“It’s a helping career. You have to know why you want to help!” – Veronika Nádeníčková
June is a busy month! Around the globe, various nations, cultures and communities mark different days. For example;
- June 5th World Environment Day
- June 8th World Oceans Day
- June 16th Day of the African Child
- June 19th Juneteenth
- June 20th World Refugee Day
- June 21st Summer Solstice
Personally, June is focused on LGBTQ+ Pride. And this year, it’s landed with more weight.
The world is increasingly experiencing conflict. We are becoming more polarised and less capable of listening to one another. Daily hate speech is hurled by our neighbours and politicians. We’ve lost the ability to maintain a world for the present day, whilst ensuring we hold the earth for our descendants to safely inhabit. Commerce currently comes before existence.
When it comes to inclusion, it is easy to forget that we/people are more than a single identity point. We exist at the meeting point of many markers of identity. We call this intersectionality. And within the community of young people I collaborate with, this is also true.
I work for a theatre company in Wales. We create work with learning disabled and/or neurodivergent communities. For young people, neurodivergence exists alongside culture, race, age, gender, discovering love and more. And they are trying to balance all of this with some challenging local, national and global messaging.
For LGBTQ+ people, as of writing this, within the UN;
- 65 member nations criminalise same-sex relationships
- Conversion therapy is legal in 17 nations
- 7 nations apply the death penalty for same-sex relations, and a further 5 are ambiguous in their application of corporal punishment.
I do, however, believe we have the power to create positive, safe change.
For me, access is an umbrella term for a number of tools. Often, the tools are about adapting, rather than designing from the start. We use these tools to create inclusion.
Inclusion, by definition, is the basis of an existing structure/community adapting for others to have the opportunity to participate. I do not believe inclusion is the end destination. It’s an attitude to attempt to avoid exclusion. But, inclusion is not the opposite of exclusion – it does not go far enough.
Research from Dr Brene Brown suggests that the true opposite of exclusion is something else …
It’s about creating belonging.
And I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking how this applies to ASSITEJ?
How do we, the current custodians, ensure that this organisation is informed, curious and creating a place of belonging? Not just for our present members, but for the children we ultimately seek to serve, and seven generations time.
Recently, there was a meeting of the Professional Networks Meeting, generously supported by ASSITEJ Czechia (you can read more about this here). One of our hosts was telling us about the career of midwifery;
“It’s a helping career. You have to know why you want to help!”.
Of course, she was talking about purpose. Having it, knowing it and using it in our lives.
And I wonder.
In an increasingly challenging world, when you know why you want to help, how does it impact the action you take?
So, this June, whatever your moment of reflection, or protest, or celebration, I send you peace and safety, and the knowledge that just like my wonderfully intersectional young people, you belong.
