BUILDING A COMMUNITY WITH PURPOSE AND BELONGING

MMost often in moments of crisis like we are all facing today, vulnerable persons such as those living with disabilities are the most excluded and left behind. In line with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “leave no one behind, it is crucial for government, public and private sectors to collaboratively find innovative solutions for and with persons with disabilities to make the world a more accessible and equitable place.” www.pprc.ca

Businesses need to align their practices with a culture of inclusion and belonging to retain top talent. It is critical for us to understand one another to truly build a sense of community. That sense of belonging also helps persons who are marginalized feel welcome and free to join the conversation and contribute their talents. Disability Awareness is more than just recognizing a potential disability, it encompasses how we treat people, how we build our recruiting practices, and how we ensure that accessibility is available during all phases of the recruiting and onboarding activities. If a person sees that you are trying to be inclusive, then they feel better able to identify themselves as needing accommodation.

Business is often tasked to help build stronger communities and social responsibility is becoming key to corporate purpose and values. As we have learned in this global crisis for talent, the drivers behind inclusion and belonging exist within the power of employees, their talents, and their desire to work with purpose. Service providers like Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care Inc. (PPRC) are ready to step up and work with business leaders and human resources teams to identify their needs and help develop a roadmap toward disability inclusion and belonging. Our businesses need to represent the people who live and work in our communities. An understanding of disability awareness and etiquette can create attitudinal changes and unite us in creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace. We need to remind our teams that every person in the workplace is diverse, we all have some similarities and differences that make us unique. As we become more aware of this, then we can move to support one another’s differences in our contemporary society.

We need to build business environments, where people feel safe to be their true selves and bring their identity to work. Businesses needs to think about the language they use in their messaging and job postings to ensure accessible formats are available to all and no one is left behind. It is only with this deep employer-employee understanding of diversity that we will see change over time to truly experience a culture of belonging. The recent lessons learned about our new office culture are that employees want flexible work arrangements, to be trusted, and the freedom to focus on what matters in the workplace.

PPRC’s disability awareness offers businesses a truly inclusive way to communicate and interact with one another based on a common language and how we can understand one another’s differences in a less threatening way. You will be able to build a better approach toward diversity and belonging and have a significant immediate impact not only in the workplace but in your community. We will help increase your community collaboration on accessibility, heighten disability awareness, and celebrate the uniqueness of disability talent. Let us be your pathway to begin building better economic stories for everyone. We all want the same things, quality of life, career, equitable opportunities and to connect as humans.