Simon Fraser Society for Community Living is a non-profit, charitable organization that has served communities in the Lower Mainland for over sixty years. Providing early intervention, family support for children and youth experiencing developmental delays or disability, as well as housing support for adults with developmental disabilities.
They support healthy development, inclusion and full participation of all people, demonstrating the social model of disability through their work with the community and their mission statement.
The social model of disability addressed the exclusion from society that people with disabilities often feel and the ways in which society plays a large part in disabling people. For example, by people choosing to exclude a person from an event, they are defining which spaces and activities they can participate in based on their diagnosis and not their individual ability. Those divisions then make them feel excluded and make them less likely to want to participate, or make them feel like they can’t participate, in the future. Through societies exclusion based on diagnosis we see disability be formed and restrictions of activities begin to define what it means to be disabled in an abled bodied society.
Simon Fraser Society for Community Living aims to tear down those barriers that society has created and create spaces where people feel that they are welcome and where they have the tools to succeed, rather than restrictions to further inhibit them. The current mission statement of SFSCL is as follows,
“Everyone’s Wel come,
Everyone belongs,
Everywhere.”
This further exemplifies the steps that SFSCL are taking to redefine disability and really show their clients as well as the community that physical, intellectual or psychological impairments or limitation do not lead to disability. It is societies construction of disability that has led to this social construction and label to be created. In redefining disability and what it means to be disabled, they are creating inclusionary spaces in the community for their clients in New Westminster, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Anmore, and Belcarra.
Recently, SFSCL held a Community Inclusion open house to bring the community members into their space and create an environment where SFSCL members and clients could talk about their accomplishments over the past year and showcase what they have been doing in the community through self-employment and volunteering. This event was wildly successful in bringing people together and in giving people a platform where they could share their successes and accomplishments, as well as giving SFSCL feedback on what they would like to see done in the future. Please see the Winter 2015 newsletter at sfscl.org for more details on this event and other recent community events.
– By Ally James
Simon Fraser Society for Community Living 