Inclusive Initiative

March 2020

The above painting represents a community where all are welcome and valued for their contributions. Yaniv Janson

A Waikato Museum event welcomes all families raising children with a range of abilities.

Background

This project extends intentional invitations to families with young children with all abilities. The rationale is:

Families are interested in spending more meaningful and quality time together
The environmental and sustainability topics have been identified by the United Nations as core for human progress
Families know their children best and will be able to explain concepts to their children using communication/language that they understand
Families who raise children with special needs often feel isolated from society and sometimes unwelcome – in this case, all families will be working with their children on equal footing and contributing their ideas together on actions for sustainability at a community center such as the Waikato Museum

in 2015 Yaniv Janson received a grant from Creative Communities in 2015 to co-design a Hamilton-based project about social integration. The project sought to create real life spaces where youth and adults with disabilities could interaction with their community on equal footing – as part of a creative collaboration. The project was very successful and the collaborative artwork was exhibited at the Creative Waikato community art gallery. People from a community worked together side-by-side, and all contributed with no barriers...

Final exhibited artwork

As inclusive creative collaboration rarely happens naturally, a new concept was developed – that of sending intentional invitations to people with disabilities and organisations that serve them.

Article about the project

The idea of a collaborative creative project was explained, so that all would feel confident that this was not a token invitation, but a genuine inclusive project.

WEB 2017 Janson and Janson Making Space for Social Integration.pdf

Quote from the paper:

Inclusion does not just happen as a result of a mission statement or from an increase in awareness about disability. What may facilitate a shift towards more inclusive outcomes, however, is the experience of new situations leading to behaviour changes, that in turn may create human capital assets (Miller & Russell, 2010). Intentional Invitations were sent out to a group of people with disabilities and some turned up, keen to share everyday experiences with others. In the process some shifts in attitudes and behaviour occurred in many participants. This was encouraging as it hints at the possibility that shared spaces can help create more social inclusion and cohesion. The potential impact of an intervention aimed at increasing social inclusion is on a continuum from raising awareness, fostering dialogue and debate, mobilising partners, challenging entrenched social and cultural norms, building inclusive environments, changing professional and service practices through to building change capability (Field et al, 2012).

Read about the 2019 the School Journals project piloted with a rural community here. The 2020 Touch the World project aims to launch a community creative collaboration around a theme that has been recognised by the United Nations as core to human survival. Yaniv Janson received a grant from the Len Reynolds Trust to develop the School Journals into workbooks that families could use to think, create, and plan actions together.

Yaniv Janson is a young professional award-winning artist, in collaboration with a team of designers, environmental students and teachers. Janice Abo-Ganis is our project manager. She taught students at WINTEC and at high school and is addressing different learning modes. Yaniv has autism and epilepsy; together the team wove environmental topics and disability awareness, so that the workbooks would be accessible.

Our aim

Provide children and youth with disability with a choice of roles and messages for society. As this project expands beyond the walls of the Museum, disabled youth and children connect to the wider community. As they become involved, they share their learning and personal action plans, involving the people around them in the steps they decide to take towards their goals. This will include the students' whanau and teachers.

Intentional invitations to the disability community and whanau

1. Raise awareness about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), why they are important and how we can work towards them both individually and as a collective.

2. Inspire people of all abilities to think about SDGs to propose actions that address them.

3. Raise wellbeing levels of children and youth with disabilities through strengthening their relationship with family and nature.

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