Spotlight

#16 Reflections on integrating community voice

Over the course of this initiative, we created space for collective learning, connection, and reflection about the realities of working towards housing success for Autistic and Neurodivergent people in Canada.

The Autistic and Neurodivergent Advisory Committee was a five-member group aimed at shaping research and informing learnings and products. Importantly, it did not seek to speak for Autistic and Neurodivergent people. Rather it was an intentional community space that was a part of a national conversation on housing.

In this spotlight, we share our process and learnings from the committee meetings.

Context

Graphic of brain shaded in multiple colours

We had five online meetings that were process-oriented and made us more attentive to safety, difference, and the context of the national conversation on housing for Autistic and Neurodivergent people in Canada.

While we are proud of what we co-learned, we are aware of the need for more work that can enhance housing success for Autistic and Neurodivergent people in Canada.

We encourage future initiatives to learn from these experiences and integrate community perspectives to enhance their work.

Meeting summaries

Meeting 1

We set the foundations for our committee. We learned that clarity matters in terms of words and activities.

Meeting 2

We discussed how safety differs for Autistic and Neurodivergent people, and that emotional, physical, and financial safety are all linked.

Meeting 3

We recognized the importance of autonomy, belonging, and support in housing success. We explored this by thinking about how masking can contribute to Autistic and Neurodivergent people’s housing experiences.

Meeting 4

We concluded that inclusion in housing can be specific and different for everyone. We discussed how we can learn from concepts like the Universal Design for Learning and Spoon Theory to enhance housing experiences.

Meeting 5

We reflected as a form of contribution, sharing what we learned and how we hoped that learnings would be spread through our future work.

Future reflections

We encourage you to ask yourself some of the questions that we thought about:

- What helps you feel safe and supported in your living space?
- How might you honour different ways of knowing, sensing, and communicating in your life?
- What would it mean to design housing not just for, but with, neurodivergent people?

Summary of learnings

Our group and process were informed by community-based and participatory research practices rooted in social work. We aimed to go beyond tokenistic inclusion and intentionally sought out Autistic and Neurodivergent individuals whose lived experience and insight could inform and challenge our assumptions about housing.

Our goal was to foster collective learning and shared growth between community members, researchers, and professionals, recognizing that each group brings different types of expertise. Below is a summary of learnings for three areas of our initiative.

Knowledge sharing

We learned that accessible, flexible, and emotionally safe tools matter just as much as content. Our Spotlights, webinars, and ecosystem map were inspired by community guidance to enhance accessibility, usability, and project transparency.

Applied research

We learned to focus on meaning-making, not metrics. Community members reshaped how we defined safety, success, and inclusion in housing, and how we approached our research to seek out pockets of strategies.

Community outreach

We learned that sustained engagement must centre autonomy, relationality, and care. This required building trust before expecting contribution and being considerate of feedback in an iterative way.