The belonging project: report of outcomes

The Belonging Project is a participatory research project,talking to children up to the age of eight with additional needs and their families about what it means to feel included and connected in the Tweed Shire Community. Funded by Family and Community Services NSW (FACS)within the skills development stream of Stronger Together 2, the broader aim of the Belonging Project is to work with stakeholders across the community to develop a framework for building inclusion in community settings. This report details the results of the research which will underpin the framework. Through taking a research approach, we aimed to ensure that the experiences and voices of children and families form the basis of plans for action in the Belonging Project.

Little is known about the ways that children with disability and their families connect with places and people, or about their perspectives on belonging, particularly within regional communities. Connectedness and a sense of belonging are not only critically important for wellbeing but also for understanding inclusion and exclusion. In order to support responsive social policy aimed at providing well-targeted, individualised support for children with disability and their families, there is a need to improve understandings of the ways in which they develop meaningful and fulfilling relational connections within and beyond families, schools, programs and services, and with places and people in their local community.