“No action without research, no research without action”
IWC’s law and policy reform proposals are based on legal analysis and the findings from primarily worker-centred research. The clinic promotes injured worker participation in qualitative research that values injured workers’ experiences and helps define community needs. The clinic supports the disability rights community demand “nothing about us without us” and strives to ensure that injured workers are not just subjects of research, they are valued members of the research team.
One of the founders of the Bancroft Institute for Studies on Workers’ Compensation and Work Injury, a collaboration of advocates, injured workers and academics, IWC continues to share current research knowledge through workshops and policy discussions. IWC has regularly sat on research advisory committees, including ONWIG’s Research Action Committee, various projects at the Institute for Work and Health and with a variety of emerging and established academics.
Over the years the Clinic has led or sponsored a number of initiatives, most recently a Lakehead University project (2021) exploring the experiences and mental health needs of injured and ill Northwestern Ontario workers in the WSIB process. As a partner it has contributed to projects such as :
- the Where Did They Go? project led by the Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy on what happens to workers with permanent impairments denied compensation benefits and unable to find work.
- the Research Action Alliance on the Consequences of Work Injury (RAACWI), a five-year community-university project (2006-2011) exploring how the workers’ compensation system helps or hinders injured workers.
