Creating Change > Social Environment Level: Social Access>

Enhancing Social Access: An Ecological Approach

• The Individual
• The Social Environment
• The Physical Environment
• Policies and Regulations
  

Enhancing Social Access: The Individual

Individuals need to feel that they belong. Most of us can remember a time when we felt excluded or left out. These are never positive memories. As you support your clients, patients, members, or community members to feel accepted, remember that it is easier for some individuals to get involved than others.

Strategies

You can encourage a socially accessible environment on an individual level by:

• Advocating for a socially inclusive workplace and/or community
  
• Inviting volunteers and community leaders to support socially accessible programs and services.
  
• Ensuring programs and services encourage social relationships and positive social support
  Note: See the Social Connections section for additional information.

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Enhancing Social Access: The Social Environment

Strategies

You can encourage a socially accessible environment by

• Working to ensure all members of the community are aware of physical activity opportunities. This may mean developing partnerships with new allies and organizations, such as cultural centres or disability organizations.
  
• Encouraging diversity within your organization and your community
  
• Providing services for a diverse range of clients/members
  
• Learning about the various cultures that you serve (See Culture section for additional information.)
  
• Educating staff, volunteers, and others about social accessibility
  
• Training staff and program leaders about ways to make programs more socially accessible
  
• Implementing marketing strategies that represent those you wish to reach
  
• Consulting with community groups and other organizations to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your attempts to create a sense of social belonging and acceptance
  
• Offering events and activities that are socially inclusive
  
• Adapting your programs to meet the needs of the various groups in your community
  
• Providing babysitting services to encourage parents to access recreation, sport, and physical activity opportunities. (Be creative. This does not have to be an expensive service. Perhaps parents groups can take turn watching each other’s children.)

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Enhancing Social Access: The Physical Environment

Strategies

You can encourage a socially accessible physical environment by:

• Offering programs in neighborhoods to encourage social inclusion
  
• Advocating for improvements to the built environment that will encourage walking and active transportation as a physical activity opportunity.
  Note: See the Built Environment section for additional information.

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Enhancing Social Access: Policies and Regulations

Strategies

A socially accessible environment can be fostered by developing policies and implementing regulations. You can contribute at this level by:

• Developing and implementing an organizational plan that promotes social inclusion and works to create a sense of belonging
  
• Advocating for tax credits and other incentives for workplaces, schools and community groups to promote active living (e.g., no sales tax on exercise equipment, tax incentives for employers who provide employee fitness facilities, etc.)
  
• Recognizing that active living is not “owned” by one sector. A variety of public and private sectors (e.g., health care, transportation, planning, law enforcement, education, and economic development) need to collaborate to support active living for vulnerable populations
  
• Using an “inclusion lens” when evaluating programs and services. (See Useful Links section below.)
  
• If your work involves setting funding criteria, ensure allocations have an inclusive component

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Enhancing Social Access: Useful Links

• Active Living Alliance for Canadians with Disabilities
• Count Me In
  
• Disabilities and the Community
  
• Inclusion Lens Workbook
• Low SES and Women
• Mothers in Motion: Tools and Resources
  

References

Bailey, M. & McLaren, S. (2005). Physical activity alone and with others as predictors of sense of belonging and mental health in retirees. Aging & Mental Health, 9(1), 82–90.

Lindstrom, M., Hanson, B. S. & Ostergren, P. (2001). Socioeconomic difference in leisure-time physical activity: The role of social participation and social capital in shaping health-related behaviour. Social Science and Medicine, 52, 441–451.

Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse. (2006). Count me in! Inclusion: Societies that foster belonging improve health. Toronto, ON: Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse.

Shookner, M. (2002). An inclusion lens: Workbook for looking at social and economic exclusion and inclusion. Halifax, NS: Population Health Research Unit, Dalhousie University, Population and Public Health Branch, Atlantic Regional Office.