Disability Matters Vote: 2023 Probe for the Better grant recipient

In 2023, we awarded our inaugural Probe for the Better grant to Disability Matters Vote, a joint initiative of Abilities Manitoba and Barrier Free Manitoba. DMVote is a non-partisan public awareness campaign that ramps up at election time to focus on issues of critical importance to members of the disability community, their advocates and organizations in the province. DMVote promotes participation, priority attention and support for informed election decisions among Manitobans.

Probe’s work began right after the 2023 provincial election campaign and focused on gauging the public’s impression of Disability Matters Vote’s 2023 campaign priorities and outreach. We used several questions on Probe Research’s quarterly omnibus survey of Manitobans to measure the campaign’s reach and impact. In addition to the public perception component of this work, we conducted a series of in-depth, one-on-one interviews with some of Disability Matters Vote’s stakeholder organizations, from funders and disability advocacy groups to representatives of provincial political parties. This helped DMVote understand what worked in the campaign, what could be improved and what role its should play between election campaigns.

“We at Disability Matters Vote (DMVote) were the very fortunate recipients of Probe Research’s inaugural Probe for the Better Community grant. Probe was delightful to work with, helping guide us through the research process, providing keen insight, and outstanding and timely service. The research results have proven to be of immense value to our work and future.” – Malinda Roberts, Patrick Falconer and Jennifer Sande at Disability Matters Vote