Asking me to write about inclusion is like asking me to write about breathing.  Inclusion is fundamental to living. Isn’t it!

It’s normal for us humans to embrace others with a friendly smile, a hello, hug, handshake or wave – people you encounter everyday in

Photographer Melissa Cross for Empower Housing Association

your family, your community, on the bus, at the shops, at your school/college/work, or passing as you walk along the pavement.

Are you going to differentiate those you choose to acknowledge determined by the colour of their eyes, their skin or age, ability or disability, letters after their name, or size?

Have you ever experienced being isolated?  Being invisible?  Feeling out of place?  Not included, not belonging? 

I’ve certainly been there and with the knowledge of myself that I now have, I try to avoid those situations that I find so difficult.  Living life as an introvert can be incredibly lonely.

At 18 I spent one week in a bedsit in London in the winter.  I was there to do a particular project with a homeless charity so I was gainfully employed during the daytime but in the evening I went back to ‘nothingness’.  No embrace, no one to chat to about my day, no person in that block of flats that I knew.  I found it traumatizing, and I was only there for one week.  I have never been happier to see my then boyfriend Malcolm!  As a young adult I found college incredibly difficult and found some innovative albeit not advisable ways to survive.  Again Malcolm, my soon to be husband and lifelong partner, was my mainstay.  He was there for me and somehow with his support I muddled through for three whole years.

Imagine spending your whole life on the fringe of society.  A whole life where you become accustomed to being ignored, so accustomed that you accept that you are invisible.  Over time it’s difficult to imagine that you could do anything other than recoil into yourself, become increasingly reclusive and socially isolated.  Countless thousands in our society are condemned to living in this way; their crime being to have learning disabilities or mental health needs, with many not even recognized by the system. If we too choose to ignore them we are condoning the system.

Most of us have choice.  We can choose how to behave, whether or not to be inclusive.  We can choose to be too busy!  Inclusion and citizenship is a lifestyle.

As Jon Alexander rightly claims – only by thinking and organising as citizens can we tackle the extreme problems we face today. But citizenship is also the answer to a much older question – what should we want for those we love? ❤️

With firsthand knowledge from my voluntary work over many years, from Jen and DanceSyndrome I can vouch for this state of being to be life affirming, joyous!

But ironically for those most impacted, those who don’t have a voice, or those who have been disenfranchised and marginalized; embedding inclusion in their lives themselves is not an option.  Living on the edge of society they are often not even seen.  We’re so conditioned to being ‘blind’ we trip over the homeless in the street and fail to recognize people struggling to exist, who incidentally are everywhere – in education, taxis, minibuses, activity centres, day centres, cafes, and going about their daily lives as best they can with or without the support we as a civil society could offer should we choose.

As individuals we can offer a helping hand should we choose inclusion is fundamental to living.

Questions I believe each one of us must search our consciences to answer:

• Is there a line in the sand called INCLUSION?
• What determines the line?
• Who controls the line?
• Do you see the line?
• Can you respect the line and abide by its rules?
• Or do you choose to ignore it all together?

I’d welcome your thoughts and continued conversation in a comment below, or a message. For us, the Blackwells, inclusion is how we live. We now know that’s not the case for everyone, but we believe in the possibility that it can be at the heart of everything we do in society.

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We want to share joy, passion, hope, positivity, knowledge gleaned, not ‘in spite of’, but rather ‘because of’ 42 years turning perceived norms upside down!

We’re available to inspire, speak, challenge people to think differently with innovative thought provoking presentations and contributions to events, conferences and training courses – examples of recent speaking events here: https://blackwells.biz/speaking/

If you’re ready to hear more about the art of the possible in an inclusive society contact us.