Global-Report-Living-Colour-dr2-2

Inclusive Communities = Stronger Communities
GLOBAL REPORT ON ARTICLE 19: THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNITY
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Drawing on the Canadian and USA experience, the Canadian Association for Community Living – People First of Canada
Joint Task Force on the Right to Live in Community has identified 10 key recommendations as critical to creating real
homes and planning the closure of an institution (The Right Way, 2010). To summarize, these are:
• Involve champions for community living
o
The decision to close an institution requires vision, passion, leadership— and champions. While these champions
can come from many sectors, traditionally family members and self-advocates take the lead role in demanding
both institution closures and community supports.
• Ensure that the needs and preferences of the person come first
o
Each individual must be empowered to choose where and with whom to live and the resulting living arrangement
must truly be that person’s home.
• Respect the experiences and roles of families
o
The perspectives of families must always be taken into account when initiating planning for an individual to move
to his or her own home in the community. Families will often be the best source of information about the person
and often form the nucleus of the person’s support network in the community.
• Facilitate person centred plans and create a real home for each person
o
Engaging in respectful, person-centred planning will maximize the potential for achieving positive personal
outcomes. The goal is to support the individual in ways that meet his or her needs and allow him or her to live in
a real home, to participate meaningfully in community life, to make real choices and have his or her rights and
wishes respected.
• Create quality supports, services and safeguards
o
Resources previously allocated to the institutions are reallocated to communities to ensure adequate capacity to
support everyone in the community. The need for increased capacity in communities is identified in a systematic
and timely way, so that planning can occur and supports are in place when individuals make the move to their
new homes.
• Recruit and develop qualified support staff
o
The availability of skilled, knowledgeable employees to provide the individualized supports needed by individuals
with intellectual disabilities in their homes and communities is vital to success. Many former institution staff can
successfully transition to community-based environments and strategies for accommodating these staff need to be
developed.
• Establish community partnerships
o
The successful closure of an institution depends on sound collaborative working partnerships between individuals,