Providing community for people with disabilities and their families

APPROXIMATELY ONE IN five Canadians over 15 has a disability that limits them in their daily activities, according to Statistics Canada, but this population isn’t typically well represented in church.

Tackling this problem is Imagine Ministries, a supportive care program for children, youth and adults with special needs (www.Northview.org/Imagine and www.Willingdon.org/Imagine).

At Northview Community Church in Abbotsford, B.C., a Saturday program caters to anyone 12 and over with physical, mental and/or developmental differences. While their caregivers attend service, the group participates in an interactive Bible study, social activities and refreshments. Sunday programs provide activities such as sensory bins and songs for children with special needs from two to 11 during two morning services.

“We have families who haven’t gone to church since their child was diagnosed at two because there were no churches that could accommodate their behaviours,” says Hilary Squire, Imagine Ministries co-ordinator at Northview.

Squire’s parents were foster parents, so she grew up surrounded by many children, some who occasionally had behaviour problems. “I was pretty much raised to be uncomfortable,” she says. Her experience led her to study social work at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ont.

Squire has worked in the role at Northview for the past year, including sometimes visiting families in hospital during a medical crisis. “Our families are so stressed staying on top of life,” says Squire. “That’s why, to be able to come and sit with their spouse, knowing their child is well taken care of during the service, is a huge comfort.

“I love the community I see being built.” Currently Imagine serves 30 families, and Squire estimates a little over a hundred people attend Northview because of it.

“A lot of these families are active members at our church, so to not have a program like this would mean missing out on strong, empathetic and compassionate people,” she says. “I think it’s also missing out to not have these kids [and their siblings] in church, and see them serving and involved.”

She advises churches looking to start a similar ministry to connect with others already doing the same thing and to “not start from scratch.”–MELISSA