NathaN JahN

Advance Staff

“That all persons live in a state of dig-nity, share in all elements of living in the community, and have the opportunity to

participate effectively.”

- Community Living of North Grenville

That simple statement is the driving force behind what Community Living of North Grenville does on a daily basis.

For more than 40 years, CLNG has been offering services and supports that fulfill the above mission statement perfectly.

It began as a grassroots effort by local families who “rejected the notion that their sons and daughters would have to go live in an institution,” said Ted Shuh, Executive Director of CLNG. “They believed the community was the place for their sons and daughters to live and be included. We evolved from that over the years; and we’ve provided a number of different supports and services for people.”

The Community Living movement goes as far back in time as 1949, when it began in Ontario.

And with the provincial government fol-lowing through on a 25-year-old promise to close institutes in the province, CL has moved to the forefront of support for those with intellectual disabilities.

Shuh said that the closing of the last three provincial institutions, including the

Rideau Regional Institute in Smiths Falls, marks the beginning of “a new era” for Community Living and the support for those with intellectual disabilities.

In 2008, the provincial govern-ment passed the Services and Supports to Promote Social Inclusion of Persons with Developmental Disabilities Act, which replaces the more than 35-year-old Developmental Services Act, that had become severely outdated.

“This reflects the CL movement and oth-ers in the province had a lot of input … the social inclusion piece was first and fore-most in any new approach to serving peo-ple in our communities,” said Shuh. “It’s something we’ve worked very hard at - we believe in it - we have a strong vision on citizenship for people with intellectual dis-

abilities. Their right to be included in the community should be no different than anyone else’s.”

Part of the process is education, said Shuh.

“That’s one of our roles as an organization is to help bring awareness to communities on inclusion of people and we’ve done that in large part through introducing people into our com-munity through work and play and schools,” he said.

“And once people fully under-stand that, it removes any poten-tial anxiety that they might have and it changes their attitudes towards people.”

A few examples of people introduced into the community are Mary Ellen Koktan, who worked at the former opticians on Prescott St.; Albin Antoniak, who has been employed at Jonsson’s

Independent Grocer for more than 10 years; and Linda Antoniak, who works at the Kemptville bowling alley.

They are all recognizable faces in the community and speak volumes to the efforts of inclusion for all.

Which is something that CLNG has been working towards for 25-30 years, said Shuh, who explained that the organization operated segregated programming right up until the mid-1980’s when the focus began shifting to individualized support.

Now the focus is almost entirely on indi-vidual planning and support that places emphasis on ensuring anyone with an intel-lectual disability in our communities feel included in all things.

Shuh explained that a large part of the process for individual support revolves around “identifying the wishes for each person and how they would like to live and participate in our communities,” he said. “Removing barriers in our communities – physical barriers, attitudinal barriers, funding barri-ers; there were all kinds of things that stopped people from being fully included.”

He went on to say the new Act, which was up for public review until May 22 and will eventu-ally become policy and proce-dure, makes it easier for people to access funding, like the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), which will in turn make it easier for them to make their own decisions.

It also includes more account-ability for organizations like CLNG.

“When something from gov-ernment is available, certainly

there is accountability towards tax dollars for everyone who access those funds,” he said. “That’s cer-tainly identified more clearly. But at the same time it offers more flexibility for organizations like

ours to provide more meaningful support to people as they want to be supported.”

But a large part of CLNG’s future suc-cess rests on the shoulders of the com-munity is serves, said Shuh, but he also said Kemptville has been “wonderful” for inclusiveness.

“Our future as an organization will stay strong and continue to evolve with the fam-ilies,” said Shuh. “And with the many dedi-cated staff we have, and from our volunteer base and board of directors who work tire-lessly to make sure we stay strong and play a significant role in our community and across the province.”

Join us next week as we wrap up the series on CLNG with how writing this

series has changed the way one reporter views the world.

Our shared belief in equalityEditor’s Note: Over the month of May, The Kemptville Advance will be printing a four-part series on Community Living of North Grenville and the work it does.This week we look at CL itself and how they strive, on a daily basis, for the inclusion of everyone in our community.

Shelley Gerber, employment supervisor and intake coordinator, stands with Joanne and Betty, during the flag raising at the North Grenville Municipal Centre on april 29 to mark the begin-ning of Community Living Month. Meanwhile, on the bottom right we see Josh at the Resource Centre early on a Wednesday morning. On the bottom left, we see Bill at the aforementioned flag raising ceremony.

Quick Facts about CL

• Community Living North Grenville was founded in 1967 by local citizens and parents to begin our journey towards inclu-sion.

• The Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL) was founded in 1958.

• CACL now has more than 40,000 individual members, 400 local associations and 13 provin-cial and territorial associations for Community Living.

• The new Services and Supports to Promote Social Inclusion of Persons with Developmental Disabili t ies Act, 2008 replaces the outdated Developmental Services Act.

• The new Act strives to improve services and supports for adults who have developmen-tal disabilities and their families.

All photos N. JAhN / AdvANce stAff