Katherine Occhiuto is a PhD Candidate at the Carleton University School of Social Work. Prior to starting her doctoral work Katherine was a Youth Mental Health Counsellor and a Community Developer at a community resource centre. In her capacity at the resource centre she provided mental health supports in individual, family and school settings, and created, facilitated, and supervised programming. As a seasoned Youth Worker in urban, suburban and rural settings, Katherine’s dodgeball skills are exemplary (self-declared).

Katherine’s dissertation focuses on the effects of systems of provision—meaning how do systems (charities, social welfare, etc.) set up to provide for those in need, impact users both materially and relationally. This work has been supported by SSHRC, OGS and Carleton University.

As a Community Developer Katherine led and supported community-based research projects in a variety of areas including youth mental health needs, food security, community, and asset mapping. Katherine is a Research Assistant for a variety of projects including Tracking Digital Declarations: Facilitating Evidence-Based Innovations Across Youth Centres in Canada— a participatory project that worked with six youth centres to create a data collection app to support youth centres in capturing the work they do. Much of her research is dedicated to ensuring that community programming is meeting participants needs, and that organizations are able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they do—including with YouthREX, and the Trillium-funded project Evaluation of Shepherds of Good Hope’s Case Management Program Aimed at Housing Chronically Homeless Women and Transgender People. Katherine’s research is also focused on social work education, and as the Lead Research Assistant and Lab Manager of the SIM Social Work Research Lab she supports research on how to prepare social work learners for inclusive and effective social work practice.

Katherine Occhiuto, MSW, PhD Candidate Carleton University School of Social Work katherine.occhiuto@carleton.ca