Partnerships The Key to Growth by Francine Arsenault June 1997 Partnership The Key to Growth by Francine Arsenault (Chairperson: International Centre for Community Based Rehabilitation, Past-Chairperson Council of Canadians with Disabilities). As a woman with a disability I want to share with you some of the important things I have learned from my own life and from working with both the consumer movement of people with disabilities and the community based rehabilitation movement. My purpose is to bring to your attention the value and critical need for partnerships throughout the process of ensuring community participation for women with disabilities. To do this I will present some of the partnerships that have been critical in my own life and I'll extrapolate to highlight the pertinent principles of partnership. Family: The First Partnership The old saying goes that you can pick your friends but you are stuck with your family. Well, family is probably the most crucial partnership you will ever form and in my case I couldn't have picked better. My parents were very young but broad-minded and resourceful. When I contracted polio at eight months of age, they took the doctor's advice and put me in isolation for a month to protect my mother who was five months pregnant, my brother and the community whom they thought I threatened. When I was released to them, they immediately started to adapt their lives and my activities to make me an integral part of their world. They had virtually no training as to how to deal with me but they took each day as it came and THEY LEARNED AS THEY WENT ALONG, THEY MADE ADJUSTMENTS AND TOGETHER WE FOUND WAYS OF KEEPING ME CONNECTED TO MY COMMUNITY. Critical to ensuring the potential of children with disabilities is the development of supports for parents. Community based rehab has focused to a large extent on providing information and support to parents of children with disabilities as a means of ensuring, not only the good health of children with disabilities, but to fight against attitudes that can isolate and devalue people with disabilities. To speak bluntly I am dismayed that the consumer movement of persons with disabilities has done so little in the area of supports to children with disabilities and their families. I offer to all of you a challenge to find innovative and empowering ways of assisting families with children with disabilities. The family is truly the most important partnership unit we will ever encounter. If this partnership is unhealthy the damage done can take a lifetime to resolve. Partnership Means Removing Barriers I grew up in a middle class Canadian neighbourhood which included a Catholic school system. Few schools have been as open as mine was in sharing responsibility for me. My teachers worked hard to ensure that I could take part, as much as I was able, in all the activities of the other children. Between 8 and 18, I had 30 operations. This meant full co-operation was essential between my family, the medical professionals, hospitals, school staff, friends and other relatives, to help me achieve what others my age were able to do. FOR ME TO COMPLETE PRIMARY SCHOOL, HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE, THOSE SURROUNDING ME HAD TO BE FLEXIBLE, SEE MY TRUE POTENTIAL AND BE PREPARED TO REMOVE BARRIERS. The True Test of Positive Partnerships - Marriage In 1962, when I was 20, a French Canadian named Ric came riding into my life in an Austin Healey Sprite sports car. This partnership was an unexpected gift. He saw my scarred, limping body and I saw myself reflected in his eyes in a different way than I'd ever envisioned myself before. HE TOOK A CHANCE I WOULD FULFILL HIS NEEDS AND I RISKED TAKING ON A ROLE MOST PEOPLE FELT I MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE. Eleven months after our marriage, against the better advice of my doctors, I delivered an eight pound, eleven ounce baby boy to my ecstatic husband. Fourteen months later, our Kathleen was born. Our family seemed as large as we'd hoped but five years later the finishing touch, a golden second son was born. The rheumatic heart condition I'd developed after one of my polio operations became a pressing reason to end this fertility cycle. THIS PHASE OF PARTNERSHIP SUCCEEDED BY SHARING EXPECTATIONS; EACH PARTNER DOING WHAT THEY DID BEST AND TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE RESULTS. Responsibility for Creating the Partnership - Parenting The partnership with my children gave great joy, anxiety, grief and satisfaction. Having three teenagers in one house at one time is hectic, fretful, awe-inspiring but never boring. They had been taught early to be independent because Mother refused her first instinct to be Super Mom. Her son's black eye at six for stopping a school chum from calling Mom a cripple, resulted in a realistic vision that Mother did have limitations, but she could do many things other mothers could not. This partnership now with a 32 year old son, 31 year old daughter and 26 year old son continues on a good footing because WE LISTEN AND HEAR EACH OTHER AND REMEMBER THE NEEDS AND EXPERTISE OF EACH PLAYER. As a parent I learned the critical and necessary skill of beginning partnership. As a parent I was the one who had to take the initiative, I could not just sit back and wait for things to happen. Partnerships only exist because someone recognized first that they could not do it alone and second they recognized that someone had to get the ball rolling and it might as well be me. Partnership with Community Organizations` As my family left the nest, I got involved in organizing "the Village Crafters", a group of 40 highly skilled women who met regularly to maintain the creative history of the village and develop the latent talents of those interested in my rural area. THEY REMAIN TOGETHER (TWENTY YEARS LATER) BECAUSE OF A LIKE-MINDEDNESS, FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION AND RESPECT FOR EACH OTHERS ABILITIES. Our log house, that my husband and I built became the center for my work with our