1.
A Social Innovation Approach to
Transforming Communities – Local to
National
Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion
and Society’s (IRIS) and the Canadian Association for
Community Living
Presenter Doris Rajan,
Director of Social Development - IRIS

2.
Presentation Format
1. The Problem: social change is slow
3. Example – education attainment of people with
disabilities in Canada
5. A Strategy - The local to national community
development strategy – can it work for
education?
7. How about in your country?

3.
The Problem
Research - people with disabilities and
educational attainment  nature and prevalence
of exclusion and promising practices.
Impressive models of inclusive education in
Canada
But the statistics are not changing...

4.
People with disabilities experience a
shortfall in education because they
have not, and continue not to be,
adequately included and
accommodated in the educational
system.

5.
The example of children/adults with
intellectual disabilities
 52% of young adults with an intellectual
disability (aged 20 – 29 years) are neither
working nor attending school, compared with
12% of those without a disability.
 Young adults with intellectual disabilities are
five times more likely than those without
disabilities to have no formal education
certificate.

6.
No education No job  No money!
Canadians with disabilities have lower
levels of educational attainment than
non-disabled Canadians.
25% of non-disabled Canadians are
without a high school diploma compared
to 37% of those with a disability

7.
Children in exclusive schools ...
Research demonstrates that if proper supports
are in place to have children with disabilities
included in regular classrooms, all students
benefit.
Yet schools and classrooms are inadequately
supported and the system generally resists
a truly inclusive school environment.

8.
More inclusion means more students get to
know children with disabilities = less bullying…
Recent study - 41% children with
disabilities felt threatened at school or on
the school bus within the past year and
more than a third (36%) were assaulted at
school or on the school bus.

9.
Reason for lack of progress complex
 How funding is given out
 Competing priorities of advocacy groups
 Weak partnerships
 Absence of a sense of solidarity and common
vision
 Tight fiscal realities.

10.
Successful Community Development
 Involves all key sectors, i.e. schools, relevant
government bodies, disability organizations
Leadership comes from families and self-
advocacy groups
Equal attention is paid to process and outcome.

11.
UN Millennium Project Report - 2005
The need to scale up arises from the
limited impact of pilot projects, or “islands
of excellence” amidst a sea of inertia –
small projects aimed at local or district
levels without a measurable impact on
national indicators…

12.
Scaling up ...
National scale-up is the process of bringing
essential services to most or all the population
quickly, equitably, and lastingly… Equality and
non-discrimination, ensuring the services reach
all of the population, especially the most
disadvantaged, are central.

13.
The Approach ...
Needs a national framework
Rooted in local communities
Intentional attempts to build the capacity of local
communities
People with disabilities lead
Work with key local sectors

14.
Multi-level
At the same time leveraging
multi-level support and influencing
broader level policy change.

15.
A community development strategy –
rooted in the local community...

16.
What does this really mean?
Bring people together from all levels,
diverse sectors to have
conversations that they typically
would not have.

17.
Does child walk
or prefer to run?
A child with a disability has
difficulties going to school
due to the attitudes of
teachers, school boards and
possibly parents who are
unable to adapt to students
with different needs and
learning capacities.

18.
On the individual level
People with disabilities and families from that same
community are supported in developing self identified,
realistic short and long term plans.
The framework for these plans matches individual
needs and wants with what is actually available or could
be made available in the community.
Plans are built around individual’s needs and wants

19.
On the community level
Disability sensitivity training for educators and
school boards.
Teachers, local school boards are given tools to
help them support individuals.
Inclusive youth programs in schools

20.
On the broader provincial /territorial/
national levels
 National advisory groups made up of
provincial/territorial organizations who bring
local learnings to a national forum
Customize learnings to each P/T
Provincial/territorial/national investments are
made

21.
Why will this strategy work?
 It is specific to a local community – the process
develops community-specific inventories of resources,
programs, policies, and community information that
would support people’s dreams
Children/adults with disabilities and their families are
supported to be the leaders of this process
Outreach process that identifies isolated people

22.
More on outreach
The outreach process really understands where
people are located and how to communicate/reach
them, i.e. immigrant families
The outreach process is delivered by organizations
and partners that have relationships in local
communities and are thus trusted
The outreach process understood diversity and how
to make the process sensitive and accessible to all
segments of the target population.

23.
Why will this strategy work?
 Supports/services in both the education sector
and disability sectors are brought together.
Information on supports will be presented in
an accessible, straight forward, uncomplicated
manner and context specific manner.

24.
Successful because it works on many
levels
Identifies individual solutions;
Identifies collective group solutions;
Identifies and engages the broader local
community to examine themselves and respond
to those specific individual and group needs;
Identifies broader policy & program solutions
for advocates/relevant advocacy groups to
pursue.

25.
Based on a similar CACL project -
positive evaluation results
 Gains in knowledge about their rights and
entitlements
 Exposed to the range of options and brought all
service/support info together
 Stress the need for individual plans/building of
support circles around individuals
 Acquired a better sense of what people need,
rather than having to fit into what the system
offers;
 Importance of a collective identity for social
change.

26.
Questions to guide the work...
What is the role of a national coordinating body in a local
to national strategy?
What is needed to establish a national infrastructure with
the capacity to support local communities to organize
around the issue?
What partnerships need to be in place and what types of
social and economic investments need to be committed at
the national level?

27.
More questions ...
What is needed to establish a local infrastructure
that supports a community to organize around the
issue?
What partnerships need to be in place and what
types of social and economic investments need to
be committed at the local level?

28.
Questions ...
What is the best way to convene local level community
dialogue around the issue? Who needs to be involved and
why?
What are the socio-environmental and historical
determinants of marginalization experienced by the
affected population?
What are the key components of an inclusive consultation
process that recognizes the barriers to communication and
the articulation of needs for the affected population?

29.
And more...
What are the key characteristics of a social problem that
are critical to understand in order to address it?
What is the past and present policy and program
framework related to the social issue?
What characteristics of the local geographic community
can be seen as assets or liabilities in addressing the social
problem?

30.
Still coming at you with questions!
What are the kinds of tools and resources that
would best support that strategy?
What ways can local level results have an impact
and influence national policy and broad scale
social change?
What needs to be in place to support the sustainability of local work in
order to ensure curative short term outcomes and positive long term
quality of life results?

31.
The most important question...
How can the people with
disabilities/families be
empowered and supported to be
leaders of the local level process?

32.
The Concept of Inclusion
The strategy empowers the group
who has been marginalized to self facilitate
towards better articulation of their needs and
the development of strategies that will
mobilize and also empower the various sectors
towards an effective community and broader
societal response.

33.
How about where you live? Would this
work?
Could you establish a local infrastructure that
works within a national framework to ensure that
positive outcomes at the local level are shared
towards promising practises reflected in policies?

34.
Building
strong
inclusive
communities