Transcript Supporting Inclusion Through Value Based Practice

Supporting Inclusion Through
Value Based Practice
Best Start Annual Conference
January 2006
Presented by Leslie McDiarmid
Better 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
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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


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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 fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! But the Elephant
Is very like a wall”
The Second, feeling of the tusk
Cried, “Ho! what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me’ tis mighty clear
This wonder of an elephant
Is very like a spear!”
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The 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 like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“Tis clear enough the Elehphant
Is very like a tree!”
The Fifth, who chanced
to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can 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 begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope.
“I see,” quoth he,
The Elephant
Is very like a rope!”
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding 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. Nonstigmatizing, 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.
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Passion, in many
forms.
One person with a
belief is equal to a
force of 99 who
have only interests.
John Stuart Mill