This webinar explored student, campus and community capacities and readiness for mutually beneficial placements and partnerships within the context of community-campus engagement.

The guiding question for this webinar was: How can the CCE movement increase student experiential learning and community research opportunities from the undergraduate to doctorate levels while also supporting non-profit readiness and capacity to include students and to be involved in co-designing or leading research and engagement work?

Webinar participants learned how community-campus practitioners—Faculty, Students, and Community leaders—are supporting efforts that help address this question. Presenters also identified concrete suggestions for how we can increase student- community placements for mutual and societal benefit in Canada.

Video Link

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

You can access some student and non-profit readiness tools below. Note: The training modules mentioned in the video are not yet available to the public but will be hosted on the Trent Community Research Centre’s website.

•  — Journal Article
• Research Toolkit for Community-Based Organizations

Presenters

Moderator, Isabelle Kim, Director, University of Toronto Centre for Community Partnerships (CCP): Isabelle and her team at the CCP work in partnership with students, staff, faculty, communities, and non-profit and public organizations to catalyze and sustain socially-responsive CEL and CER. Isabelle will moderate the discussion, and focus the questions for presenters on student and non-profit organizations’ perspectives on: critical issues of access and preparedness to participate in CEL/R opportunities; and the kinds of structures and systems needed to sustainably and equitably increase these opportunities in a way that will result in positive impacts for both student learning and community.

Stephen Hill, Associate Professor, Trent University – Stephen has been the academic lead for CFICE’s Student Pathways working group. With financial support from Trent University and eCampus Ontario his team created new open-access community-based research and experiential training modules for students as a means of teaching students the necessary skills for working in a community-campus engagement project.

Lisa Mort-Putland, Executive Director of Volunteer Victoria and National Board member, Volunteer Canada – Lisa will share Volunteer Victoria and Volunteer Canada’s experiences with the increasing national demand for student-community placements and ideas on how to increase and support non-profit readiness to include students while increasing the sector’s role in influencing higher education research and engagement.

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.

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

Presenters:

PossĂ©dant une maĂźtrise en droit international, JosĂ©e-Anne Riverin agit Ă  titre d’agente de dĂ©veloppement au domaine communautaire du Service aux collectivitĂ©s depuis 2011. S’intĂ©ressant particuliĂšrement aux enjeux de promotion et de dĂ©fense des droits humains ainsi qu’aux problĂ©matiques relatives aux peuples et femmes autochtones, JosĂ©e-Anne a cumulĂ© plusieurs expĂ©riences liĂ©es aux luttes des femmes autochtones au QuĂ©bec mais Ă©galement dans les AmĂ©riques ainsi qu’en Asie. Elle accompagne aujourd’hui diffĂ©rents projets partenariaux de recherche, de formation et de diffusion touchant ces enjeux ainsi que ceux relatifs Ă  la participation citoyenne, Ă  la lutte Ă  l’exclusion, etc. | Masters in International Law graduate JosĂ©e-Anne Riverin has been employed as a community development officer within Community Services since 2011. She is especially interested in the challenges of both promoting and defending human rights in addition to those affecting First Nations peoples and Aboriginal women in particular. JosĂ©e-Anne’s career includes numerous experiences associated with the struggles of Aboriginal women in Quebec, Asia and the Americas. She is currently involved in several research, training and outreach partnership projects that address these issues as well as those related to citizen participation, to social exclusion, etc.

