Disrupting discrimination against older people experiencing homelessness through community-based arts initiatives

November 02, 2022

Weldrick, R., Grittner, A., Chen, L., & Della Foresta, E. (2022, November). Disrupting discrimination against older people experiencing homelessness through community-based arts initiatives [paper presentation]. Canadian Association to End Homelessness, Toronto, ON.  

Abstract: 

Discrimination towards people with experiences of homelessness remains a significant barrier to accessing housing, healthcare, and other critical resources. This session will directly address this discrimination and the ways in which it directly perpetuates homelessness. To do so, this session will begin with an overview of emerging research in this area, and then feature presentations from three community & arts-based projects that are working to disrupt discrimination against people with experiences of homelessness in Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal. Speakers will also discuss why dismantling discrimination is a key step in ending homelessness.

Presenters:

Dr. Rachel Weldrick

Weldrick, R. (2022, November). Disrupting discrimination through community conversations & "stereotype cards" [paper presentation]. Canadian Association to End Homelessness, Toronto, ON.

Rachel Weldrick (she/they) is a gerontologist and Postdoctoral Fellow on the Aging in the Right Place Partnership, a community-engaged partnership examining promising practice for supporting older people with experiences of homelessness in Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal. Rachel’s research is founded in critical gerontology, social inclusion, and community engagement. She recently completed her PhD at McMaster University, where she studied the effects of housing and neighbourhood characteristics on social isolation/exclusion in later life. Rachel is also the co-founder of Seniors of Canada, a community project aimed at dismantling ageism and age-related stereotypes.

Lin Chen

Chen, L. Weldrick, R., Della Foresta, E., & Grittner, A. (2022, November). Disrupting discrimination against older people experiencing homelessness through community-based arts initiatives [paper presentation]. Canadian Association to End Homelessness, Toronto, ON.

Lin Chen is the Lead Project Coordinator for the Aging in the Right Place Partnership. She is an asset-based community developer and registered social worker, passionate about multi-sectoral stakeholder engagement, applied research and evaluation, and collective impact. Over the past ten years, she has collaborated with community, organizational and governmental stakeholders across BC to address complex challenges related to social determinants of health experienced by older adults, immigrants/refugees and people with disabilities.

Alison Grittner

Grittner, A., Walsh, C., & Slabé, M. (2022, November). Community artmaking: Creating a sense of belonging among older suppportive housing residents, university students, and community members [paper presentation]. Canadian Association to End Homelessness, Toronto, ON.

Alison L. Grittner is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. Previously educated in architecture, fine arts, and history, her transdisciplinary approach involves working alongside vulnerable communities to reimagine, codesign, and reconstruct everyday environments towards equity, empowerment, and dignity. Underpinning her work is the belief that sensory and arts-based ways of knowing are a potent and untapped means of understanding and sharing emplaced experiences, generating social empathy, and raising critical consciousness.

Eduardo Della Foresta

Della Foresta, E. (2022, November). Atelier Mobile Montréal: A material approach to social inclusion [paper presentation]. Canadian Association to End Homelessness, Toronto, ON.

Eduardo Della Foresta, is an artist and Part Time Professor in the Department ofFine Arts at Concordia University. He has worked for the last 7 years in a psycho-social capacity on the island of Montreal with individuals who have experienced episodic and chronic homelessness. Eduardo's research focuses on pragmatic ways that imagination can help reduce the painful effects of isolation. He is the founder of Atelier Mobile Montreal (Montreal Mobile Workshop) which offers alternative spaces for social engagement and creative expression.