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Welcome to News that Nourishes, the newsletter from the Live Work Well Research Centre at the University of Guelph!
Winter 2019 Issue
We are excited to share our work, news, and upcoming events. We publish and distribute our newsletter four times each year, with collaboration and input from diverse families, organizations, and communities. There are many ways you can contribute, including guest posts, research spotlights, twitter take-overs, and more. Got other ideas? Great, get in touch and let us know. We look forward to hearing from you!
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The interactive dragonfly activity is still open. Follow the link to send us your ideas about families, livelihoods, living environment and well-being, and your thoughts will become part of our new Centre sign.
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Looking Back on 2019: Building Ties
In 2019, the Live Work Well Research Centre committed to developing relationships with relevant local, national and international communities as well as to share knowledge about work, family, and care widely, in multiple and accessible formats. Here are some of the Centre's highlights of 2019.
Events
Families in Canada Con ference 2019, co-hosted with the Vanier Institution for the Family. Over the course of two days, local panel discussions at the University of Guelph explored challenges and opportunities in four key areas: care, food, work and well-being, beginning with explorations of families living in the margins. The conference brought together community members with lived experience, researchers, and practitioners who support and serve families.
Lunch and Learn Event. The Centre hosted a Lunch and Learn event in the Fall of 2019. On November 14th, 2019, the Live Work Well Research Centre hosted a Women in Leadership Workshop at 10C, in Guelph, led by Dr. M. Gloria González-Morales and Dr. Grace Ewles, from the Organizational Psychology program at the University of Guelph. The event focused on translating women's emotional labour into ‘Executive Leadership Practice’. This 90-minute interactive session was designed to explore women’s experiences managing social relationships in the workplace as embedded in their work roles, and the implications of these relational practices for health and well-being.
Research
Research Clusters initiated cluster-based and cross-cluster research activities.
Disabilities and Livelihoods in Canada. We kicked off this project funded by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant by bringing together local and national organizations. People with disabilities continue to respond imaginatively by finding alternatives to paid work to sustain themselves and their families, and we want to highlight the diverse, everyday strategies of people with disabilities. Three pilot projects will look at the livelihoods of disabled people through the lens of volunteering (led by Dr. John Beaton), the arts (led by Dr. Carla Rice), and pre-employment support programs (led by Dr. Deborah Stienstra).
For more information, visit the Disabilities, Access and Inclusion cluster webpage.
Storied Lives. This Partnership Engage Grant brings into collaboration the Displacement, Emergence and Change cluster and the Guelph & Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination to develop a collection of composite stories of those living in poverty in Guelph-Wellington, Ontario.The partners supporting this project are committed to intersectionality as an analytical tool and social movement practice.The composite stories developed in this project will enrich the knowledge of practitioners and service providers, seek to change public attitudes, and amplify the voices of those living in poverty, particularly among decision and policy-makers.
For more information, visit the Displacements, Engagements and Change cluster webpage.
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Around the Centre:
Introducing new staff members of the
Live Work Well Centre
We are happy to introduce you to new additions to  the Live Work Well Research Centre. Benedicta Hughes is our new Administrative Assistant. After returning to Canada, Benedicta recently completed a position as Project Coordinator at the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact, University of Waterloo. Benedicta works at the Centre part-time, and you can reach her at this email address, bhughe07@uoguelph.ca.
Valérie Grand’Maison is our new Research and Knowledge Mobilization Manager. Valérie is a Ph.D Candidate in Sociology, and previously worked as Research Coordinator at the Participati on Action Research in Childhood Disabilities Lab, McGill University. Valérie will reach out to you soon to see how the Centre can best support your research needs and knowledge mobilization activities, and to invite you to collaborate in events on campus and with the community. Valérie works at the Centre part-time, and you can reach her at this email address, vgrandm@uoguelph.ca.
Benedicta and Valérie are both bilingual in French and English, and love to share food! We hope that together, we can continue to build creative ways to foster ties with the community.
