The Intent of "Kenhila Negisha" community activists to add activists with a mental disability to their community: The contribution of sense of community cohesion, self-esteem, sense of representation in the community and prior contact with a person with a

As of 2020 it was estimated that about 1.5 million people with disabilities live in Israel. While most of them reside in households within the community, many of them report significant feelings of isolation and alienation. They also report a sense of being undesirable by social organization, who do not encourage them to take part in their various activities. Community activities are led by community social workers in local social services departments, and they are a meaningful mean to promote community participation for disadvantaged populations. However, while people with a mental disability are the second largest group amongst people with disabilities at working age (9.7%), they are a minority amongst community activists who participate in community activities.

The present study attempted to understand this low participation rate of people with mental disability in community activities being led by local departments of social services, by examining the intent of community activists to include activists with a mental disability in their group of activists. The study was based on the theoretical framework of the ecological model of social inclusion (Simplican's et al., 2015), which proposes that variables within five different levels: individual, interpersonal, organizational, community and socio-political levels, explain social inclusion of people with a disability. Based on four of the five levels, the contribution of self-esteem (individual level), familiarity with person with mental disability (interpersonal level), community representation (organizational level) and Community cohesion (community level) to the intent of community activists to include activists with a mental disability in their group of activists was examined. In addition, community representation was examined as a mediating factor between self-esteem and the intent to included activists with a mental disability in community activists' group and community cohesion.

Method The sample included 99 community activists who engaged in volunteer activities in community programs led by departments of social affairs throughout Israel. Of them, 74% were women and 26% men, aged 23 -80 years (µ= 50.18, SD=12.11), with an average of 2.9 years of activity as community activists (SD=1.30).

Procedure The study received approval from the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs and the Ethics Committee. Community activists received printed or digital questionnaires via community social workers or directly. In the introduction to the questionnaires, the activists were that by filling in the questionnaire they give their informed consent to participate in the research.

Research tools included five self-completion questionnaires: a demographic questionnaire; self-esteem questionnaire (Hobfoll & Walfish, 1984), level of familiarity scale (Abargil, 2014), community representation questionnaire (Itzhaky & York, 1994), community cohesion questionnaire (Buckner, 1988) and intent to include activist with mental disability questionnaire.  

Results the study found that higher self-esteem, close familiarity with a person with mental disability, and a strong sense of community representation was associated higher intent to include activists with a mental disability in the group. There was no association between the level of community cohesion the activists felt and their intent to include activists with a mental disability in the group. In addition, community representation mediated the relationship between self-esteem and the intent to include people with mental disability in the activists' group and between self-esteem and group cohesion.

Research limitations the research was conducted amongst community activists in community programs led by social services organizations operating under the auspices of the Israeli Ministry of welfare and social services. It is possible that the characteristics of community activists in programs led by other agencies would be different and lead to different findings. Second, the questionnaires were written in Hebrew, hence activists who are not fluent in Hebrew could not participate, so it is possible that various groups amongst all activist are not represented in this study. Finally, the dependent variable in this research was measured by a questionnaire composed by the researcher and was not used in previous researches. It is possible, then, that the questionnaire did not accurately measure the variable it was intended to measure.

Importance and implications of the research the present research partly confirmed the findings of Levy et al.'s (2012) research, in that it found that community representation only partially mediated the association between self-esteem and community cohesion, and there was also a direct association between them. A major difference between both studies was the country of origin of the participants. It is, therefore, recommended to conduct follow-up research to examine differences between immigrants and native Israelis in the association between self-esteem, community representation and community cohesion.

In addition, the research examined four of the five levels of Simplican's et al. ecological model of social inclusion (2015). Future research should examine the association between variables from the 5^th level of the model, the socioecological level, and the The Intent of community activists to include activists with a mental disability in their activists' group.

Finally, it is recommended to conduct the same research amongst activists from various cultural background, by administrating questionnaires in other languages than Hebrew, such as Arab and Russian.     

Practical implications A major recommendation of the present study is addressed to community social workers. It is recommended to proactively

reach out to people with mental disability while recruiting activists. Building an activists group that will initially allow representation of people with mental disabilities will contribute to enhancing social inclusion in several areas: first, it would directly lead to the enhancement of number of community activist with mental disability, and, second, it would lead to an increase in the activists' level of familiarity with people with mental disability, which in turn may lead to higher intent of these activists to include more activists with mental disability in the group.

The second recommendation to community social workers addresses the stage when the activists' group is already established. Community social workers should initiate encounters between community activists and people with mental disabilities, planning the encounter so it may allow all participants to deepen levels of familiarity between each other. That in turn, may lead to higher intent by community activists to include activists with mental disabilities in the group.

The findings of the present study indicate that community representation contributes to two major community goals: enhancing community cohesion and increasing the participation of socially excluded groups. Hence the third recommendation for community social workers is to understand that it is essential that they built community interventions that will enhance the sense of community representation amongst community activists, by fully including the activists in every step of the community activity, starting at decision making, and continuing throughout the execution of these decisions. An activist that will take part in such a community activity, is one that would feel higher sense of community representation, and as a result may have higher intent to include activists with mental disabilities in the activists' group.

Finally, the findings of the present study have implications for the work of mental health rehabilitation specialists in various mental health programs. Mental health rehabilitation emphasizes the importance of rehabilitation within the community and promoting social inclusion. Participation in community activities as community activists is another way to promote social inclusion. The findings of the present study clarify the important role of close familiarity with people with mental disabilities in promoting social inclusion of people with mental disabilities. Therefore, it is recommended that mental health rehabilitation specialists initiate and deepen relationships with community social workers in local social services organizations in order to promote familiarity between their clients, people with mental disability, and community activists. Hence, increasing the probability that those community activists will have greater intent to include people with mental disabilities as activists in their activists' group.