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Current Projects
The Social Inclusion and Health Equity Research Group is a dynamic group that has a variety of ongoing projects.
The Southwestern Ontario GBTMSM Assessment of HIV/AIDS Issues (SWOHAGI) initiative will be the first in Canada to assess the current situation of gay, bisexual, transgender men who have sex with men (GBTMSM) related to HIV/AIDS outside of large metropolitan centres. It will take place in six southwestern Ontario regions.
Research Objectives
During the initial phase of the project, we will be conducting a literature review to identify gaps in the literature, as well as relevant theoretical approaches when it comes to studying HIV issues among GBTMSM in smaller urban centres.
We will be consulting GBTMSM prevention workers and executive directors in ASOs (Aids Service Organizations) to identify:
- The best outreach strategies for GBTMSM;
- The issues that are unique to each region;
- The challenges to implementing research knowledge in ASO programming.
Using the information gleaned from these activities, we will develop, pilot test, and refine a quantitative survey. This survey will address priority areas across the 6 Cities as well as city-specific questions.
Through this work, a final research team will be established. This group of investigators, collaborators and knowledge users will develop and submit a Project Grant proposal for a southwestern Ontario, region-wide study of HIV/AIDS issues among GBTMSM to CIHR’s HIV/AIDS Research Initiative.
Shaped by the findings of Trans Pulse Ontario and The OutLook Study in Waterloo Region, this project will examine the experiences of discrimination and violence of transgender people in Waterloo Region in three main areas: employment, healthcare access, and social inclusion. This project is a partnership through academics at Laurier and the Crime Prevention Council in Waterloo Region.
Research Objectives
The main objectives of this research are to:
- document the types of discrimination experienced by trans people (from overt violence to subtle microaggressions) in the Region of Waterloo;
- understand the nuances of discrimination and how it manifests in community, family and peer settings;
- discover ways that trans people mitigate these experiences through forms of personal and community resiliency;
- identify program and policy solutions to ameliorate trans discrimination and its effects.
The OutLook Study began as a comprehensive needs assessment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities in Waterloo Region. To date, the OutLook Study Team has published three factsheets and one report, with academic publications on the way. To learn more, check out the OutLook Study project page!
Refugees with minority sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE) face unique challenges that can affect resettlement in Canada. These include the confounding effects of ill-treatment in their home countries due to their SOGIE, the resulting trauma, and the need to integrate into a new society. This study will assess, document, and analyze significant life events in refugees' country of origin and in their transition to Canada. Experiences and data collected will assist policymakers to improve refugee review processes to allow a smoother transition of refugees into Canada improving the health outcomes of future populations.
Research Objectives:
There has been limited Canadian qualitative (and no known quantitative) research exploring life course events and trajectories, impacts of discrimination across the lifetime, threats to health and wellbeing, and resources that promote resilience among SOGIE refugees. Furthermore, those with intersecting identities (e.g., race, disability) face additional forms of oppression (Karimi, 2019); nevertheless, a recommendation of a report released in 2012, that there is a need for greater in-depth research on LGBT refugees and intersections of identities (Mulé & Gates-Gasse, 2012), has yet to be followed.
This study will focus on two main objectives:
(1) examine the diverse, intersectional life-course trajectories of SOGIE refugees to Canada.
(2) identify barriers, challenges, and opportunities at the individual, community, institutional (e.g., policy, social service, healthcare access), and structural (e.g., refugee review processes) levels.
To target these objectives, we will be answering these questions:
(1) What kinds of intracategorical, intersectionally-diverse experiences occur for SOGIE refugees across their life course?
(2) How do these experiences relate to the transition to life in Canada?
(3) At the individual, community, institutional (e.g., policy, social service, healthcare access), and structural (e.g., refugee review processes) levels, what contributes to wellbeing and health outcomes?
Our Ultimate Intention:
Using the results from this study, we can leverage the findings to apply to either the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council or the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for a larger mixed-methods study of sexual orientation and gender identity minority refugees and asylum-seekers. This future study will involve a quantitative component to further explore the psychosocial well-being of these communities in Ontario, follow-up interviews to further elucidate concepts, and an extensive knowledge dissemination phase that will involve sharing findings with SOGIE communities, health and social service providers, policy-makers, and other relevant stakeholders.