What was the initiative?

Asia worked alongside a group artists with and without intellectual disabilities through a community program (Hearts & Hands) that aims to promote enriched lives and relationships through creative expression, collaboration, and inclusion. Through using accessible, participatory process tools, she advocated for the leadership and inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of decision-making throughout the Fellowship. Asia’s year began with a community-wide visioning session where the future of Hearts & Hands was discussed, and where all voices were invited to contribute to goals for the year. This led to the initiation of a weekly performance arts group, continued dialogue about the sustainability of Hearts & Hands, and the creation of a new vision statement that was represented visually through the creation of a short film. Since the end of Asia’s Fellowship in 2016, the project has continued to run in Antigonish in accordance with the collaboratively defined vision identified through Asia’s Fellowship year.

What was the community connection?

In the final year of her undergraduate degree, Asia became connected to Hearts & Hands through a Service Learning placement, and developed a strong relationship to the community. After the completion of her placement, Asia continued to be involved with the Hearts & Hands community and built relationships with the artists and staff. Through her involvement with Hearts & Hands, Asia gained a deeper appreciation for the power that inclusion and artistic expression hold in shifting societal perceptions, and in building spaces where a sense of community and belonging can flourish.

How was it innovative?

Asia’s Fellowship focused on amplifying and making central the voices of people with disabilities in decision-making processes related to the future of the art program. To achieve this shift in leadership and decision-making, Asia implemented participatory processes, informed by an ABCD approach. Asia facilitated inclusive dialogue using tools such as PATH (Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope: a graphically facilitated visioning tool) and videography. Shifting the community’s mindset from deficit, needs-based thinking to celebration and mobilization of assets and opportunities, as well as forming strong relationships, creating space for leaders to emerge within the community of people with disabilities, and bringing the community together in decision-making all contributed to project sustainability.

What is Asia doing now?

In the year following the Fellowship, Asia worked as an Anatomy & Physiology lab instructor at St. Francis Xavier University while staying connected to the Hearts & Hands community. She also completed a provincially-funded research project looking at gaps in sexual education for people with intellectual disabilities in Nova Scotia. Subsequent Research Assistant positions included placements at the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, The Wilson Centre, and Sunnybrook, where she contributed to research related to young families, diversity and inclusion in university orientations, emerging themes related to COVID-19 and systemic inequality, and the reproductive health needs of women with Spina Bifida. In 2021, Asia completed her MD at the University of Toronto. Asia is currently a Pediatrics Resident at the University of British Columbia.