Telling Our Stories
Telling Our Stories: A Photovoice Project with Diverse Autistic Youth in Northern Ontario responds to urgent gaps in autism research and services for autistic youth in Northern Ontario and Indigenous communities where systemic barriers to care are exacerbated by geographic and cultural factors. Autistic youth in these regions often face environments where services are limited and culturally incongruent, failing to account for their specific contexts or unique gifts and needs. The result is exclusion and distress for autistic youth, and limited resources for providers.
Over the next three years, working alongside autistic youth and community partners the team will:
Analyze the existing research on autism and youth thriving in Northern and Indigenous communities.
Map current youth services and identify where the biggest gaps lie.
Co-design new, culturally relevant supports with youth and community partners.
Share insights in academic journals, community talks, art exhibits, and policy briefs.
Scale up the project to three new communities interested in the project
Stay tuned for more information.
This project is funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (grant 890-2024-0164).
Our Partners
Algoma Family Services
Finding Our Power Together
Autism Ontario
Autism Alliance Canada
The Re•Storying Collective
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Project Goals
Goal One
To create new knowledge by centring the experiences and desires
of Autistic people and their/our supporters.
Goal Two
To centre disability justice and the knowledge of Black, Indigenous and other people of colour .
Goal Three
To create accessible multimedia story making approaches and decolonize research and stories of Autism.
Goal Four
To challenge deficit understandings of Autism and create affirmative practices grounded in research for educators, allied practitioners and leaders.
Goal Five
To provide research mentorship and arts-based training opportunities for Autistic, neurodivergent and other students, artists and community members.
About Patty Douglas
“I want to intervene in systems that exclude and do violence to difference. That’s why I am doing this project.”
