This month, we hear from John Marris, Executive Director of the (TCRC). John brings a wealth of community research and teaching experience to the Centre, where he applies it to building relationships between the Peterborough community and Trent University faculty and students. John explores the ways the TCRC is helping to shape community engagement in Peterborough, and the challenges that the TCRC faces in ensuring community remains the heart of all the research projects brokered through the TCRC.

In your present role, what does being community-first mean to you?

It means that all of our projects start with a community partner initiating the project. Community-first means being responsive to the research needs of the community and keeping these needs as our focus. The primary assessment of the success of a project is ‘has it met the community’s needs?’ Therefore, we do not take on any research project that starts with academic intellectual curiosity. However, this is not always a perfect model. Sometimes our own staff, faculty or students have great ideas for project that would benefit the community and we’re not always responding to those ideas in the most open ways. Although our community-first model insures us against the problem that the academy knows what’s good for the community, there can be something limiting about a pure community-first model.

Is there any way the TCRC can help to change the way that academic institutions serve communities?

There is no formal structure for us to approach the message of “this is what we mean by community-first”. However, my ideal for Trent University would be, and I think this would apply elsewhere as well, that students who are coming into a research-based project have completed a short course in what community-based research is, the methods that might be involved and what it means to be sensitive to a community’s needs. Although in terms of student learning and student personal development, there is typically a very strong alignment between community interest and student interest. Often times, the student personal development and learning come from the delivery of something that’s genuinely useful to the community. I would also like to see faculty complete some kind of certification in community-engaged scholarship before they supervise students on projects.

How can you maintain communication channels when working on a project?

We set a very straightforward rule for students: “you will copy us on every email.” So that I’m hopefully aware when a community partner or faculty or somebody in the process is heading in a direction that might need some support. If I cannot in my head summarize where a project is at, then I send out an email. It’s not rocket science, its emails and meetings.

Collaboration is a constant at the Trent Community Research Centre! ©Elizabeth Thipphawong

What are the most exciting challenges that you are faced with in working with community and academic partners?

The exciting thing is the possibilities of the research question. When you have a community partner come to you with a research project and say “I really need to know this” and you see that there is a fascinating, exciting project for students that is very achievable—and you can think of great faculty who can take this on and be excited by it. That is the absolute joy of the work.

Students come to you and say “I just got a job because I put this on my resume,” or community groups come to you and say “we just got funding to buy a generator, so our turtles won’t die if the power goes out.” That’s when you know it’s worthwhile and a good number of our projects have those success stories.

Are there additional best practices you would like to mention?

Listening is obviously the key thing for good campus-community relations. There is something about learning to be present in a community situation and respecting the idea that a community or local organisation is a likely expert on their issues. I think that is vitally important.

A student explains her project at TCRC’s Community Engagement Forum, 2016. ©Peterborough Examiner

Not everything can be solved with academic research. There’s lots of stuff that comes to us that just isn’t appropriate for the academy, because not everything can be solved in the academy. It is very easy to pick up an idea from the community and become excited about how it could work in the university, but are you really listening to what’s being asked? There are projects that people propose to us and I think “wow, that would be really exciting for students, but you know what it’s not going to get you to where you need to go” and we need to kind of walk away from the idea.

Making sure that you are supporting the students in doing the best work they possibly can rather than setting them a hurdle to jump over. Genuinely support students. Don’t play hardball with them in the way that academia has a tradition of doing. You know, saying “keep going until you’ve failed and I will tell you how you’ve failed.” That’s not going to help the community.

You have to in some sense be an activist in the community to do this work in order to know what the issues are. My colleagues and I all sit at various community tables. We get out into the community and are a part of what’s developing here in Peterborough.

Is there anything else that should be mentioned about the role of community engagement professionals and how they can be more community-first?

The university should put more money into this work. The university is an incredibly secure, empowered and strong body. So there is an obligation, from my perspective, that the university uses some of that resource, be it financial, be it time, for the benefit of the community. You know, Trent is the second largest employer in Peterborough I believe, and its salaries are off the scale compared to anyone in the non-profit sector. So it’s a case of that power being put to use for the community.

• Being a community-based broker
  • Introducing the Trent Community Research Centre (TCRC) and how the TCRC brokers community-based research opportunities
• Being a campus-based broker
  • Introducing the McMaster Office of Community Engagement and how McMaster brokers community-based research opportunities
• Discussion: Reflecting on the similarities and differences between community and campus-based brokers

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

Resources

• Being a Community-Based Broker
• Being a Campus-Based Broker
• McMaster University’s

Presenters

John Marris completed his PhD in Canadian Studies at Trent University in 2013, and has been the executive director of the Trent Community Research Centre since October 2015 previously working for the TCRC as director of community-based research since September 2014. John brings a wealth of community research and teaching experience to the Centre, alongside his established relationships with Trent University faculty and students. John has a history of community development work both in Peterborough, Ontario and over a twenty-year period in the U.K. As part of his work at TCRC John is part of a number of collaboratives that address mental health, addictions, social justice and youth issues in the Peterborough community. He has a specific interest in youth engagement and the use of creative practices in community development.

David Tough has a double role at the Trent Community Research Centre, co-ordinating students’ work on the Centre’s research projects and conducting his own research on Community-Based Research. He brings to this work a lot of experience in teaching, research, scholarly writing, and journalism, and a deep familiarity with the social and cultural landscape of Peterborough. David is a scholar of inequality, taxation, and the welfare state who has a PhD in Canadian history from ĐÓ°ÉÔ­ŽŽ University and whose first book, The Terrific Engine: Income Taxation and the Modern Political Imaginary in Canada, 1910-1945, will be published by UBC Press in 2017.

