Making a Connection - Literacy, Disability & Quality of Life: Participatory Action Research

We are very pleased to announce the launch of our research bulletin.

Bulletin 1 Jan 2010 word   / Bulletin 1 Jan 2010 PDF format

Bulletin 2 June 2010 word  / Bulletin 2 June 2010 PDF format

Summary

Launched in 2007, this three-year national initiative will create an innovative and empowering research model which includes people with disabilities in project design and delivery. We are researching skills development in the area of literacy and quality of life to determine what impact literacy has on the daily lives of people with disabilities (consumers) who take part in the project. Making a Connection uses a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach; each consumer-learner is empowered to influence the direction of the research and the materials produced as a result of our collective findings.

The research team for Making a Connection is comprised of consumers, facilitators from Independent Living Centres, literacy providers, academic researchers and Independent Living Canada. Five local IL Centre pilot sites are working with local literacy providers to give a forum to people with disabilities in which they can define and achieve personalized literacy skills development goals. Together we will provide research that reflects community needs and focuses on capacity building.

Using a PAR model to follow these learners over the course of their individual journeys, we will collect and share their experiences, successes and challenges to learn how skills development is having an impact on the lives of consumer-participants. In the final year of this initiative, the participant stories and the combined findings of the research team will be captured in a practical guide on partnership building and in a research essay. These materials will be distributed to disability groups across Canada.

Participants

Consumers affiliated with Cowichan Independent Living, North Saskatchewan Independent Living Centre, Vernon Disability Resource Centre, Independent Living Resource Centre Thunder Bay and Independent Living Nova Scotia Association are working with facilitators and Executive Directors from these IL Centres, and with local literacy providers. Academic researchers from the University of Manitoba, as well as staff from the national IL Canada office in Ottawa, are also members of the project team and are providing support to Making a Connection. It is anticipated that more partnerships like those formed between local literacy providers, IL Centres and consumers will develop to further enhance the self-defined skills development goals of project participants.

This project is funded by the Canadian Government though the Department of Human Resources and Social Development.

For participants in the Making a Connection: Literacy, Disability and Quality of Life Project, click here  to sign in to the VILRC