Jill Wyatt is a former educator and high school principal, CEO of the YWCA of Calgary and VP, Community Investments and Collaborations with United Way of Calgary and Area. She has served two terms as a senator of the University of Calgary. She is currently serving as the Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of Calgary. Jill’s passion for community building has been a driving force in changing social conditions and creating opportunities for individuals, families and communities. She is a proven leader during times of complex change, working to innovate for greater impact, and helping people develop to reach their potential. | Jill Wyatt est ancienne Ă©ducatrice et directrice d’école secondaire en plus d’avoir siĂ©gĂ© en tant que PDG du YWCA de Calgary et vice-directrice du projet de Collaboration et engagement communautaire de la rĂ©gion de Calgary, un programme menĂ© par United Way. Jill, qui est motivĂ©e par sa passion pour le renforcement communautaire, a pour objectif d’aborder les conditions sociales changeantes et de crĂ©er des occasions pour non seulement les individus, mais aussi les familles et les communautĂ©s en entier. GrĂące Ă  ses compĂ©tences et expĂ©riences professionnelles en gestion, Jill a su faire preuve de qualitĂ©s de leadership pendant les pĂ©riodes difficiles Ă  changements imprĂ©visibles. À ces moments, elle n’a jamais perdu de vue son but ultime d’aider les individus Ă  rĂ©aliser pleinement leur potentiel et d’intĂ©grer d’importantes innovations ayant des impacts Ă  grande Ă©chelle.

Liz Weaver is the Co-CEO of Tamarack Institute where she is leading the Tamarack Learning Centre. The Tamarack Learning Centre has a focus on advancing community change efforts and does this by focusing on five strategic areas including collective impact, collaborative leadership, community engagement, community innovation and evaluating community impact. Liz is well-known for her thought leadership on collective impact and is the author of several popular and academic papers on the topic. She is a co-catalyst partner with the Collective Impact Forum and leads a collective impact capacity building strategy with the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Liz is passionate about the power and potential of communities getting to impact on complex issues. Prior to her current role at Tamarack, Liz led the Vibrant Communities Canada team and assisted place-based collaborative tables develop their frameworks of change, and supported and guided their projects from idea to impact. From 2006 – 2009, Liz was the Director for the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction, which was recognized with the Canadian Urban Institute’s David Crombie Leadership Award. In her career, Liz has held leadership positions with YWCA Hamilton, Volunteer Hamilton and Volunteer Canada. In 2002, Liz completed a Masters of Management, McGill University. Liz received Queen’s Jubilee Medals in 2002 and 2012 for her contributions to volunteerism in Canada and in 2004 was awarded the Women in the Workplace award from the City of Hamilton. | Liz Weaver occupe actuellement la poste de co-PDG Ă  l’Institut Tamarack oĂč elle dirige le Centre d’apprentissage de Tamarack. Le Centre d’apprentissage de Tamarack se donne pour objectif l’intĂ©gration des innovations avantageuses dans les communautĂ©s. Pour ce faire, l’administration s’appuie sur cinq principes stratĂ©giques: l’impact collectif, le leadership en collaboration, l’engagement communautaire, l’innovation communautaire et l’évaluation de l’impact sur les communautĂ©s. Liz est connue pour ses idĂ©es concernant le leadership et l’impact collectif et a rĂ©digĂ© plusieurs dissertations scolaires de renommĂ©e Ă  ce sujet. Liz s’implique aussi en tant que partenaire au sein du Forum sur l’impact collectif. En plus, elle dirige le projet portant sur les stratĂ©gies d’amĂ©lioration des compĂ©tences en impact collectif au sein de la Fondation Trillium de l’Ontario. Liz s’intĂ©resse Ă  la capacitĂ© qu’Ă©prouvent les membres de diffĂ©rentes communautĂ©s d’influer les problĂ©matiques complexes. Avant d’ĂȘtre engagĂ©e au sein de l’Institut Tamarack, Liz a dirigĂ© l’équipe de communautĂ©s vibrantes du Canada. En outre, elle a donnĂ© un coup de main aux panels de collaboration adaptĂ©s au milieu Ă  Ă©laborer leurs cadres de changement, et elle a incarnĂ© le rĂŽle de guide et d’appui du dĂ©but Ă  la fin de la rĂ©alisation de leur projet. De 2006 Ă  2009, Liz Ă©tait directrice de la Table ronde de Hamilton pour la rĂ©duction de la pauvretĂ©: le Prix de leadership David Crombie lui a Ă©tĂ© confĂ©rĂ© par l’Institut urbain canadien. Pendant sa carriĂšre, Liz a occupĂ© des postes de direction au sein du YWCA de Hamilton, de BĂ©nĂ©voles Hamilton et de BĂ©nĂ©voles Canada. En 2002, Liz dĂ©tient une MaĂźtrise en gestion de l’UniversitĂ© de McGill. En 2002 et en 2012, Liz s’est mĂ©ritĂ© la MĂ©daille du jubilĂ© d’or pour ses contributions Ă  l’engagement communautaire au Canada, et en 2004 elle a obtenu le Prix des femmes en milieu de travail de la Ville de Hamilton.

