Supporting Inclusion Through Value Based Practice

Best Start Annual ConferenceJanuary 2006

Presented by Leslie McDiarmidBetter Beginnings Better Futures

South-East Ottawa

RELATIONSHIPS

We all need four

or five people in our lives whose faces light up when we walk into the room.

Jess Lair

RELATIONSHIPS

Creating a safe environment to promote creativity, risk taking, reflection and growth for all participants (users of service, givers of service, funders of service).

RELATIONSHIPS

Working relationally as opposed to independently/dependently, recognizing “connectedness”, working in a way that shares responsibility and nurtures relationships.

RELATIONSHIPS

Valuing all people, all ideas, all participation.

RELATIONSHIPS

Providing multiple, creative opportunities for connection and access for all participants (families, children, volunteers, staff).

RELATIONSIPS

Permeable boundaries.

POWER I hope our wisdom

will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

Thomas Jefferson

We thought because we had power, we had wisdom.

Stephen Vincent Benet

POWER

Acknowledging power differentials and working to minimize/eliminate them.

POWER

Recognizing and listening to local wisdom.

Community involvement Structured Unstructured Inclusion participation

POWER

Learning in motion, keeping abreast of change, diversity, practice, ideas etc.

POWER

Reflection, accepting failure and learning to fail better.

PEOPLE

THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT

It was six men of Indostan

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),That each by observation Might satisfy his mind.The First approached the Elephant,And happening to fallAgainst his broad and sturdy side,At once began to bawl:

“God bless me! But the ElephantIs very like a wall”The Second, feeling of the tuskCried, “Ho! what have we here,So very round and smooth and sharp?To me’ tis mighty clearThis wonder of an elephantIs very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,And happening to takeThe squirming trunk within his

hands,Thus boldly up he spake:“I see,” quoth he, “the Elehphant is very like a snake!’

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,And felt about the knee:“What most this wondrous beast is likeIs mighty plain,” quoth he;“Tis clear enough the ElehphantIs very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,Said: “E’en the blindest manCan tell what this resembles most;Deny the fact who can,This marvel of an Elephant Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begunAbout the beast to grope,Than, seizing on the swinging tailThat fell within his scope.“I see,” quoth he,The Elephant Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of IndostanDisputed loud and long,Each in his own opinionExceeding stiff and strong,Though each was partly in the right,And all were in the wrong! John Godfrey Saxe

PEOPLE

People centered, as opposed to client centered.

PEOPLE

A genuine strength based approach…language, environment, messages.

PEOPLE

Focused programming as opposed to targeted programming. Non-stigmatizing, supportive of participation, strength-based. Provides increased intensity in a program component for all children. Targets the program content and delivery, not the child/family.

PEOPLE

Showing/role modelling as a means of communication and influencing change.

PEOPLE

Analysing from without instead of from within. There are no “hard to reach clients”, there are unsafe, inaccessible services.

PEOPLE

No context shift. Principles are applied in all situations, with all people. Not just when it’s comfortable, convenient.

AND…

Staff – hiring people with the right stuff, filling in the rest, training, support etc.

Community Development within each job description, role.

Acknowledging the relationship between time, consistency, trust and participation.

Recognizing that models are created and culture evolves.

Passion, in many forms.

One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.

John Stuart Mill