Community effort ideas

Possibility thinking

One way to get people talking about positive aspects of their community is through “possibility thinking.”

You can suggest that people in the group identify community strengths that contribute to community well-being and success such as developing parks, services, or new businesses.

Remember, people bring their skills and experiences as assets for addressing the needs of community members. Listen for the skills people bring and highlight them for others. Assets can include both knowledge that people have about the community or community living resources.

Appreciative inquiry

If you have a more formal group working together to address disability issues, you might consider an appreciative inquiry activity.

For this activity, people pair up and face one another. One person is the interviewer and the other tells a story. The person telling a story talks about themselves or someone they know who is living with a disability in the community. The other person asks questions to learn as much as possible about the resources this individual uses for community living. After 5-7 minutes, the two switch roles.

When all pairs have finished, spend the next 20 minutes or so hearing a brief version of these community living stories. Have the interviewers relay the stories to help keep them brief. Based on these stories, spend another 10 minutes making a list of resources in the community that seem to work well for people.