Pathways to inclusive communities: Advancing the practice of community inclusion
TCI successfully raised a 2-year grant on Community Inclusion with the support of the Wellspring Foundation. As part of this, a Working Group on Community Inclusion (WG-CI) was created with TCI members practicing community inclusion in their regions, and two productive visits were held as learning exchanges (one in Jakarta and one in Pune). These visits were arranged to exchange ideas on different ways of practicing community inclusion.
A strategy meeting was held in Kathmandu, Nepal with the Working Group on Community Inclusion (WG-CI) wherein debates around community support systems and support services, disability assessment tools, care and support, access to justice at the community level, etc. were discussed. TCI utilized these discussions in framing its ongoing works on community inclusion and also drafted its positionality statement on community inclusion.
Working Group on Community Inclusion (WG-CI) Strategy Meeting Kathmandu, Nepal July 2023, A learning report:
Catalyst grants:
With the support of the catalyst grants members have been able to work on their existing program and make it more CRPD compliant through the indicators workbook. The grant has also facilitated members in documenting their existing inclusion program as a practice, and how they have been supporting community inclusion of persons with psychosocial disabilities. The catalyst grants have also supported members towards initiating inclusion programs (pilot activities) for grassroots communities. By the end of the grant, members will have contributed to the resources being developed under the WS-CI project.
Four field visits were conducted to understand the field realities, implementation, challenges, and dilemmas of undertaking CI models at the grassroots. It engaged member OPDs in deeper conversations and rethinking of their models through the inclusion lens. TCI can already see member OPDs steering towards making their models and programs more CRPD-compliant and addressing dilemmas of practicing inclusion, keeping persons with psychosocial disabilities at the center of it.
Community Inclusion Indicators Workbook and a CI tool:
CI indicators tool is a first-of-its-kind tool that measures the impact of inclusion activities and aids in capturing best practices. TCI members were exuberant on receiving the tool and it was an aha moment for them, to use a tool that helps them to capture their inclusion works in a systematic way and supports them to understand that their work spans a wide spectrum of domains like healthcare support, access to mainstream services, legal inclusion etc.