There are a series of international and European Union documents and regulations involving topics such as community, community work, deinstitutionalization and social inclusion that are important to consider every time a new social inclusion themed project is being born. All of them can be found online and studied more extensively, by clicking on the titles below.
Below you can see the overview of the EU Strategies and Policies, and here you can access the full research paper.
European Disability Strategy 2010-2020: A Renewed Commitment to a Barrier-Free Europe
According to the UN Convention, people with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments, which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.
Key principles:
Some main areas of action suggested:
The European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 is fully in line with SIBREC's values, emphasizing the importance of people with disabilities to fully participate in community life, the right to choose the community where people would like to live and the way they would like to live. 'Economic and social participation' as important key-terms in the Strategy are connected with the terms 'smart', 'sustainable' and 'inclusive'.
In conclusion, communities focusing on sustainable living (like the ecovillage movement, green rehabilitation etc.) could offer new innovative and sustainable solutions for people who could move from institutional care to community care.
Key principles:
- Article 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU states that “Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected”
- Article 26 of the Charter states that “the EU recognizes and respects the right of persons with disabilities to benefit from measures designed to ensure their independence, social and occupational integration and participation in the life of the community”.
- Full economic and social participation of people with disabilities is essential if the EU’s Europe 2020 strategy is to succeed to creating smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
- Building a society that includes everyone also brings market opportunities and fosters innovation.
Some main areas of action suggested:
- Participation – the right to free movement, to choose where and how to live, and to have full access to cultural, recreational, and sports activities.
- EU Commission will work to promote the transition from institution to community–based care by: using Structural Funds and the Rural Development Fund to support the development of community-based services and raising awareness of the situation of people with disabilities living residential institutions.
- Employment – enable many more people with disabilities to earn their living on the open labour market. The Commission will step up its support for voluntary initiatives that promote diversity management at the workplace; the issue of self employment and quality jobs, including the involvement of the social partners.
- External action – promote the rights of people with disabilities in their external action, including neighbourhood and development programmes.
The European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 is fully in line with SIBREC's values, emphasizing the importance of people with disabilities to fully participate in community life, the right to choose the community where people would like to live and the way they would like to live. 'Economic and social participation' as important key-terms in the Strategy are connected with the terms 'smart', 'sustainable' and 'inclusive'.
In conclusion, communities focusing on sustainable living (like the ecovillage movement, green rehabilitation etc.) could offer new innovative and sustainable solutions for people who could move from institutional care to community care.
Common European guidelines on the transition from institutional to community-based care
The purpose of these guidelines is to help widen the spectrum of services that enable individuals with disabilities to live in communities, rather than specialised institutions. Supporting the emergence of more community-based solutions is a need in present society to really make social inclusion happen.
Key principles:
How to achieve community living:
How to develop services in a community:
The guidelines can be referred to when developing services, community-based approaches and social inclusion projects within organisations.
SIBREC supports the idea that people themselves and families should be actively involved in the design and the evaluation of services. SIBREC project members promote the idea that people from different communities and initiatives have experience, knowledge and everyday life solutions, which we have to share with each other, then develop further and find new, better solutions. Community is the best place where people bring together their expertise and develop best solutions for local citizens and community members with special needs.
Key principles:
- Deinstitutionalisation - refers to the process of developing a range of services in the community, including prevention, in order to eliminate the need for institutional care.
- Community-based services - services, which enable individuals to live in the community. It encompasses mainstream services, such as housing, healthcare, education, employment, culture and leisure, which should be accessible to everyone regardless of the nature of their impairment or the required level of support.
- Independent living
How to achieve community living:
- Ensure that champions for community living are involved in leading change.
- Make the needs and preferences of people central to planning.
- Respect the experiences and roles of families.
- Create a real home and personalised support for each individual.
- Focus on achieving quality services and ensuring people can lead their own lives safely.
- Recruit and develop skilled personnel.
- Engage a broad partnership in delivering change.
- Establish a clear plan and timescale for creating the community services necessary to make each institution redundant.
- Invest in communicating all this effectively to everyone affected, including the communities to which people are moving.
- Support each person in their transition to community living.
How to develop services in a community:
- Full participation in the community - develop services that will remove barriers to participation and ensure access to mainstream services.
- Choice and control - provide access to information, advice and advocacy for people to be able to make informed choices about the support and, if relevant, the treatment they want.
