people really care about and what belonging looks like in their lives.
MyCompass Planning Lab is our 1.5 hour think tank process that helps supports, families, and allies break open creative thinking and generate creative ideas and action, alongside people served, to connect with all the things that make life great.
How it supports belonging and systems change
Helps unlock creativity within supports, families and allies so they can strengthen their approach to supporting belonging.
Horizon Two Belonging Innovations at Skills Society
Creating space for belonging to flourish by innovating within existing systems
CommuniTEA is a mobile tea house, run by people with disabilities, that travels to neighbourhoods around our city creating “pop-up” town squares for people to come together, get to know each other and strengthen connections.
How it supports belonging and systems change
In order to move from inclusion (physically present but socially distant) to belonging, it is important that people with disabilities play an active role in shaping spaces. This helps to create spaces where peoples’ authentic selves are welcome and celebrated, versus feeling they have to ‘fit the space’. The people with disabilities who run Tea Van take the lead in shaping the initiative and the social space at each event. People with disabilities, like every citizen, have an important role to play in shaping our communities, making them more welcoming and inclusive.
Through positive encounters with people with disabilities as engaged and contributing citizens, CommuniTEA helps shift attitudes community members hold about people with disabilities
Skills Society, in partnership with a local developer, is excited to be piloting a ‘Community Concierge’ service within a new apartment building in Edmonton in February next year. The Community Concierge is a promising prototype that emerged from the Future of Home Lab, an 18 month social innovation lab that co-created with people with disabilities, funders, developers, and service providers, inclusive, accessible, and affordable housing and support models for people with disabilities. What’s also exciting about this partnership, is that the developer has made 12 suites within the building available to people supported by Skills at a deeply reduced rate. With a particular eye towards supporting the belonging of the residents that experience disability, the Community Concierge will use asset based community development principles to build a sense of community amongst all residents living in the building.
How it supports belonging and systems change
Feeling you belong in your home is an important foundation for an inclusive home life.
We often think that if we bring people together, relationships will form and experiences of belonging will just happen, but this is not always the case. The Community Concierge helps to create belonging by connecting people with similar interests and passions, curating community gatherings and shared experiences, and finding creative ways for residents to offer reciprocal supports to one another.
We hope to also create a renter welcome package and agreement that incorporates a piece around residents supporting and cultivating a spirit of community and inclusion in the building. We see this as a promising way to build the foundation for experiences of belonging and helps to signal to all residents the role they play in building community.
The MyCompass Planning App re-designed case management to make disability services more humanized and centre the people we serve - helping them take the lead in planning and shaping their supports.
How it supports belonging and systems change
Empowers the people we serve to take the lead in shaping and building what a good life is to them.
Belonging is not static or something to be ‘achieved’, it’s ongoing and continually evolving. MyCompass incorporates principles of behavior change science and helps shape the way staff approach their work, being alongside people served, reflecting on and envisioning the good life not once a year, but continuously and being accountable to the wishes of the people we serve.
People labeled with complex service needs are a small subset of Albertans with developmental disabilities who face additional unique challenges such as mental health challenges, violent or destructive behavior, and chronic substance abuse. Services have not historically been designed with people labeled with complex service needs and do not adequately meet their needs; as a result this group often unfairly ends up involved in the criminal justice system, houseless, or relying on hospitals and other health systems. People with complex needs require unique support. We at Skills Society have been advocating to explore an innovation lab that will involve many community stakeholders to create training resources, toolkits, and policy recommendations around how to safely serve people with complex service needs, in a way that is empowering, rights-based, and supports community inclusion.
How it supports belonging and systems change
Alongside people with complex needs and their allies, this project seeks to develop innovative support models that are not only coordinated (meaning involving several sectors and agencies in a cohesive way) but also inclusive, community based, and supports people to live their lives as anyone else would - alongside neighbors; connected to friends, family, and allies; with rich, varied, and meaningful, opportunities to contribute and participate in community life.
Horizon 3 Belonging Innovations at Skills Society
Imagining new and different ways of living together in community
The Belonging Project is an inclusive research project and partnership between Skills Society and researchers at the University of Alberta and Dalhousie University. The project explores: (1) how belonging is experienced by citizens with intellectual disabilities, and (2) the conditions, processes, and actions that help and get in the way of the belonging of citizens with intellectual disabilities. As part of the project five people with intellectual disabilities:
Invited researchers into their home to show them around, share their routines, and show different photos and objects that are important to them,
Together with researchers, mapped belonging spaces and relationships,
Took researchers out to different places and spaces where they felt a sense of belonging to show them what happens there,
Introduced researchers to important friends, family, and support workers, and
Created art that represented belonging to them.
How it supports belonging and systems change
Using participatory methods and anchored in principles of equity and justice, the project helps us understand how belonging and exclusion is experienced from the perspective of people with disabilities themselves (a perspective that is often missing in academic research because it has been assumed people with disabilities cannot share their own perspectives).
The project also helps us understand the complex conditions, processes, and actions that help and get in the way of belonging and will help identify possible areas for innovation and further exploration and imagination.
Researchers are working with leaders at Skills Society to build and share knowledge from the project producing academic publications, presenting at conferences, and developing a tangible and interactive ‘toolkit’ of prompts that support workers can use to learn about, explore, and get better at supporting belonging in the lives of the people they serve.
What We’re Learning About Belonging
Learning #1: Belonging is something that is felt - it is an experience
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.
What this means for support workers
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.
What this means for service providers and policy makers
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.
Learning #2: Belonging is created through relationship with others
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.
What this means for supports workers
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.
What this means for service providers and policy makers
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.
Learning #3: Belonging often requires learning and renegotiation of norms
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).
What this means for supports workers
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 space - creatively 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.
What this means for service providers and policy makers
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.
Now What? Future Directions for Belonging
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 perspectives - including 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 our annual report you’ll find a tear away worksheet where you can write (or draw) your ideas and share them with us!
