Moving impact collectively
Power To Be has always valued working closely with our community. It has been a tremendous way to learn about emerging ideas and explore new ways to share resources, collaborate on standards, and identify positive opportunities for sectors to cross over. Our participants are part of a collective community, and when that community works together it means a richer and more responsive experience for our participants.
Through collaboration, we can reduce isolation and the need to compete for resources. One avenue that is surfacing is collaboratives being developed to tackle these issues and create a common purpose and goal. Power To Be has had the pleasure of being apart of the Victoria-based collaborative OneAbility, the Greater Victoria Collaborative for Adapted Sport and Physical Activity. OneAbility is a host that facilitates athletic and recreational opportunities for people across the age and disability spectrum. “OneAbility came about through recognizing that there were fantastic organizations, doing great work around sport and physical activity for individuals with disabilities, but they didn’t know about each other and were not working together. Bringing them to the table meant that the organizations could create more informed and coordinated programs and services; it created collaborations and communications across these organizations; and ultimately leads to a more robust program and service delivery model across the region for individuals with disabilities” says Andrea Carey of Inclusion Incorporated (co-founder of OneAbility). With over 25 member organizations within OneAbility, “it became clear that while the members share a common passion and commitment, there was often competition for scarce resources. OneAbility has served as a vehicle to bring groups together to better understand their shared and unique contributions, identify areas where there are gaps in services, and together to pursue opportunities to improve existing programs and services within the Greater Victoria region and address the need for more programming in this important area,” says Robin Syme of CanAssist (co-founder of OneAbility).
We have seen a phenomenal response from the community and feel encouraged to continue working with collectives and committees. It’s our way of respecting the history of our practices, honouring the great work of our ambassadors, and co-creating a new narrative around inclusion and connection.
*Special thanks goes to Doug Nutting, a pioneer in the inclusion movement, co-founder of OneAbility, and a legacy to be honoured after thirty years working in partnership to create long-lasting change for people with different abilities.
