How to address Social Inclusion

Currently my art exhibition is showcasing at the Drawing Point Gallery (Ipswich Arttime Supplies) 203 Brisbane Street, Ipswich CBD. My hope is that me current exhibition will be a platform for a discussion on how to build a community that celebrates  diversity and actively works towards a community that is inclusive or all.

Social inclusion occurs when every member of the community is considered of equal standing. Social inclusion is not living along side each other. For social inclusion to occur the needs to be relationships that are on equal footing.

This doesn't not occur for many Australians and residents including our Indigenous Australians, refugees and people with disabilities. Above all these Australians do not have equal rights under the law. Until this occurs it is impossible to relate to each other on an equal standing.

Just as the are many misconceptions about immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees who come to Australia, the community as a whole does not fully appreciate he skills and the abilities of people with disabilities and many assumptions are made rather than members of the community taking the time to find out the facts.   

Many marginalised Australians feel voiceless!  

This is why people with disabilities and their families launch the 'Every Australian Counts' campaign. To date the largest achievement of this campaign is the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, known as the ndis.  The ndis provides assistance to individuals and families living with disabilities to fully participate in the life of community. Participation involves being active, passive co-existence is not inclusion.

More specifically it aims to build participation rates in education; employment and the government sector. 1 in 5 people in Australia have a disability and the majority of disabilities are invisible. Regardless of the type of impairment 90% of people with disabilities or underemployed. 

To achieve full social inclusion people with of various disabilities need to equally represented in every section of the community. To ensure this target is achieve we need to make our community accessible to all our members.  This includes our school, work places, transport systems, local business, employment and training, sporting organisations, shopping centres, public amenities, higher education, cultural venues, all levels of governments and government departments and finally the legal system. 

Working towards inclusion involves a multi-layered approach beginning with public educations programs to bring community awareness about disabilities; correcting the many misconceptions around people with disabilities themselves; equality under the law; addressing access issues and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

This means we all have a role to play. Many of these issues can commenced through business, organisations, community groups and governments developing their own Disability Action Plan.  For these plans to be most effective they should refer to the UN charter of human Rights for People with disabilities and the The 1992 Disability Act.

A Disability Action plan recognises it is not the persons impairment that leads to their disability, but the way we have structured our society, making our communities in accessible to some members.  

When I started working in the disability arts sector, access was about building access, toilets, car parking, lighting and signage.  Since commencing Ignite Artists I have learnt that issues around communication, access to information, IT and technology, sensory and behavioural needs and more.

I was involved in the development Ipswich City Councils Disabilities Action Plan . We live in a beautiful historical city and we would not want to tear that up to address physical access issues, but we can legislate to ensure all new buildings are accessible. Inclusive buildings are more accessible to those with injures and the elderly. However physical access can also address the need for low sensory areas and install hearing loops and braille signage. 

Developing a plan can assist you to identify access issues for your employees, clients and customers. Building structures and expenses are ligament barriers that may mean that all issues can be addressed.  What developing a action plan can do is:

•  Demonstrate a commitment to change.
• Allow you to identity access issues. 
• Prioritise how you will address access issues.
• Introduce you to the concept of disability awareness.
• Address low cost access issues
• Contribute to community discussions on inclusion.
• Provide a starting point for change. 

Who should develop a Disability Action Plan? Any one who does business in the community, even if you are self-employed. 

Even I have a Disability Action Plan for my small business Ignite Artists. A plan may address: access issues for people with disabilities (remember access can be physical, intellectual, lack of information, in accessible formats and sensory overload); employment - recruiting people with disabilities; providing disability awareness training for your staff. 

The Action Plan  process is similar to any best practice approach to business. It will fit comfortably with your business objective of ensuring continued commercial success. The components are:

1. Review your practices
2. Devise policies and programs to eliminate disability discrimination
3. Set goals, targets and time frames
4. Devise and incorporate evaluation strategies
5. Appoint persons to be responsible for the implementation of the Action Plan
6. Communicate the Action Plan to people within your business

Together we can build an inclusive community.

My week navigating the ndis

Chasing your dreams and searching for the right supports under the ndis can be overwhelming. The preparation leading up to my art exhibition was exhausting and many artists suffer from post exhibition blues.  The timing this exhibition is great as my commitment to the Ipswich arts community means gearing up to tackle the annual Ipswich Festivals, which is where my attention has turned to this week. 

