This morning, Madame Paule Mercier, supervisor at Aladin Childcare Services Inc. – Sainte-Anne showed me the new “Inclusion” poster that Children’s Inclusion Support Services (CISS) created to explain the renaming from “integration” to “inclusion”. Besides liking the great photos of our son Emanuel (as well as our dear friend Elise), the poster and photos really speak to how everyone benefits and is enriched by an inclusive environment. My take is that “integration” implied doing things because one had to do them for legal/political reasons, whereas “inclusion” implies doing things because everybody wins and everybody benefits.

On a separate note, we were relieved and delighted to receive word that Emanuel’s daycare would again receive funding from CISS for the summer period in order to defray costs for a program assistant in his group. While we benefit from a range of different supports to help with Emanuel’s care and nurturing, without a doubt the support we receive from CISS and Andrew Fleck Children’s Services (AFCS) is the most critical and beneficial to us on a day-to-day basis. It really is the optimal type of care for Emanuel after school and in the summer. Hiring a caregiver to care for him after school and in summer months wouldn’t advance our goal of inclusion and wouldn’t provide the kind of oversight and supervision that we see as fundamental given our family history.

I didn’t want this good news around support for Emanuel’s care to go without a message of thanks and to reinforce the positive and significant impact that it has on our family. We don’t lead any semblance of “normal” lives, but we lead meaningful lives and have a fairly workable daily routine thanks to the supports we receive.

Regards,
David and Andrea