Realize will be hosting monthly Capacity Building Cohort meetings as part of our newest project (which you can learn more about here Women Empowered – Realize). This project has been developed for employers, HR staff, managers, supervisors, and the like, who are interested in learning about how to create accessible and inclusive workplaces for women working with episodic disabilities!
This exciting new cohort will meet on the last Wednesday of every month from 12:00–1:00 PM (ET). It will serve as an opportunity to network with others doing similar work, learn from people with lived experience, and pick up useful tools and resources along the way.
If you’re interested in joining please fill out this form:
Workplaces for Women with Episodic Disabilities – Monthly Cohort Member Registration – Fill out form
Work and Income Resources
IDEAL Community Consultations
Intersectionality, episodic disability and access to health services, community supports and employment in Canada
Throughout 2023, Realize worked with twelve national organizations serving people living with episodic disabilities to lead focused consultations within their respective communities. The focus was an intersectional examination into the living realities and various aspects of access barriers to health services, community-based organizations and employment for people living with episodic disabilities in the Canadian landscape. The participating organizations serve communities that provided unique intersectional considerations of gender, racial identity, faith community, health conditions, sexual identity, and age with disability.
(Partner organizations involved: Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, Ase Community Foundation for Black Canadians with Disabilities, Asian Community AIDS Services, Canadian Multicultural Disability Centre Inc., CanAge, Communities, Alliances, And Networks, DisAbled Women’s Network of Canada Disability Empowerment Equity Network Support Services, Live Educate Transform Society, National Educational Association of Disabled Students, Pride at Work Canada, and YouthCO.)
The objectives of this initiative were:
- To address the deficit of research on living with episodic disabilities through a disability-justice lens, led by people living with disabilities.
- To examine the realities that diverse disability communities are navigating.
- To better understand diversity in disability culture among subgroups such as youth, Muslims, 2SLGBTQIA+ folks and others.
- To broaden perspectives on people living with episodic disabilities and work.
- To examine access to and experience of health services and/or community-based organizations by diverse community members who are living with episodic disabilities.
- To increase the capacity of employers to respond effectively to the challenges facing people living with episodic disabilities and provide appropriate accommodations.
This Executive Summary includes key findings, a summary of insights, and links to each of the 12 partner reports.
Workplaces REVAMPED Final Report
This is the final report of the Realize project titled ‘REVAMPED’, Workplaces REcognizing the VAlue of eMPloyees with Episodic Disabilities funded by the Opportunities Fund of Employment and Social Development Canada.
The REVAMPED Project Objectives were targeted:
1. To increase awareness of episodic disabilities among employers;
2. To increase the understanding of employers of the challenges related to working and
living with episodic disabilities;
3. To increase the capacity of employers to respond effectively to the challenges facing
people living with episodic disabilities;
4. To increase access to information and networking opportunities for small, medium and
large employers on leading practices in accommodating employees living with episodic
disabilities in the workplace; and
5. To increase the capacity of people living with episodic disabilities to communicate
effectively about their lived experience.
The Pandemic Pandora’s Box: Long COVID and Episodic Disability
Project Report; Realize 2021
Executive Summary
The Pandemic Pandora’s Box report analyzes the combined findings of two informal, community-driven surveys shared openly online in February 2021. The first asked adults working or seeking work in Canada about their experiences with Long COVID, while the second asked Canadian employers about their comfort level and preparedness to provide workplace accommodations to COVID-19 long-haulers. Up to 1 in 3 people who contract COVID-19 – regardless of the severity of their acute infection – risk facing Long COVID. Long COVID refers to a multitude of fluctuating, debilitating symptoms that may affect all organ systems and for many cause impairments which last for months.