Hi! What’s this about?
Glad you asked! We believe there’s a lot we can learn from this pandemic by talking to people about their experiences and how they’re figuring things out in a situation as unusual as this. We’d like to capture what we’ve all learned so we can better plan for the future services we offer, enhance our role in neighbourhoods and communities, and be well-prepared for future emergencies.
That’s neat. Who are you asking to participate?
We’re collecting stories from people across the Metro Vancouver area with all different kinds of experiences, and especially people with cognitive disabilities, their families, and people who work with and support them.
How can you participate?
We invite you to share a brief example of what your day(s) looks like. If you click on the Online Form, you’ll see that we ask you to tell us about something you’ve done or that’s happened to you. Then we ask you some questions about that story, and a few questions about yourself as well. You can choose which questions you want to answer, and you can share as many stories as you want.
What if I don’t have any good stories?
That’s okay! The stories we’re interested in are the kind you might tell a friend when you’re just talking about your day, things that happened or things that you did. They don’t have to be special or “good” stories. We’re really just looking for some examples from your every day. We have included some prompting questions that will help you think about a specific experience to share.
How private is this?
We won’t ask you for your name ever, so you and your stories will be totally anonymous. Please leave out identifying details in your stories, like using someone’s name (for example, instead of saying “David Suzuki and I had a chat”, you can say “D and I had a chat”, to keep David’s name private). If you do include identifying details, we will do our best to keep them private.
And what happens after all this?
After we collect a lot of stories, we’ll ask some of the people who shared their stories to help us interpret them. We’ll look for patterns and inspirations to help us think about what we can be doing differently right now and to be better prepared for future emergencies.
Who can I talk to if I have more questions?
If you have questions about this project, you can contact Gareth at gwilliams@kinsight.org
Who all is involved in this project?
This project is a joint effort of BACI, Kinsight, posAbilities, and UNITI, supported by a consulting team of Carolyn Camman and Chris Corrigan. It is funded by the McConnell Foundation.