exception that no one aged between 25-34 years spoke to the research team, the age and sex distribution of informants approximated the profile of survey respondents. Figure 1 The age and sex profile of project informants (a) and survey respondents (b) (b) Half of the respondents who contributed a follow-up interview described themselves as unemployed and looking for work (50%), Forty-five percent of National Online Survey respondents described themselves the same way. Table 1 The age, region and employment status of Key Informants Male Female Number 8 6 Age range (years) 22 6 62 19 6 48 Mean age (years) 39.6 33.7 6 6 Region Northland 6 6 Auckland Waikato Bay of Plenty Wairarapa Tairawhiti Manawatu N. Taranaki S. & C. Taranaki Whanganui Wellington Nelson/Marlburough Canterbury/W. Coast S. Canterbury Waitaki Otago Southland 6 6 6 6 6 2 6 6 3 2 1 6 6 1 1 6 6 6 1 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 2 6 6 1 Employment status UnemployedS looking for work 6 1 UnemployedS not looking for work Part6time employment Business Enterprise Daybase 1 1 2 1 1 6 2 6
conversations people also spoke of the way feeling dislocated from relationships within which they could experience a sense of being productive members of their community also limited their ability to challenge the more material (quantifiable) marginalisations perceived as acting as a barrier to transcending “this place now.” Figure 2 Responding to poverty as a new lens for transforming vocational support In the following section, we explore people’s sense of marginalization before considering how those impressions were shaped by existing disability support practice before suggesting what this might mean for changing support in ways that respond to the four experiential poverties informants described.
that what distinguished CCS Disability Action support from other types of support was that, “if you need help they are there” or that “they help me out when I am having trouble, “ or that people felt “lucky because I can call them whenever I get stuck.” Simply knowing that someone was available to offer non-judgmental advice and/or assistance appeared to provide people with a significant source of psychological support. Respondent: I mean knowing that there is someone out there in the community that is going to bat for you, you know what I mean? I mightn’t actually engage with them on a daily bases or even a weekly basis but I suppose passively knowing that there is somebody out in the community that can actually advocate on your behalf. I mean that’s huge. You need that you need that reassurance that there is someone there. You know so we are talking about rangatiritanga or self-determination - part of that determination is knowing that you have that backup of your support networks. Whether that be at your marae level or your whanau level or out in the community. You know that’s what CCS does. Figure 10 Linking elements of support through 'navigation' The other attribute of vocational support that informants said contributed to a sense of psychological support was that, in addition to their ability to call for assistance, vocational coordinators or support staff would also periodically “call (them) just to see how (they were) getting on.” This proactive element to support was experienced by some as affirming, communicating as it did a “genuine interest in (themselves) and (their) life.” And finally, informants mentioned how they also valued the way the tendrils of CCS Disability Action’s connections fingered out across their community. We heard a number of different accounts of how CCS Disability Action staff’’s knowledge of other community agencies and resources had assisted people to take greater control of their lives. For one informant, it was their close working relationship with the Brain Injury Association that made a difference.
Asking disabled people how they can get the lives that want couldn’t, therefore, be more timely. The next step(s) will be to continue to engage disabled people in the transformational conversations that have begun and for a project that sought to privilege the voices of people who access vocational support it is appropriate to leave the last word to them. Respondent: “If we keep creating the same world, we are going to get the same world.”