10/06/2026
At Action Lab, we’re often involved in projects that use co-design to rethink how things are created and who gets to shape them. The Belonging Toolkit is one example of this work happening through our parent organization, Skills Society.
Skills Society: Supporting the Citizenship of People with Disabilities is developing the Belonging Toolkit, an interactive training experience for community disability support workers to explore ideas around belonging and their role in supporting it.
The toolkit is being co-designed with support workers and people with intellectual disabilities, with the content being developed, tested, and adjusted based on feedback from people involved in the project. The first exploration, “What Does It Mean to Belong?”, asks support workers to reflect on their own experiences of belonging before considering what that might mean for the people they support.
The project is still in development, and the team is learning as they go. We wanted to share it as a look at one of the ways co-design is being used across Skills and the kinds of work that connect with what we explore through Action Lab.
Read the full blog post to learn more about the toolkit and the process behind it:
https://www.skillssociety.ca/news/the-belonging-toolkit
This work is generously funded by the Alberta Disability Workers Association and supported by Occupational Therapy students from the University of Alberta.
[In the first image, a group of people sit in the Action Lab during a workshop. Large, colorful shapes overlay the photo with the text “The Belonging Project” and “The Belonging Toolkit,” along with the project’s logo.
In the second image, the Belonging Project logo appears above text explaining that the project is a research partnership between Skills Society and the University of Alberta. The text describes research into the conditions, processes, and actions that support opportunities for belonging for people with intellectual disabilities.
In the third image, text introduces the Belonging Toolkit as an interactive training resource designed to help workers reflect on belonging and how it can be fostered in meaningful, individualized ways. Photos show printed workshop materials and a hand-drawn diagram exploring relationships, community, and belonging. Additional text explains that the toolkit contains eight explorations that move from reflection to action and is being co-designed with community disability support workers and people with intellectual disabilities.
In the fourth image, text explains that the first toolkit exploration has been developed and tested with managers and frontline support workers, with further development and testing planned with service providers across Alberta. A group photo shows Paige Reeves standing with OT students Hayley, Emily, Danielle, and Jada, all smiling outdoors. The image also directs readers to the Skills Society website for more information about the Belonging Toolkit and the Belonging Project.]
