Overcoming barriers and creating opportunities for people with developmental disabilities in national service programs
Abstract
People with disabilities are actively engaged in volunteering and providing services in their communities. However, this hasn’t always been the case, and individuals with disabilities have had to overcome historical and cultural barriers to achieve participation. This effective practice is excerpted, with permission, from the article by Bonnie Shoultz and K. Charlie Lakin, “Volunteer and Service Opportunities for People with Developmental Disabilities.” The practice identifies some of the difficulties that may still be encountered as this population pursues a variety of service options, and poses some questions to ask when deciding on the right volunteer “fit.” Submitted by Elesheva Soloff, with the National Service Inclusion Project, in June 2008.
Issue
There are a number of specific barriers that have often made it difficult for people with developmental disabilities to participate in national and community service.These barriers must be addressed on a societal, organizational, and individual level.
Action
Ask the following questions as a starting point in accessing the fit between the person and a particular option, and also in evaluating the ability of volunteer, community service, and service-learning organizations to include individuals with disabilities:
- Does the individual have interests or passions that can guide efforts to identify and support service involvements?
- Are there existing opportunities that would allow the individual to pursue those interests and passions in a manner that provides service that is of value to the community? If not, can such opportunities be created?
- Are there specific learning goals of the individual to which certain service activities might contribute?
- Are necessary supports available to enable the person to participate in service activity? If not, how can they be created?
- Is the service activity supported by adequate and appropriate intrinsic reinforcement, such as integration, acceptance, respect, recognition, or tangible rewards?
Context
Barriers to service for individuals with developmental disabilities often include:
- Persons with disabilities may not be aware that voluntary service options are available to them, or they may not have the support they need to get to pursue the options and participate successfully.
- The gatekeepers (such as volunteer coordinators and nominating committees) in the various organizations to which individuals with developmental disabilities may apply may need education and support in thinking about how people with developmental disabilities could contribute, or could be supported in the volunteer work they might be doing.
- Agencies supporting adults with disabilities, and school teams and staff supporting students with disabilities, have often not included discussion of voluntary community service opportunities in their support and personal planning services.
- The programs and facilities of organizations involved with voluntary service, community service, or service-learning, may present barriers to persons with disabilities of which the organizations are not aware. These may be interpreted by persons with disabilities as evidence of lack of interest or welcome.
Citation
Shoultz, B. & Lakin, K. C. (2001). "Volunteer and Service Opportunities for People with Developmental Disabilities." Impact: Feature Issue on Volunteerism by Persons with Developmental Disabilities, 14(2). 2-3. [Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration.] Impact is a quarterly publication of the Institute on Community Integration (University Affiliated Program), and the Research and Training Center on Community Living, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota.
Outcome
Voluntary service, community service, and service-learning offer many possibilities for persons with developmental disabilities to contribute to their communities in ways that bring them the joy, sense of belonging, opportunity to learn, and respect that comes when contributing to the well-being of others. Such service additionally provides a means of overcoming historical and current barriers to full participation in society.
Volunteerism and community service have been avenues through which individuals have been able to improve their communities, gain marketable skills that could eventually lead to paid employment, test out interests and possible career paths, develop personally and professionally meaningful social connections, and experience the pleasure and satisfaction of the activity itself and of making a difference in the lives of others.
For More Information
Resources
Shoultz, B. & Lakin, K. C. (2001). "Volunteer and Service Opportunities for People with Developmental Disabilities." Impact: Feature Issue on Volunteerism by Persons with Developmental Disabilities, 14(2). 2-3. [Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration.] Impact is a quarterly publication of the Institute on Community Integration (University Affiliated Program), and the Research and Training Center on Community Living, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota.