Because of the massive impact people in these communities have had on me, I feel called to drive awareness around consistently thinking about people with special needs and/or disabilities. How can we be more conscious and mindful of them? And not just every now and then to check a box or feel good about ourselves. On an individual level, we can fall into this ‘check a box’ trap by going to that one event per year, participating in something like an ice bucket challenge, posting it on our social media, and moving on. Schools can do this by allowing a student to score a basket in the big game or voting him or her to be Prom King or Queen, with no consistent plan to make that person feel included. Companies can do this with that one big fundraiser that everyone posts about, or the fancy Gala that shows “we did it!”
And look, I’m all for any measure taken to shine a light on people with disabilities, create one of those memorable positive moments, or putting on that once/year event as a company to support. All of that is awesome. If your company does one event per year, raises some money, and everyone in the organization posts about it online, that is NOT a bad thing (duh). The posting part is just the world we live in, and doing something for people in these communities is amazing. Way better than nothing in my opinion 🙂
On a personal level, I also understand that you have your own lives going on! My mission is to inspire you to take action to be more involved and support people in these communities, not drop everything in your life to become a full-time advocate.
With that being said, the area of opportunity is growing beyond just that “once a year” or “every now and then” to consider how we can include and support these people consistently. So, how do we improve and fix this problem to become more consistent in our efforts? It starts with one purpose-driven person at a time, as does solving any large problem.
Think about the other purposes in your life that drive your daily actions. Maybe it’s financial security, the well-being of your family, your health, your faith, etc. It could be a number of things, but let’s take family for example. One of your core driving purposes in life may be to support, provide for, love, and grow your family. Beautiful if you ask me, and that is one of my purposes and drivers behind why I do what I do each day, too. Now, could you imagine hearing me say as I reflect on the last year, “well I’m glad we held that Gala at (shared company workspace) to support the Stevens family. Look forward to seeing them again next year— we raised $275k for them! Job well done.” Of course not. So, I believe that we should not view the contribution elements of our life in that way, either.
I view it as a purpose in my life to support these communities because I was fortunate enough to be born with a typically-functioning brain and body. I didn’t do anything to earn that, God blessed me with it and I believe that it is not okay to take that for granted. My hope through sharing what I believe is that you’ll be inspired to adopt that same mindset as a purpose of yours. So, how do we fix the consistency problem? That’s how. If you feel compelled enough to make it part of your purpose in life, you’ll find a way to start showing up for these people consistently.
