The Five Valued Experiences for Good Things in Life

Five Valued Experiences:

All citizens have better life chances, and everyone’s world grows more

interesting, when communities offer rich opportunities for people to

have these five valued experiences:

Belonging in a diverse variety of relationships and memberships.

Being respected as whole persons whose history, capacities and

futures are worthy of attention and whose gifts engage them in valued

social roles.

Sharing ordinary places and activities with other citizens, neighbors,

classmates, and co-workers. Living, working, learning, and playing confidently

in ordinary community settings.

Contributing by discovering, developing, and giving their gifts and

investing their capacities and energy in pursuits that make a positive

difference to other people. There are gifts of being and gifts of doing:

contributions can include interested presence as well as capable performance.

Contributions may be freely exchanged or earn pay.

Choosing what they want in everyday situations in ways that reflect

their highest purpose. Having the freedom, support, information, and

assistance to make the same choices as others of a similar age and

learning to make wiser choices over time. Being encouraged to use and

strengthen voice regardless of mode of communication, clarify what really

matters, make thoughtful decisions, and learn from experience.

Five Community Tasks:

The quest to act in ways that offer more of these five interrelated experiences

builds a more competent community. Healthy communities work

to notice and overcome us and them thinking by exercising social creativity

in doing these five community tasks.

Promoting interdependence by valuing and investing in the social ties

and associations that promote trust , encourage mutual support, and

energize collaboration.

Living inclusive stories by opening valued social roles to people who

have been excluded by prejudice, stereotyped expectations, and poorly

designed opportunities and by celebrating the benefits of diversity.

Practicing hospitality by making ordinary places acceptable and welcoming

and finding effective ways to adapt to and accommodate differences

that might otherwise keep people out.

Seeing and supporting capacities by adopting the practice of using

what the community has to get more of what it really needs, looking

first at community assets and what people can contribute rather than

getting stuck on what is missing or scarce.

Resolving conflicts in fair and creative ways. When people whose voices

have been missing begin to speak up about their interests and concerns,

new problems come up about who has power and how it will be

used. Healthy communities avoid escaping into withdrawal exclusion or

violence and find ways to work together and find ways that more people

can stay involved and get more of what really matters to them.

Dimensions of Inclusion

History shows that people with disabilities are vulnerable to isolation,

wasted capacities, and excessive external control. Common practices in

the world of services too often force people to live in a box that limits

their opportunities for valued experiences in order to get the assistance

that they need.

Segregation at the margins of community life, which decreases the

chances of building a more diverse community.

Stereotypes that stick people into a narrow range of social roles that

reinforce stories of incompetence, unworthiness, unacceptability, and

passivity.

Congregation: involuntarily grouping people together in special, separate

groups based on their professionally applied label.

Poor support because of unrealistically low expectations, technical

incompetence, or lack of imagination and creativity.

External control that deprives people of choices because of a low level

of individualization or a reflex response to vulnerability.

Service workers who want to assist people with disabilities to get or

keep out of the box have to build alliances that are strong enough and

plans that are imaginative enough to energize creative action that

opens pathways for people’s energy, capacities, and gifts to flow into

community life. They continue to improve the quality of their answers

to the questions that define five accomplishments.

How can we assist people to make and sustain connections, memberships

and friendships? Service workers make a difference when they listen

deeply and act thoughtfully to provide exactly what a person needs

to build a bridge to community participation.

How do we enhance people’s reputation? Respect comes to those who

play recognizable and valued parts in everyday life. Service workers

make a difference when they support people to identify and take up

social roles that express their interests and provide needed assistance

with negotiating the accommodations they need to be successful and

so encourage valued social roles.

How do we increase people’s active involvement in the life of our communities?

Service workers make a difference when they assist people

to make the most of the ordinary community settings that attract their

interest and energy. This increases community presence.

How do we assist people to develop and invest their gifts and capacities?

Service workers make a difference when they focus on what each

person can bring to others and bring imagination and technical competence

to designing and delivering the help each person needs to develop

competency.

How do we increase choice and control in their lives? Service workers

make a difference when they honor people’s rights and responsibilities

and offer what works to promote their autonomy.

                        John O’Brien

                        Inclusion Press ©2011