- Person-centred and child-centred support - put the needs and preferences of the person and the child at the centre and tailor the support to their individual situation, offering the freedom of personal choices. This means that users and families should also be actively involved in the design and the evaluation of services.
- Continuity of service delivery - provide support for the duration of the need and amend in accordance with the changing needs and preferences of the users.
- Separation of housing and support - support should follow the person wherever they live; even high levels of support can be provided in ordinary housing. This will ensure that individuals will not lose their support should they decide to change their living arrangements.
- Dispersed over campus/cluster-style housing - dispersed housing has been shown to provide better quality outcomes for its inhabitants.
The guidelines can be referred to when developing services, community-based approaches and social inclusion projects within organisations.
SIBREC supports the idea that people themselves and families should be actively involved in the design and the evaluation of services. SIBREC project members promote the idea that people from different communities and initiatives have experience, knowledge and everyday life solutions, which we have to share with each other, then develop further and find new, better solutions. Community is the best place where people bring together their expertise and develop best solutions for local citizens and community members with special needs.
The common guidelines for the transition from institutional care to community-based care
The common guidelines provide practical advice on how to carry out various welfare arrangements, and how to promote flexible transition from institutional care to family care for children who live currently in closed institutions.
Key principles:
SIBREC is of the opinion that community solutions offer better quality of life and development of the person, also better emotional well-being if people are (re)integrated into the community life and network.
Key principles:
- Evidence has shown that institutional care offers in general a lower quality of life than community-based quality services.
- Cooperation with the community and between authorities is crucial and an integral part of the deinstitutionalisation process.
- In cases when the child has been separated from its family and is placed in alternative care, its possible reintegration should be prioritised over all other measures.
- For a better local coherence, community authorities should take into account that the decision of the community can be confrontational, and they must be well prepared and ready to describe exactly what is planned and why this decision is beneficial for everyone, especially those of citizens' rights and interests by the process concerns.
- Childcare placement should remain an exception.
SIBREC is of the opinion that community solutions offer better quality of life and development of the person, also better emotional well-being if people are (re)integrated into the community life and network.
Council of Europe Disability Action Plan 2006-2015
The key objective of the Disability Action Plan is to serve as a practical tool to develop and implement viable strategies to bring about full participation of people with disabilities in political, public and cultural life, education, information and communication, employment and accessibility of the built environment and transport. It also draws attention to the needs of women and children with disabilities and severely disabled people in need of a high level of support.
Key points and objectives:
The SIBREC project and the Disability Action Plan share most of these objectives.
Key points and objectives:
- Find opportunities to support and create healthy lifestyles, safer environments, rehabilitation and supportive communities.
- Fight against discrimination, to involve people with disabilities in decision-making and social life, by developing environment, transport, health care, legal protection, the availability and quality of information and culture.
- Community life, rehabilitation and deinstitutionalisation.
- The environment for working and living should be suitable for everyone, so also disabled persons could enjoy life like everyone else.
- Rehabilitation should include services for health, education, housing, vocational training.
- Research and raising awareness, to find new ideas and good practices, to share and develop them.
- Raising awareness and tolerance in every society in Europe about different disabilities and special needs.
The SIBREC project and the Disability Action Plan share most of these objectives.
An EU Agenda for the Rights of the Child
The document stipulates that children must have a right to participate in decisions that affect them. Children's participation needs to be supported in communities, the goal being the development of more child-friendly communities.
Main principles:
Main principles:
- Child-friendly justice: the right to a fair trial for children who are subject to criminal proceedings implies the protection of privacy, the right to be informed about the charges and the proceedings in a way which is adapted to the child’s age and maturity, offering appropriate legal assistance and legal representation.
- Child participation and awareness raising
Commission recommendation of 20 February 2013: Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage
The document stresses the importance of tackling disadvantage in early years as a means of stepping up efforts to address poverty and social exclusion in general.
Key points and principles:
Key points and principles:
- Create an inclusive learning environment - by strengthening the link between schools and parents, and provide if necessary personalised support to compensate for specific disadvantages, through, for instance, trainings for parents of migrant and ethnic minority children.
- Provide children with a safe, adequate housing and living environment - Allow children to live and grow up in a safe, healthy and child-friendly environment that supports their development and learning needs.
