Archives - Community First

Tools: How to make research relevant to the media

amymrichardson — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 17:32:30 +0000

by Amy Richardson, CFICE Communications RA

You’re an academic who’s uncovered groundbreaking research after years of testing. You know the topic inside and out; you’re the expert. A news agency calls you to talk about your findings and you couldn’t be more excited. While conducting the pre-interview, they ask you to simplify the complex terms and cut the jargon. But you’re an expert, you thought it was ALREADY simple. What now?

Beth Gorham, the manager of Public Affairs at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University, helps researchers make their findings relevant to the media.

“Our main goal when we deal with researchers and academics is to help them get their message across in a really accessible way,” Gorham says.

Gorham, the and the work together to encourage the �Ӱ�ԭ�� community to spread the word about what’s happening at �Ӱ�ԭ�� and the great things they are researching. They emphasize using storytelling techniques that will peak your audience’s interest.

“One of the main ways we try and support (researchers and academics) is through understanding their audience and how they have to take very complex subjects and present them in accessible, meaningful ways,” she says.

“We get very specific and tell them: don’t use big numbers, round stuff off and create an image in people’s minds. Don’t say 6000 metres, instead say the length of two football fields. These are all things that are part of natural storytelling and creating a narrative that’s simple yet compelling.”

Another trick, Gorham says, is to imagine that they’re speaking to someone in particular that they know, maybe their mother, spouse or cousin – someone who isn’t an expert on the topic.

“It’s not dumbing it down,” she says. “All it’s doing is taking it to a level that respects your audience so people aren’t flipping the channel or turning the page; they’re listening to you. And the reason they’re listening to you is because you’ve got something to tell them that they find compelling and they want to know.“

“We really emphasize that they’re experts. The rest of the world is not. [The audience wants] to know the practical results of their research – what is the bottom line here? How is it benefitting the world and in what way?” she says.

Gorham and Maria McClintock, editor of Internal Communications, offer media training and sessions on an array of topics, such as writing opinion pieces.

Gorham says they show researchers video clip examples of the right and wrong ways to talk to the media. They also record the researcher on camera so they can see how they look before an on air interview.

“We all have bad habits. If you can’t see it, you can’t internalize it. Even if you cringe when you watch yourself on TV, you have to watch yourself. You just don’t know what those bad habits are if you don’t see them.”

They also work with researchers on how to prepare for pre-interviews.

“We always tell them that you might as well consider the pre-interview, the interview. If (the news outlets) don’t find you’re giving them good quotes or context in the pre-interview, you’ll never make it to the real thing. You have to treat it just as seriously. All the advice we give them about the real interview applies to the pre-interview.”

L.I.N.C. wins $77,000 in grants

Jay Gatsby — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 10:22:32 +0000

Story in Brief

L.I.N.C was awarded two grants totaling $77,000. They plan on using the money to increase production at Emma’s Acres so their farm can be self-sustaining in two years.

by Amy Richardson, CFICE Communications RA

A large table of fresh squash from Emma’s Acres. © L.I.N.C. Society

The community of Mission, B.C. came together to vote for L.I.N.C. to win much deserved grants.

In early December, within days of each other, Sherry Edmunds-Flett, Executive Director of, was notified that her cause had won $77,000 in grant money. L.I.N.C. received two sums of money: $45,000 from the for the category of Community Resilience, where the public can vote for the cause they think is the most deserving; and $32,000 from the , a fund dedicated to helping food security causes.

“It was really cool the way the whole community voted for us,” Edmunds-Flett says, recalling the emotion she felt when she received the news. “It was a feeling of gratitude because people didn’t need to give us money and they chose to give us money. That felt really good.”

L.I.N.C. (Long-term Inmates Now in the Community) is a non-profit charity that works to develop positive understanding and dialogue between prison institutions, long-term offenders and the community

L.I.N.C. is the first and only awareness group of its kind run by ex-offenders in Canada. It was founded by Glen Flett, Sherry’s husband. The couple married 28.5 years ago while Glen was serving a life sentence in prison. Together at L.I.N.C. they hold community events, support groups and run an agricultural social enterprise, called , that employs victims, survivors, offenders and ex-offenders.

Glenn Flett of LINC, holds a ripe watermelon cut in half at Emma’s Acres. © L.I.N.C. Society

Emma’s Acres produces vegetables, herbs and fruit grown naturally on an eight-acre property leased to them by the District of Mission.

Edmunds-Flett says they plan on putting the money towards their sustainability plan for Emma’s Acres.

“We figure we will be self-sustaining in two years, not this summer but next summer. So the money will allow us to do needed improvements to the infrastructure and buildings there.”

They will be working on increasing the pH level in the soil, and bringing compost, electricity and a water harvesting system to the site so they can ramp up production.

They’re also going to start growing medicine for the elders in the community.

“What we want is to grow the medicine for the elders then have the elders come teach us,” she says. “People, especially youth, from the community will be able to learn about cultural teachings from the elders and about how to use the medicines, what they’re used for and everything in between. The project would be sustainable by selling the medicine.”

L.I.N.C. is well known in the community, so it’s no surprise they won the Community Resilience category for the Aviva Community Fund.

“People know who we are. We don’t hide that Glen was in jail and we tell our people that they don’t need to hide either. Any project or anything we’re involved in, people know ex-offenders and offenders are involved and are doing the work. It’s not a hidden thing. Our community knows. They dig it. They love it,” she says.

L.I.N.C. also gives back to community members impacted by murder. Any friend or family member of someone who’s been murdered is welcome to any produce or baked goods from Emma’s Acres for free.

“It’s a way of giving back. Community resilience to us is the ability to bounce back and feel empowered,” she says. “Our project allows people to be more than their worst action. They’ve done horrible deeds but they’ve been accountable for them and now they’re giving back to their community.”

Freshly picked gourds. © L.I.N.C. Society

Edmunds-Flett says CFICE helped L.I.N.C become recognized as a cause working for food and social justice issues. CFICE also helps her learn how to evaluate her project.

“One of the things we want to do if our project scales up, which I’m hoping it does, we need to have a proper evaluation system. CFICE has taught me about that and gave me the space to explore broader contextual issues.”

Action is needed to fight violence against women

Jay Gatsby — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 18:21:54 +0000

Story in Brief

CFICE’s Violence Against Women hub collaborated with Action Research Change (ARC) to complete a report card assessing whether or not Domestic Violence Death Review Committee recommendations from the past 5 years have been implemented by Ontario ministries and organizations. These recommendations are meant to help prevent future domestic-violence related deaths. Astoundingly, all the organizations and ministries received poor grades, with the highest grade being a B-.

by Amy Richardson, CFICE Communications RA

Even though it was 26 years ago we still remember the at École Polytechnique. Today, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, we remember the 14 women who died in Montréal on Dec. 6^th, 1989, as well as the many other women who have been victims of violence both before and since.

But what are we as people and a country doing to prevent violence against women?

The Government of Ontario and the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee (DVDRC) publish an annual on victims of domestic violence in Ontario. According to their website, the committee “was established by the Office of the Chief Coroner in 2003 to investigate and review deaths involving domestic violence, and to make recommendations aimed at preventing deaths in similar circumstances and reducing domestic violence in general.”

The DVDRC examines deaths where domestic violence was a factor and makes recommendations to ministries and organizations on policy or procedural changes that will help reduce the numbers of domestic violence-related deaths.

In a DVDRC report from October 2015, the committee included 25 new recommendations, on top of the dozens of other recommendations made in previous years. These recommendations included educating professionals who may come in contact with vulnerable women (psychologists, police, doctors or professors) on the best practices to handle violence against women cases; training for police on the appropriate responses to domestic violence cases for women and women with disabilities; and implementing programs for adolescent students that would help them identify abusive and controlling behaviours.

Earlier this year, CFICE’s Violence Against Women hub collaborated with Action Research Change (ARC) to complete a review on the implementation of DVDRC recommendations over the last five years. ARC, an activist group committed to stopping violence against women, published a report and report card from their findings.

��’s highlighted which of the DVDRC’s recommendations have and haven’t been implemented, while the , like the ones children receive from school, graded the government’s progress on implementing these recommendations.

��’s report reviewed what actions, if any, had been taken by the ministries and organizations to whom the DVDRC’s recommendations had been directed. Organizations included the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, Ontario Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, Law Society of Upper Canada, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, to name a few.

To find out what actions had been taken, ARC wrote letters to each ministry and organization to see what they had accomplished to date. ARC considered significant measures of action to include the implementation of recommended training programs and awareness campaigns. Based on their findings , ARC then graded the ministries and organizations.

Astoundingly, all the organizations and ministries received poor grades. There was a tie for the highest grade, a B-, between the Ontario Women’s Directorate and the Ministry of the Attorney General. Both have shown some signs of progress on the recommendations, such as adding shelter representatives to high risk committees, but none of the changes implemented were enough to make a lasting impact.

A failing grade, an F, was given to First Nations Police, Regional Coroner, Canadian Psychiatric Association, the Ontario Association of College and University Security Administrators, and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. The other organizations received between C+ and D-.

The DVDRC report is not published to provide a running total of Ontario’s fatal domestic violence victims. Instead, it is meant to highlight areas for improvement so organizations and ministries that work with domestic violence victims can help break the cycle of violence. If few to none of the DVDRC’s recommendations from the past five years have been implemented, what does this say about our commitment to ending violence against women?

As we remember the victims of the Polytechnique shooting and the countless other women who have died at the hands of others, let us also prepare for action: It’s time for the government to implement the DVDRC’s recommendations to help end violence against women.

Infographic: What is CCE according to CFICE?

Jay Gatsby — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 17:13:07 +0000

By Amy Richardson, Communications RA

CCE – What is it? What’s the purpose of it? What are the benefits? This infographic about Community-Campus Engagement answers all those questions and more.

Click on the infographic to open it in a new window. You can then use the zoom tool to make the infographic larger.

Read the .

GottaGo! making progress in Ottawa

Jay Gatsby — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 11:19:07 +0000

By Amy Richardson, CFICE Communications RA

Ottawa is getting a little closer to relief.

