January 2024
By Carrie Ann Olson, Extension Educator, Associate Extension Professor
This years annual volunteer training focused on “4-H for All Abilities: Creating Inclusive Environments for Youth with Disabilities”. We feel everyone has a stake in this work and the ability to positively impact the experience of all 4-H’ers, including those with disabilities. Minnesota 4-H is committed to serving all members of our diverse Minnesota communities. Diversity includes youth with disabilities. Our definition of disability is “any of various difficulties (such as a physical, emotional, behavioral, or learning disability or impairment) that causes an individual to require additional or specialized services or accommodations (such as in education or recreation)” as defined by Merriam-Webster. The disability is not a deficit, it is an experience that requires additional services or support. One of the most important things to keep in mind when interacting with people with disabilities is to presume competence. To presume competence is to assume that people can understand and are able to do things.
One way to demonstrate that you are presuming that young people with disabilities are competent is to consider their assets first, a practice called asset framing. This means considering people’s assets or strengths before their deficits or challenges. This is important for youth with disabilities because we are in a world where disabilities are frequently seen as deficits and as the defining feature in a person’s life. This approach can hold young people back by focusing on obstacles. But if we change to an asset framing approach, we can more easily see individuality and potential.
Asset framing shapes how we see people in our life. Consider watching this short video to hear Trabian Shorters, of the BMe Community, describe what asset framing is. If you think about people you know well, you are likely to have some people in your life who have had to work with significant challenges. Is that what you think of first when you think of them? Probably not, you are more likely to think about their strengths, their sense of humor, their ambition, their drive. We often naturally use an asset approach for those we are close to, we are asking you to use those same skills when working with youth with disabilities. With an asset-framing perspective, challenges focus more on the systems in place, rather than the individual.
When you start with someone’s aspirations or what’s important to them, your brain immediately associates them with worthiness. Strengths exist in everyone as they do in all of our 4-H clubs. Making changes in clubs to help them create safe and adaptive spaces for youth of all abilities can also come from a strengths-based approach. Contact your local 4-H extension educator to learn more about the resources available to help support creating inclusive space for 4-H with all abilities or visit our volunteer website.