Twentieth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

This paper discusses the merits, opportunities, and challenges of campus-community partnerships by drawing on a recent community-based project, titled “Building Connections: Engaging and Supporting Older Adults Through Communication Technology”, which involved instructing thirty Cambodian and Spanish-speaking transmigrant older adults on communication technology use. Communication is integral to the maintenance of a transnational livelihood, therefore the project was followed by a qualitative exploration of how the extent to which these technologies impact participants’ everyday life using semi-structured interviews. The Toronto-based initiative was supported by the York University Global and Community Engagement Collaborative Project Fund and was conducted at the Jane and Finch Family and Community Centre’s “Unity in Diversity: Aging at Home” program, a mobile day program for individuals aged 55 and over. As a team, researchers and practitioners from fields of social work, education and communication studies collaborated with the centre’s staff to develop and deliver a series of modules to participants and sought their feedback on efficacy, affect and plans for future use. Participants’ exhibited variations in learning goals, literacy levels, personal access to technology hardware, and literacy levels (in their first language). The diverse needs and capacities of participants provided inter-professional collaborators with the opportunity to synthesize theoretical concepts, methodologies, relational skills, and professional practice into effective action. This paper contributes to existing scholarship on the role of institutions of higher learning and community-based organizations in supporting collective knowledge production, citizen engagement, and inclusion.