Kevin St-Martin, Masters Candidate at the Chair, is Awarded a Mitacs Research Scholarship worth $15,000 (April 2020)
For his master of social work research project at the University of Sherbrooke, Kevin St-Martin examines the use of virtual reality as a means to raise awareness and counter mistreatment, bullying, and ageism towards older adults.
His project, entitled “Virtual Reality as a Tool in the Fight against the Victimization of Older Adults,” was awarded funding from the Mitacs Accelerate Program.
This $15,000 scholarship grant includes matching funds ($7,500) from the Jasmin Roy Sophie Desmarais Foundation in support of an evaluation of its awareness-raising project ‘3600 Workshops For Older Adults’. Essentially, Kevin St-Martin’s project seeks to determine how older adults react/respond to a virtual reality activity meant to raise their awareness of mistreatment.
From its analysis of certain aspects of the ‘3600 Workshops For Older Adults’ activity, his research project will enable:
- Identification of both positive and negative elements experienced by the older adults who participated;
- Recommendations and ways to improve future awareness-raising activities through the use of virtual reality;
- Contribution to the consideration of using virtual reality in social work practice.
This year, the results of Kevin St-Martin’s thesis project will be made available on our website.