Considering the financial blight Ontario is apparently facing, we’re going to need a lot more creativity and innovation in the days ahead.

We should think about learning something from a tribe of people who have an intellectual disability and their families.

Many of them have developed an expertise in managing on very little government funding and a lot of community assets. Perhaps their greatest genius is in creating natural places of belonging for their sons and daughters who have a disability in the community; places where they are known, expected, welcomed, where they’re seen as having something to contribute, not just take.

Most of these families talk about our best security being people who care for us.

“When we boil away all of the excess, ultimately, that is all any of us can count on,” says one mom, noting that our lives as human beings “are potentially pretty fragile things.”

In North America today many people are losing their homes and jobs. Those faring the best have a circle of committed and caring people around them, this same mother notes.

For these families — and likely more and more for the rest of us — it often takes a little extra effort and support to put that caring around us, though.

Gillian Chernets is one example of many who has done some unique things in creating “natural” places of belonging for her two daughters who have a disability.

More than 30 years ago she oversaw the construction of two million-dollar co-op housing units, where her daughters now live. Her belief was that this type of housing would provide more citizenship opportunities for her daughters than other multi-unit settings might, like traditional group homes.

Now she’s thinking about co-housing, proposing the possibilities for even greater inclusion and contribution are very real in these intentional communities — and they’re less costly to start up.

She also created some lifetime circles, which are intentional, voluntary groups of people committed for the long-term to providing a “circle” of both safety and opportunity around a person who has an intellectual disability.

As the numbers on our provincial economy continue to be shaky — the province lost 3,900 jobs last month, indicating that European debt problems and America’s slow growth are still affecting investment in Ontario —  yes, it is scary.

We can run and hide, or we can go on a discovery journey. We can head to the people who’ve already faced their own possibly much worse long-term crises with some good results, and see what from their story we can weave into our own.

What do you think?

Feel free to comment below, or e-mail michelle(at)axiomnews.ca.