An inclusive community is made up of people from all walks of life, and one local organization is committed to making sure people with developmental disabilities are part of that community.
The Sunshine Coast Association for Community Living (SCACL) is a Sechelt based not-for-profit society serving the developmentally disabled and their families. SCACL provides an expansive array of assistance from employment opportunities to helping with residential services, including an independent living program.
"A person in the independent living program usually lives alone either in a facility that we provide or a type of rental accommodation," said Glen McClughan, executive director of SCACL.
"They just need that little extra little bit of assistance around core life skills like banking, budgeting, cooking. But the focus of that is to push that envelope of independence for the person as opposed to home making where you'd go in and do the job for them. We span that whole area, from utterly dependent to virtually independent."
The growth in service that the association provides has been extensive over the years not only in serving those with developmental disabilities, but also in program development and the association's expansion, with help from donations and partnerships.
"Most of the growth has been in consultation with Community Living BC (CLBC) or the Ministry of Children and Family Development, on a service level. We also contract with the Vancouver Coastal Heath Authority and we've partnered with the business community. Our growth has been diverse," McClughan said.
Diversity also plays an important role when it comes to understanding developmental disabilities within the community.
"There is, of course, a broad scope of different types of developmental disabilities," he said. "But we're not too interested in the nature of the individual disability except where we need to know something about it to assist the person. That's not how we see our job. Our job is inclusion and including people in community. What we try to do is be a community within a community and model, if you will, for the broader community."
There has been some controversy surrounding a recent announcement of $8.9 million in government funding for CLBC, a Crown corporation contacting SCACL. Some have argued the funding is not enough and a bigger strategy is needed to prevent budget cuts from hurting families.
The issue, according to McClughan, has not affected SCACL.
"I'm glad new money has been found, but what this will translate to in terms of addressing needs of people as yet served, I have no idea what that's going to look like," he said.
"Where I see the need for growth is to decrease our dependence on government and to find new entrepreneurial ways to make money to provide service."
For more information on SCACL or to make a donation, see www.scacl.ca.