Thus my support workers have been support me in my art studio. But aliases I forgotten before that, I need to submit my work for the Brisbane Art International Spectacular Ooops! 

2017 Brisbane Rotary Art Spectacular 

In the mist on this I am still committed to engaging my own support team.  So a chunk of my time over the last week has been spent working with the recruitment agency. Remember that key advice I received in the lead up to transition to the ndis? 'Life will not stop which you organise you supports under the ndis'.

A few of my support workers with my current provider have moved on, taken holidays or been on sick leave.  This has left wholes in my roster and the need to use agency staff.  I am now introducing new staff into my home not knowing if I around for another month or another 10 months.  I still with a roster that is not fixed. 

The question is always in the back of my mind, will I have support for key events?  The constant drain of managing my supports under the ndis takes my attention away from my Ignite Artists business, Right now I feeling overwhelmed. However I am hoping to find some great support workers to assist me to work towards my ndis goals and my next art exhibition. 

Belonging to the Ipswich art community. 

     

Living on the 'outside!'

"We need to make every single thing accessible; to every single person with a disability."

~  Stevie Wonder

Australians with disabilities have long lived beside the rest of the community, some of us a visible others have disabilities that can't be seen. Our disabilities present us with challenges and obstacles others in the community do not have.  However it is not our impairments that disable us, but the way our society has been structured. 

Australians with disabilities and there families are resilient, resourceful and creative in the way they adapt to living in a non-disable world. 

Living on the Outside

Post institutional care makes us your neighbours, your co-workers, family members, classmates and community members. However this does not make a community socially inclusive.  To be inclusive every member of the community must be valued and accepted by the community. Thus the title 'living on the outside'.

We might live in the neighbourhood but the invisible institutional walls still lock people with some disabilities out of community activities.  To be come inclusive means giving people access to all areas.  This is not something I fully understood until I began to work in the disability arts sector.

When I begun access was about steps, toilets, lighting, transport and communication.  It wasn't until I found myself working in inclusive environments and people with disabilities different to my own, that the term 'access to all areas' began to mean, every single aspect of human life.  

Not every person with a disability can vote and where they can their are obstacles e.g. someone who is blind cannot read a ballot paper.  People with disabilities are treated differently under the Australian law, as someone living with epilepsy I can not be part of a jury. Other Australians due to their perceived intelligence can not testify in a court of law. 

Access to information remains one of the largest barriers for those living with disability, in the age of information and technology, being unable to read or write makes you disable and dependent on others to be able to access information, centerlink or any service which you need to complete forms.  If you are deaf, non-verbal or have a speech impairment you may need to access an interpreter through the National Relay Swervice to make a phone call. 

Some disabilities including invisible disabilities are more social isolating than others and communities such as the deaf community form specifically to provide a community in which conversations can take place.  There are many different misconceptions held by community members, just as not all people with cp have an intellectual disability not all deaf people can lip read. 

Living in the outside can be just as isolating as institutional living.  Providing services and programs for people with disabilities does not ensure inclusion. Programs and events exclusively for those with disabilities can affirm the invisible community barriers. Anything that excludes others is potentially segregating.  The formation of the pockets in the community can determine friends and activities which individuals with disabilities take part in, and fails to provide 'access to all areas'.     

Occasionally I may go out with the neighbours, but I do not do every single activity with them. Living on the outside in special housing can be like this but not always.  I know some people who live in supported accommodation to work and enjoy other activities outside the people who live in the house.  Limiting choice can be another way we isolate people. 

This is why providing choice is so critical to the success of the ndis.  The key reform under the ndis is to assist people with disabilities and their families to participate in life.  Full participation should include access to every aspect to life.  In the past people with disabilities who have worked have had their pay rates linked to their productivity rates.  Thus the slower you work the less you are paid. 

In the open workforce our productivity rates do not receive such security. This is another way society  has allowed separate laws to apply to people living with disabilities, because their contribution is less valued.  In a inclusive community all members are equally valued.  The same standards are applied to all members.  Each member is valued for the skills and talents.   

The arts industry is no exception when it comes to pay rates, sales and pricing on artwork. This gives a message that artists with disability that the standard of work is less.

