CESI Special Projects

This literature review was conducted for the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto as a part of the Canadian Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Committee (MARAC) Model program. It aims to review literature pertaining to risk factors that predict women’s vulnerability to intimate partner violence or intimate partner homicide, as well as identify current domestic violence risk assessment tools and provide an overview of their strengths and weakness.

In collaboration with Faculty Affiliates and community partners, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute is leading the development of a community research agenda focused on the interconnections between community energy and the economy. This pilot explores ways to coordinate activities across the university to meet community research needs in a specific thematic area.

The Engaged Practitioner in Residence program creates a campus presence for a community expert, generating opportunities for them to contribute to student, faculty, staff, and community-partnered activities. Each Engaged Practitioner in Residence (EPR) brings their own knowledge and expertise to this role, allowing for maximum innovation, creativity, and reach across the University.

The 2016-2017 year of the EPR was focused on evaluation as a form of community engaged scholarship. The 2016-2017 EPR, Andrew Taylor, is a program evaluation practitioner with more than 20 years experience.  He has a particular interest in collaborative approaches to evaluation, and on the link between evaluation and community action. 

Systems for faculty career advancement – including promotion, tenure, and professional development – have often not kept pace with changing faculty roles. They further have not met the demands of major funding agencies or the mandate that publicly funded research benefit all citizens. To address this topic, the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences and the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute hosted a 3-hour workshop on May 6th, 2016. This workshop guided participants on how to document and assess engaged scholarship and impact in the context of tenure and promotion application.

On February 11^th, 2015, CESI hosted a full-day event on community-engaged scholarship to explore themes of complex partnerships, research tensions, and how to structure engaged projects. Over 40 faculty, staff and students attended from various departments at the University of Guelph.

CESI Faculty Affiliates are the first college-level service committee to explore new and innovative strategies to move forward community-engaged learning and research. Their work extends the ability of faculty, the Institute, and CSAHS to build capacity for and conduct community-engaged scholarship. Approved by Dean's Council in 2013, Faculty Affiliates are chosen from across CSAHS. They meet as a larger committee as well as on a by-project basis, focusing on projects where they are able to apply their diverse subject matter expertise.

On April 24^th, 2012, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute hosted a poster session as a part of the meetings of the Canadian University Presidents' Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada in Guelph. There were 14 posters in total, highlighting collaborative projects led by community engaged scholars, students, and community organizations. 

This project emerged from ongoing conversations among a number of organizations in the Guelph-Wellington region about the nature of social planning and decision-making in our current complex web of networks. These conversations led to the development of a more structured partnership, the launch of several interconnected projects, and the joint submission of a proposal for funding called “Engaging for Change: Practicing Collaboration and Planning in Guelph-Wellington”.

On November 4th and 5th, 2010, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) co-sponsored and hosted Critical junctures in research, practice, and policy. This conference brought together national and international scholars to discuss emerging research on community-engaged scholarship and its implications for research, policy and practice. Community-engaged scholarship (CES) and community-academic partnerships have been gaining importance in higher education institutions.