08/12/2025
What do we really mean when we talk about inclusion and belonging?
The Belonging Project is a research partnership between Skills Society, the University of Alberta, and in collaboration Shift Collective at Dalhousie University (SHIFT Collective: Shifting How we think about Inclusion For Tomorrow ) that explored how people with intellectual disabilities experience belonging.
This post pulls from the simple summary and full article "The (radical) role of belonging in shifting and expanding understandings of social inclusion for people labeled with intellectual and developmental disabilities."
The summary is short and accessible. It explores how belonging can help us rethink inclusion, why inclusion doesn’t always lead to belonging, and why both matter. It also invites harder questions like considering what people are being included into, and whether our communities are truly welcoming.
Find the summary and full journal article here:�www.skillssociety.ca/projects/the-belonging-project
[In the first image, a group of hands is interlocked in the center, while the logo for The Belonging Project appears at the top along with the title “Belonging and Inclusion: How might they be the same and different?” written across colourful overlapping shapes.
In the second image, three stylized human figures in orange, blue, and pink are linked together above a paragraph that describes The Belonging Project as a research partnership between Skills Society and the University of Alberta, focusing on opportunities for belonging in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.
In the third image, the colourful “Belonging and Inclusion” graphic is featured again below a line of text that introduces a summary of a journal article about expanding understandings of social inclusion for people labeled with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
In the fourth image, three main questions are presented with colourful icons next to each one, explaining what belonging is, what inclusion is, and how they are connected, followed by a web address at the bottom where readers can access the full articles and reports.]
