Public Policies and Community Inclusions

1. Public Policies and Community Inclusions Forum on Policies that Build Community Community Living Ontario & Ryerson University School of Social Work and School of Disability Studies February 27, 2015

2. Our questions • What is the current state of public policy in Canada for people with disabilities? • What changes are needed to ensure public policies actively build community and an inclusive society? • With a national general election this year, what are priority issues for an advocacy social change agenda?

3. Preliminary thoughts • Policies that build community? or communities? or both? • There is and will be vigorous debate about • How to create community • Who is in the community • What access, inclusion and belonging mean • The preferred mix of goals and values • The contribution of public policies and programs • The actual policy means or tools to select and use

4. Public policy tools

5. Recent policy trends in community living and disability across canada • Continued heavy reliance on family care • Advisory councils on disability and employment • Spending restraint in grants to non-profit advocacy and service organizations • Boutique tax credits from Harper government • Renewed institutionalization with threats to the right to live in community • Accessibility legislation and standards in a few provinces • UN Convention on Rights for Persons with Disabilities – low profile in governments

6. Limits to inclusion within public policies • Program definitions of disability: a focus on severe/very severe and prolonged excludes people with mild to moderate disabilities and those with episodic disabilities • Non-refundable tax credits: e.g., the Disability Tax Credit excludes low-income disabled people who have no taxable income • Social insurance programs: e.g., EI, CPP, exclude people who have not a certain employment history and who have not paid premiums

7. What ineffective public policies and public services look like • Difficult for people to learn about them • Overly complex forms, rules and procedures • Insufficiently resourced: delays, backlogs and waitlists for services • Inadequately trained staff who also may be grappling with large caseloads of clients with complex needs • Inconsistent implementation of programs and provision of services across staff, local offices and regions • Reactive and piecemeal, focus on problems of clients

8. inclusive communities: values and practices • Embracing diversity of backgrounds, identities, life experiences, needs, and gifts • Opening doors and borders to others • Sharing of resources, information and ideas • Respecting differences and disagreements • Practising democracy everyday • Enabling participation and voice • Addressing issues of privilege and inequities • Sharing of authority and responsibility • Holding decision-makers accountable for values and outcomes

9. An agenda for moving forward • Embedding the community living movement’s values into policies and practices • Strengthening links with other progressive movements • Ending practices of restraint and seclusion in schools for children with disabilities • Establishing employer networks • Spreading effective practices – e.g., transition planning for youth with special needs to community participation and work • Moving from group homes to supported living in local neighbourhoods

10. An agenda for moving forward - 2 • Ensuring an adequate standard of living for individuals and families • Providing essential supports and services for everyday living • Advancing reasonable accommodations and equality rights • Facilitating employability and gainful employment in inclusive workplaces • Promoting savings and the accumulation and retention of personal assets • Enabling opportunities for the democratic co-construction of policy development

11. Some specific recommendations for positive change • Modernizing income assistance programs • Improving provincial family benefits • Introducing federal accessibility legislation • Reinstating the Court Challenges Program • Enhancing the Canada Disability Child Disability • Improving access to Registered Disability Savings Plans (RDSPs) • Converting the Disability Tax Credit into a refundable disability tax credit

12. Doing advocacy work • Amplifying the conversation of inclusion and community living • Insisting there is a common good and public interest on these issues • Emphasizing that individuals and families are embedded in larger social relationships and structures of constraints and possibilities • Pointing out the contradictions and negative consequences of current practices • Collaborating with old friends and new allies • Talking about all people as citizens, rights-holders, equality seekers

13. Concluding observations • Public policies do matter a great deal for creating places of belonging and building a sense of community • There are far too many examples of, far too many experiences with ineffective policies and practices • The policy recommendations presented require discussion and further definition • Integrated policy making processes are needed that result in a set of measures that enable Canadians to live good lives as valued citizens in accessible and inclusive communities

14. Thank you Michael J. Prince Lansdowne Professor of Social Policy Faculty of Human and Social Development University of Victoria mprince@uvic.ca Disabling Poverty and Enabling Citizenship http://www.ccdonline.ca/en/socialpolicy/poverty-citizenship