Chad Lubelsky works at the McConnell Foundation where he is the program lead for public interest journalism and RECODE – a pan-Canadian initiative to provide Social Innovation tools and opportunities for College and Universities to become drivers of progress and community change. Prior to joining the Foundation, Chad was the Executive Director of Santropol Roulant; developed leadership and community engagement programs for the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation; worked as an Assignment Editor for NBC news in San Francisco; managed global Internet Rights advocacy for the South African based Association for Progressive Communications; and was a Founding Trustee of the Montreal Awesome Foundation. Chad holds a BA in Communications & Master Degrees in Communications and Leadership. | Chad Lubelsky travaille au sein de la Fondation McConnell oĂč il est directeur de programmation pour le journalisme d’intĂ©rĂȘt public et pour RECODE. RECODE est une initiative pancanadienne qui cherche Ă  approvisionner les collĂšges et les universitĂ©s en matiĂšre d’outils et d’occasions en innovation sociale afin que ces deux acteurs puissent solliciter de vrais changements et avancements dans la communautĂ©. Avant, Chad Ă©tait chef de la direction au sein de Santropol Roulant. De plus, il a crĂ©Ă© des projets d’engagement communautaire et de leadership au sein de la Fondation canadienne des bourses d’études du millĂ©naire. À San Francisco, il Ă©tait Ă©diteur de projets pour le rĂ©seau de tĂ©lĂ©vision NBC. Au sein de l’Association pour la communication progressive stationnĂ©e en Afrique du Sud, Chad a gĂ©rĂ© le mouvement de revendication pour l’accĂšs Ă  internet comme droit de la personne. Finalement, il Ă©tait administrateur au moment de la mise sur pied de la Fondation formidable MontrĂ©al. Chad  dĂ©tient un baccalaurĂ©at Ăšs arts en communication, une MaĂźtrise en communication et une deuxiĂšme MaĂźtrise en leadership.

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 supporting resource co-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: . | Crystal Tremblay est professeure adjointe du dĂ©partement de gĂ©ographie et conseillĂšre spĂ©cialisĂ©e en engagement communautaire de l’UniversitĂ© de Victoria. Elle est gĂ©ographe sociale et militante Ă©rudite adaptĂ©e aux milieux communautaires. Elle dĂ©tient plus d’une dĂ©cennie d’expĂ©rience internationale en soutien de la gestion collaborative des ressources et en amĂ©lioration des moyens de subsistance. Elle se spĂ©cialise dans l’emploi de l’enregistrement vidĂ©o participatif, dans l’évaluation des programmes et dans le dĂ©veloppement des compĂ©tences Ă  travers les organisations issues de la vie civile et des secteurs gouvernementaux et d’études postsecondaires. Elle s’appuie sur des mĂ©thodes inspirĂ©es des sciences humaines pour promouvoir l’engagement communautaire. Elle est passionnĂ©e par les initiatives d’amĂ©nagement de nouveaux espaces qui sont dĂ©vouĂ©s aux projets d’engagement communautaire dynamique et par la dĂ©couverte collaborative des connaissances qui abordent l’amĂ©lioration de l’équitĂ© environnementale et sociale. Crystal a effectuĂ© des Ă©tudes approfondies sur le financement, l’impact et la politique du CCE au Canada. Elle dĂ©sire s’engager pleinement dans la construction de l’infrastructure Ă  changement durable et dans le dĂ©veloppement d’un mouvement Ă  long terme qui bĂ©nĂ©ficient aux communautĂ©s et qui encouragent la recherche acadĂ©mique. Pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez consulter sa page web:

