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ACTIVITIES / Research
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Aware of the need for worker-centred research, Ontario's injured workers have long been active in
community-based and participatory research initiatives.
- Bancroft Institute (for Studies in Workers' Compensation and Health and Safety)
The Bancroft Institute (known to 1999 as the Injured Workers' Institute) was established in 1997 by the injured worker community and representatives
to promote education and research that addressed the concerns of Ontario's workers.
Annual workshops have focused on such issues as the precarious employment of the contingent worker, myths and realities of early and safe return to work,
participatory action research methods and tools.
In December 2003, the Bancroft Institute hosted a meeting of injured worker activists and researchers to explore
joint research projects, leading to a formal partnership between the injured worker community and university researchers (see RAACWI below).
For further information on the Bancroft Institute, contact Injured Workers' Consultants.
- The Research Action Alliance on the Consequences of Work Injury (RAACWI)
This community-based research initiative addresses the question: "How does Ontario's workers' compensation system help or hinder the protection of injured workers - immediately and over time -
against negative economic, social, physical and mental health consequences of injury?"
With five-year funding (2006-2011) from the federal Community-University Research Alliance (CURA), this research program aims to better understand the impact of work injury and
how legislation, policies, programs and practices can best support injured workers.
Partner organizations: Bancroft Institute, Injured Workers' Consultants,
Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups, Ontario Federation of Labour, Institute for Work and Health, Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers.
Office of the Worker Adviser, McMaster University, University of Toronto. Other participating organizations: Industrial Accident
Victims Group of Ontario, Lakehead University, Toronto Injured Workers' Advocacy Group, Toronto
Rehabilitation Institute, Trent University, United Steelworkers, University of Ottawa, York University.
Go to www.consequencesofworkinjury.ca for full details of the specific projects and to subscribe to
their e-newsletter.
- The Carol McGregor Post-Doctoral Fellowship
The Research Action Alliance on the Consequences of Work Injury has recently established a two-year fellowship
affiliated with McMaster University, Hamilton.
Named in memory of Carol McGregor - a long-time disability rights activist
and community legal worker with Injured Workers' Consultants - the initiative aims to build research capacity
by providing mentoring opportunities for graduate students and recently graduated researchers to develop their research skills on the topics under study by RAACWI, particularly in the area
of deeming and experience rating.
- "Connecting for change: injured workers in Northwestern Ontario and the effectiveness of peer support"
This impetus for this 2002 participatory research report came from "injured workers in Thunder Bay who noticed injured workers talking to and
helping other injured workers. They wondered how often this occurred; its benefits as well as how it compared to other supports
in the community..." The Thunder Bay Injured Workers' Group contacted researchers at Lakehead University, and together with support groups from Dryden, Kenora and the Canadian Injured Workers Alliance,
created a community research team. [Summary]
- Injured Worker Participatory Research Project: "Making the system better: Injured workers
speak out..."
This 2001 study explored the experiences of more than 300 injured wokers in southern Ontario and made recommendations for changes to the workers' compensation
system. Under lead investigator Bonnie Kirsh of the Univerity of Toronto, most of the people who conducted the study were themselves injured workers who "along with a handful of
university academics and representatives of worker organizations, identified the key issues to be explored, developed the survey and interview
questions and related their findings to other relevant research on injured workers."
[Report]
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