Finding Solutions  

Building inclusive communities takes a multi-layered approach. The roll out of the ndis is one part of the puzzle. This scheme supports families and individuals living with disabilities to participate in the community.  Though providing a child with disability support before and after school, parents may be able to return to full-time work. When we're looking to increase participation rates we need to remember a families member with a disability makes impact on the whole family. 

A child with autism can mean family outings like going to the movies or a meal at a restaurant is impossible. To build a inclusive community needs to build public awareness of the challenges of people with disabilities and the range of disabilities their are. Disability awareness is something I've been focusing on this week as my art exhibition The Melting Pot continues at the Drawing Point Art Gallery.

See story in Ipswich First

My exhibition has allowed me to begin dialogue in the arts community and the wider arts community on social inclusion.  Social inclusion can only be achieve through acceptance of those who look and act differently.  Like me and my mate 'Danny Dare'.

In terms of disabilities local business can prepare a 'Disability Action Plan'.  This is how a business works towards enabling people with disabilities to be included in the services the offer. Naturally we live in a beautiful historical city, and we don't want to tear up our heritage to recreate accessible buildings.  However in terms of physical access there are affordable solutions.  

Portable ramps that enable customers to wheel over a small steps. This one cost me $300 and could be shared between a few business closely located.  Installing better lighting for the visual impaired. Print signs in fonts and colours so those with visual impairments can read them. Vision Australian have guidelines on their website.

Even building you website using Vision Australia's gudielines on their website can be one small step to can take towards building an inclusive community.  Next time you refurnish you could consider building a lower counter for wheelchair users.

You can make changes to make your business more inclusive through changing your policies, providing disability awareness training for staff. Training a member of staff to provide emotional first-aid or providing quiet areas and soft lighting for people with sensory disabilities. A Disability Action Plan may take 5 to 10 years to implement but having one means your committed to building an inclusive community. 

Your Disability Action Plan should outline how you intend to address access issues for staff and customers. Your plan may be about working towards employing someone with a disability.  The action plan needs to address all access issues include: physical access; intellectual access; communication access; addressing sensory needs and providing information in accessible formats.

There is something very simple you can start with to build inclusion. Be open to opportunities to learn about different types of disabilities and stop making assumptions about the abilities of those living with impairments. 

You never know what you can do until you try!

Thought on building inclusion

For those who couldn't make the opening of my exhibition, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts around building inclusive communities especially in the arts. 

This week we marked the tenth anniversary of the 'Sorry Speech' in Federal Parliament, this it was significant that my exhibition opened this week. The original owners on this land needed to fight for the right to vote; establish their intelligence and still struggle to gain leadership in 'our culture'.  I believe the answer to the social issues and their social identity lie with in 'the mob' and can only be addressed by its elders.

My hope for my exhibition is to open a discussion on inclusion and diversity. A diversity that those who attended my opening represent. In creating my exhibition, those who attended have influenced its creation as we are woven into the fabric of this community. 

  

Your influence has come from the gift of art materials, inspiration, ideas and the gifts of love and respect, I receive from each of you. I want to thank you for sharing this journey.

This journey started as a student at the Brisbane Institute of art in 2015.  My tutor reasoned if I insisted in painting in perfect faces that I paint them on dolls.  It was a time of great change in politicises.  I was very much caught up in campaigning for the induction of what we now know as the ndis. A system the productivity commissioner hoped would increase the social and economic participation rates of people with disabilities.  The arts is one area that could lift those participation rates.

I have vivid memories of teaching myself to hand stitch and many needle pricks along the way. I though artists should be entitled to blood money. Mia continued to push me and extend my skills and knowledge of this medium and I am grateful.  I am indebted to the staff of BIA who pushed to do better even in Allan's class where my skills up me at the top. 

'Find something new to challenge you. Don't come to class to play with mediums you've already mastered. ' 

For me this was a turning point, I could well and truly hold my own in the art world and my disability was truly in significant.  

   

Mia challenged me to use my dolls to make statements. If I insisted on painting faces, then I should put them on dolls and make visual statements, because in essence that is who I am as a person.  That class produced Danny Dare and Scarlet both are pat of this exhibition.

In a world that searches for perfection we struggle to find the really beauty within a person's soul just because they look different to ourselves.

