What is Our Role in a Social Connectedness Movement?

At our symposium, Paddy Favazza of the Center for Social Development and Education at University of Massachusetts Boston raised the question of what participants roles could be in building our movement. She pointed out that being part of a movement means:

• examining every aspect of the society for inroads to change;
• observing all that is still and bringing about movement;
• having your hands on the pulse of a community so as to detect small change and use it to create larger change and momentum;
• using everything (all of our assets) to change both internal and external landscapes;
• being an impetus for movement within people, within systems in ways that are culturally meaningful and responsive

Social connectedness movements need to be about multi-level change. Movements happen within people (the development of children, moms, dads, teachers, store clerks, bus drivers) and within systems (hospitals and schools who begin registering children with disabilities; universities who add the disability content and experiences to university classes for teachers, health care workers; local ministers of education who provide classrooms and teachers for children with disabilities, religious organizations who work with families, governments who have an active response to the conventions such as the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Read Paddy Favazza’s What is Our Role in a Social Connectedness Movement?