A few members of the Includa team recently attended events focused on connecting with community, and we came away with plenty to reflect on. One of the key themes reinforced something we’ve always believed. A good life is built on relationships, a sense of belonging and being part of a community.
It’s easy for disability services like ours to become the centre of a person’s world, but paid support was never meant to replace community. While paid support plays an important role, it was never meant to be the centre of someone’s world. On its own, it doesn’t create a full life, a good life or even a safe life.
Real inclusion happens when people can connect with others who share their interests, passions and values. Not just because a support worker facilitated it, but because they genuinely belong there.
The events were a strong reminder that supporting people to connect with community isn’t an add-on. It should be at the core of what we do.
Includa’s Approach to Support
We’re already doing positive work in this space. We support people individually within their communities, avoid segregated services and actively encourage connection. However, these events reinforced that this is only the beginning.
Over the coming months, we’ll place a stronger focus on building our organisation’s capacity to create more meaningful community connection. This includes more deeply embedding these ideas into induction, training and supervision, and strengthening how we use tools like PATH to help people explore the life they want and where they see themselves in the world.
We’ll also be developing a new interactive online learning module for all Includa Support Workers, based on the work of Dr Angela Amado. This training will focus on relationships, community connection, and the role we all play in supporting people to build meaningful connections beyond services.
Social and Community Participation
With governments looking to reduce funding for social and community participation, this work feels more important than ever. Funding and programs may change, but relationships, community and belonging are lasting, and can continue well beyond paid supports.
A big thank you to Hunter Circles for bringing these events together, the Summer Foundation for hosting an online session, and Dr Angela Amado for travelling to Australia to share valuable insights. We left feeling challenged, encouraged and motivated to put what we’ve learned into practice.
Peter’s Story
One example of how we have used a tool like PATH to help someone explore the life they wanted was with our mate, Peter.
Peter wanted to catch more live music and grow his circle of mates. Not clinical goals, just normal human stuff that most of us take for granted.
His support worker Tony helped him work through UrPlan to map out where he wanted to head and identify practical next steps to get there. UrPlan is Includa’s person-centred planning approach that starts with what matters most to you, the people in your life and what a good life actually looks like, rather than funding categories or service labels.
Now Peter is out at gigs with friends he made himself and recently threw his own birthday party. Includa still supports him, but the community he’s built doesn’t depend on that support to keep going. That’s the whole point.