So when I was painting dolls at that start  of 2016, I knew this was my next exhibition, and I aired this with Nancy Brown.  She suggested I stop painting and start sewing,  them memories of needle pricks and blood on my work were still raw. I am very glad two years later, I accepted this challenge to present this body of work to you night. 

Each of you is a square of fabric woven into my life or the arts community.  We are the diversity I seek to foster, nurture, and grow in Ipswich. As we sew our quilt together we all contribute different things.  Without the gifts you bring to our community the quilt is incomplete and our riches lest enjoyed. 

Missing from this patch work are the skills of many artists with disabilities and mental illness.  Due to barriers to high to climb, but this is a discussion of another time.  Just to highlight one barrier of communication, regardless of the quality of an artist's portfolio, if you can't not read or write you can not complete a competition entry form or gallery application without support; you may not have internet access or if you are non-verbal, you maybe dependent on a advocate who knows nothing about art to make enquiry calls to galleries on your behalf. 

My dolls with out faces represent the voiceless.

Let's face it the arts industry is a highly competitive field and income never is  guaranteed. An artist's portfolio should speak for itself, artists with genuine support needs, don't want hand-outs nor do not need the rules of competition bent. To be fully included is to play by the rules.

By Judith Baker

We just assist us to complete the paperwork or computer forms to get our work in the public forum. I want to thank the members of Arts Connect who are supporting my in this challenge in 2018.  We together are working on a project named a few days ago 'Hearing Our Voice', this is the first project I know of; to support professional development of artists living with challenges in Ipswich not driven by me or a disability provider.  

The project was kicked start by our Glen Smith, this means our voices are being herd and I very much looking forward to working with others to make the project a reality.  

A thank you to my special friend Mieke 'mum' for your guidance, love and patience in bring my exhibition together and agreeing to open the exhibition together.  

I hope you will visit my exhibition and join the discussion on diversity and building inclusion in our community.  

Melting Pot

Now showing at Drawing Point Gallery

Ipswich Arttime Supplies

203 Brisbane Street Ipswich.

Opening Hours 

Mondays 9 am to 2 pm

Tuesday to Fridays 9 am to 5 pm

Saturdays 9 am to 1 pm

NDIS: Going For Gold

Funding from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (ndis), is determined by the participants individual goals.  I am a visual artist and passionate about developing inclusive communities through art.  This week my funding has allow me to engage my support team to assist me to install my art exhibition at Drawing Point Gallery.

Working on dolls has been very different to other mediums I have worked with before, so I am excited with the discussion around this exhibition. 

The changes under the ndis are designed to increase the social and/or economic participation rates of people living with disabilities. To achieve the type of reform on a national scale a few things need to occur.

• A national approach to assist people with disabilities and their families.
• Opportunities for participants to tailor this assistance to suit their individual needs.
• Opportunities for people with disabilities to participation in the community at all levels. (Education, training, employment, civic duty; sports; recreation and leisure.

It is my view that the last of these objectives is the most difficult to facilitate. We come from a model where people with disabilities have been cared for and protected. While here are many participants that still need this type of assistance, in the main people with disabilities and their families want choices in who supports them and the way they are supported. 

However our traditional views and beliefs around how people with disabilities are able to achieve tasks are very strong. Meaning participants are having difficulty is accessing education, training and other opportunities.  People living with disabilities are likely to be underemployed (employ below the skill level) or unemployed. This is where social inclusion programs play a key role at local level.

As a visual artists I am keen to use my artwork to drive discussion on diversity and building inclusive communities. 

To some extent our knowledge and expectation of people living with disability is based on our own experience of disability. However other things will influence owe view, such as culture, cultural norms and personality. 

In changing to the ndis and giving people choices about the way they want to be assisted, the sector and the wider community are  required to let go of a tradition that provided care and protection packages for people with disabilities allowing participants to chose what suits there individual needs, While accepting that 'individual choice and care & protection' are not mutually exclusive of each other.  At some point in our lives we have all needed care and protection and are likely to need these in the future.  The difference with those living with disabilities the care and protection until now has been locked in and not been able to change as their needs have changed. 

Historically people with disabilities have no been encourage to give things ago because they may fail.  What if the fail? has never been  what if the shine?

