Please click here to access the form that contains the overall application along with additional details about the conference, consumer program and guidelines to apply. You can also refer to the details below for information and guidelines.
Please note the application submission process has now closed.
About the 2014 Consumer Outreach Program
The Toronto Rehabilitation Institute – UHN, SCI Ontario, and the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation (ONF) would like you, consumers living with a spinal cord injury, to be a part of the 6th National Spinal Cord Injury Conference held in Toronto, October 2nd – 4th, 2014.
The Outreach Program helps to pay the costs for you to attend if you would not usually be able to attend this national scientific conference.
In return for this support, we ask you to:
- Attend the full conference, Day 1 and Day 2, pre-course is excluded. You can still attend the pre-course, but the cost to attend is not covered by this Consumer Outreach Program, you will have to pay yourself.
- Complete an online evaluation for the Conference, to let the conference organizers know what you think about the presentations.
- Write about what you learned and experienced. We call this an "insight article" and will publish it in SCI Ontario’s Outspoken Magazine or ONF’s Neuromatters Newsletter.
These guidelines below explain the purpose of the fund, who can apply and how to apply.
Guidelines
- A Consumer is a member of the general public who is living with a spinal cord injury.
- The Consumer Outreach Fund is for people living with a spinal cord injury from across Ontario that would have no other way to pay for this kind of conference (for example, no employer sponsorship, no studentship, no fellowship or no research grant or academic support).
- The costs we cover are to attend the conference starting Thursday afternoon at 6:00pm with Consumer Orientation, followed by a Consumer Dinner, to Saturday afternoon at 5:00 pm. If you apply for this support, you must attend the full conference. If you cannot attend the full conference, please do not apply.
- If you want to attend pre-conference sessions then you will need to pay the pre-conference cost of $175.00 CAD. If you want to attend extra activities that are not part of the conference then you will need to pay for them. These extra activities must not take place during the conference.
- We welcome and encourage past applicants, but we will give priority to consumers who have not been to the conference before.
- This fund covers the full conference including:
- $150.00 VISA gift card to cover any expenses while in Toronto, including the Thursday night Consumer Dinner at the Eaton Chelsea Hotel
- Meals provided at the conference
- Reasonable travel costs:
- Mileage, if you drive to the Conference, we will reimburse your mileage at $0.40/km OR
- Flight / Train, if you fly or take the train we will purchase your flight or train ticket for you (economy class only)
- Accommodation, we will book and pay for your accommodations (room only), 1 room for Thursday and Friday nights
- If you are chosen, we ask you to:
- Attend a pre-conference consumer meet and greet session and dinner
- Fill out an evaluation over email
- Write an Insight Article (see details above under “About the 2014 Consumer Outreach Program”) to the partner organizations. The article must be at least 300 words. We hope to read about how you will take what you learn during the conference back to your community to help others with spinal cord injuries.
- The deadline to submit the Insight Article to the partner organizations is
- December 2014
- Attendant services will be provided at the Conference on October 3rd from 7:30am to 7:30pm and October 4th from 7:30am to 4:30pm, if you need attendant services outside of conference hours (for example morning or evening care), you will need to pay for them. Travel costs for attendants may be considered as part of this program, but not guaranteed.
How we choose
- Anyone living in Ontario with a spinal cord injury that has finished a high school education can apply. We will consider applicants who would have trouble affording the cost of the conference first.
- There will be 2 parts to your application:
- a written application (see pages 5-7)
- a telephone interview that will last about 15 to 20 minutes
- Applicants who really want to attend the conference and have clear goals will be chosen.
- If your application is not accepted now, we will keep it on file for future conferences.
- We promise to keep your application private, whether it is accepted or not. Only the partner representatives involved in the review will see it.
