My Journey with Disability Advocacy

The first floor is comprised of the public areas, sensory restoration room & managerial offices for Open Door, Maven Co-Work Lounge along busy 17th Ave to promote positive disability visibility to the Calgary community, Raven Resources Employment Center along the quiet back lane, and the secure tenant-only lobby for Haven House, located on the second floor. A shared vestibule is located along the west façade, providing direct access for Haven House residents to utilize services without leaving the building, and functions as an additional access point for Raven Resources.

Maven Co-Work Lounge

Maven Co-Working Lounge is the visual ambassador for Open Door Disability Services as it runs the entire span of windows along busy 17th Avenue in Calgary. Strong, vibrant hues can withstand the bright southern sun exposure and visually interesting silhouettes and installations invite curiosity from public onlookers, generating a positive association with disability employment in public perception. Work zones shift from public to private as one enters further into the space, with communal tables, flexible seating zones and storage by the entry, leading to meeting rooms, open and private workspaces, and a content creation lab further within. As many guests of Maven Lounge may be entrepreneurs, an adaptive space to create social branding content, product images or podcasts is beneficial to providing quality deliverables for their businesses. As the space is open for mobility and social opportunities, many walls are accented with BAUX acoustic tile or panel installations for both a beautiful and sound-dampening feature walls.

Haven House comprises the second floor, providing 5 full-amenity, barrier-free one bedroom apartments with shared communal areas and amenities. Each unit comes equipped with a refrigerator, wall oven, wall microwave, dishwasher, induction cooktop, in-suite laundry and barrier-free walk-in shower. An atrium with integrated gardens is the heart of the communal space with all units opening off this central point. The shared gym receives consistent north light throughout the day, and a barrier-free sauna is perfect to relieve physical discomforts. Haven House's communal lounge comprises a dining area, barrier-free kitchen, living room and library for all tenants to use. This space is meant to foster connections between tenants, or for them to host larger events outside of their individual units, like birthdays, game nights or dinner parties. While highly functional and resilient, this space is meant to feel elevated and special.

Haven House Communal Lounge

BARRIER-FREE MILLWORK

WEST-EAST SECTION, NORTH FACING

NORTH-SOUTH SECTION, WEST FACING

Over 6 million Canadians over 15 identify as having some type of disability, 22% of the national population (2017 Canadian Survey on Disability); the intersection of disability and gender add another layer of bias difficulty for women, intensified for BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ disabled women. Open Door Disability Services aims to open doors to opportunities and change the narrative and statistics surrounding empowered disabled women through employment and small business training, accessible workspaces and beautiful, functional housing.

Persons with disabilities are 21% less likely to be employed than those without disabilities (2017 Canadian Survey on Disability Report), and in 2017 there were nearly 645,000 disabled individuals with the potential to work but were not employed (A demographic, employment and income profile of Canadians with disabilities aged 15 years and over, 2017). This rate was exacerbated by Covid-19, where one third of participants in Statistics Canada's Impacts of Covid-19 on Canadians: Living with Long-term Conditions and Disabilities survey reported "experiencing a temporary or permanent job loss or reduced hours during the pandemic". There is a willing and able workforce to supplement Canada's economy that are eager to work, and a lack of supportive services to help individuals learn the skills needed to attain employment and engage community employers. On a larger scale, 0.5% of Small to Medium Enterprises earning over $30,000 annually are majority owned by people with disabilities, showing a severe lack in small business coaching, support and financing for the disabled community. Raven Resources aims to fill these gaps to help women live a prosperous, fulfilling life.

Maven Lounge caters to women who are employed or self-employed seeking an accessible, inclusive place to work. This could be remote workers, artisans, businesswomen, social media advocates; the spatial flexibility allows for social collaboration, individual work, meetings, private spaces for concentrated work and a creative lab guests can use for individual creative product needs - photography, socials, podcasts, video etc. The flexible space will garner a diverse community, creating a sisterhood of women uplifting women. Individuals may also work with small business coaches from Raven Resources within the building, making exponential success easier and faster.

1 in 5 individuals with disabilities over 15 lives alone in Canada (The vulnerability of Canadians with disabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020) and more may wish to live independently but struggle both with finding accessible housing and the risks of increased isolation. The Abilities Centre's Covid-19 Disability Survey showed '80% of adults with disabilities scored higher on a measure of social isolation than the average social isolation score for the general population' during Covid. A great way to solve both issues is barrier-free communal living, where people of diverse backgrounds and abilities live together with the freedom of their own apartment. This allows for socialization, a sense of ownership, stability and control, while being supportive and communal. Haven House is designed for all abilities and truly supports diversity and inclusion.

I believe Calgary could benefit from an enterprise like Open Door Disability Services and the value people with disabilities bring to society when integrated and visible. A holistic unified approach to support in key life areas creates a positive ripple effect in the community, stemming from empowered women at Open Door Disability Services.

Open Minds lead to Open Doors

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Grad Show 2022 - Carly Dick - Additional Documents