“We’ve won some very important victories in terms of toilets at Bayview and Hurdman,” says Joan Kuyek, chair of

GottaGo!, an advocacy group campaigning for a network of public toilets in Ottawa, has lobbied to the city to implement public toilets in the plans of two LRT stations.

The group made its official launch two years ago on November 19^th,, coincidentally also World Toilet Day. Ever since, the group has been working hard to create awareness and get support to make accessible public toilets in Ottawa a reality.

With the help of Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE), a SSHRC-funded research project aimed at strengthening Canadian communities, GottaGo! brought forward a motion to include public washrooms in phase two of the LRT plan.

CFICE funded two �Ӱ�ԭ�� University undergraduate students to help with the campaign – Rachel Canham and Sarah Good.

Canham, a 2^nd year environmental studies and physical geography student at the time, created a entitled “Talking Toilets: Assessing the accessibility of public toilet provision in Ottawa, Ontario.” The report highlighted how public toilets impact the lives of all Ottawans, especially those most vulnerable. It was presented to council to spur discussion about the lack of Ottawa’s public toilets.

“We were able to use (the report) for our big press conference last September. It really had a lot of impact,” says Kuyek.

Joan Kuyek, left, and Rachel Canham, right, at the GottaGo! press release in September 2014 unveiling Canham’s report. Photo credit: Patricia Ballamingie.

Canham reflects on her experiences with the campaign.

“One of the key issues and questions I asked participants was about the new LRT system not having any public bathrooms. At the time, there were no plans to build any public bathrooms. That got a lot of attention and it ended up being one of the main focuses of my report,” she says.

“It’s a really good thing to incorporate students into the community action. It was really an eye opening experience for me.”

Some of Canham’s interview participants for the report included disabled people, mothers with children, people with irritable bowel syndrome and homeless people.

“I spoke to a number of homeless people and there were a lot of stories that they weren’t able to enter public bathrooms because they were shunned, which draws attention to the fact that there aren’t true public bathrooms that are available to everyone in the City of Ottawa,” she says.

While Canham focused on how future toilets would improve the lives of Ottawa citizens, Good focused on the existing public toilets in Ottawa.

Good, a 4^th year geography and geomatics student at the time, mapped all the GPS coordinates for the city’s municipally funded toilets. Her findings showed a gap between public toilets locations in the city.

“I was able to identify some places where there were visible gaps, in particular Centretown especially near MacDonald Park. (This) was one of the areas (GottaGo! was) pushing to get a public washroom installed because there was a lack of any kind of public washroom around there,” Good says.

“I think the mapping helped the campaign because it put a good visual to where the gaps really lie. The map shows where the gaps are and it kind of forces the city to do something with it.”

A map of current public toilets in Ottawa that Sarah Good helped create. Source: GottaGo!

Kuyek says the contribution from the CFICE students was instrumental for their campaign.

“We were able to go to the City Information Technology Committee with (Good’s) information and persuade them we need more toilets,” she says. “Both (Canham and Good) had a huge impact on the campaign in terms of what we were trying to do.”

Bessa Whitmore, member of the core GottaGo! team and professor emerita at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University’s School of Social Work, agrees with Kuyek.

“We really appreciate the support that we’re getting from students from CFICE and other students. This is free work for us, but we wouldn’t be able to do what we’ve done without those students.”

Patricia Ballamingie, academic co-lead of CFICE’s Community Environmental Sustainability Hub, says the benefit went both ways.

“The opportunity for these students to conduct applied research, to help those most vulnerable access public space, anchors academic concepts like the right to the city,” Ballamingie says. “We cannot talk about sustainable community without also considering social justice, and Rachel and Sarah understand this in a meaningful way.”

With Canham’s report, the GottaGo! team presented their motion to implement toilets in the LRT stations to council early July for a vote.

“To our delight and surprise, it was unanimous,” Whitmore says.

Canham was also surprised.

“It’s what the people wanted and there was actual change. It’s really exciting.”

Ottawa city staff working on the LRT phase two plan were instructed to include public toilets in the designs for Bayview and Hurdman stations.

“We’re going to be watching very closely to make sure that they actually follow up,” Whitmore says.

GottaGo! hopes to partner with the city on developing a “where to go” app that would show users the locations of Ottawa’s public toilets, their hours of operation and whether or not they’re accessible.

Kuyek thinks the app will help show the city there aren’t enough toilets.

“We think (the app) will enable us to find out which toilets are actually open and accessible. The city seems to think that when they get the app up, they’ll discover that we won’t need very many toilets because there would be so many,” Kuyek says. “We actually think the opposite is true.”

A group of Master of Social Work students from �Ӱ�ԭ�� University will be conducting a “ground truthing” of the public toilets this winter. They will be looking for accessibility, hours of operation and if the toilet is actually open in the winter. Whitmore expects many of them will only be open during programming hours in the summer and not operational in the winter.

Kuyek plans to gain more support with World Toilet Day events on November 14^th. GottaGo! will be having a rain or shine gathering from 12-2pm at Dundonald Park in Centretown. The public is welcome to attend for an afternoon of entertainment and dancing.