Social Media for Social Change: Challenging the Discourse of Disability and Difference presentation to the annual conference of the College Association for Language and Literacy (CALL) May 25, 2011, Algonquin College, Ottawa, Canada.

1. Please come in, find a seat, and buckle up!
I’m looking forward to starting this journey with you!

2. LiveWorkPlay:
a happy
accident!

3. Social Media? Marketing? Me?
No no no, I work for a charity!
The work of charities is change. Change is a marketing task!

4. People with intellectual disabilities
will progress as self-advocates
and contributing citizens […]
A transformative journey…
Helping our community welcome
people with intellectual disabilities to
live, work, and play as valued citizens.
A community where everyone belongs.

6. Found
guilty of
a crime
Against
society
Found
guilty of
having an
intellectual
disability

8. Social Services Social Change
Not about fixing people with Exclusion is everyone’s issue
intellectual disabilities we must all work to change it
Our motivation to transform from social services to
social change through citizen engagement, social
capital, and community capacity: putting
the social in our services!
(Or, creating developments in developmental services!)

9. Social Services A Transformative Journey
Social Change
Decisions = Paid Staff and/or Family
Education = Day Program/Special Ed
Recreation = Segregated Program
Employment = Sheltered Workshop
Home = Institutional Setting
Relationships = Paid Staff and/or Family
TRANSFORMATION
Decisions = Self-Directed
Education = Learning In Community
Recreation = Playing In Community
Employment = Authentic Work/Volunteerism
Home = House or Apartment
Relationships = Family, Friends, Lover, Neighbours
- Keenan Wellar Unpaid Support, Paid Support

10. This is the model that continues to
dominate human services despite
overwhelming evidence that it is more
expensive and less effective…
- nickscrusade.com

11. Help the person but don’t blame them for
barriers they did not create!
- nickscrusade.com

12. Communication is what one does with words and what they do to us.
— J. Samuel Bois, The Art of Awareness

14. When we find our
similarities, the
differences can be
put into place and
we can push our
relationships to
the next level…quite
simply similarities can
override differences.
The Essence of Interdependence
Al Condeluci, Ph.D. (1999)

15. Difference as “Special”
- http://tilltheshortbus.blogspot.com/

16. 80-90% of mothers who receive a pre-natal
diagnosis of Down Syndrome children abort them
80% of doctors who have had to communicate a
pre-natal diagnosis of Down Syndrome admit to
having no training whatsoever as regards people
with intellectual disabilities in society
- Canada Down Syndrome Society (CDSS)
genocide: the deliberate and systematic extermination of a
national, racial, political, or cultural group

17. Retreat from the language of justice to the language of
caring is perhaps the most worrying sign of the
contemporary decadence of the language of citizenship.
The practice of citizenship is about ensuring everyone the
entitlements necessary to the exercise of their liberty…
welfare is about rights, not caring, and the history of
citizenship has been the struggle to make freedom real,
not to tie us all in the leading strings of therapeutic
good intentions.
- Ignatieff M (1989) "Citizenship and Moral Narcissism" Political Quarterly

18. Communication is what one does with words and what they do to us.
— J. Samuel Bois, The Art of Awareness
International Union for Conservation of Nature

19. MORE
Family
Friends
Colleagues
Co-Workers
Classmates
Neighbours
Spouse
AS NEEDED
Workers
Staff
Doctor
Psychologist
Psychiatrist
- Julie Kingstone Social Worker

20. We don’t want to be the one star in your sky!
We want you to have a whole universe of stars!

21. What is Social Capital?
The relationships and friendships that people have in their lives!
Research shows Social Capital is related to:
• Healthfulness Using a simple measurement tool incorporating
• Happiness acquaintanceship, friendship, and covenant
• Longevity relationships, average Social Capital for people
with disabilities is about 30 (150 is typical)
• People getting jobs
• People finding others to live with
• People being more tolerant, respectful, kind, helpful
• It leads to people resolving problems more easily
• It enhances physiological/psychological functioning
• That pro-social behaviors increase
- Al Condeluci

23. He who would be a leader, let him first become a bridge
Social media can build bridges that ignore the limits of time and space…
Done right, it is the Pittsburgh of social capital bridge building!

24. Website and
Partner Websites

25. 715 Views of Moira and Caroline [So Far]: Important Events Analytics
Social media analytics bring surprising levels of
understanding and transparency to relationships
Who Is Watching?

26. Expecting a mob of social media supporters to magically appear?
“Charity begins at home”

27. Some non-profits may fear that social media resistance is futile…
Those who are in proper mission-oriented focus will
understand it as a new universe of opportunities…

28. The practices and attitudes of the non-profit
community often alienate potential recruits

30. WHAT IF THE SOCIAL CHANGE YOU BELIEVE IN LOSES OUT TO
ANOTHER VIEW BECAUSE YOUR VOICE IS NOT IN THE CONVERSATION?
THE NOTION THAT THE NON-PROFIT COMMUNITY IS A
NON-COMPETITIVE COMMUNITY IS BOTH DANGEROUS & FOOLISH

31. Traditional Media:
Not What It Used To Be
Background Research
Could Be Wikipedia
The Assignment
Editor Is Watching
For Tweets And
Facebook Updates
The Reporter
Has Only Minutes
For The Story
Your Target Audience
Might Not Be Watching

33. Can I easily generate wide interest in the issues that impact the
lives of people with intellectual disabilities and their families?
After 17 years of trying – and watching others try – that’s a NO.
So I find the audience using whatever means necessary.
Social Media has opened and continues to open many doors.

34. The perfect social media
storm…social capital
paying off (in this
case, as actual capital)

35. Andrea and I are interested in training with a team of
LiveWorkPlay members to participate in this fun event
either by walking or jogging the 2K, 5K, 10K, or half marathon.
Social Media “Loss Of Control” Can Be A Great Thing!

37. For some,
social media is understood
as a tool, a job, a skill, a choice…
For others,
social media is understood as the most
profound confluence of human discourse
the world has ever seen…
- Keenan Wellar, CALL 2011
When pursuing social change – whether it is a
community where everyone belongs, or another
desired social transformation – how leaders (both
individuals and organizations) choose to understand
social media will have profound consequences.

38. Find out more than you’d ever want to know about
me including contact info at http://keenan.wellar.ca
You will also find a link to this presentation!
If you were upset or otherwise unhappy
about this presentation, please let
me know. If you benefited in some
way, please let the world know!
Twitter: @KeenanWellar Facebook: fb.me/kwellar