Jule Hopkins says that the first thing people should do when coming across a person with a disability is to greet them.

The Director of Service Accountability and Safeguards for the provincial Crown agency Community Living British Columbia (CLBC) was in Grand Forks recently to discuss the “Start With Hi” campaign and says that something as seemingly insignificant as a “hello” can work wonders.

“(The campaign) is about encouraging individuals that live every day in your community, regular British Columbians, to reach out and acknowledge greet and to notice a person with a disability that lives in their community,” she explained.

“If you start with ‘Hi’ and see what happens, it’s more likely there will be connections and opportunities to get to know people better and to understand about who they are and how important it is to for them to have friends and people that know them.”

According to the CLBC, everybody feels vulnerable at some time or another and needs help but for people with developmental disabilities, it is harder to ask for a hand and that can lead to feelings of isolation.

If people greet those who are disabled, it will not only make them feel safe, it will build confidence and give them a sense of well-being as well.

“If you feel welcome, included and feel like you belong, you’re more likely to feel a little safer,” Hopkins says.

“The world can be quite frightening for people with disabilities because they’re not sure if they’re welcome or they’re made to feel that this is where they don’t belong and if you feel like that you’re more cautious or you’re scared or if someone reaches out to you, you might wonder what they’re going to do – are they going to hurt you?”

Jason Zwaal, service manager for Sunshine Valley Community Services (SVCS), a local agency that provides support to people with disabilities, says that Grand Forks gets high marks for their openess to the developmentally disabled, which should aid in campaign implementation.

“For the communities that I’ve lived in, this is one of the most receptive to all people and that’s what I think has made this work that we’re trying to do easier because people are so community-oriented and accepting and open to everybody,” he said.

Zwaal tells a story of a person in the community that was living in substandard conditions that his organization helped out.

The SVCS helped him find better accommodations and that coupled with a greeting of sorts led to a sense of well-being for that individual.

“Within a week a neighbour had given him an invitation to come to a block party and that was the first time he’d ever been invited to a party,” Zwaal said. “He went and met a lot of his neighbours and that one gesture (the invitation) has led to a lot of things.”

Zwaal says that that individual now has connections with people in his neighbourhood and has not only been helped out by his neighbours but helps them out too.

“He’s helped his neighbours out when they’ve needed help moving things and vice versa, one time I went over to see him and a neighbour was cutting his lawn and there was one time he was coming home from shopping in the winter and walking through snow and one of his neighbours stopped to pick him up.”

“It’s those small gestures that help keep people safe,” he said.

“When you see him on the street, he is proud to smile and say ‘hi’ to you.”

More examples of the campaign can be found on www.startwithhi.ca.