Kudoz

A parent of an adult child with a disability, recently shared, “People hate people with disabilities; they are disgusted by them.” A bold and heavy statement, and it holds a lot of truth. There exists a reason why stigma around disability is so pervasive, why disability supports are chronically underfunded, why people turn away from difference; because without a relationship, a connection to someone with a disability, it’s easy to do so. 

The urgency to tackle this problem is now; we can no longer turn away. People with a disability have the right to work, share their talents, be recognized and treated equally, occupy roles of leadership, and be producers of content, not just service recipients. And this is what we aim to tackle with the next iteration of Kudoz. We will be taking all of our learnings to develop a new experiential community platform, curiko, co-produced by members of our community, designed to share moments of connection experiences. We will use the funding towards development, creation of new roles, and to scale across BC and Canada, particularly to remote areas with little access to supports or community. 

We are Vicki and Janey! We are applying for the Elevate Prize together as we believe in co-production, which means co-leading our organization. Vicki is a self-advocate and member of the community council at our provincial government office for people with disabilities. Vicki leads our moderators, the volunteers who ensure experiences run smoothly. Vicki brings her perspective to the development of the platform and to the team. Janey leads our operational team and focuses on maintaining a culture of curiosity and continuous innovation. Our shared vision is to create a community where difference is embraced, celebrated, and acknowledged in all its forms: to challenge ableism, power, and systems. We want to recognize that what makes up a full life is connection to not only to other people, but to ourselves, culture, place, and politics. We make those connections by sharing talents, creating space for people to overcome barriers, getting outside of comfort zones, creating new roles for people with a disability to shine bright. Our goal for the future is to see our new platform, curiko be accessible to all and that it is a starting point of building beautiful moments and relationships where people feel seen and heard.

People with a disability are the world's largest minority group, making up 15% of the world’s population (WHO). Statistics Canada reports that 20% of people over the age of 15 years old identify as having a disability in Canada. While making up a significant portion of the population, people with a disability continue to be left behind with scant opportunities to engage as full citizens. There continues to be exclusion and inequity marked by lack of employment opportunities, underfunded programs, financial and experience poverty. 

Our new platform, curiko will connect people whose bodies and brains work in beautifully different ways to 1:1, group, video, and boxed experiences so that they may experience more moments of capability and connection. It’s through these moments of connection and reflection that relationships are formed; relationships rooted in equality. It’s a place where people can grow in confidence and build opportunities for themselves. Community members access the online platform and browse different experiences across modalities and join or request any number of experiences hosted by other community members along the neurodiversity continuum. They can also access coaching to work on stringing moments together for greater purpose and meaning and to build strategies to bust barriers.

Co-production is a collaborative and iterative process where the end users of an intervention also help to deliver it, taking on roles, and making key decisions on how it functions. curiko seeks to strengthen our co-production practice by growing the number of roles and opportunities for end users to make content, deliver experiences, and participate in both operational and strategic decision-making. 

The platform will have a fluidity of roles to reinforce horizontal relationships and distribution of power. People along the neurodiversity continuum will host and attend experiences, making connections and sharing moments together rather than focusing on service to people with a disability. We take a creative approach and challenge ourselves to think of ways to create unique and meaningful experiences. Through experiences we tackle stigma and ableism and challenge others and ourselves to recognize the boundaries and invisible borders that create division and inequity. 

The platform signals a moving away from traditional disability supports and measurements around behavior, employment, and hours of support to co-producing novel content to spark interactions that lead to moments of connection. It’s about building a new journey through the experience of these moments.

Our theory of change focuses on flourishing; building moments of capability and connection and justice; relationships rooted in equality and mutuality. Our mission is equality, for people with a disability to be looked at and treated as equal. For people's differences to be recognized, but not treated differently because of them. Through a set of designed interactions, the online platform, and coaching, we are building awareness around disability and ableism and engaging in conversations no matter how challenging. Over the last 7 years, we have engaged 700+ community members without a disability and 500+ people with a disability and their families. Over the last year, we have had 500+ people along the neurodiversity continuum joining us online from across BC, Canada, and the world. 

Over the next 3 months, we are taking all of our learning to build a new community platform. The platform and all online experiences will be accessible to everyone, anywhere. Our plan is to create collaborative cohorts made up of organizations and groups to scale the platform across BC and Canada. Growth of the platform will directly support roles for people with disabilities to lead organizations and communities in raising awareness and equality.