text: Maria is a Registered Social Worker (RSW) and Chartered Professional Account (CPA) with 25+ years of strategic problem-solving experience in the public, not for profit and private sector.
  Maria joined the Department of Community Services in 2014, working first in Finance as the Division’s lead on Transformation. She was appointed Executive Director of the Disability Support Program in February 2019.
  Maria is committed to social change realized through a participative, consensus building approach, influencing rather than imposing change. As Executive Director Maria is focused on creating the conditions for successful collaboration and co-design with 1st voice, families, service providers and stakeholders to deliver the outcomes of the Human Rights Remedy.
  Building Supports for a Valued Place in Community Life: Responding to the Systematic Discrimination of Nova Scotians with a Disability
  In 2014, three people with disabilities, supported by the Disability Rights Coalition (DRC), sued the province of Nova Scotia over their right to live in the community. In 2021, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal supported a broader claim for systemic discrimination and required the province to change how it supports Nova Scotians with disabilities. In this presentation, Maria Medioli will describe the major steps that Nova Scotia is taking to increase its capacity to provide these community-based supports and services. Specifically, she will discuss how the province will:
  • Institute effective individualised planning and support coordination,
  • Close the institutions,
  • Expand and strengthen community-based services and supports,
  • Provide these supports across the province, in order to ensure accessibility; and
  • Develop individualised funding models.
  The goal is not simply placement in a community-located setting, but rather, building supports that will lead to Nova Scotians who live with a disability to have a home, education, meaningful occupation, the opportunity to be connected to others and to pursue other interests-the chance to take up a valued place in community life.
  To connect with Maria: