Campus Belonging Project
What is the Campus Belonging Project?
In collaboration with the University of Alberta (U of A) and McMaster University (CanChild), the Campus Belonging project was developed to enhance autistic postsecondary (PS) students' sense of belonging within Canadian institutions. The Campus Belonging project was initially designed to understand and address the barriers that autistic PS students face.
Using a co-design and community-based participatory approach, the Campus Belonging project follows two phases. The first phase emphasizes the experiences of autistic PS students and university stakeholders. The second phase is focused on bringing autistic PS students and university stakeholders together to establish sustainable practices to promote autistic students' sense of belonging at both the U of A and McMaster.
The goals of Campus Belonging
The Campus Belonging initiative was designed to address the following goals:
- Understand the landscape of supports and barriers on university campuses for autistic post-secondary students,
- Understand and explore communities of practices nationally and internationally,
- Identify and co-create feasible supports and strategies that meaningfully promote autistic students' sense of belonging, and
- Evaluate successful approaches to making changes on PS campuses in Canada.
Research Timeline
2021-2022: Project funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Engage Grant
2023: Project funded by seed grant from the Collaborative Partnerships Research fund at the University of Alberta.
2023-2027: Project funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Engage Grant