The Guelph Lab, a collaborative partnership between the City of Guelph and the University of Guelph hosted by the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) in the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, has been renewed for another three years.
The afternoon of April 17th emerged dark and overcast; the large rain clouds threatening to spill fat rain drops from the skies, which prompted the quick addition of layers from students skittering from building to building as they prepared for finals. Amidst it all stood two lone tents on Johnston Green, piles of sticks stacked up around the space, and four trees standing watch around two stone sculptures, shaped like the trunks of trees, collecting the rainwater as it began to make its release from the sky.
There is a growing awareness of the impacts of food insecurity among post-secondary students in Guelph and across Canada; while food insecurity rates among various segments of the Canadian population are well-documented, food insecurity among post-secondary students has only recently gained the attention of researchers. Sliding scale markets are one intervention that has been developed to address food insecurity, currently being employed at the University of Guelph with promising results.
CESI regularly has the privilege of developing relationships with community organizations who are deeply immersed in the communities they serve and are familiar with the issues that impact them most strongly. These partnerships vary in length and depth, and take place across a range of programs and projects at CESI; the common thread linking them is a strong potential for transformational change and the goal of offering benefits for all parties involved, as well as the broader community.
In June 2022, CESI and the Waterloo Wellington Knowledge Mobilization Community invited local knowledge mobilization practitioners and community engaged researchers to join them at the University of Guelph Arboretum to reflect on knowledge exchange practices and approaches to engaging with Indigenous communities.
At CESI, we believe that community engaged scholarship (CES) has the potential to offer high impact to both community partners and researchers and to spark positive, evidence-informed change within the community. CES is a “collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity" (Jordan, 2007).
Meal Exchange (MX) is a national organization working with university students to ensure “Good Food For All” on Canadian campuses. CESI’s multi-year collaboration on food insecurity began with MX and one research project, and has since evolved to include new partners, new research, co-convening events, and advocacy efforts.
A key principle of community-engaged scholarship is that it addresses community-identified research priorities. This means that community members - rather than researchers - determine the goals of a research project to ensure its findings will be relevant to their needs. A recent partnership between the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) and a group of developmental support service agencies demonstrates the strengths of this community-driven research approach.
Knowledge mobilization – the process of sharing knowledge and information to create intellectual, social, and economic benefits – is key to community-engaged research. It ensures that the insights that arise from community-engaged scholarship jump off of the pages of research reports and become practically beneficial to communities. Through a growing partnership between CESI, the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto (WomanACT) and psychology professor Dr.
When we think of children playing, our minds often go to memories of running to the nearest park, playground or swimming hole, exploring and interacting with the natural world. However, with growing urban development and screen-time becoming increasingly common, many children now have fewer opportunities to connect with nature.