In this webinar, our presenters gave an overview of some diverse approaches to capturing and communicating impact within academic institutions and with their community partners. The webinar touched on:

• What community impact looks like in specific campus-community projects and why measuring it matters to the Government of Ontario;
• How post-secondary institutions can and define and measure community impact in a way that resonates with the needs of local community priorities and encompasses the global reach of the university or college; and
• Some of the promising ‘community-first’ practices related to institutionalizing and sustaining impactful CCE.

Video Link

If you missed out on the day-of presentation, not to worry. We’ve made it accessible below.

Resources

The following items were shared by the presenters:

Community Impacts: Metrics and methods from the perspectives of: i) Ontario Higher Education Policy and ii) the Community development sector — Slide deck by Dr. Isabelle Kim

Higher Education, Impact, and the United Nations SDG’s — Slide deck by Dr. Crystal Tremblay

What are some promising community-first practices related to institutionalizing and sustaining impactful CCE? — Slide deck by Magda Goemans

• at University of Victoria, developed by Crystal Tremblay.
• on measuring community engaged scholarship
• Recognizing Excellence in Community Engaged Scholarship (PDF)
• Campus Engage’s “” report.
• Embedding an Ethic of Community Engagement in PSIs – Literature Review of Engagement Measurement Tools

As well, one attendee asked the following question, which could not be addressed during the webinar: My experience with CCE impact (bigger picture) is that we need co-governance between community and higher ed partner and govt., funding inside and out and a legal structure(e.g. non-profit) to sustain the effort beyond the dependency on HE admin leaders- comments?

Dr. Isabelle Kim provided the following written response: I 100% agree that co-governance is key. U of T instated a CCP Advisory Council composed of staff, students, faculty and community partners. While this is not a ‘governing body’ as the CCP is not a non-profit organization and the council is not a board of directors, the CCP most definitely takes into consideration the advice of its council members in all aspects of our planning and programming and this council plays a key role in the future developments of the CCP’s work.

Presenters

Crystal Tremblay is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Special Advisor on Community Engaged Scholarship at the University of Victoria. She is a social geographer and community-based scholar activist with over a decade of international experience doing research on topics related to resource governance and livelihood enhancement. She specializes in using participatory video and arts-based methods for community engagement, capacity building and program evaluation working across sectors with higher education institutions, government, and civil society organizations. She is passionate about cultivating new spaces for creative citizen engagement and the co-creation of knowledge leading to environmental and social equity. Crystal has done extensive research and projects on CCE funding, impact and policy in Canada and is eager to support building a long-term movement and infrastructure for lasting change, which benefits communities and incentivizes academia. For more information, please visit her website: .

Magda Goemans is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, and a research assistant with the CFICE Evaluation and Analysis Working Group. A current focus of her CFICE efforts includes research on best practices for institutionalizing impactful CCE. Magda’s doctoral work involves a critical analysis of household perspectives of climate change risk and adaptation action in Halifax and Ottawa. Her research interests relate to climate change adaptation, disaster mitigation and citizen engagements with urban ecologies in Canadian cities.

Isabelle Kim, Ph.D, has twenty years of experience working in community-based health, education and research, public engagement and international development in Canada and abroad. She has worked on a wide range of different community development projects, including medical and nursing education; community arts youth projects; mental health and HIV/AIDS education; women’s health and girls’ education in Afghanistan, food security in Pakistan; national advocacy and public education campaigns on climate change, and other global social justice issues. In August 2017, she was appointed Director of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Community Partnerships (CCP). She also teaches graduate courses in educational research methods and cooperative learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Isabelle’s involvement with CFICE began in Fall 2017, when she joined the working group on community impacts. In Spring 2018 she chaired a regional roundtable on community-campus engagement, co-hosted by the CCP and CFICE, which brought together over 50 staff and faculty from colleges and universities in Ontario, as well as community partners, and higher education policy perspectives. Her current research is exploring the different ways in which community impacts are conceptualized and measured by academic, community development and policy sectors, and the implications for sustaining reciprocal community-university partnerships.

Moderator: David Peacock, Ph.D, is the Executive Director of Community Service-Learning in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta, Canada. His research encompasses global service-learning, student equity policy and practices in higher education, curriculum theory, community-university engagement and ‘first generation’ university students’ participation in experiential learning programming. David is active in developing Canadian networks for community-engaged learning and research.

Yet there are challenges in developing CCE across Canada. This discussion paper briefly reviews these challenges based on comparisons with international CCE network infrastructures. The paper touches on provincial funding of CCE, federal funding, and foundation funding. The paper then examines a new funding partnership in development between the CCEC and Mitacs.

Click on the image below to download a PDF version of this discussion paper or CLICK HERE to access the paper in FRENCH.

In-depth discussions were a big feature at the Brandon CCE Regional Roundtable.

