It has been a very hectic couple of months. I have had so much going on, starting with the Western Canadian Conference on Leadership for Inclusive Education in Regina last month. It was an incredible weekend of learning, inspiration, and networking (afforded to me by GRIT) topped off with some quality time with my MomJ just what a girl needs sometimes! She stayed with me at my hotel,spoiled me and made Carson a new, black walking harness that doesn’t look like lederhosen!
Following the conference in Regina I had some great conversations with the Principal of our school. He challenged me with great questions and I think I may have challenged him a bit too. We agreed to work together because we want the same thing, a full school that delivers great education to all students. We are so fortunate to have a first year Principal who is a tremendous leader! He is kind, enthusiastic, and open-minded and one thing I respect about him is his collaborative, transparent decision-making, it is nice to feel worthy of valuable education information that affects our children.
One of the many great points I took away from the Regina conference is that inclusion is not a “special education program”, inclusion is for everyone. If we keep advocating for only the inclusion of children with disabilities, inclusion will be viewed as a special education issue. Oddly enough, my next great opportunity to model inclusion in the community and school was just three doors down, Habitat for Humanity is building 48 condo units for families with at least 2 children!
A couple of years ago I was opposed to Habitat for Humanity building all of these condo units in my neighborhood. With good reason I might add, there are a lot of people crammed into this particular part of Edmonton. I felt it could be considered elsewhere in all fairness. Alas, our communities loud and strong voice was ignored and well….they’re here! Large portions of the people in our neighborhood are not very happy about their arrival. Many people are discriminating against the families on an economical basis. Truth be told, given the age of our neighborhood and the cost of housing here at the time of it’s conception, I would be surprised if some of the families complaining don’t make less than the maximum H4H income which is a $54,000.00.
I am not mad at the families that are moving into this community within our community (as it’s been called). I was opposed to aspects of the build related to population density. That fight is lost and it is behind me. My children are excited about the fact that there will be at least (according to the CEO of H4H) 100 children moving in a few doors down! It has been impressive to watch the volunteerism; everybody is working very hard to have 6 families moved in before Christmas. I volunteered to represent our Parent Support Association and extend a welcome to our school and as a neighbor, to our community. I attended a community league meeting and read a letter requesting a representative from the community league to partner with our school in welcoming the new families to our community. Having a community within our community would be awkward…
At the beginning of the month our Principal invited Dave Colburn, School Board Trustee/Board Chair, Mark Ligouri the Assistant Superintendent, Alfred Nikolai ,President & CEO of H4H as well as Armand Mercier Director of Family Services for H4H, a local church representative, and our community league representatives as guests to our school council meeting, in order for us to discuss learn more about H4H and how we can help, as a community, to ensure the families feel welcome…..after all, inclusion is for everyone!!!
A mother from our school who works at the public library had cloth bags donated with information about the local library programs; our school together with members of our community league, have filled the bags with t-shirts, school supplies, and information about our school and the community. Today a small group of us got together at the school and baked dozens and dozens of cookies in order to give each family a tin of baking.
This Saturday 6 of the 48 families will be given the keys to their new homes and we will be attending a welcoming ceremony that will be hosted in our school gymnasium. I feel fantastic about how our school and community has pulled together to help embrace these families!
This what inclusion is all about!!!
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