What is Social Inclusion?
Social inclusion is the participatory, authentic, and accountable manner in which institutions uphold and reinforce the principles of access, equity, and thus, social inclusion for all.
In particular, social inclusion is the manner in which institutions:
- are open to understanding and engaging in their communities;
- explore, view, and challenge barriers, values, and behaviours;
- develop, implement, and evaluate systems, programs, policies, and procedures;
- provide equitable access to services and decision making opportunities;
- demonstrate the level of interculturalism through tangible outcomes.
What are the Social Inclusion Indicators?
Our research into social inclusion has suggested to us that inclusion is best measured when an organization assesses the degree in which it is open to engage with the community in a meaningful way and intentional about removing barriers to inclusion.
As such, the Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) / Conseil des Bibliothèques Urbaines du Canada (CBUC) social inclusion audit includes indicators that assess openness, intentionality, and inclusion.
- Indicator of Openness – How well the library knows the community
The degree in which an organization is “open” can be assessed by understanding how well the library knows their community. A library is open when they understands the community they serve and their needs.
– The social inclusion audit questions 1 and 2 relate to this indicator. - Indicator of Intentionality – How well the library reinforces the principles of social inclusion
The degree in which an organization is intentional about removing the barriers to inclusion is also dependent upon how the library reinforces the principles of social inclusion in the short- and long-term. Removing barriers to inclusion is a long-term process that requires commitment and ongoing attention.
– The social inclusion audit questions 3 to 9 relate to this indicator. - Indicator of Inclusion – How well the library is the community
The degree in which the library is open and intentional about the work of social inclusion will determine the degree in which it successfully removes barriers to inclusion. A library is inclusive when it collaborates with the community and when the community is reflective in the strategies, operations, human resources, programming, and collections.
– The social inclusion audit questions 10 to 12 relate to this indicator.
Who Should Use this Tool?
Members of a library’s working committee on social inclusion should likely complete the audit, or provide assistance to a small group of library staff members. The community advisory committee should not participate in the completion of the audit itself. Please share the results of the audit tool with the community advisory committee to receive their input and feedback on the ratings. This will help you learn more about the library’s progress in removing barriers to inclusion.
What Are the Benefits of Using this Tool?
The social inclusion audit can be used to track an organization’s status and progress on the work. The toolkit will be used in conjunction with the audit tool to raise awareness of the ways in which an organization can actively work to remove barriers to inclusion.
How do I Use It?
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Review the social inclusion audit questions and outcome statements, the scoring legend, score tally, and score interpretation grid provided in this package. |
| 2 | Assess who is the best person or group of people to complete this audit. |
| 3 | Each of the social inclusion audit questions are phrased as an outcome statement. Read each outcome statement and provide a score based on the legend found on the following page. Please note that you will score the question two times, one to assess the current status and a second time to assess the progress. |
| 4 | Add up each of the scores on each page for both the “status” and “progress” questions. |
| 5 | Complete the tally page by including the scores and calculating the total for each indicator and the grand total social inclusion score. |
| 6 | Use the chart provided to interpret your score |
| 7 | Please enter the audit results after you receive the instructions on how to complete the audit using the new online survey tool. |