OCCP3201: Community Development and Disability

People with and without disability can take collective action to help build liveable, sustainable, and equitable communities. In these healthy communities, people with disability participate in decisions that affect their lives, they have the same life-opportunities as other people, and they know they will be treated fairly and with respect. Disability inclusive community development challenges discrimination and exclusion whilst promoting recognition of people with disability as fully contributing and responsible citizens. The unit will employ an interactive learning approach focusing on real-world problems as the vehicle for significant multidisciplinary learning about disability-inclusive and sustainable community development. We will identify factors that perpetuate inequity for people with disability, examine why these factors endure even when evidence shows they have adverse effects, and appraise how these factors inform contemporary policies, programs, and services. We will explore how grassroots community development strategies and their accompanying modes of working in partnership with communities can be used to influence change. By learning about the values, standards, and practices of community development such as community capacity development, policy, and advocacy, we will develop new ways of working that (re)shape opportunities to build inclusive and sustainable communities. Students will tailor their own community development toolkit that capitalises on strengths-based facilitators of community inclusion matched to their personal framework for doing community development. Finally, students will apply their toolkit to the design of a community development initiative that advances individual and collaborative change processes.