Sector Training Activities

Building Belonging

A dilemma facing human service workers in disability is ‘how do I help the community include the people that I work with?’  For families the question is similar, but has the added dimension of commonly sharing the rejection of their loved family member.  Then there is the concern common to parents and families of people with disabilities – ‘what will happen when I am gone’?  With these difficulties and experiences, it is perhaps understandable that we often retreat behind the ‘simpler‘ and ‘safer’ structures of brick walls and segregated programs, even though we would not choose them for ourselves. 

In this interactive workshop, participants will have an opportunity to analyse community and inclusion in some detail to increase the understanding of things that are more or less likely to achieve community inclusion.  Some areas covered will be: 

Rethinking the issue – asset rather than burden.

The building blocks of community – relationships and contribution.

Setting a vision.

The building blocks of community inclusion:

• § Inclusion issues
  • The role of roles.
  • Physical Inclusion
  • Social Inclusion
• § Image issues
  • Self image
  • Image in the eyes of others
• § Skill issues
  • Relevant skills
  • Potency of teaching

There will be considerable opportunity to use the information in practical exercises to demonstrate that with careful planning, community inclusion is realistic and achievable in most cases.  Limitations to inclusion will also be discussed.

Who should attend

This workshop is a must for support workers and coordinators

Some comments from previous workshops

• Made me think HARD.  Great day and I leave with some great plans, thoughts and enthusiasm.
• Positive, useful and well presented.  A good opportunity to think more deeply about what is possible.
• Good thinking material to reflect on.
• Warm, inspiring and passionate.
• Very positive and informative.  Lots of good ideas.
• Very well presented.  Has certainly left me with a lot to think about and try to implement in my work environment.
• Very clear and well presented.  Bob was very interesting to listen to and learn from.  I have been challenged to think more creatively in my everyday practice.

Your presenter

Bob Jackson

Bob Jackson started in disability in the 1970s working as a psychologist, institution superintendent, service manager and Regional Director with the (now) WA Disability Services Commission.  From 1990 to 2003 Bob worked at Edith Cowan University in the Centre for Disability Research and Development, as Director from 1998.  This Centre ran a Commonwealth funded Supported Employment Program focussing on gaining real work for people with very significant impairments; an early intervention program for children with a label of autism; a Master degree in disability and aged care; a leadership development course for service workers and families and numerous training courses in aged care and disability.  The Centre was widely acknowledged nationally and internationally for its work and publications in disability and aged care, and held contracts with both the State and Commonwealth governments since 1987 for service provision, service evaluation, review reports and position papers.  In mid 2003 Bob formed a consultancy business, ‘Include’, to focus on consultancy, training and advocacy in the field of inclusion generally, and educational inclusion in particular.  He is also Adjunct Associate Professor of Education at Edith Cowan University and was the inaugural Chair of the Foundation for Social Inclusion Incorporated.  Bob has been involved nationally in Social Role Valorisation training for over 10 years and has participated in numerous service evaluations in aged care, residential and day services, and work programs.  Bob works from the belief that people with a disability help to strengthen the bonds that hold us together as a community.