Director's welcome
Social participation is a basic human right. Social exclusion for any reason robs the individual of the opportunities to maximise their potential as members of society; it reduces the richness of society in the process. I think of society as a huge jig saw/ mosiac – the picture is only complete when you include all the pieces. Every person - with all our differences – livens and colours the mosaic.
It is not so long ago we ‘hid’ people who had intellectual disability, mental illness or who were seen as senile away in great big, cold looking buildings. We have come a long way in appreciating the need for physical/ environmental integration, but we still have much further to go. For example, we need to understand the experiences of people who feel, or are excluded from social participation; how have people moved from ‘exclusion’ to ‘participation’. Research is required to inform policy and practice in relation to what employment, education and health care models sustain social participation; is there a real difference between ‘inclusion’ and ‘participation’? Indeed, we still need to explore concepts and definitional language used in relation to ‘social participation’, ‘social capital’ and ‘social inclusion’ and reach some consensus if we are to speak and research in a common language.
The power of interdisciplinary research will be realised by the ISP and the outcomes will enable socially inclusive policy and practice; the voices of people who have experienced social exclusion will be vital to the success of our work.
It would be great to develop a huge research volunteer group – so we want to hear from you if you have experienced social exclusion because of age, deafness, intellectual or physical disability.
I am excited and honoured to be the Foundation Director of ISP!