- Enhance family support and the quality of alternative care settings - Strengthen child protection and social services in the field of prevention; help families develop parenting skills in a non-stigmatising way, whilst ensuring that children removed from parental care grow up in an environment that meets their needs.
- Stop the expansion of institutional care settings for children without parental care - promote quality, community-based care and foster care within family settings instead, where children’s voice is given due consideration.
- Support the participation of all children in play, recreation, sport and cultural activities - acknowledge the influence children have over their own well-being and their resilience in overcoming adverse situations, in particular by providing opportunities to participate in informal learning activities that take place outside the home and after regular school hours.
De-institutionalisation and Quality Alternative Care for Children in Europe. Lessons learned and the way forward. Working paper
The document stipulates that it is a duty of public authorities to ensure access for children to family and community-based alternative care. Whenever separation from the parents is in the best interest of the child, an accurate evaluation must be carried out to identify appropriate solutions. The key principle is deinstitutionalisation.
Core recommendations:
Core recommendations:
- Make deinstitutionalisation a priority and develop national strategies in consultation with civil society organisations, establishing clear and comprehensive action plans, including timelines, roles and responsibilities to be respected by the current/upcoming Government.
- Develop clear indicators and standards to measure the quality of alternative care, including guidelines regarding community-based services (e.g. number of residents, resident ratio, etc.) to ensure quality of the reform and achieve its ultimate goal – full social inclusion.
Making community-based services a reality - Roadmap on deinstitutionalization
EASPD is the European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities. Its main objective is to put forward the rights of persons with disabilities by promoting the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) through effective and high quality services. The key principles are inclusion, participation and community living.
Key recommendations:
Key recommendations:
- Persons with disabilities, their representatives and their families should be involved in an effective and structured way in all decision making processes concerning deinstitutionalization and the development of services and safeguard mechanisms.
- Individuals with a disability should be at the centre of the process of assessment, planning and service delivery regarding their lives and should be supported to take this role. Moreover self-advocacy provisions along with independent advocacy movements should be supported and established.
- Other stakeholders, such as mainstream social support providers, trade unions and relevant authorities, should be involved and actively seek cooperation with persons with disabilities respecting their leading role.
- People with intensive support needs and/or people from minority communities must be taken specifically into account when new services are planned, so that their needs are considered with the same urgency and priority as others who are making the transition.
- People with disabilities should be supported to achieve full citizenship and enjoy their rights as citizens to the full. Education and awareness-raising campaigns to this extent should be promoted.
Access City Award 2015. Examples of best practice for making EU cities more accessible
The Access City Award scheme was launched in 2010 to promote accessibility in the urban environment for Europe’s growing population of older people and people with disabilities. The award scheme helps to highlight examples of innovative thinking and best practice which can inspire other cities, perhaps facing similar challenges.
The winning city in 2015 was Borås in Sweden and second place went to Helsinki, Finland.
Key principles:
The winning city in 2015 was Borås in Sweden and second place went to Helsinki, Finland.
Key principles:
- Research and evidence based conceptual framework - proven and knowledge based universal design is used to help include every person in the community.
- Integration and acceptance in the mainstream society - accessibility and inclusion in the society helps to grow past the idea that disability defines a person. When inclusion of everyone becomes the norm, people are defined and described by their skills and interests. The principles of inclusion and acceptance must become increasingly more acknowledged in business, politics and in the physical environment of the community. Things are done right from the start, not fixed later – this is an important principle.
- Living and working together (community) - barriers are removed so that everyone can access the community and be part of it. This also means that they can contribute to the society and feel fulfilled.
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The purpose of the present Convention is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
Key principles:
Some other key points:
According to SIBREC's point of view and as the Convention empfasizes, disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. It means that through inclusion to the community life we could decrease the persons experience of exclusion and disability.
Key principles:
- Reaffirming the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and the need for persons with disabilities to be guaranteed their full enjoyment without discrimination.
- Recognizing that disability is an evolving concept and that disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.
- Recognizing the importance for persons with disabilities of their individual autonomy and independence, including the freedom to make their own choices.
- Considering that persons with disabilities should have the opportunity to be actively involved in decision-making processes about policies and programmes, including those directly concerning them.
- Recognizing the valued existing and potential contributions made by persons with disabilities to the overall well-being and diversity of their communities, and that the promotion of the full enjoyment by persons with disabilities of their human rights and fundamental freedoms and of full participation by persons with disabilities will result in their enhanced sense of belonging and in significant advances in the human, social and economic development of society and the eradication of poverty.
