Project 461022

The purpose of this request for a planning grant is to build a collaboration of researchers, trainees, community members and knowledge users focused on addressing health inequities experienced by the South Asian settler diaspora in Canada, particularly focusing on the need for a community-centered anti-oppression training. When working around issues of South Asian inequities, there is an oversimplified understanding of the South Asian identity based on cultural stereotypes, including the tendency to homogenize members of this racialized population. The South Asian anti-oppression training will acknowledge intersectional perspectives that propose that individuals in the South Asian diaspora occupy positions of power, privilege and oppression based on their unique colonial, historical, social, economic and political locations rooted in history, which in turn are determined by the interlocking axes of gender, class, caste, sexuality, religion, and other determinants of identity. The intersectional perspective suggests that oppressions are experienced differently across the South Asian diaspora population. A series of planning meetings and provincial and national dialogues will be organized across Canada. These opportunities will allow the exchange of perspectives, experiences, and priorities in the feasibility, acceptability, and usability of the South Asian anti-oppression training, and to hear from the diverse South Asian and non-South Asian stakeholders for whom this training is intended. These insights will be reflected in the design of an implementation research agenda that seeks to trial the South Asian anti-oppression training. The implementation research collaboration is premised on the value of co-learning and multi-stakeholder engagement around the complexity of South Asian health inequities, and the goal of producing evidence-based and solutions for policy uptake.