Disrupting discrimination through Community Conversations and “stereotype cards”

Abstract  

Discrimination towards people experiences of homelessness remains a significant barrier to accessing housing, healthcare, and other critical resources. Harmful stereotypes and stigmatization towards older people with experiences of homelessness (OPEH) leads to exclusion and discrimination both within the housing/homelessness sector, and the community more broadly. This discrimination is deeply harmful to individual health, housing, and social outcomes as OPEH are treated poorly across a range of settings, including hospitals, on public transit, and in attempts to access market rental units. As such, there remains a significant need for efforts that disrupt pervasive social stereotypes about how, when, and why older persons experience homelessness. To begin addressing these challenges, we co-created a novel storytelling project titled – called Community Conversations – with an interdisciplinary team of lived expertise advisors and academics. The first project component involved a series of free, publicly accessible panel-style events in Vancouver and Calgary, as well as a mobile art exhibit in Montreal. As a team, we also co-developed a series of myth-busting “stereotype cards” featuring stereotypes and myths about homelessness on one side of each card, and the evidence-based counternarratives that challenge these stereotypes on the opposite side. Survey data from the events reveal that storytelling initiatives and creative materials can be effective means of challenging and disrupting harmful attitudes about homelessness in later life. We provide several recommendations for future research and advocacy efforts and encourage others in the field to integrate co-development and storytelling into existing initiatives.