Failure is part of the human experience, it is part of the learning process. We all fall before we learn to walk. In my own life the only to determine if I am capable of something is to try.  I once thought sewing was impossible for me. . . Now I have created a exhibition around dolls and textiles because I have had mentors who encourage me to try and the pushed me to the next level.

The world places enough obstacles in our way. So why do we want to limited people living with disabilities? Not to expect more from people with disabilities is to take a 'the glass is half empty approach to life.'

What does it matter if the glass is half empty or half full if your not going to drink from the glass?

Funding under the ndis is determine by your goals, you ask the ndis to support you to achieve. The goals of each individual participant  will be different.  Not may people chose to be a professional artist.  

Although the definition of a professional is petty straight forward, not may people understand the complexities of what it takes to bring an exhibition together.

A professional visual artist is someone who sells their artwork. A successful artist is someone who makes a profit form selling artwork.  Most professional artists have a 'day job' to allow them to achieve their art dreams. 

So my main ndis goal is to grow my visual art practise which is to sell artwork and one of the ways I achieve this is to have my artwork housed in art galleries.

Team Deb installed Deb's artwork for

her art exhibition at Drawing Point Gallery. 

I am also interested in assisting other artists, including those with disabilities to build their own visual art practise.  I have been plodding the over the last five years, to find ways for artists with disabilities to invest in themselves, encouraging providers to offer more professional art guidance; running art workshops and art groups for artist with disabilities, and building bridges and breaking down barriers in the arts community.

This year Ipswich Art Connect are supporting artists with disability by providing an opportunity to exhibit the art at no cost.  Our project is called 'Hearing Our Voice' we want to assist artists with disabilities to present their work at a professional level.  I am very excited that artists without disability initiated this project, not a disability provider.  

The Ipswich art community have already heard our voice and are rolling out the carpet so we can make our voices even louder in the community.  So in terms of the ndis my activity is classed as full time work and I am funded appropriately. However this has no been the experiences of other artists. 

In the pre-planning process you need to become very clear on what your goals and activities look like.  Use your mobile, take photos of you crating your art and all the different aspects of you work. Write up an activity chart.  This could be a flow chart beginning with creating an artwork and all the steps involved to achieve a sale.  

Most people see artists as airy-fairy. We don't really know what we're doing.  

This is complicated by people in general having low expectations of people with disabilities in general. These expectations are nowhere more prevent than the disability sector itself.  In writing your ndis plan you need to fully sell yourself as someone who is self-employed or working in an art studio. 

Well its been a big week, tomorrow I going for gold and hoping to make a profit!

  

Bulling is a community problem

Dare To Be You!

I believed I was bullied at school because I was different. Now I am older and wiser I am not so sure.  May be it was just teasing and I let 'bullies' see my vulnerability.  However back then bullies didn't tell us to go kill ourselves. I think as adults struggling to support young people its hard to comprehend the escalation in the behaviour we labelled as bulling.

Bullying can occur anywhere. At school, at home, at work or even a nurse home, but now it is most prevent online as and on our screen devices. I think bullying occurs when another person cause physical or emotional pain to another person over an extended period of time.  So when you meet someone you not going to identify them as a 'bully'.

Bulling is not about you!

'A bully' might start out as your best friend, your partner, a relative or your boss. Bulling is not about you! It is about the other person either wanting to control you in some way; or about robbing you of your emotional well being to make themselves feel better. Because this happens over time bullies can go detected. 

Anyone can become a victim of bulling.

Anyone can become a victim of bulling. Charlotte Dawson was a television presenter and a host of Australia's next top model, one of the most beautiful spirits I have admired.  She lived her life in the public eye. We did not know the extent of the bulling she endured until it is to late.  

Bullies slowly build your trust and then assert control over you until you see yourself as rubbish and eventually you can believe you life is not worth living.  Their true identity is never known.

Bullies are relentless  

When I was at school I left the bullies at the school gate. I had respite while I was not at school. We now live in a 24/7 world, our screens are always with us and thus our bullies are carried in our school bags, handbags and pockets. Our addition to screens makes us react to their messages.

Our Defence

1. When it comes to the truth about yourself, trust the friends and family you see everyday.
2. If someone makes you unhappy or feel bad about yourself do engage with them by text or social media.
3. You can block them on you phone, email, messages and social media.  Reading their messages out of curiosity only harms you.
4. Do not engage with them. Defending yourself lets them know they have upset you and could give them information for them to use against them. 
5. Tell someone you know well so they can assist you to defuses the person lies.
6. Report them to social media sites.