Dave Heidebrecht Since graduating from McMaster’s Masters in Globalization Studies program in 2010, Dave has worked directly with academic, non-profit, and community organizations to help them work towards their goals. In this time, Dave has collaborated with local, national, and international groups to foster and support organizational strategies that produce positive, sustainable, and effective change. Especially interested in the intersections between environmental, political, and social issues facing our global society, Dave is very excited to be working with the Network for Community-Campus Partnerships to strengthen relationships amongst colleagues — both at McMaster and in the community — who are working to address these issues in our communities.

The Trent Community Research Centre in Peterborough, Ont. is just one of the many partners of the Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) project. Since 1996, the Centre has been matching Trent University students with research projects derived from questions in the community.

John Marris, Community Co-lead of the Community Environmental Sustainability (Peterborough/Haliburton) hub and the Community First Tools and Practices Working Group

John Marris, Director and Project Coordinator of Community-Based Research at the Trent Centre and community co-lead of CFICE’s Community Environmental Sustainability (Peterborough/Haliburton) hub community co-lead, defines the Centre as an independent research broker.

“We develop research projects with the community that answer research questions they have. We then match those research projects with the university in conjunction with faculty,” Marris says.

The Centre has three main areas of research: Community development, social support and environmental sustainability. But Marris says the projects can be anything the community approaches the centre with.

“We don’t in any way want to dictate to the community what the brains of our research are,” he says.

“We have a principle where we want to improve the health, sustainability and well-being of our community – that’s what’s really important to us and we want to do that through research work.”

Marris says the Centre focuses on those areas because of the impact to the community.

“We work in areas of social support and environmental sustainability because that’s what helps community development.”

Marris says providing evaluation of the projects is also important to the Centre.

“Impact assessment is a big part of what we do and this is very useful for local community organizations. The impact to the community is doing the groundwork for community development and helping with planning of projects,” he says.

“More and more I’m trying to connect us with projects as they happen so that we can build the evaluation into the design of the project.”

Unlike other programs, one of the unique things about the Trent Centre is that it works with third and forth year undergraduate students to facilitate partnerships, not just masters students.

Students become involved in a project by signing up for one of three courses that run in different departments at Trent University: Forensics, geography and international development. The Centre chose these departments because of the versatility of learning and application.

“One of the critical things that we do is we’re not creating academic exercises; these are real research questions that the community really wants answers to,” he says.

A group of people work together for a project.
©Elizabeth Thipphawong

Students can also go to the  to see a list of projects and approach the Centre themselves.

In the 2015/2016 academic year the Centre had 25 projects on the go, which Marris says is roughly the minimum.

Students really value the opportunity to apply what they’re learning in school to real life projects.

“We just had feedback from students for the academic year and fairly universally the response was ‘this is hands down the best thing I’ve done at university,’” Marris says.

As project coordinator, Marris offers students support, ideas and input throughout the project without grading their work, which is another aspect students really value. But the community also sees value in the partnership as well.

“There’s a huge need for knowledge from the community because sometimes they don’t have the financial wherewithal to pay commercial research organizations to do that work,” Marris says.

“The community gain is they get answers to questions that sometimes they’ve been sitting on for years.”

Marris calls the partnership between students wanting to do research and the community needing answers a “very happy and beautiful coincidence.”

On January 13, Trent University’s Masters of Sustainability Studies (MASS) Colloquium featured the work of local community leaders, students and faculty. This event was brought together by the (Ptbo/Halib) of the Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) project.

, Chair of the Political Studies Department and MASS faculty, hosted the event as the Trent Academic Co-lead of CFICE . “Putting Community-First involves learning new ways of communicating and partnering among community and academy,” said Nadine.

, Executive Director, from the internationally recognized (TCRC) and Community Co-lead of CFICE, discussed research opportunities available through the Centre. TCRC is a bridge organization connecting Trent and community, bringing together students and community organizations for community-based research.

Sheila Ziman from the presented her experiences working with faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students to maintain and restore ecosystems in Haliburton. “The outcomes are important,” said Sheila.

Next, Heather Reid, the Operations Director of , and Melissa Johnston, in second year of MASS, shared their experiences from Melissa’s summer working at Abbey Gardens. “My immersion in the community created an ease and depth of interaction. My ‘insider status’ helped to build trust and open doors,” said Melissa.

Tessa Nasca, also in the second year of MASS, outlined her experience with the project that brings together the Stewart Street neighbourhood, community organizations, the City of Peterborough, and faculty to build capacity within the Stewart Street neighbourhood and the ability to strengthen community participation in planning processes. “High value comes from embedding oneself in the community,” said Tessa.

Finally, Prof. from Environmental Resources Studies and MASS spoke of his experience as a faculty member who seeks partnerships outside of academic institutions. The day’s speakers represent only the start of the many rewarding partnerships possible when academia and the community partner together.

Community-campus engagement opportunities like those featured at the Colloquium offer a platform for students to see local initiatives that build capacity for both community and Trent in Peterborough and the Kawarthas. Building upon the work of CFICE, the new  stream provides experiential learning and community-based action research opportunities for students in a full-time field placement in a community organization during Year 2 of the Program. “It aims to meet the growing need for professionals as a distinct group of skilled, entrepreneurial individuals with the knowledge, tools and practical expertise to address social and environmental challenges and opportunities in community based organizations,” said Asaf Zohar, Director of MASS.