Occupation-based community development: strategies for promoting potential

‘Occupation’ in this paper refers to the ordinary, everyday things people do to meet their various needs, interests and aspirations. As such it is inclusive of but broader than the concept of ‘work’. Poverty and inequality compromises peoples’ capacity to participate or “do” in daily life. Restricted ‘doing’ narrows their possibilities for experiencing health and well-being as resources for living and for making a living. Possibilities for reducing poverty and inequality are restricted not only by limited structural opportunities, but also by states of ‘being’: entrenched mindsets and internalised notions of personhood that perpetuate self-limiting responses to available opportunities. This paper will describe how an occupational perspective recognises “doing” as contextually situated relational action which provides opportunities for reflexive engagement of capacities and potential. Practice examples of working with senior citizens at Ikamva Labantu, groups of people with disabilities at the Association for the Physically Disabled, and youth in Lavender Hill will illustrate the value of applying occupation-based strategies that consider diverse opportunities for participation in building individual and collective agency, together with changing social structures and institutions. The examples will describe how critical thinking about participation while “doing with and doing together” contributes to changing the quality of current participation and grows envisioned futures. The practice examples show how and what the possibilities are for creating an alternative participation trajectory for groups of people who face inequality and poverty. The unique proponents which support the continued possibility for changes in participation are considered. Ideas about how to effectively make such interventions more readily accessible will be identified.