However we all know bullies are hard to detect. We all crave attention sometimes even bad or hurtful attention fills this need. Any negative around you will drain you and lower you defence so seek out people you make you feel good.

Look out for your mates

Stand by yours friends if the start to withdraw of talk negatively, pull them up and ask them what's going on? However if they are depressed the may not talk.  Some people a great at covering up. You may need to look for other clues. 

• Changes in behaviour
• Changes in appearance
• Changes in sleep patterns
• Changes in eating patterns
• Changes in what them ware. 

People will tell you that people who talk about killing themselve won't act on it.  That is not true.  Today would of been my friends 59th Birthday.  She was a troubled soul and battled depression all her life.  She often talked about killing herself and in the end she did. 

Bulling is a community problem

Bullies like to isolate people, when people feel isolated the have no one to talk to or feel others will not believe them.  Bullies engage the victims one-on-one, not in social forums. Our best defence is to build a support community for ourselves so our defence to identifying, bullies is strengthen.

Life is tough enough do not need to talk to people who make you feel bad.

Sometimes facebook gets me so mad, I do not use it for a week or two.  If I need it for work, I don't access my personal account.  This are only harmful if I read them.  If I don't read the lies then they can't hurt you.

e  

1. , 

NDIS: What is your plan B?

Picked my first eatable plant this week!

One thing I've learnt about life, is the world around us doesn't follow the script we write.  In someways I've felt my script and ndis plan tested this week.  The way I hoped my funding would work in the case of an emergency failed. Its now scrabbling to find a new plan.

I live with the challenges of epilepsy, and the last 12 months has seen my stability decline, although just recently things are looking up. This was on thing that excited me about the ndis and my core funding, the knowledge I no longer needed to take risks and wheelie out and about on my own. 

So I guess being instructed my provider to jump in a cab has alarmed me,  In my neck of the woods the super moon seemed to be playing havoc with my script.  Two dangers collided with my questions ' how to get from A to B safely?'

Seizure are more likely to occur when I am exhausted, so needing cab a too and from physio in the heat of summer concerned me.  However more alarming was being instructed by my provider to catch a cab home from  trip to the ED.  Illness is another risk factor that makes me pron to seziures. 

My provider does not ask my workers to drive their own cars, so I rely on taxis.  This alone added stress.  Before I signed my agreement I was told this would change. I have known for some time the service provider was not suited to me needs and I had been endeavouring in make changes.  The wheels of red tape turn slowly. However it seems everyone else was ready to move this week. I did not plan a ride in the ambulance.

This is an event beyond my control, I can not ask for additional support before I know it is needed.  I one thing I wanted under the ndis was an end to fitting into a schedule. I do acknowledge my increase health needs collided with the resignation of two of my support staff this week and my coordinator have spent the week reassigning my shifts and this needed to happen for a number of other clients as well.

The balancing act isn't always easy and my guess is I wasn't the only clients whose week didn't go according to script.  A sound plan has an emergency plan. The is one thing that frightens about forming my own team, what happens when the next time a blue moon occurs?

I guess with the upheaval of rearranging my roster, in the back of my mind was . . .the additional support needed next week to install my exhibition. What unexpected curve balls await me.  Then I remember this is why we as artists belong to a community and art organisations.  My support of others affords me an SOS when I needed.

 ,     

So on a more positive note how to I arrange my back up plan so my artwork arrives at the gallery, it is safety installed and I can be there on opening night to saver the completion of 18 moths work and planning,  I am thank you the ndis has a more flexible system to draw  on support when my work load is at it peak.  

Sure there are many challenges ahead, pit holes in the road I'm yet to encounter, but its just a case of hoping everything runs smoothly, but planning for the worst.  

I have never been so thankful knowing my friends have got my back. In sharing my week of curve balls, I hope this assists you in planning for the things that will go wrong and discuss with your provider(s) what additional plans may be able to be put in place. Hopefully I'll be able to share my solutions with you soon!

The count down to opening night has begun!

Drawing Point Gallery

203 Brisbane St, Ipswich

Opening Night 9th February @ 6 pm