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 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 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. 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