Chapter 9: Sol Express in the Time of COVID-19: Reflections from a Creative Arts Participatory Research Project

Stay-at-home and lock-down orders issued by the Ontario government at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of many community-based programs for people labelled/with intellectual disabilities. L'Arche Toronto Sol Express, an interdisciplinary arts program located in Toronto, is one example of a program that rapidly changed its program delivery to an online format so that participants could remain engaged and collaborative projects could continue. Similarly, participants had to adapt to new programs with virtual formats, and to accessing programs from their own homes as opposed to gathering with others in the community.

To reflect on these changes, Sol Express members and creative facilitators together conducted a participatory research project which considered the impact of the online format on individual participants and the group as a whole. Following the principles of emancipatory and participatory research, a research team was established and focus groups were held to explore people's experiences.

Our findings suggest that while there were many difficult aspects to the pandemic, people also experienced situations of learning and growth. However, our project also points to issues of inequity in the pandemic's effects, such as the inability for technology to incorporate diverse communication methods, and concerns regarding members of the extended community who remain disengaged or ‘lost’ due to a lack of technological and personal support.

Although our research focused on an arts group for people labelled/with intellectual disabilities, our findings can be applied to the broader community, especially regarding the benefits of in-person gathering and what is lost when programs are held exclusively online.