Isabelle Kim is the director of the Centre for Community Partnerships at the University of Toronto. She also teaches graduate courses in the department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning. Isabelle is passionate about the possibilities for learning and social change when connecting students, faculty and community partners. She is glad to be part of the CCEC working group which can play a role in fostering cultures of community-engaged learning and research across Canadian colleges and universities. | Isabelle Kim est directrice du Centre pour partenariats communautaires Ă  l’UniversitĂ© de Toronto. Elle donne aussi des cours d’études supĂ©rieures appartenant au DĂ©partement du curriculum, de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage. Isabelle s’intĂ©resse aux opportunitĂ©s d’apprentissage et de changement social qui existent lorsque l’on Ă©tablit des liens avec des Ă©tudiants, des membres facultaires et des partenaires communautaires. Elle est fiĂšre de faire partie de l’équipe de travail du CCEC. Cette Ă©quipe joue un rĂŽle en promotion de la culture et de la recherche en apprentissage par engagement communautaire Ă  travers les institutions d’études postsecondaires au Canada.

Catherine Graham, is currently working with the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC) as Director of Research and Policy. She has worked with Aboriginal organizations at the national and provincial, community levels for more than 15 years on issues related to organizational development, the social determinants of health including social inclusion, and health equity. Most notably she served for four years as Director of the MĂ©tis Centre of the National Aboriginal Health Organization. Her research interests include Indigenous research methodologies and ethics, the social determinants of health, culturally relevant gender- based analysis, mental wellness, Indigenous identity, and Indigenous governance and policy. Catherine holds a Master of Arts in Legal Studies from ĐÓ°ÉÔ­ŽŽ University and she hopes to return to ĐÓ°ÉÔ­ŽŽ to continue her PhD work in Anthropology where her research will utilize a settler colonial lens to examine the ways in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers navigate the Indigenous health research industrial complex in order to establish and maintain ethical space. | Catherine Graham travaille prĂ©sentement avec l’Association nationale des centres d’amitiĂ© (ANCA) comme Directrice de la recherche et de la politique. Depuis plus que quinze ans, Catherine travaille en collaboration avec des organisations autochtones aux niveaux nationaux, provinciaux et rĂ©gionaux sur des problĂ©matiques liĂ©es au dĂ©veloppement organisationnel; aux dĂ©terminants sociaux de la santĂ©, tels que l’inclusion sociale; et Ă  l’équitĂ© dans le domaine de la santĂ©. Elle Ă©tait notamment Directrice du Centre des MĂ©tis de l’Organisation nationale de la santĂ© autochtone pendant quatre ans. Ses intĂ©rĂȘts de recherche comprennent les mĂ©thodologies et l’éthique de recherche autochtones, les dĂ©terminants sociaux de la santĂ©, l’analyse culturelle liĂ©e au genre, la santĂ© mentale, l’identitĂ© autochtone, et la gouvernance et la politique autochtones. Catherine est dĂ©tentrice d’une MaĂźtrise Ăšs arts en Ă©tudes juridiques de l’UniversitĂ© ĐÓ°ÉÔ­ŽŽ. Elle compte faire un retour aux Ă©tudes pour continuer sa recherche doctorale en anthropologie, oĂč, en utilisant une perspective postcoloniale, elle examinera les façons Ă  travers lesquelles les chercheuses et chercheurs autochtones et non autochtones abordent le complexe de recherche en santĂ© autochtone afin d’établir et de maintenir une dimension Ă©thique.

