As a mom to four neurodivergent children, Salt Spring’s Anna Vineyard can speak from experience on the challenges families on-island face in finding resources and inclusive activities for their kids.
And while islanders are deservedly proud of their predilection toward self-sufficiency — where something isn’t available, we step in to fill gaps — for families with neurodivergent children, the workload can be formidable; the fundamentally human act of trying to build community with others in similar situations can become overwhelming, Vineyard said.
“It can be quite isolating, and stigmatizing — and sometimes very lonely,” said Vineyard. “In the past, when I’ve looked for more inclusive programming, I was just told, ‘well, you need to run it yourself.’ But there’s only so much one person can do, right?”
So for several years, Vineyard has been running a parent support group on Salt Spring Island for families with neurodivergent children, sharing resources, activities and ideas in a supportive space. In January, acting on growing demand, she founded a new non-profit called The Diverse Village to expand that mission.
“We wanted to build a community where we could connect and support each other, and it’s turned into this beautiful collective of people,” said Vineyard.
The Diverse Village is facilitating community change, in part by providing a central location for resources, education and information, but also by highlighting gifting grant opportunities, facilitating community inclusion initiatives and — perhaps most importantly, Vineyard said — building a more inclusive Salt Spring.
“When we first started that group, we had it outside — because everyone was social distancing, two metres apart!” laughed Vineyard. “We sat in my yard, in this big circle with a little fire pit in the middle, and cups of tea, and just kind of cried together and connected.”
Now, through a partnership with the Gulf Islands Family Together Society (GIFTS), The Diverse Village meets in GIFTS’ building — for events, playdates and a growing number of family workshops. Vineyard said there’s help available for families trying to navigate filling out forms and applications for assessments — what she called “just walking through life” with neurodivergent children — among a community of families on a similar path. The group tries to hold one parent support group and one workshop a month, then sprinkle in play dates and family events — some of which spring up, like the group itself, out of an identified need.
“For example, one of our families came and said they could not access any of the Family Day events on the island,” said Vineyard. “They knew it would be too much for their child, and asked if there was any way we could have our own? I was like, ‘OK, let’s do it.’”
Just two weeks later, The Diverse Village hosted its first Summer Family Fun playdate event — with stations set up like a sensory table and a “quiet tent” — that saw more than 30 participants.
“We had older kids playing board games in a room, we had kids doing play-doh and kids with movement activities,” said Vineyard. “We brought some sensory supports from my house and a little mini trampoline, everybody just kind of wandered around and met their needs where they wanted to; it was really, really nice.”
In addition to outreach through parent support meetings, equipment lending programs, library literacy kits, workshops and family events, Vineyard said The Diverse Village is seeking funding to help run specialized supportive programming. One opportunity is a “community challenge” that will run in June through ParticipACTION BC, a Canadian government initiative. Anyone with a “V8K” postal code can enter, Vineyard said, log their activities and “compete” on behalf of The Diverse Village to help it receive substantial funding.
“There are some practical supports we would like to be able to fulfill for our families,” said Vineyard, “to help them pay for services they still need off-island that are really quality-of-life-changing.”
And while existing inclusive opportunities for neurodivergent individuals on the island are great, Vineyard said, they’re still limited.
“The adaptive program through Salt Spring Gymnastics is amazing,” said Vineyard. “And the sensory swim time at the pool — it’s wonderful to have that dedicated time and space. But we have so many sports activities available on the island, it’s crazy there aren’t more inclusive and adapted opportunities.”
The Diverse Village has offered consulting for camps and different organizations that have expressed an interest in inclusive programming; Vineyard said she hoped that by raising awareness of good things that are already happening — and of how important it is to be inclusive — other groups on Salt Spring will think about ways they can offer adaptive programming.
“You know, maybe a soccer team is all-ages, with ten balls on the field,” said Vineyard. “There are so many little tweaks that can be done to make it possible for these kids to participate; most people really want to be inclusive, they just don’t know how, or what that would look like. That’s one of the missions of The Diverse Village, to really promote the idea that simple, small things can make a huge difference to families.”
For more information visit thediversevillage.ca; to join the ParticipACTION challenge at participaction.com/individual-pledge, enter your postal code and choose The Diverse Village to have your activity count towards its overall participation numbers.