As Sea to Sky Community Services Society (SSCSS) wraps up Community Living Month, members want to remind Squamish residents that equal rights for people with disabilities need to be considered every day of the year.
Every year, Community Living Month has a theme and in light of the March 11, 2010 declaration - when Canada ratified the United Nation convention on the rights of people with disabilities - this year's theme was "rights."
"This convention transformed a long legacy of discrimination and exclusion and turned it into a more hopeful future," said life skills and community access worker Aaron Purdie, who has worked for SSCSS for the past five years.
The community living services branch of SSCSS is dedicated to providing assistance to people living with disabilities and their families.
Community living services manager Donna Brent said that although people with disabilities have legal entitlement to the same rights as everyone else, there are many barriers for them to actually enjoy those rights.
"For example, some public services are not accessible: their language is too complex or their services simply don't match the needs of the person," she said.
"For this reason, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into force. This convention advocates for inclusive and accessible language, buildings, services and programs for people with disabilities."
Bringing it down to a more local level, she said, requires wheelchair accessible access on every side of a school.
To honour this year's theme, community living services held an essay-writing contest on the meaning of the United Nation convention.
Four Grade 7 students from Mamquam Elementary submitted essays on the importance of making sure schools are accessible and inclusive for anyone with a disability, and Purdie said the submissions were insightful and well thought out.
"They each wrote between a page and two-page essays that were extremely well thought out and well-written," he said. "The kids were just allowed to write on their thoughts and wrote about inclusion in their own schools."
The student essays were presented at the organization's annual community living potluck dinner, where the community living director also welcomed four new full-time and one new part-time community living members.
Although community living services focuses on Community Living Month, they run services for people with disabilities, their families and their friends throughout the year.
"We do support children and families from infancy until the end of their lives," said Purdie. "We offer banking help, cooking classes, employment support and anything else they require."
During Community Living Month, they went beyond their usual services and provided home cooked meals for Squamish Helping Hands Society and the supported family development program.