Chaired by: Peter AndrĂ©e, PhD, is Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Political Science at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­ŽŽ University. Prof AndrĂ©e’s research focuses on the politics of food and the environment. He practices, and teaches, community-based participatory research methods. | ÉvĂ©nement prĂ©sidĂ© par: Peter AndrĂ©e, dĂ©tenteur d’un doctorat, est professeur et prĂ©sident associĂ© du dĂ©partement des sciences politiques de l’UniversitĂ© de ĐÓ°ÉÔ­ŽŽ. Sa recherche porte principalement sur les politiques agroalimentaires et sur l’environnement. Il pratique et il enseigne les mĂ©thodes de recherche participatives au niveau communautaire.

This month, CFICE was happy to speak with Isabelle Kim, the Director of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Community Partnerships (CCP), where she contributes to the Centre’s mission to “work in partnership with students, staff, faculty, communities, and non-profit and public organizations to catalyze and sustain socially-responsive community-engaged learning and research.” Isabelle also recently chaired a CFICE CCE regional roundtable that was co-hosted by the University of Toronto and CFICE on May 1^st. Here, she discusses the outcome of the roundtable, her own perspective on what it means to put community first, and what challenges lay ahead for campus-community engagement (CCE) in Ontario.

What does being ‘community first’ mean to you?

It means putting community-identified priorities at the heart of the project and using an assets-based approach throughout the relationship.

How do you try and embody that community lens on a daily basis?

My role as Director of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Community Partnerships is situated at the border between community and university. My lens needs to be bi-focal, if you will, to see things from both sides. Other than paying close attention to core tenets of community engagement principles including partnership, respect and reciprocity, I try to ensure that the structures and processes enable positive outcomes for all stakeholders engaged in community-campus initiatives: students, faculty, staff, the community partner organizations, and the communities concerned. I look for opportunities for synergies, and collective impact.

How do you balance the goals of your institution with the goals of community partners?

Ideally there would be shared aspirations, values and goals at the outset between both community and university partners. That being said, it does not mean that both the community and the institution will share all the same goals. Each party may have their unique, context-specific reasons for engaging in the partnership. It is important to take the time to have honest conversations and address critical questions: what are our organizational cultures and contexts like? What are our different needs, priorities and goals and how we can balance all of these equitably? What goals do we have in common and how can these be achieved in a way that results in positive outcomes for each partner and the communities involved? How do both parties see this community-campus partnership? What are their expectations for outputs and outcomes? What change do we want to be and see in the world as a result of this initiative? How do we want to work with and learn from one another?

What do you think are the best strategies for ensuring that power between academic institutions and community partners is equally shared?

Listening to a guided walking First Story Toronto tour led by Jill Carter at the Toronto CCE Regional Roundtable.

Self-reflexivity. Paying attention to dynamics of power and privilege in relationships between institutions and individuals involved.

Valuing different assets and knowledges; the myriads of different ways of knowing and being that each partner brings to the table. In short, walking the talk of ‘knowledge democracy’.

Ensuring that the governance aspect of the project is collectively conceptualized and actualized with great care, and that critical questions are addressed: Who owns the knowledge, the outputs, and the outcomes that may result from this partnership? Who will get recognition for the work? How are the resources allocated and shared through the project?

Having processes in place for constructive criticism, and if need be, lodging complaints in a safe way; having sound conflict resolution mechanisms in place throughout the partnership.

You have a lot of experience in international development work that could be considered more ‘global’ than ‘local.’ How do you think this experience lends itself to community engagement?

