In early June, Gary took the opportunity to attend the 7th International Conference on Social Role Valorisation in Canada. This year's theme was Opening doors to the good things in life: Implementing social role valorisation.
Social Role Valorisation (SRV) is a set of ideas aimed at creating positive change in the lives of people who are disadvantaged because of their perceived status in society, including disabled people. The aim of social valorisation is to uplift a person’s social situation through establishing a valued role in society.
“SRV was a vague concept to me and I’d heard conflicting views about its usefulness,” says Gary. “At the conference, there was a lot of lively discussion around the topic of implementation, including the universal relevance of SRV and how the theory has stood the test of time.
“I came home with mixed views. Firstly, there is universal acceptance of the notion of the ‘good life’ and the ‘good things in life’. This aligns very well to the kaupapa of Enabling Good Lives and Hei Whakapiki Mauri. On the other hand, I went to a presentation that tried to convince me that there can’t be ideal services, just ‘least worst ones’. I think this notion lacks ambition.
“Overall, the conference was quite an unusual event for me because I knew no-one there, which meant meeting a whole lot of new and interesting people. I was also able to speak with each of the keynote speakers about the role SRV has in our community and in Aotearoa New Zealand in general, building a number of new connections.
“It was a very worthwhile conference to attend and an interesting subject to discuss. I look forward to sharing some of the ideas with whanāu in the future.”