1st CURA Conference
Meeting the challenges of mental health struggles within the context of a multicultural environment requires the commitment and involvement of funders, policymakers, service providers, community health and social service organizations, and researchers, working in partnership with cultural-linguistic communities.
On December 7, 2006, the “Towards Cultural Empowerment” conference, the first in this CURA study, was held at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. agenda photos The intent was to bring together all of these partners to share the findings from the first two years of research and generate practical ideas for potential interventions. Over 140 people, representing a wide range of stakeholder groups from across Ontario, attended the conference.
In the morning, two of the CURA community researchers presented the voice of the communities. This was followed by researchers’ brief presentations of research findings from the international literature review, key informant interviews, web survey of Ontario service providers, and focus groups with cultural-linguistic communities. Team members then presented the cultural empowerment framework, developed out of the research findings, as a template for future pilot intervention projects. In the afternoon, conference participants worked in small groups to brainstorm and prioritize ideas for interventions. To view the conference proceedings, click here.
The MT Space, a multicultural theatre company based in Kitchener, Ontario, performed “The Other End of the Line”, a theatre piece commissioned by the Taking Culture Seriously study. This premiere performance explored issues of mental health and cultural diversity from the perspectives of people from diverse communities as well as service providers. Comments from conference participants included, “Amazing. It hit the truth, and then some.” “Absolutely amazing, in that it captured the true essence of what this conference is all about!” “Very moving and insightful – I think everyone should see it. ”
The Taking Culture Seriously study enters its second phase – “Developing Culturally Effective Practice” – in 2007. There will be a series of meetings with the five cultural-linguistic communities collaborating in the study, as well as with service providers, policymakers/planners and funders, to share the outcomes of the conference and to discuss strategies for developing pilot project proposals. Following the submission of proposals to a number of funding organizations, the pilot projects that receive funding will be implemented and evaluated in the third phase of the study (2008-09).
In December 2009, an international conference was held in Waterloo, Ontario to summarize the project and its findings with the community.