The local and global are interconnected – so much so that we now have a term for it: “glocal.” Nowhere is the glocal more apparent than large urban centres like the Greater Toronto Area, home to so many diasporic communities. Community engagement is intrinsic to global social justice work. I see principles of community engagement as common threads running through all of my experiences, fundamental principles of partnership, respect, reciprocity, as well as the following values, qualities and skills:

Interconnectedness: between local, national, and global; economic, environmental, political, social and cultural issues are all inextricably linked to one another; as are issues of class, gender, sexuality, (intersectionality) etc..

Complexity:  Social justice problems and the structures and dynamics that perpetuate these, whether at the local or international scale are complex. These problems require complex solutions that address the root causes and approaches that are critical, creative, and interdisciplinary approaches, and a diversity of knowledges and perspectives.

Imagination and hope: A ‘mantra’ of sorts that has sustained me throughout challenging moments comes from a teaching of my  Anthropology of Development Professor’s (Janice Boddy), “Don’t get cynical, get critical”. These words still echo in my mind when things seem hopeless – like when the Taliban shut down a community partner’s maternal and child health clinics in Afghanistan when I was working at PWS&D.  Hope and imagination are necessary to avoid being paralyzed with despair and cynicism.

Last but not least, activities and skills like event planning, project management, communications, research, and qualities like adaptability, flexibility, diplomacy, and patience, are useful in both local and international community contexts.

As a follow-up, how do you find international development work and community engagement differ?

That is a good question and difficult to answer as both are highly intertwined; community engagement is intrinsic to community development locally and globally and they have many actors in common.  Differences that arise are mostly due to differences in context including language and culture. Terms like ‘best practices’ are problematic given the diversity of community engagement or CCE and international development settings. There are different understandings of ‘community’, ‘community engagement’, ‘learning’, ‘development’, etc,. I was just speaking with a professor from Japan, from Osaka University, and he was saying that ‘community-engaged learning’ as a term doesn’t exist in Japanese. In Japanese it means something like ‘working in communion to promote social cohesion.’ How one approaches CCE would very much depend on how the roles of ‘community’ and ‘university’ are understood in any given context.

There is a lot of Western-centric language in the community engagement and international development fields and literature. I have started exploring literature from South America and South Africa to learn from different approaches.

Discussing CCE at the Toronto CCE Regional Roundtable.

You chaired a regional roundtable in Toronto on May 1, which was co-hosted by U of T and CFICE. What did you hope to achieve, and what do you think came out of those discussions?

One of the main goals was to help facilitate multi-stakeholder, cross-sectoral conversations about CCE. We wanted to bring together all the different actors involved in community-campus engagement: students, faculty and staff who do this boundary work between universities and communities, and community partners, and also people involved at the provincial policy level. We had over 50 people in show up from community organizations, universities and colleges from Toronto, Ottawa, London, Hamilton, Waterloo, and elsewhere and from the Council for Ontario Universities (COU).  We also wanted to get a picture of what the CCE landscape looked like in the region; understand the gaps and needs, and explore possible ways to leverage common opportunities, strengths, and common aspirations in order to strengthen the CCE culture regionally and beyond.

Right now we’re in the last stages of compiling all the responses and all the notes to present the summary of our discussions at the national roundtable event in Ottawa next week. There are contextual differences in the region such that I do not anticipate a blanket one-size-fits-all list of recommendations to emerge but many good ideas were put on the table and connections were made. Stay tuned for our May 1^st summary report. Despite our differences there seems to be a commonly shared interest in continuing the conversation and learning from one another.

Holistically speaking, in your view, what are the biggest challenges or gaps in CCE either provincially or nationally that need attention? And to that end, what have been some challenges that have been successfully worked on to improve CCE on a broad scale?

Some of my earlier responses speak to some of the challenges with CCE and to these I might add limited resources and information. Ironically, in a world that is supposedly ‘connected’ or ‘wired’ as never before, it can be difficult to make connections between students, staff and faculty and community partner organizations locally, never mind provincially or nationally. Because people are not always aware of who is working on what, where and when, we are not always able to leverage the synergies that can come from CCE collaborations.

