Empowering Learning Through Community Partnership

Submitted by Pam Armstrong, Faculty, School of Professional Services 

We are pleased to celebrate the launch of a client-based project in ADMN1002 – The Human Side of Business: Thinking and Thriving in the New World of Work. Two sections of second-semester business students have begun a term-long Capstone project with Independent Living Centre Kingston (ILCK). To mark the start of the project, students met with ILCK representatives Natalie Dupuis, Program and Services Manager, and Morgan deMolitor, Program Coordinator, who provided a detailed background and overview, followed by an engaging Q&A. 

Independent Living Centre Kingston is a community-based disability resource and support hub dedicated to promoting independence, choice, and inclusion for people with disabilities. Guided by its mission to empower people with disabilities to create an accessible and inclusive community, ILCK works toward a vision of a community that values and supports full participation for all. 

Through this experience, students will work to address a unique, real-world client challenge, applying course concepts related to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), ethics, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and client service excellence. Teams will develop evidence-informed, practical recommendations that balance client dignity, accessibility, and lived experience with organizational realities such as capacity and long-term sustainability. 

This project provides students with an opportunity to engage directly with a community partner, strengthen professional research and client-facing presentation skills, and propose meaningful solutions to a complex organizational challenge—experience that clearly distinguishes them as they prepare for the evolving world of work. We look forward to sharing the outcomes and recommendations from this collaboration at the end of the term.