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Research Spotlight
Disability and Livelihoods: Rethinking a Conceptual Framework
Dr. Deborah Stienstra and Dr. Theresa Lee, published an open access article exploring the relationship between disability, labour, and livelihood in a neoliberal context. The relationship between disability and multiple dimensions of poverty is well document, yet social protection programs fail to address the needs of people with disabilities because they narrowly focus on the inclusion of people with disabilities in the labour force. Disabled people continue to be employed at lower rates than non-disabled people, especially women with disabilities. Little is known on the imaginative ways that people with disabilities use to secure their necessities, such as caregiving, bartering, etc.
The authors advance that a livelihoods framework is necessary to understand how people with disabilities survive and thrive. Livelihoods represent the means to support the needs and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. This broad approach challenges the current neoliberal ideology defines notions of capability and work according to an opposition between those who are independent and ‘capable’ and those who are dependent and ‘not-capable’. These ideologies not only individualize capabilities, but also transform relationships into market value – erasing the very possibilities of interdependence as viable livelihood. Stienstra and Lee argue that a livelihoods approach is required to look at the multiple, and often contradictory ways of making a living and a life, paying attention to the experiences and power relation shaping those choices.
Dr. Deborah Stienstra is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Director of the Live Work Well Research Centre,
Dr. Theresa Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, and a co-investigator on the Disabilities and Livelihoods in Canada research project (Disabilities, Access and Inclusion).
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Congratulations
We would like to recognize the accomplishments of our members:
Dr. Deborah Stienstra (Director) and Dr. Leah Levac (Lead, Displacement, Emergence and Change) have received a Knowledge Synthesis Grant for their project "Exploring promising international practices in gender and intersectional impact assessments". This knowledge synthesis project will inform best practices in environmental and impact assessments by turning to international literature for examples of promising practices to address gender and intersectionality or the ‘plus’ in gender-based analysis plus in impact assessments.
Jessica Boulé, graduate student in the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph, currently working with Kim Wilson (Integrating Care and Livelihoods) to better understand LGBTQ+ identifying older adults’ experiences of aging in Ontario, Canada, won the CSAHS Graduate Medal, awarded at the College Awards Ceremony.
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Centre Events
Exploring strategies for Living and Working Well: Navigating community-building, invisible labour, and overcommitment
March 18, 2020, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, Room TBD
 The Live Work Well Research Centre is hosting a panel on strategies and challenges of working and living through commitments for building communities and social justice. The panel, moderated by Indira Naidoo-Harris, AVP of Diversity and Human Rights, will foster discussions around the tensions and solutions that emerge from negotiating the demands of academia and nurturing personal and professional relationships and communities. We also wish to explore issues related to the additional expectations and invisible labour put on certain faculty, such as women, people of color, and Indigenous people, that may reproduce or challenge dominant relations of power in academia. We will highlight diversity of experiences in academia by bringing together PhD students, emergent, mid-career, and senior faculty members, as well as a senior administrator who will respond.
Our panelists are:
- Anna Johnson, Ph.D Candidate, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
- Carmen Ho, Assistant Professor, Department of International Development Studies
- Deborah Stienstra, Director, Live Work Well Research Centre
- Gwen Chapman, Dean of the College of Applied and Social Human Sciences
- Leah Levac, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
Light food and refreshments will be offered. The event is free to attend.
Please RSVP here.
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Community Events
Into the Light: Eugenics and Education in Southern Ontario
September 14, 2019 to March 1, 2020
"Into the Light" offers an opportunity for everyone to learn more about local histories and ongoing legacies of eugenics. The focus is on racial "betterment" in Southern Ontario of de-humanized and disappeared individuals who do not fit the normative middle class status of white, able bodied settlers. While eugenics sought to eradicate those deemed as “unfit,” this exhibition centres the voices of members of affected communities who continue to work to prevent institutional brutality, oppose colonialism, reject ableism, and foster social justice.
More information
Skills for Research Impact Series, Community Engaged Scholarship Institute
Several events during the Winter 2020 term
The Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) is hosting several workshops during the Winter semester to develop the knowledge mobilization skills of graduate students, research staff and faculty members. Topics include Event Planning and Facilitation (March 5th, 2020) and Data Visualization (March 25th, 2020). Throughout the series, participants will be invited to apply the workshops’ content to their own research contexts and goals, and bring in real examples to work on. Workshops will be highly participatory and will provide practical knowledge, skills and tools that can be used right away.
