CFICE’s Student Pathways for Community Impact Working Group

Community Co-lead
Jim Blake, Consultant and Facilitator

Academic Co-lead
Stephen Hill, Associate Director, School of the Environment, Trent University

Text box with the following content: "CFICE’s Definition of EMBEDDING: Much like a journalist embedded in the field, RA’s are embedded in the community. Their research is directly shaped by the needs of the community."In Phase I of CFICE, several hubs tested the practice of “embedding” student Research Assistants (RAs) in community organizations. The purpose was to deeply engage students in the work of community partners by having them work with and for community partners. This approach enhanced RAs’ abilities to deliver high-quality community first research and work because the research was shaped to support the goals and needs of the community partner.

A man and a woman discuss content the woman is presenting on her laptop.The Student Pathways for Community Engagement Working Group seeks to further develop the idea of the “embedded” RA by creating and pilot testing an integrated community-campus engagement (CCE) curriculum for students at Trent University. The curriculum will include a graduated learning process, starting with service-learning experiences in first and second year of undergrad to embedded RAships and research experiences at a Master’s level.

The curriculum mapping process will integrate a focus on environmental sustainability and social justice throughout. The purpose will be to incrementally build students’ skills for practicing successful community first CCE. Once students have developed a set of CCE skills and knowledge, they will then have opportunities to be placed in embedded RAships as Master’s students.

To achieve this pathways goal, the Student Pathways for Community Engagement Working Group will:

  • Complete a curriculum mapping process (map curriculum for 6 years of post-secondary education)
  • Build tools, courses, modules, etc. to support student learning and skills development in CCE
  • Design a high school CCE course for students in grade 11/12
  • Streamline Trent University’s current community service learning program

Student Pathways for Community Impact Working Group News, Resources, and Research

Check out the Student Pathways Working Group’s news, resources, and research below.

Friday, April 5, 2019

Join the CCEC Steering Committee — Apply by April 22, 2019

Call for Applications - Community Campus Engage Canada (CCEC) Steering Committee The mission of Community Campus Engage Canada (CCEC) is to contribute to thriving, just, and sustainable societies by growing connections, capacity, and infrastructure for community-driven collaboration with post-secondary institutions across Canada. CCEC emerges... More

Friday, March 29, 2019

Video: Community-Campus Partnerships for Social Infrastructure Webinar and Resources

On March 21, 2019, CFICE and Community-Campus Engage Canada, with the support of Simon Fraser University, University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation (UWCRC), McConnell Foundation, and the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, presented Community-Campus Partnerships for Social... More

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

A conversation about disability in the workplace

Conversations about disability in the workplace are long overdue. In this lively podcast, CFICE team members Kristina Reed, Kawsar Mohamed, and Nicole Bedford have a frank conversation about the challenges and rewards of being open to sharing, listening, and working together to make workplaces more accessible to all. Access a PDF version of the... More

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

New CCEC Webinar Series: Building the Community-Campus Engagement Movement in Canada in 2019

Community-Campus Engage Canada (CCEC) presents a new webinar series: Building the Community-Campus Engagement Movement in Canada in 2019 -- An interactive Community Campus Engagement (CCE) Webinar Series offering participants community-campus and student engagement skills, resources and opportunities to connect and grow our national network. The... More

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Transformations through ‘Community-First’ Engagement – New Engaged Scholar Journal Special Issue!

What happens when community-campus partnerships involving diverse communities, community-based organizations, postsecondary institutions, researchers, students, and foundations seek to put communities first in their engagement practices? This is the question that is addressed through a range of perspectives in this issue of Engaged Scholar... More

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

New Year’s Resolution: Be More Community-First

by Kate Higginson, CFICE Communications Research Assistant With the holidays over and a new calendar started, most of us spend January focusing on getting back into a routine. Many of you may have come up with a traditional New Year’s resolution, like eating more veggies or cutting down on waste- and these are great... More

Friday, December 7, 2018

Video: Navigating community-campus research partnerships: Introducing a tool to help the process

On Thursday, December 7, 2018 CFICE presented Navigating community-campus research partnerships: Introducing a tool to help the process. In this webinar, presenters provided an overview of a self assessment tool, designed specifically for community organizations, that provides information and resources about community-based research with academic... More

Friday, November 30, 2018

From Parliament Hill to Your Desk: Important Initiatives Making Research and CCE Accessible

by Kate Higginson, CFICE Communications Research Assistant The last time your community-campus engagement (CCE) project held a meeting, was there a push button on the meeting room door so a participant in a wheelchair could access the room? What about a sign language interpreter, or someone available to take notes for the member with... More

Friday, November 16, 2018

So you want to use CCE research for your thesis?

by Kristina Reed, CFICE Communications Research Assistant Conducting a thesis is hard work and adding in a community-campus engagement (CCE) component can make it even more difficult. But the rewards of building deep relationships in your community, and knowing that your work will be relevant, and hopefully, useful, to the community, can far... More

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

PODCAST & STORY: When Post-Secondary Institutions are ‘Community-First’

Story by Nicole Bedford, CFICE Project Manager and Communications Coordinator and podcast by Kate Higginson, CFICE Communications Research Assistant When it comes to making community-campus engagement (CCE) more equitable, a small policy change by a college or university can make a huge difference. This was the experience of the Community First:... More

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Infographic & Guide: The Process of Successful Community-Campus Engagement

​In partnership with CFICE, U-Links has developed a manual and the purpose of this document (Click here for the full CFICE - Campus Community Manual PDF or access the FRENCH version here) is to guide community organization staff as they begin to create research-oriented relationships with university faculty. The goal of these relationships... More

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Best Practices for Community-Campus Engagement

by Aimee Coueslan, Engagement Liaison, Rural Development Institute, Brandon University This article was first posted by Aimee Coueslan on Medium.com and is being shared with her permission on the CFICE website. In their core strategic planning, universities across Canada are now identifying community engagement as a core function of research,... More

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

So You Want to Apply for a SSHRC Partnership Grant…The Challenges and Benefits to Having Many Partners

by Chelsea Nash, CFICE Communications Research Assistant There are many things to consider in advance of preparing and submitting your application for a SSHRC Partnership Grant. This month, CFICE has taken a look back at its own SSHRC application process and we have attempted to share some of the lessons we’ve learned along the... More

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Building learning pathways for students to become competent community-based researchers

by Mystaya Touw, Graduate Research Assistant, Student Pathways Working Group The CFICE Student Pathways Working Group is mapping and reviewing the curricular pathways for students. Why? Because findings in Phase I of CFICE suggested that, while senior undergraduates at Trent University are offered the opportunity to pursue community-based research... More

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Including community-campus engagement as part of a thesis

By Kate Higginson, CFICE Communications Research Assistant  Many grad students enter their Master’s degree or PhD with the hopes of helping their community. Community-campus engagement (CCE) is one way students can maximize the community benefits of their research. CCE work requires a significant time commitment, and it can be difficult to... More

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

So you want to apply for a SSHRC partnership grant… How can you respectfully involve your community partners?

By Chelsea Nash, Communications Research Assistant Being 'community first' means engaging and involving community partners at all stages of the partnership, even the application process. When the CFICE team was putting together its SSHRC application several years ago, the application process presented one of the first opportunities to put the... More

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

The SSHRC Partnership Grant: Project Work Plans and Budgets

by Nicole Bedford, CFICE Project Manager and Communications Coordinator You've approached the partners, discussed governance and responsibilities, and now your team is ready to develop a realistic project budget and work plan. For funders like SSHRC, the key word is feasibility. This means they are looking for work plans and associated budgets... More

Monday, August 27, 2018

Community-Campus Engagement Funding: A Project Manager’s Perspective

While a lot of good work can come out of community-campus partnerships, there can be many challenges encountered along the way. Some of the most difficult ones to navigate can centre around funding. Nicole Bedford, Project Manager and Communications Coordinator of the CFICE project, talks to us about some of the challenges CFICE has... More

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

The SSHRC Partnership Grant: Is it the right grant to support your partnership with Canadian academics?

by Chelsea Nash, CFICE Communications Research Assistant Grant applications can be long and arduous processes, and can swallow a lot of your capacity and time, which is why it’s important to make sure the grant will suit your needs. Before applying for a grant like the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) Partnership... More

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Achieving Positive Community Change through Reciprocal CSL Partnerships

In CFICE’s “Conversations With” series, we interview community-campus engagement (CCE) practitioners to get their insights on CCE. Interview conducted by Erin Martel, CFICE Communications Research Assistant. Lynn Sutankayo is a partnership coordinator at University of Alberta's (North Campus) Community Service-Learning (CSL) unit, where she... More

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Expectations and timelines when working with a post-secondary institution

by Chelsea Nash, CFICE Communications Research Assistant Post-secondary institutions have specific timelines, long processes for things like ethics approval or grant applications, and generally speaking, a complex power structure that can involve some firm top-down governance. These factors can easily complicate a campus-community partnership,... More

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Ontario Government Work-Integrated Learning Mandate: What does this mean for Faculty, Community, and Students?

By Chelsea Nash, CFICE Communications Research Assistant Co-op placements and internships, some unpaid, have long been the only way for many university students to put what they’re learning in classrooms into practice. These opportunities provide students with the chance to do a sort of taste-test of their chosen career path before graduation.... More

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Key Ingredients of ‘Community First’ CCE: Shared Aspirations, Values and Goals

In CFICE’s “Conversations With” series, we interview community-campus engagement (CCE) practitioners to get their insights on CCE. Interview conducted by Chelsea Nash, CFICE Communications Research Assistant. This month, CFICE was happy to speak with Isabelle Kim, the Director of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Community... More

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

The Benefits of Working with Post-Secondary Institutions

by Chelsea Nash, CFICE Communications Research Assistant Entering into a partnership with post-secondary institutions (PSIs) can open a lot of doors for community-based organizations (CBOs), including access to certain funding opportunities, increased capacity, and the creation of new and collaborative networks with shared goals. CCE partnerships... More

Thursday, May 17, 2018

The ABCs of CCE: Sharing Power

By Chelsea Nash, CFICE Communications RA This is part three of a three-part series on the ABC’s of CCE Partnerships, where we share some of the most important things to keep in mind when engaging in a CCE Partnership. Here, we’ve identified some strategies for sharing power. This article draws from interviews and focus... More

Friday, May 11, 2018

The ABCs of CCE: Sharing Resources

By Chelsea Nash, CFICE Communications RA This is part two of a three-part series on the ABC’s of CCE Partnerships, where we share some of the most important things to keep in mind when engaging in a CCE Partnership. Here, we’ve identified some strategies for sharing resources in a way that empowers the community... More

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

The ABCs of CCE: Sharing Responsibilities

By Chelsea Nash, CFICE Communications RA This is part one of a three-part series on the ABC’s of CCE Partnerships, where we share some of the most important things to keep in mind when engaging in a CCE Partnership. Here, we’ve identified some of the main things we’ve found important to consider when taking... More

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

How Community-Campus Engagement Can Help YOU Make the World a Better Place

by Kate Wetterstrand, CFICE Administrative RA As students we’ve all heard the very ‘tumblr’ quote “You all have a little bit of ‘I want to save the world in you’. That’s why you’re here in college”. But, did you know that participating in community-campus engagement can actually help you cultivate that ambition and actively... More

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Video: Post-Secondary Jobspeak Webinar Recording and Resources

On Wednesday, January 17, 2017 CFICE and Algonquin College jointly presented Post-Secondary Jobspeak: How to translate your student experiences into job skills employers desire. Moderated by Magda Goemans, the webinar had presenters Anna Przednowek and Ashoka Patel sharing tips, pointers, and examples for translating student school and work... More

Friday, December 8, 2017

CFICE Welcomes New Community Co-lead, Jim Blake!

CFICE is excited to welcome a new community co-lead to the team! Jim Blake joins us from the U-Links Centre for Community-Based Research. He will be working with Stephen Hill as a community co-lead of the Student Pathways working group. About Jim Jim resides in Haliburton, Ontario where he works as a facilitator, consultant,... More

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Video: Students in the Community Webinar Recording and Resources

On Tuesday, December 5, 2017 CFICE presented Students in the Community: Models of Student Community Engagement. Moderated by Nadine Changfoot, the webinar had presenters, Robert (Bobby) Hackett, Eileen O'Connor, and Stephen Hill discussing several different models for integrating student training and engagement throughout their university... More

Monday, August 21, 2017

How to find, prepare and pay for your international internships

by Ash Coutu, CFICE Communications RA Do the Ottawa winters have you down? Maybe you need a change of scenery. Thankfully, being a student means you have access to unique opportunities to study, travel, and to work abroad. Travelling is a big undertaking, so check out these tips on how to prepare for your... More

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

6 ways for students to get involved with community-engaged learning

by Ash Coutu, CFICE Communications RA Community-engaged learning is a great way to illuminate course content with real world experience. Community-engaged learning helps you: Make meaningful connections in the community Volunteer in your area of interest Learn about issues going on in your city Beef up your resume Gain hands on experience Add to... More

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Plain Language Podcast and Report: Community-Campus Engagement (CCE) Brokering, Partnership Tools, and Student Pathways to Engagement: An Environmental Scan

This plain language podcast provides a summary of Holly Stack-Cutler’s report titled Community-Campus Engagement (CCE) Brokering, Partnership Tools, and Student Pathways to Engagement: An Environmental Scan. This research was conducted in 2016, in partnership with the CCE Brokering, Student Pathways, and Partnership Tools working groups. The... More

Friday, November 18, 2016

Trent Community Research Centre: 2016/17 Academic Year, The First Sixty Days

by John Marris, Community Co-lead, Student Pathways for Community Impacts Working Group The Trent Community Research Centre (TCRC) is a community research broker based in Peterborough. We work as a connector between the Peterborough community and Trent University, developing projects that meet the needs of the local community and matching these... More

Share: Twitter, Facebook
Short URL: https://carleton.ca/communityfirst/?p=4212