REFLECTIONS ON THE ‘GOOD LIFE’ Paige Reeves, Senior Leader of Research & Social Innovation
Rebecca Rubuliak, Senior Leader of Continuous Improvement & Innovation
Hopes for this article In writing this piece we grappled with a tricky tension - trying to strike a balance between sharing big and lofty ideas and offering practical examples and tangible ways those ideas show up in all our everyday lives. This is a tension we are continuously exploring as we strive to honour our commitment to bridging the gap between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’. While we believe creating space for exploring big ideas, dreaming, and imagining new possibilities is important work, we also recognize many in our Skills community are looking to us for ways to make life better in the here and now. Here we try to offer a bit of both. Reading this article we hope it might make space for you to:
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Pause and think Shake some assumptions loose Learn something new Reflect on the way you currently do things and see some new practices you might incorporate moving forward Come away with more curiosity to explore further what the ‘good life’ means
Who defines the ‘good life’? “What does it mean to define…the good life for [people with disabilities], and more importantly, who should be defining it?” - Carson, 2010 [1] Before we dive in, we wanted to pause and acknowledge that there isn’t one definition of the ‘good life’. Defining things like the ‘good life’ is complex and nuanced which means we should be careful not to look for ‘silver bullet solutions’ or ‘one size fits all’ definitions. What we can do though, is look for patterns and principles across people and ideas that help us understand some ‘key ingredients’ that most everyone agrees are things that make life good. Within these ‘key ingredients’ though, there is lots of room for personalization for individuals to say how they want their life to look. It is also important to acknowledge that for many years, people with disabilities were forced to live in institutions away from family and community, and it was often the medical system that told people what a good life was. This left out the voices of people with disabilities, and since the 1970s, people with disabilities, families, and allies have fought to challenge limiting assumptions in all systems of care. Today, it is recognized that a ‘good life’ is defined and shaped by the person living it. Though we know of some key ingredients that make for a good life - as discussed in the next section - the ‘good life’ is different for each person. It is important to ask people with disabilities themselves what they want and envision for their lives. (Some) key ingredients of the ‘good life’ If supporting the ‘good life’ is at the core of our work at Skills Society, then it is important we continue to take the time (as others before us have done) to always be learning about what the ‘good life’ means to people, how it shows up in people’s lives, and what patterns and principles support it. In this continuous learning journey we can, and have looked to many diverse perspectives including - people with disabilities we serve; the many leaders within Skills’ history who have worked tirelessly to advocate for people to have good lives; Indigenous leaders and Knowledge Keepers; research that captures the experiences of people with disabilities on a larger scale; and philosophers and other big thinkers inside and outside the disability sector. There are a lot of rich insights out there on the ‘good life’ - recognizing we couldn’t possibly capture everything, here we offer a small sample of diverse perspectives.
