This webinar, organized by The Rural Policy Learning Commons in partnership with CFICE, U-Links, and Trent University, explored the 30-year history of a relationship between Trent University and the rural community of Haliburton, Ontario in community development and policy change. An overview of the role of U-Links Community-Based Research Centre, a community-based organization that brokers the relationship between the community and the university was provided by Jim Blake along with the perspective of faculty member Stephen Hill, whose students have been engaged for many years in the community. Masters student Emily Amon also presented on her experiences participating in numerous community-based research projects, as well as on her work researching the impact of CCE on the community.

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TrentU Master’s Candidate Emily Amon studies the effectiveness of Community Based Research

Emily Amon is a passionate community-based researcher.

She has completed THREE environmental science community research projects during her Bachelor of Environmental Sciences and Studies undergraduate degree at Trent.

Her current project as a Masters of Sustainabilities Studies Candidate at Trent University is focused on community-based research. This type of research involves working with a diverse range of partners to help gather different perspectives, contribute expertise and share decision making.

Emily is exploring how student research can be used to drive community activismÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýinfluence sustainable community changes.  At the heart of all social and environmental movements, groups of people have worked together to achieve common goals.  It is important to understand the process of how people band together to create meaningful changes. 

Community groups with research needs are partnered with Trent students to complete community-based research projects through Trent’s experiential education programs, facilitated by both U-Links Centre for Community Based Research (for projects in the Haliburton Region), and the Trent Community Research Centre (for projects in the Peterborough Region).

• Waste audits at the landfills in Algonquin highlands that led to a new recycling program
• Water quality monitoring projects which have engaged cottagers and improved awareness of environmental concerns around their lakes
• The establishment of community gardensÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýnature education programs
• Improving operations for the local farmers markets

Emily’s research focuses on what happensÌý³Ù´Ç the community after the student completes the research and how positive changes continue in the area.

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