rural community. A tricounty newspaper published stories I wrote about the inhabitants of the region. Seniors long to tell their tales, and I was humbled by their faith in me. Some articles were picked up by city newspapers and a book was discussed with publishers. This partnership had to end because the timing was wrong (I still had little children who needed constant attention). THE RESULT OF THIS PARTNERSHIP CANCELLATION HELPED ME TO SEE THE NECESSITY TO LOOK AT ALL OPTIONS. My writing continues but at a rate that is comfortable to me. After the Year of the Disabled in 1981, I was asked to join a newly formed advocacy organization for persons with disabilities. In the next ten years I had chaired local, regional, provincial, national and international boards of directors. The rules of partnership I had learned in the past served me well here. WE LEARNED TO EMPATHIZE WITH ALL DISABILITIES AND OUR ORGANIZATIONS DID NOT DO THINGS FOR DISABLED PEOPLE BUT TAUGHT THEM TO DO THOSE THINGS FOR THEMSELVES. Part of the work I did nationally with the Council of Canadians with Disabilities involved being on a Board of Directors at the International Centre for the Advancement of Community Based Rehabilitation (ICACBR) at Queen's University. THIS PARTNERSHIP IS A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PARTNERSHIP IN THAT ITS PROJECTS INVOLVE PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, HEALTH PROFESSIONALS, RESEARCHERS, GOVERNMENTS, NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND THE COMMUNITIES. Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and throughout the world looks at the prevention of disabilities, the early detection of disabilities and medical intervention into the lives of persons with disabilities. Our program EXPANDS TO LOOK AT THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC INTEGRATION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES. Our aim is to encourage the women who participate, whether they are parents of disabled children or disabled themselves to be involved from the PLANNING OF THE PROJECTS, THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION, RESEARCH AND EVALUATION AT THE COMPLETION OF THE PROJECTS. It has caused enormous attitudinal change for families and the whole community. An example of this process is my friend Pikat. She has enlightened parents in Indonesia who assisted her (she has polio in one leg and uses a crutch) to get a university degree. She applied to be a co-ordinator of a CBR project that called for her to ride a motorcycle into hill villages and live there for a month to research the situation of persons with disabilities. Local mechanics put a third wheel to better balance her motorcycle and even though she fell off several times, she's inspired the village elders and families have brought their disabled persons to be assessed. She now regularly meets in 18 villages where she assists the communities to remove barriers to the participation. BEING A GOOD ROLE MODEL GUIDES PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL. Partnership Principles Let me summarize by saying that life's events teach us we must not struggle alone but join forces in partnerships for solidarity. This fact is more abundantly clear in our current global economic situation. At the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and ICACBR we've taken steps to incorporate life's lessons of partnership into projects that will enhance women's role in their communities. I have told you a bit of my life story. I did so both because I believe it is important for us to connect on a personal level but also to try and demonstrate the tremendous impact positive partnerships can have on our understanding of ourselves and on our ability to grow and prosper in the communities in which we live. However, for partnerships to be positive they must be governed by the following principles: 1. Partnerships must be open, willing to make adjustments and be based on trust. They must truly be a coming together to make things work and remove the barriers that prohibit participation and growth. 2. Positive partnership must focus on abilities. Yes recognize the disability but focus on the ability. 3. For partnerships to grow we must be willing to take chances not fear taking risks. 4. Partnerships must be truly equal, expectations must be shared as well as the responsibility for making things happen. 5. Listening is the key to a healthy partnership. 6. Respect for each other's abilities is critical. 7. Partnerships change, to remain static means to remain in the same place. Be prepared for partnership separation or cancellation. Be open to the formation of new partnerships. 8. Partnerships take many forms and may include multi-disciplinary approaches including people with disabilities, non-governmental organizations, health professionals, governments, families and the community. 9. Partners must be included in planning, research, implementation and evaluation of projects. 10. Good role models help partners to achieve their goals. Our world is far from perfect for persons with disabilities, if it was none of us would be here. There is much work yet to be done. The most productive technique for creating positive change is not new. Critical to our success is the development of creative, inspiring partnerships. As shown by a brief glimpse at my life we have all had experience creating a myriad of partnerships that have either aided of hindered achievement of our goals. We can call upon experiences of daily life to exemplify both the positive or negative aspects of a partnership. I encourage you all in your personal life as well as your work with community organizations to develop creative, growing partnerships that will enrich you and those you work with. We all have had the experience of a partnership relationship that was productive, exciting and helpful. May you be as fortunate as I in finding and defining those relationships. Best wishes in your exploration of positive partnerships and thank you for your attention. ---------- End of Document