SAGE: Project Connect: Online Peer Support to Reduce Social Isolation
Project Description:
The Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities creates evidence-based products to advance the ability of people with disabilities to live independently in the community. This developmental project will develop an online multi-media product that community-based agencies can use to help people with disabilities living in the community develop social networks to reduce social isolation and loneliness. The product will help people with disabilities increase social connectedness by participating in an online group that meets for the expressed purpose of creating a larger social network. This social network may include a blend of both online connections and community connections that facilitate being with people in the community. We are developing this product based on research we conducted through the lengthy period of social isolation occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that people could make very good use of online groups to facilitate being connected with others. While this project is not solely focused on rural populations, we are partnering with a long-term collaborator the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL) who has recruited five Centers for Independent Living to participate on a development team (4 sites to participate and an alternate site if needed). The development team will work to develop the multi-media curriculum using a Participatory Curriculum Development (PCD) procedure. The use of PCD in curriculum development helps ensure that the final product of this development project will be relevant, useful and will contribute to the well-being of people with disabilities. Finally, the curriculum will be rigorously evaluated through implementation and data collection by staff from eight novel CILs (i.e., not the CILs that developed the curriculum).
Keyword(s):
Social isolation, peer support, participatory curriculum development, commu
Core Function(s):
Performing Research or Evaluation, Developing & Disseminating Information
Area of Emphasis
Health-Related Activities, Quality of Life, Other
Target Audience:
Professionals and Para-Professionals, Adults with Disabilities
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Disadvantaged Circumstances, Geographic Areas
Primary Target Audience Geographic Descriptor:
National
COVID-19 Related Data:
N/A
