Abundance: A great life for everyone

Creating ideas individually and as a group to tackle the personal and community based challenges through innovation and action is an opportunity to take a role in society that differs from what is usually expected from people with Down syndrome. The same applies to family members, friends, neighbours and professional supporters. We all need to be supported and we all can be supporters at some point in our lives. How can we become stronger as a community? Who are the future change makers? How can everyone have a great life?

“For over a decade we've been exploring what entrepreneurship means to us, with a core mission of helping Fionn create his own Great Life. Having such a corporate goal allows us to define success on our own, holistic terms. We've had many successes, many failures, always ambitiously exploring what's possible. Our experiences are unique, but we believe the lessons we share, and our vision of supported entrepreneurship can help many people work toward their own Great Lives.” - Fionn Crombie Angus and Jonathan Angus

Fionn and Jonathan started to develop their idea rooted in the ideals of citizenship and grassroot community building in Ireland. Joining forces with a Finnish social innovator Markus Vähälä and many Irish and international friends they created a training program, platform and a movement called Abundance that includes reimagining what wealth means in the lives of people with Down syndrome as citizens, and communities and societies as a whole. 

A new chapter in citizenship, entrepreneurship and Creativity

The CAPCA Project — short for Creative Approaches to Participatory Community Advocacy  — began as a small idea: to teach the “keys to citizenship” in plain, accessible language. Over time, it has grown into a living network of people with Down syndrome across Ireland, Finland, Canada, Spain and beyond who learn, teach, and design together. Now, From CAPCA to Abundance expands this vision. With the support from the department of Children, Disability and Equality funding through the Disability Participation and Awareness Fund, managed by Rethink Ireland we are able to offer an exciting opportunity to learn and build strength as citizens and as a community in Ireland and elsewhere.

It brings together seven keys to citizenship — Home, Purpose, Help, Freedom, Love, Money, and Life — and turns them into practical learning and entrepreneurship experiences. Participants work in teams, create projects, and share their ideas publicly. It’s education, innovation, and community-building all in one. The keys to citizenship are based on the work done by Dr Simon Duffy and Wendy Perez, the founding members of the international Citizen Network. It offers a citizen based approach in creating a great life for everyone. In the project we continue creating ideas how citizenship can grow and become a reality in people's lives and in their communities through supported and networked entrepreneurship.

Abundant life for people with Down syndrome

Too often, people with Down syndrome are invited to join projects but not to shape them. From CAPCA to Abundance changes that. Every learning module, survey, and video is co-created by people with Down syndrome, who act as designers, mentors, and storytellers.

Through this process, participants gain:

• Confidence to speak about their lives and dreams
  
  
• Skills in digital communication, teamwork, and leadership
  
  
• Opportunities to design collective business ideas creatively
  
  
• Recognition as citizens and entrepreneurs not clients
  
  

The result is real empowerment — the kind that comes from being heard, trusted, and supported to take action.

What happens when people with Down syndrome are not only learners but leaders, creators, and entrepreneurs? That’s the question at the heart of Abundance — a unique project and a program built on the belief that inclusion is not just about access, but about authorship.

“Abundance is an opportunity to build great life through networking with diverse entrepreneurs. It is exciting to see this Irish social innovation inspire people in Finland and Canada. I believe we have found a way to build a solution for exclusion in business life through exploring opportunities emerging from citizen and community lead entrepreneurship with the modern ways of working, systems and complexity theories and latest technology. Abundance will offer a way where we all can create unique international strength by diversifying the small and middle size company structures with clustered collaboration. Abundance is a journey, a training, a platform and action to provide opportunities for great life for people everywhere.” - Markus Vähälä, International coordinator of Fionnathan Production and co-founder of Abundance 

Abundant opportunities for creating an inclusive society

When we create space for people with Down syndrome to lead, everyone benefits.

Abundance is not just the name of the project — it’s a way of thinking. It reminds us that our communities thrive when everyone contributes, when collective creativity replaces pity, and when social care becomes a shared responsibility for citizens in their communities.

Abundance redefines what inclusion looks like:

• Abundance challenges stereotypes about ability and independence.
  
  
• Abundance bridges generations and sectors — linking families and public and private professionals, neighbourhoods and nations, economy, investors and social entrepreneurs.
  
  
• Abundance demonstrates economic participation, showing that people with disabilities can also be innovators, producers, makers, and business owners, when offered a platform that supports them and a diverse community with resources, skills and shared goals.
  
  

In a world often defined by scarcity, Abundance invites us to imagine a different economy — one based on collaboration, creativity, and citizenship.

Building abundant future together

The From CAPCA to Abundance journey is not just a project; it’s a movement toward a fairer, more connected society.

Each participant’s success — whether launching a small craft business, hosting a workshop, or simply finding their voice — is a reminder that change happens when people are trusted to lead their own lives. Self-direction of support through personal budgets allows people with Down syndrome to invest into their future. 

When people with Down syndrome design solutions for themselves and their communities supported by the Abundance community they are not just learning or dreaming  — they are transforming the world.

Markus Vähälä

The writer is the international coordinator of Fionnathan Productions and the co-founder of Abundance.

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