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Community Relations

Increasing Community Inclusion Partnerships

In 2002, the Developmental Disability Resource Centre of Calgary wanting to increase our cultural competency and do outreach within the immigrant and aboriginal communities joined forces with Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, The Centre for Newcomers and The Heart of the North East Community Solutions Resource Centre. Together, we developed the Increasing Community Inclusion Partnership. The partnership adopted models of the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, Centre for Newcomers and the Heart of the North East Community Solutions Resource Centre, where their community development approaches in engaging and working with grassroots communities provided the foundation for its work.

Video

Heart of the Matter
Watch Video  33 minutes (flash Player)

The Heart of the Matter is a film that interviews aboriginal and ethno-cultural facilitators who talk about their work in addressing systemic and cultural barriers for immigrants with a family member with a disability. These facilitators are part of the Increasing Community Inclusion Partnership. The Partnership is between the Developmental Disabilities Resource Centre of Calgary, Centre for Newcomers, Heart of NE Community Solutions Resource Centre and Calgary Catholic Immigration Society.

These agencies came together to discuss the issue of why immigrants are not, by and large, accessing services in the disability sector. In response, Centre for Newcomers, Heart of NE Community Solutions Resource Centre and Calgary Catholic Immigration Society engaged their ethno-cultural volunteers/staff to be facilitators and work in the partnership on three goals:

1. Raising awareness about disability issues within cultural communities;
2. Outreaching/linking community members who need services (related to disabilities); and
3. Addressing cultural/disability competency among organizations

The Heart of the Matter highlights the multiple barriers for aboriginals and immigrants with a family member with a disability and a unique approach in addressing these barriers.

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