Glossary

Asset Based Community Development
Asset based community development is a powerful approach focused on discovering and mobilising the resources that are already present in a community.  It provides a way for citizens to find and mobilise what they have in order to build a stronger community (Green, Moore, & O’Brien, 2006)

Capacity building
Capacity building at an individual or family level is about strengthening competence and ability to be self determining, given adequate support.

Capacity building at a service provider level is about strengthening engagement, creativity and responsiveness, ensuring that the needs of the individual remain at the forefront of service provision without loss of service viability.

Capacity building at a community level is about strengthening the awareness, competence and confidence for community to embrace diversity.  Efforts are aimed at providing opportunities for people with disability to contribute to the life of the community as well as being recipients of support.

Citizen
…has a valued place in community.  He or she has rights and responsibilities and every citizen is vital to the structure of a vibrant community.

Community
…is the place and space mutually shared by all members of society.

Community Builder
Primary role is building capacity and willingness for community to respond to people with disability as citizens.

To activate and support the emergence of existing goodwill within the community.  To provide the opportunity for mutual exchange of contribution between people with disability and their fellow members of the community.

The community builder ensures a close match between the rhetoric of community inclusion and the everyday reality of living with disability.

Community Navigator
Strong relationship with both community and people with disability and their family.  They are the first point of contact whether a person is born with a disability or acquires it later in life.  They provide information and build skill and confidence to plan for the present and the future.  Where necessary the community navigator makes referral to services – generic or specialised, based on a best fit approach.

Entitlement
Entitlement is a guarantee of access to benefits because of rights, or by agreement through law. It also refers to a generally held belief by society that one is deserving of some particular reward or benefit.  In the case of people with disabilities, entitlement implies that the support offered is sufficient to ensure that he or she can be an equal, active member of society.

Funding
…is the level of hands-on support provided to the individual by the government to pay for specialist care e.g. personal care, community access

Inclusion
…implies that there are no structures, systems or rules to prevent any citizen from accessing the community – its people and spaces -  or what it offers

Equity (no specific reference in text)
… means that all citizens with a disability are acknowledged to have differing needs of support and this is reflected in the varying levels of funding that are provided and in the fact that citizens are supported at the level they need.