"I think we should always be working to put ourselves out of work." - Michelle Palmer, Executive Director, Community Living London
It started with an announcement at her high school. A family was looking for someone to take a part-time job: greet their son, who had a disability, when he came home from his day program each afternoon, and stay with him until his parents got home from work.
Michelle Palmer knew nothing about the work, but it sounded interesting. Once she started, she realized it was a career she definitely wanted. She went on to college for the Developmental Services Worker program, and she has been doing the work ever since. Today, she is executive director of Community Living London.
Built by Families
Community Living London's story also began with families looking for help. It was founded in 1952 by families "looking desperately for supports for their child who had a disability," at a time when nothing was available in the community.
More than 70 years later, the organization helps people with developmental disabilities build lives outside the family home. It provides residential supports, employment supports, day activities, respite, and family support to more than 1,000 people in London every year.
More Than a Seat at the Table
For Michelle, the work of inclusion "will never end," and it starts with understanding what the word actually means.
"Inclusion isn't just letting somebody with a disability join the group," she says. Too often, organizations point to a single person as proof they're inclusive: "We've got one person, you know, representing this group as part of the group. That's not inclusion." True inclusion goes further. "Inclusion is welcoming that person, involving that person, engaging that person the same way we do everybody else at the table. That's true inclusion."
And inclusion, she adds, isn't only about disability. It means embracing all of our differences, talents, abilities, and needs. People with disabilities "have so much to offer, so much to bring, so many different views of the world that others may not possess." That awareness and knowledge, Michelle says, "is helpful for everybody, no matter who you are in our community."
Keeping Disability on the Map
Community Living London has likely been part of Pillar Nonprofit Network (Pillar) since its early days, when a network focused on the nonprofit sector "seemed like a really good fit."
For Michelle, one of Pillar's most important contributions is simply remembering. "Disability oftentimes drops off the discussion map," she says. Conversations turn to children, youth, and other priorities, and the disability component gets forgotten. "And Pillar has never forgotten that."
In return, Community Living London helps educate other members about the importance of inclusion and of the people it supports.
Champions, Not a Cost
The hardest part of the work right now, Michelle says, is getting the right kind of government attention. Government, in her view, often sees nonprofits as simply taking money. What it misses is that "we're fostering champions in our community, and those champions in our community are also taxpayers."
The people Community Living London supports are contributors. "Every single person that we support residentially pays rent in our community. They all pay taxes in our community. They all buy groceries in our community."
That is why Michelle values a collective voice for the sector. "Our voice as a collective is much stronger than each individual organization with each individual mandate," she says. "That's power."
Stay Strong, Stay Together
Michelle's message to the network is short: "Stay strong and stay together. We will survive." Every organization has its own mandate, but "we're not in competition. We need to support each other and we need to speak as a collective voice."
Her long-term dream is a world where nonprofits aren't needed at all, "because society as a whole embraces every human being who's part of society." Until then, she hopes the community becomes more inclusive every day, with Pillar helping to share "the voices, the stories, and the power of the work that nonprofits do."
"Is that realistic? Not likely. Not in our lifetimes," she says. "But I think we should always be working to put ourselves out of work."
Learn more about Community Living London: https://www.cll.on.ca