Community-based%20Mapping:%20Improving%20Self-Employment%20Opportunities%20for%20Persons%20with%20Disabilities

1
Community-based Mapping Improving
Self-Employment Opportunities for Persons with
Disabilities

• Nelson, British Columbia
• June 29, 2005

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Presentation Organization

• Introductions
• Defining Disability Issues
• Introduction to Community-based Mapping
• Community-based Mapping as a Tool Useful in
  Improving Self-employment Opportunities for the
  Differently-abled
• How community-based mapping can be used to map
  for clients?
• How community-based mapping can be used to make
  maps with clients?

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Defining Disability

• World Health Organization
• The relationship between body structures and
  functions, daily activities and social
  participation, while recognizing the role of
  environmental factors.

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Defining Disability

• Statistics Canada
• Those who reported difficulties with daily
  living activities, or those who indicated that a
  physical, mental condition or health problem
  reduced the kind or amount of activities they
  could do.

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12.4 of Canadians Live with One or More
Disabilities
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14 0f British Columbians Live with One or More
Disabilities
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Prevalence of Disabilities in Canada
Type of Disability Number of Adults Percentage of Adults
Hearing 1,038,140 4.4
Seeing 594,350 2.5
Speech 362,720 1.5
Mobility 2,451,570 10.5
Agility 2,276,980 9.7
Pain 2,376,730 10.1
Learning 451,420 1.9
Memory 420,750 1.8
Developmental 120,140 0.5
Psychological 522,950 2.2
Unknown 96,180 0.4
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The Second Part of the Equation Employment

• Adults aged 15 to 64 with disabilities have an
  average annual income of 23,578
• Average annual income for men 28,141
• Average annual income for women 19,415
• Disabled Canadians have lower levels of education
• 37 have less than a High School education,
• 11 of Canadians have University degrees
• Employment rate of disabled Canadians 45 for
  men and 39 for women

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Self-employment is a Growing Option in the
Canadian Economy

• The number of self-employed Canadians increased
  from 1.2 million in 1976 to 2.4 million in 2004
• Nearly 1 in 6 working Canadians are
  self-employed.

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The Attraction of Self-employment for Persons
with Disabilities

• Can work in familiar home environment
• Can maintain access to medications and other
  support
• Can work at own pace
• Daily commute not required
• Movement in crowded, inaccessible, or dangerous
  urban environments not required

• Can utilize computers, internet and cell phones
  to maintain communications
• Does not require expense of vehicle ownership
• Growing service economy has created many new
  employment categories that do not require taxing
  movement or exertion.

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The Challenge!

1. To clearly identify that self-employment
   represents a major potential avenue of quality of
   life improvement for the differently-abled.
2. To devise and implement public- and
   corporate-policy that supports a practical range
   of education, training, technical support,
   loan-support and related approaches to
   self-employment for the disabled.
3. To create mechanisms that enable disabled clients
   of self-employment support services to guide the
   manner in which programs are designed, operated
   and funded.

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What is Community-based Mapping?

• Maps made in the community, by the community
• Representation of a mix of technical and
  local knowledge
• Images that include spatial and descriptive
  informationmaps that tell stories
• Living documents that can be changed and adapted
  as knowledge changes
• A tool of institutional change and individual
  empowerment.

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Community-based Mapping Is

• Large format images that can be made with
  scissors and glueor digitally with GIS
• Maps with teeth that help focus discussion,
  policy-making processes, or political action
• A process that produces useful maps and
  individual and community empowerment.

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Where is Community-based Mapping being used?

• Community associations
• Aboriginal/indigenous communities
• Urban and rural youth groups
• Community and regional planning schools
• NGOs working in Canada and overseas
• Environmental groups
• Etc

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How Might Community-based Mapping Improve
Self-employment Opportunities for the Disabled?

• Adds important new tool to communicate issues
  important to disability communitya visual
  language
• Government agencies will not make the type of
  maps that represent your world or your issues
• Can help to identify bottlenecks in current
  networks and systems
• Can assist in identifying possible organizational
  and financial efficiencies
• Builds links between service providers, service
  consumers, and wider community.

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Two Proposed Approaches to Self-Employment
Opportunity Mapping

1. Maps made internally to assist in the development
   of planning, policy making, or service delivery
   strategies
2. Maps made with the differently-abled that assist
   in healing, better understanding of client needs,
   or as a means of building trusting relationships.

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Mapping Approach 1 Making Maps for Internally
for Planning, Policy Making, Outreach, etc.

• Demographics
• Dedicated Services
• Ancillary Service Providers
• Transportation Networks
• Housing
• Service Effectiveness Tracking
• Etc

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Sample Map 1 Demographics

• Municipal boundaries
• City Hall locations
• Population trends
• Low, middle, high income areas
• Age/sex distribution graphs
• Income, education, employment level graphs
• Numbers and geographic distribution of persons
  with disabilities.

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Sample Map 2 Dedicated Service Delivery Sites
for the Disabled

• Locate key dedicated care delivery sites
• Multi-service agencies,
• Satellite clinics,
• Etc.
• Service area boundaries
• Staffing levels, budgets, case loads,
  in-out-patient ratios, waiting lists, etc. for
  each site
• Key issues of challenge and opportunity
• Etc

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Sample Map 3 Ancillary Support Service Providers

• Medical professionals
• NGO-based services
• Assisted living facilities
• Youth services
• Elders services
• Womens services
• Mobility services
• Pain management services

• Educational services
• Business development services
• Aboriginal services
• Summary descriptions of each ancillary support
  category
• Trends in client load
• Years in service
• Etc

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Sample Map 4 Housing

• SRO hotels
• Rooming houses
• Group supported-living homes
• Areas of client concentration (confidentiality
  protected!)
• Trends in housing and rental prices
• Trends in housing support programs
• Etc

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Sample Map 5 Transportation Network

• Bus stations
• Bus routes
• Transit bus routes
• Transit bus stops
• Taxi stands
• Taxi phones
• Rapid transit stations
• Handy-Dart service area

• Distance matrix
• Fee matrix
• Frequently called numbers
• Photos of busses, etc.
• Service hours matrix
• Etc

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Sample Map 6 Service Delivery Trend Tracking

• Locate key service delivery sites
• Link text box to each site that compares past
  and current levels of
• Employment,
• Budget,
• Case load to staff ratio,
• Case load to budget ratio,
• Etc

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Mapping Approach 2 Making Maps With Clients

• Special place mapping
• Community living infrastructure mapping
• Personal activity pattern mapping (daily, weekly,
  seasonal)
• Like and Dislike mapping
• Support service inventory mapping
• Etc

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Other Maps That Could be Made

• Safe and unsafe areas
• Areas inaccessible to wheelchairs
• Recreation services
• ?????

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Whats Next?

• Lets make some maps!!