An interdisciplinary group of Queens PhD students have completed a project to support Ottawa-based organization ABLE2.

The project is part of the PhD-Community Initiative where groups of three to five students from different programs have the opportunity to assist an organization outside of Kingston based on their interests. Team leader for the ABLE2 project is Jacqueline Giesbrecht, a cultural studies PHD student at Queens.

“I have worked with different organizations that support people with disabilities in various settings…It just really was something I’m really interested in, as soon as I saw the project I knew it was the one I wanted to do,” she says.

In Ottawa, ABLE2 supports over 5,000 people with disabilities become valued members of the community. One of the programs ABLE2 offers is the matching program: volunteers are known as "allies" to the person living with a disability who is known as friend; the ally and friend are paired based on what both parties’ are looking for. Giesbrecht says it’s really just a check-in.

“You meet one to two hours a week with your match, you can just go out for coffee, some go to different sports games..to the gym. It can really depend on what the friend is looking for.”

The group of Queens students worked with ABLE2 to find solutions to recruit and retain volunteers for the program. 

“The main thing we were hearing from volunteers… they felt a little bit isolated…they wouldn’t be meeting with other volunteers to see how they were finding the program, the largest suggestion was for ongoing training and networking opportunities to keep building the community,” Giesbrecht says.

The interdisciplinarity of the student groups was a huge strength to the program, Giesbrecht says.

“I’m not a data person…Line Drapeau had much more experience in that… We all have different strengths, ways of approaching different topics, Bryan Collins from environmental studies really supported us in the literature view, we all had our areas of strengths we developed in our own disciplines and we were able to come together and make a really great project.”

Giesbrecht says this project really sparked her interest in working with an organization.

“I’ve learnt a lot about working with an organization in terms of a consulting role, and I’ve realized this is something I’m really interested in doing more broadly…I am interested in continuing in academia as well, but working with an organization really sparked that interest, I think I already knew I had it, but it really solidified.”

Giesbrecht is now working on a research project to address barriers for those living with disabilities in faith and spiritual settings.

Listen to the full interview with Jacqueline Giesbrecht below: