Even before the Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) project was born, our researchers and community partners have been interested and engaged in community-focused research and on-the-ground work. A part of this history of engagement is explored in CarletonNow’s recent article “Making Community Connections: Carleton Hosting Feb. 24 Event.” The article features CFICE members Patricia Ballamingie, academic co-lead of the Community Environmental Sustainability hub, Jason Garlough, community co-lead of the Community-Campus Engagement Brokering working group, and Peter Andrée, Principal Investigator of CFICE. The article touches on the importance of community-campus engagement for communities, students, and researchers, and provides details for Carleton’s fourth annual Community Engagement Event on Feb. 24 in the Discovery Centre on the fourth floor of MacOdrum Library.
Here is a snippet from the article:
“When entrepreneur Jason Garlough recognized a disturbing discrepancy between the liability of apples and nuts falling onto city streets and an unprecedented demand at local food banks, he co-founded a group called Hidden Harvest to help Ottawa become a food tree-friendly city by picking and sharing fruits and nuts that would otherwise go to waste. The former software consultant was eventually approached by Carleton faculty members to see how they could help with research or project evaluation. And last year, Chloe Poitevin, a research assistant for professors Patricia Ballamingie and Irena Knezevic, started working with the group to determine its needs. Now a framework for a social return on investment calculator is being developed that will measure Hidden Harvest’s impact and help it make informed decisions.
The Hidden Harvest–Carleton connection is an example of what can result from putting Carleton University researchers and students in touch with community organizations. And to celebrate the diversity of these kinds of connections, the university is hosting its fourth annual Community Engagement Event on Feb. 24 in the Discovery Centre on the fourth floor of MacOdrum Library.”