As the CFICE project approaches 2019—the end of the project—the Community-Campus Engage Canada (CCEC) team has been working hard to keep an eye on the future and explore how best to advance community-campus engagement (CCE) across the country.

Eight regional roundtables hosted by CCEC this spring across the country have been key to enhancing networks, sharing community-campus successes, and identifying gaps and needs in community-campus engagement in Canada.

CCEC, formerly Aligning Institutions for Community Impact (AICI), is one of five working groups in Phase II of the CFICE project, and is working to establish a nation-wide network of community-campus engagement practitioners, advocate for funding policies and practices that better support a community-first approach, and pilot a Community-First self-assessment system and impact framework for the Canadian context.

As David Peacock, an academic co-lead with the CCEC put it, “CCEC is an emerging national network and community of practice for strengthening Canadian communities. It increases the capacity for partnership work and support for social infrastructure to create ethical partnerships.”

The regional roundtables, which were hosted in Toronto, Saskatoon, Vancouver, St. John’s, Halifax, Brandon, Haliburton County, and Ottawa, offer an important site for CCEC to gain insight into local community contexts in order to inform the future work of CCEC.

The goals of the roundtables

The focus of the roundtables has been to identify shared goals, expand regional and national networks, and advance community-campus engagement across the country as a collective. The roundtables are one step in the working group’s mission to connect a community of practice.

While advancing all of Canada’s communities is the goal, an important component has also been identifying the nuanced and unique differences that occur in the many communities and contexts across the country.

Michelle Nilson, an academic co-lead with CCEC, described the thinking behind the roundtables: “We thought it would be really useful to learn more about the ways in which community-campus engagement is manifested in the different communities. And not just to go in and look at what’s happening, but also to ask them about how to develop. What are the strengths that exist in each of the communities; what are their cultural assets?”

CFICE members Michelle Nilson, Peter Andree and David Peacock.

Dr. Nilson said, “the big picture is that we’re better together as communities and campuses,” and the roundtables are one step on the path to enhancing those relationships and informing the larger conversation about community-campus engagement.

The role of the roundtables is pragmatic, too. Dr. Nilson, who is also working to consolidate the results of the roundtables into a report, said, “in order for us to continue to pursue that kind of work and to continue to be funded, we have to be able to demonstrate the ways this work is making a difference in our communities, for our students, and on our campuses.”

The purpose behind the report

The report will consist of three parts. The first will report on each roundtable individually, so as to account for “those unique nuanced differences that we saw across each of the different roundtables,” Dr. Nilson said.

The second part will identify any consistent themes or commonalities across all the roundtables, “recognizing that each roundtable doesn’t necessarily represent an entire region,” she said, “but that it might.” Collecting a wide range of information means the CCEC team can identify areas they can explore further.

Finally, the last part of the report takes into account feedback from the participants at the roundtables themselves, so that the CCEC team can reflect on their own best practices.

Looking forward: results to inform the future

Dr. Nilson said one overarching theme she is seeing come out of the roundtable discussions is a desire for a national network for community-campus engagement. Dr. Nilson pointed out that professional networks and formal frameworks for capacity building are in place in the United States and the UK, but that “we don’t really have a national strategy for CCE…Funding and capacity have been an overwhelming theme across the provinces and communities we’ve engaged with,” she said.

The attendees of the Vancouver CCE Regional Roundtable decided to start a regional Community of Practice.

At this point, what that framework will end up looking like is unclear, “but people definitely want to connect and…are definitely interested in having some sort of coordinating body,” Dr. Nilson said. Whether that looks like a series of online webinars, an annual conference, or something else entirely, is yet to be seen.

There have also been common traits that practitioners and stakeholders say are key to successful CCE. Strong trusting relationships built on open communication are consistently pointed to as an important pillar to a successful partnership. And, “having a champion” for the partnership, someone that makes decisions, advocates for the project, and whom with the buck ultimately stops has been identified as another key theme. This person might be political “in the true sense of the word,” said Dr. Nilson, in that they are well-networked with the people and institutions that can provide crucial assistance to a project in the form of funding, for instance.

“I would really love to see us develop a process by which we could determine our future together and that is inclusive, that is purposeful, intentional, and that is deeply meaningful for communities and for the campuses,” Dr. Nilson said, pointing out that campuses does not refer exclusively to universities.

She hopes the lasting impact of the roundtables and the resulting report will “be a mirror to the communities that participated, and to give back to them and the work they’ve contributed.”

Beyond that, “we certainly hope that will inform the larger conversation about how we as a society would like to move forward with this kind of work and to help inform and shape these kinds of conversations in impactful ways…Celebrating the successes for sure, but also considering what experiences we can learn from and areas we can grow in.”

It is from this work that the purpose for this literature review arises. This literature review surveys the existing academic literature to identify current research related to policies and assessments of community-campus engagement (CCE) that are conducive to supporting culture change within PSIs to support the work of CCE to produce positive social impacts.

