Our community partner, Inclusion Powell River Society (iPR), will recreate K-Lumet, a manufacturing company established in Europe that employs only people who have disabilities, to be an inclusive social enterprise designed to address barriers to employment for people with intellectual disabilities. The social enterprise will be located in Powell River’s business hub with an inclusive culture where natural supports can be utilized. There will be sufficient access to on-the-job training to perform diverse tasks, requisite job redesign and task modification, and equitable duties and compensation for all.  iPR anticipates productivity, satisfaction, and retention of people with and without disabilities in inclusive employment.  Financed in part by WorkBC's™ Research and Innovation funding, the goal is to demonstrate a labour market solution that expands and improves upon the current ways of helping people who have intellectual disabilities find and maintain employment in a sustainable job.
 
 Susanne Green and Alison Taplay will provide an overview of the research approach designed to evaluate the impact, outcomes and efficacy of the new social enterprise and demonstrate a respectful, reflexive, and responsible methodology that includes individuals with intellectual disabilities, a vulnerable, underrepresented and under-researched group. The study will include up to 24 participants and expand on Haines (2017) incorporating his use of process consent and a consultee for participants identified as vulnerable. We anticipate the study will use mixed methods (interview, onsite observation with informal interview, and document analysis) culminating in a critical ethnographic case study. Uniquely, the study will maximize catalytic validity as a means to focus and energize participants in a self-directed manner. Dissemination of reports will provide the basis for a responsive feedback loop that ensures rigorous evaluation of the project. The report will recommend practices with utility for other labour market innovators and employers as well as priorities for further research.