- Recognizing the importance of accessibility to the physical, social, economic and cultural environment, to health and education and to information and communication, in enabling persons with disabilities to fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Some other key points:
- Recognize the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and take effective and appropriate measures to facilitate full enjoyment by persons with disabilities of this right and their full inclusion and participation in the community.
- Organize, strengthen and extend comprehensive habilitation and rehabilitation services and programmes (particularly in the areas of health, employment, education and social services).
- Recognize the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families and take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right without discrimination on the basis of disability.
- Recognize the right of persons with disabilities to take part on an equal basis with others in cultural life and take all steps to make it happen.
According to SIBREC's point of view and as the Convention empfasizes, disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. It means that through inclusion to the community life we could decrease the persons experience of exclusion and disability.
The right of people with disabilities to live independently and be included in the community
The right to live independently and to be included in the community stems from some of the most fundamental human rights standards, both within the Council of Europe and United Nations systems.
Ensure the following:
Key principles:
Guidelines:
From SIBREC's perspective, choice, individualised support and making services for the general public accessible to people with disabilities as important key-terms in the right to live independently and to be included in the community are connected with the terms “smart”, “sustainable” and “inclusive”. So, communities, which focus on sustainable living (like eco-village movement, green rehabilitation etc.) could offer new innovative and sustainable solutions for people who could move from institutional care to community care.
Ensure the following:
- Persons with disabilities have the opportunity to choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement.
- Persons with disabilities have access to a range of in-home, residential and other community support services, including personal assistance necessary to support living and inclusion in the community, and to prevent isolation or segregation from the community.
- Community services and facilities for the general population are available on an equal basis to persons with disabilities and are responsive to their needs.
Key principles:
- respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own choices, and independence of persons
- non-discrimination
- full and effective participation and inclusion in society
- respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity
- equality of opportunity
- accessibility of general services
Guidelines:
- Choice - Includes giving a person the opportunity to weigh in on how alternatives are shaped.
- Individualised support services - Right for people with disabilities to have access to various services.
- Inclusive community services - States should ensure that community services and facilities for the general population are available on an equal basis to people with disabilities and are responsive to their needs.
- Isolation within the community - Should be avoided at all costs.
From SIBREC's perspective, choice, individualised support and making services for the general public accessible to people with disabilities as important key-terms in the right to live independently and to be included in the community are connected with the terms “smart”, “sustainable” and “inclusive”. So, communities, which focus on sustainable living (like eco-village movement, green rehabilitation etc.) could offer new innovative and sustainable solutions for people who could move from institutional care to community care.
DISCIT – Making Persons with Disabilities Full Citizens – New Knowledge for an Inclusive and Sustainable European Social Model. Transitions from institutions to community living in Europe
During the last decade, there have been considerable policy developments in order to support people with disabilities.
In most countries people with psychological disabilities were considered to receive the poorest support, in addition, older people and women were achieving lower levels of participation, and sometimes poorer services.
Change in societal attitudes towards people with disabilities was primarily attributed to people with disabilities being more visible in the society, especially in the areas of education and employment.
Integrating people into communities is important to improve their quality of life (privacy, material conditions, size of people’s social networks).
Key principles and recommendations:
From SIBREC's perspective, the main goal of the community is to integrate their users into community living and so make them actively participate in it. Furthermore, the users are going to participate on both an economic level (through work) and a social level that benefits their own development and interaction with others.
In most countries people with psychological disabilities were considered to receive the poorest support, in addition, older people and women were achieving lower levels of participation, and sometimes poorer services.
Change in societal attitudes towards people with disabilities was primarily attributed to people with disabilities being more visible in the society, especially in the areas of education and employment.
Integrating people into communities is important to improve their quality of life (privacy, material conditions, size of people’s social networks).
Key principles and recommendations:
- supporting deinstitutionalisation
- promoting the development of inclusive communities for all people with disabilities
- promoting full active citizenship in the form of participation around the home and in the community – in household, leisure, social and work related opportunities
From SIBREC's perspective, the main goal of the community is to integrate their users into community living and so make them actively participate in it. Furthermore, the users are going to participate on both an economic level (through work) and a social level that benefits their own development and interaction with others.
© Cover photo by Sergey Lutchenko.