These findings provide a foundation upon which the Community-Campus Engage Canada (CCEC) working group can approach the question how might ‘Community First’ approaches to community-campus engagement (CCE) be more effectively embedded within post-secondary institutions?

Please note: This literature review was created under CCEC when it was known as the Aligning Institutions for Community Impact (AICI) working group. There are therefore several references to AICI throughout the document. 

Click on the image below to access a PDF copy of the full report.

• Ending Generational Poverty through CCE – Cathy Wright
  • How benefitted from CFICE support in developing a city-wide collective impact initiative
• Building a national food movement – Diana Bronson
  • How (FSC) worked in partnership with CFICE to advocate for a National Food Policy
• Advancing Rights for Women with Disabilities – Bonnie Brayton
  • How the (DAWN) worked with CFICE to build tools for critical policy work in Canada
• On a Journey of Reconciliation – Colleen Christopherson-Cote
  • How the prioritizes reconciliation and decolonization in its community work

Video Link

If you missed out on the day-of presentation, not to worry. We’ve made it accessible below.

Presenters

For the past thirteen years, Cathy Wright has been a key catalyst in the poverty reduction efforts in Saint John, New Brunswick.  Prior to moving into semi-retirement, she served as executive director of Living SJ, a dynamic network of leaders from business, government, non-profits and low income neighbourhoods, focused on ending generational poverty.  She supported the development and implementation of this growing network as it applied a collective impact approach to four game changing priorities – education, health, employment and neighbourhoods –  impacting the lives of individuals and families living in poverty. As both a professional and a volunteer, Cathy has contributed to changing social issues at the local, provincial and national levels.  Her work, primarily in the non-profit sector in poverty reduction, social planning, and adult literacy, is guided by the necessity of diverse partners working and learning together. Cathy is a recipient of the 2017 Vibrant Communities Canada Legacy Award and the Canada Volunteer Award.

Diana Bronson joined Food Secure Canada as Executive Director in March 2012 and has worked to strengthen FSC as the national voice of the Canadian food movement.  Diana is trained as a political scientist and sociologist and has a professional background in journalism (CBC radio) and international human rights (Rights & Democracy) as well as international climate and technology negotiations at the UN (ETC Group). Diana’s research, policy and advocacy work has centered on supporting social movements around the world, critically reviewing and educating around international trade and investment agreements, looking at the impacts of Canadian mining companies, and assessing the social and environmental impacts of emerging technologies. She has participated in many international negotiations on human rights, climate change, biodiversity, technology and sustainable development over the past two decades. She also worked in a senior position on Parliament Hill from 2006-2008. She lives and works in Montreal.

Bonnie Brayton has been the National Executive Director of the DisAbled Women’s Network of Canada (DAWN) since 2007 when she established a national head office in Montreal. This national, cross-disability feminist organization has focused on advancing the rights of women with disabilities and deaf women in Canada and Internationally for the past 30 years. Through DAWN, Bonnie helps highlight key issues and advocate for policy changes for women with disabilities in the employment sector to the justice sector, and everything in between. In 2014, as part of Canada’s 150th year Celebration of the Charlottetown Conference Ms. Brayton was named a Visionary, one of 23 Women in Canada, and in January 2015 was named one of Canada’s 40 Women Change Makers by Canadian Living Magazine. In 2016, she was appointed for a two-year term as a member of the Federal Status of Women Minister’s Advisory Council on Gender-Based Violence. Bonnie is also the President of Coup de Balai – Clean Sweepers, an innovative social economy organization providing home care services to people with disabilities and seniors in her Montreal community. Bonnie has also served as the Vice-Chair of the Feminist Alliance for International Action and was a member of the Steering Committee of La Maison Parent-Roback, a Quebec feminist collective in Montreal from 2008-15. Ms. Brayton lives in Montreal with her partner Delmar Medford. She has two adult daughters, Leah and Virginia.

Colleen Christopherson-Cote is the coordinator for the Saskatoon Poverty Reduction Partnership and the community co-lead for the Evaluation and Analysis working group of CFICE. She lives and works within Saskatoon, Treaty 6 territory and the homeland of the MÊtis. The interconnect between all three partnerships provides her with the opportunity to catalyze, convene and coordinate community-based work to drive change and build capacity around improving the lives of vulnerable people in Saskatoon. Fostering new and existing community-campus relationships is a core priority of her work, understanding that engaging community throughout research processes is integral to successfully reducing poverty. Colleen is committed to the implementation of UNDRIP and the TRC Calls to Action in both her professional and personal life, recognizing that reconciliation is essential for an equitable, just society.

Moderator: David Peacock is the Executive Director of Community Service-Learning in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta, Canada. His research encompasses global service-learning, student equity policy and practices in higher education, curriculum theory, community-university engagement and ‘first generation’ university students’ participation in experiential learning programming. David is active in developing Canadian networks for community-engaged learning and research.