Projects
Research Shop Projects
Engaging for Change
A wide variety of organizations in the Guelph Wellington have had on-going conversations about the nature of social planning and decision-making in our current complex web of networks. In response, a partnership and several interrelated projects were developed, and a proposal for funding was jointly submitted called Engaging for Change: Practicing Collaboration and Planning in Guelph-Wellington. While our proposal was not successful, partners remain committed and we have proceeded with some internally funded projects.
Current projects are:
Photovoice: With cameras in hand, community researchers from six neighborhood groups across Guelph have investigated what living healthy and well in their communities looks – both challenges and celebrations. They will present their photos at a public show, and their findings will feed into the City of Guelph’s Community Well Being Initiative. Leads are neighborhood groups, the Research Shop and the City of Guelph
WorkTogether.ca: A website is in development, with the goal that everyone with interest in community collaboration has a pathway to do so—through sharing knowledge, resources, and connections with individuals, organizations, and collaborations in Guelph-Wellington. This searchable website will house collaboration resources and tools, a library of locally relevant community reports, and primers on how and why to collaborate and engage. Leads are the Volunteer Centre, 10 Carden and the Research Shop
Community reports and data access. A working group is developing criteria and a data access protocol to share what might be used as community level indicators collected by different organizations across organizations. Leads are Family & Children’s Services, WDG Public Health and the United Way
30,000 feet. Continuing the conversation about collaboration and social planning, is a small group of community organization leaders and municipal staff who are discussing what a social planning body looking across efforts at community impact might look like.
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The Steering Committee for Engaging for Change includes:
- Family and Children’s Services of Guelph and Wellington County.
- The City of Guelph.
- The Guelph-Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination.
- The Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship/Research Shop
- The United Way of Guelph-Wellington
Numerous other partners across various sectors are involved.
For more information, please contact E4C Project Coordinator Loretta Rose at lrose@uoguelph.ca
Research Shop Interns
The Research Shop supports three groups or "tables" of graduate students who link with community organizations and collaborations through research and knowledge mobilization activities. Interns meet every 2-3 weeks at the Research Shop to discuss project plans and concerns around negotiating with partners, methods, ethics or other CES concerns, and to link across projects and methods. Interns receive support through occasional professional development activities, and are mentored through the involvement of senior PhD students and staff, who act as project managers in more complex projects. All complex projects have a faculty/staff member serving as principal investigator.
Interns conduct what we refer to as “rapid response” research for community partners keen on a quick turnaround to research questions, as well as research planning for more complex questions, conceptualizing, and partnership building activities. Some interns may work as “embedded researchers” in community collaborations, to identify broad research agendas, and serve both as a link to research expertise on campus (faculty interests; other graduate students) and as researchers on particular projects.
Current Topics:
Group 1 Interns: focus on community collaboration and engagement as a research topic (such as the Collaboration for Community Impact project with the Volunteer Centre, Trellis Mental Health and other partners, and the community research training program which is linked to the work of the Guelph Wellington Poverty Task Force and the City of Guelph)
Group 2 Interns: work with a variety of partners on social and environmental issues (such as with the Children's Opportunity Council, Immigrant Services and Transition Guelph)
Group 3 Interns: focus on food security issues (such as an Emergency Food project for the Food Accessibility group of the Guelph Wellington Food Rountable/Poverty Task Force).
ICES Projects
Faculty Reward and Development Collaboration
In order to build capacity for community-engaged scholarship, university reward systems and cultures must support and sustain community engagement as a core value and practice. The College of Social and Applied Human Sciences at the University of Guelph and Community-Campus Partnerships for Health are spearheading a national initiative that aims to change university policies and practices to better develop and reward community-engaged scholarship. See http://cescholarship.ca for more information.
Graduate Course in Community Engaged Scholarship
A graduate course in Community Engaged Scholarship (CES) was piloted in 2010 and will be offered again in Winter, 2011. This course engages students in projects, providing a mechanism though which community needs and research resources are matched. Students are required to produce a scholarly product and a product suited to their community partners' needs, as well as a reflection report on the rpocess of their learning of the rewards and challenges of engaged scholarship. For more info about this course please contact Belinda Leach
Undergraduate Linking
Currently, undergraduates participate in the Research Shop on an ad hoc basis, through projects that originate at the intern tables, or through independent study courses that link in and support faculty supervisors. Links with course instructors are made on a case by case basis. A College wide initiative to develop additional courses, pathways and other opportunities for undergraduate students are being developed in 2011/2012, led by Clare McMartin (Associate Dean academic).
Cross-College Linkages
On March 1st, we held the Partnership Practices: Working with Community, Industry and University event, as part of a cross-college working group. This was funding by Agri-food and Rural Link, a program of the OMAFRA-U of G Partnership.
Knowledge Impact Projects
The Research Shop/ICES has partnered with the University of Victoria, University of Saskatchewan, York University, Université du Québec à Montréal and the Harris Centre at Memorial University to deliver knowledge mobilization services through ResearchImpact.ca. This partnership is designed to link research with need, liaising among multiple institutions and their surrounding communities. Our network allows us to leverage our resources and work with like-minded professionals to mobilize knowledge more effectively. This project supports a partnership among the University of Guelph and other institutions, as well as supporting our local partnership with the United Way. We recently attended the 2011 CU Expo and the 2011 CAURA National Conference to share more about our knowledge impact projects at ICES/The Research Shop.
ICES is currently working with University of Guelph and ResearchImpact Colleagues on a Plain/Clear Language Summaries of Peer-Reviewed Research Project. This is the first cross-university project as part of the ResearchImpact partnership. More information at: www.csahs.uoguelph.ca/pps/clear_research