The journey of the Toronto CCE Regional Roundtable

In Ontario, an upcoming challenge–and opportunity at a provincial level–is the experiential and work-integrated learning opportunities for post-secondary students. This mandate provides an opportunity to boost community-campus engagement. At the same time it comes with significant challenges for not only the university but communities as it may exert more ‘demand’ for student placements on community organizations. How can we create meaningful experiential learning opportunities for students that respond to community-identified priorities in a reciprocal and sustainable way? We can explore new approaches to CCE in post-secondary education, including new models to teaching community-engaged learning (CEL) courses. I would not want to replace place-based courses but would like to explore the creation of more online and even international opportunities through local and global collaborations. Hart House at the University of Toronto started a  to enable online conversations between universities and community partners in South and North America and South Africa. Global Commons was not part of a CEL course but it shows how online platforms provide ways of having international forms of CCE.

I just came back from the conference in Budapest, where the ‘research shop’ or ‘science shop’ model, which is more popular in Europe, was discussed. This model has helped to broaden the scale of CCE participation and visibility in certain European countries and I would like to learn more about its potential uses here, or how we could modify it to suit the Canadian contexts. Some Canadian universities have similar structures, for example, McMaster and Guelph here in Ontario.

Do you have an example of successful CCE in Canada that might stand out to you as a highlight? If so, what do you think the takeaways from that instance would be?

is a program in which university courses are taught, usually in prisons, in which half the students are incarcerated and half the students are university students. The Associate Director of the Ethics, Society and Law programme, Dr. Simone Weil Davis taught a Walls to Bridges class this past winter. I was invited by Dhvani Ramanujam, one of the students in this class, who is also the co-Chair of the Centre for Community Partnerships’ Student Advisory Committee, to attend the last class. It was such a pleasure and honour to witness the transformative learning that had taken place amongst this group of students. I learned so much from just participating in this one class and it inspired me to rethink what and how I teach. I would love to see more Canadian universities take part in this program.

Community-Campus Engage Canada (CCEC), the legacy of the CFICE project, is a national network of community engagement practitioners. CCEC works with CFICE to host national and regional roundtables to bring together a wide range of community-minded stakeholders, including grassroots partners, engagement practitioners, post-secondary institutions, policy makers, and funders, with the overarching goal to expand on community-campus engagement in Canada.

Toronto CCE regional roundtable participants deep in conversation.

CCEC’s first regional roundtable, co-hosted by the University of Toronto, was held at the university‘s Centre for Community Partnerships (CCP) on May 1, 2018.

The day started with a thought-provoking cross-sectoral panel on the community-campus engagement landscape in Ontario from policy, higher education, and community partner perspectives: Cecilia Brain, Economist and Senior Policy and Data Analyst, Council of Ontario Universities; Peter Andree, Principal Investigator, CFICE; and Sarah MacPherson, Director of Philanthropy and Communications, Oakville Community Foundation respectively.

Listening to a guided walking First Story Toronto tour led by Jill Carter at the Toronto CCE Regional Roundtable.

Lunch was followed by a powerful guided walking First Story Toronto tour led by Jill Carter, theatre practitioner and Assistant Professor with the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies; the Transitional Year Programme; and Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto.  (First Story Toronto provides public tours that build awareness and pride in Indigenous presence and contributions to the city ).

Over fifty participants representing diverse community, academic and policy stakeholder perspectives worked in groups to identify sector-specific needs and gaps; explore cross-sectoral opportunities and aspirations, and develop recommendations for advancing community-campus engagement in the region. Discussions were lively and fruitful and many connections were made.

The recommendations from this roundtable will be captured in a brief discussion paper and contribute to the national roundtable in Ottawa on June 20.

For more information regarding this event please contact the CCP Director, Isabelle Kim: isabelle.kim@utoronto.ca. For more information on the other regional and national roundtables to come, please contact CFICE at cfice@carleton.ca.