More information
Graduate Student Mental Health Conference
February 1, 2020
The Graduate Students Association of the University of Guelph is hosting its third annual Graduate Student Mental Health Conference this year. This is a FREE, one-day event for all graduate students at the University of Guelph. The day will comprise lectures and break-out workshops focused on the unique needs of graduate students, and will highlight the mental health resources available on campus and in the community of Guelph.
More information
Guelph Winter Pride 2020
January 30th to February 8th
 Winter Pride is a collaboration between a number of LGBTQQIP2SAA community organizations and University of Guelph organizations and clubs to create a space where the many communities of Guelph can come together and celebrate our creativity, our resiliency, and the many kinds of love we share and experience.
This year the committee has been hard at work putting together a wide array of events with help from our community partners, friends, lovers, and fellow queers. A week packed full of events - many of which are accessible, sober, and/or entirely free!
More information
Webinar: Closing the Enforcing Gap - Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs
Thursday, February 13, 1:30-3:30 PM, NT
The nature of employment is changing: low wage jobs are increasingly common, fewer workers belong to unions, and workplaces are being transformed through the growth of contracting-out, franchising, and extended supply chains. These changes leave employment standards, which set minimum terms and conditions of employment in areas such as wages, working time, vacations and leaves, and termination and severance of employment, as the sole source of protection for workers in precarious jobs. This webinar will present the findings of a comprehensive analysis of the enforcement of employment standards in Ontario that are the basis for a forthcoming book Closing the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap: Improving Protections for People in Precarious Jobs.
More information and registration
Guelph Sexuality Conference
June 24-27, 2020
 The 42nd Annual Guelph Sexuality Conference, "Come Together: Communities for Sexual Health", highlights the significance of communities in creating social change.
By coming together, sexual health and relationship practitioners, researchers, and community leaders can learn from each other and share tips, tricks, and best practices that we have found to be effective. By coming together, we can reestablish our connections, and reignite our passion with renewed vigor. This year, the Guelph Sexuality Conference aims to encourage a bringing together of diverse communities and perspectives to address current challenges to sexual health and wellbeing.
More information
2020 Work + Family Researchers Network Conference
June 24-27, 2020 
The theme is this year's Work+Family Researchers Network Conference is Advancing Equality at Work and Home: Strengthening Science and Collaboration. The 5th biennial conference of the WFRN is expected to draw more than 700 researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders with work-family interests. The conference is held in New York City, USA.
More information
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Call for Papers
International Women's Day Conference: Research and Revolt
March 6-7, 2020
The Research Facility for Women's Heath and Well-being (Psychology Department, University of Guelph) is hosting a FREE two-day conference of International Women's Day 2020, where researchers and activits from across Ontario can present their work on women's issues. Thus conference will showcase interdisciplinary research related to women and women's issues (e.g. women's health and well-being, violence against women, etc.). Submit an abstract today!
Submission Deadline: January 29, 2020
Submit here
Accessibility Conference
May 26-27, 2020
The 12th Annual Accessibility Conference focuses on the themes of policy, technology and awareness. The conference organizing committee invited you to share your thoughts on these or other social, economic or political drivers that are key to transforming the accessible landscape of Ontario by 2025.
Submission Deadline: January 26, 2020
More infomation
Twentieth International Conference on diversity in Organizations, Communities, & Nations
The theme of this year's conference is "Urban Diversities: Exclusion and Inclusion of Immigrants and Refugees at the Local Level," held at the University of Milan, in Italy, June 10-12 2020.
The Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations Research Network is dedicated to the concept of independent, peer-led groups of scholars, researchers, and practitioners working together to build bodies of academic knowledge related to topics of critical importance to society at large.
Submission Deadline: March 10, 2020
More information
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Stay Engaged
Become a member!
It's free and all researchers, students and community members are welcome. We also encourage and welcome organizations that are interested in or already doing work in responding to the changing needs of families, livelihoods and living environments. Become a member and participate, collaborate and contribute to knowledge sharing, research and teaching in many areas.
Twitter Take-over!
If you are a researcher, student or community member, and you are interested in communicating to diverse individuals about a topic or issue related to families, work and well-being, share your voice and experience through our social media. Contact us and we would be happy to chat with you about it!
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