Carleton undergraduate students are getting in touch with their inner child through the Kids in Ottawa Project (KIOP). The aim? To understand community resilience in the face of adversity, specifically the effects of adverse situations on children.
Carleton students worked with Professor Stefania Maggi from the Child Studies Program and two areas of Ottawa (Centretown and Bridlewood) with the goal of trying to understand community engagement and how different groups of people work together, specifically focusing on how kids do in these communities. KIOP is part of a larger project called the Kids in Places Initiative (KIPI) which involves 7 communities across Canada and Italy. Some students are participants through the Internship-Carleton University Research and Engagement for Undergraduate Students (I-CUREUS) program while 20-25 are volunteers who receive credit through the Co-Curricular Record for their contributions.
The communities the KIOP works with are multicultural and a variety of community members participate in the project which Professor Stefania Maggi and students Jodie Lawlor (in her 3rd year of a Bachelor of Child Studies) and Zahide Alaca (a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Social Work program) make clear has been a thoroughly enriching part of the experience. The research process is highly interactive, with much of the research performed in the process of community engagement while looking at how communities network effectively.
Jodie Lawlor joined the KIOP in the winter term of 2013 with the intention of doing her thesis around the research covered. Lawlor runs workshops to prepare families for the transition to kindergarten and also connects them to resources available in the community. The workshops serve a double purpose, according to Professor Maggi, as they connect with families of young children while also helping service providers reach the right people. Lawlor feels she has greatly expanded her communications skills and has become a lot more effective from taking advantage of this opportunity. “My coordination, mindfulness and ability to work creatively have all improved a lot from participating [in the KIOP],” Lawlor noted.
When Professor Maggi was asked why she chose to be a supervisor for the I-CUREUS program, she noted that the applied nature of the KIOP is very well suited to undergraduate students and that the project is so diverse that it gives students an opportunity to try many things so they can narrow down what they love. The project is also divided into manageable chunks so that it makes a great topic for a thesis project. Graduate students are also somewhat involved in the process, sometimes playing a supervising or mentorship role. Professor Maggi was highly impressed with the performance of Lawlor and Alaca who were exceptional students to begin with, but were still able to gain a great deal of competency from participating. “They believe in the project and it shows in how they work,” Professor Maggi noted.
Community partners involved in the KIOP include the Centretown Community Health Centre, the West Ottawa Community Health Centre, Public Health, the City of Ottawa, the Champlain Community Care Access Centre, and the United Way. Members of these community organizations felt very positively about their interactions with Carleton through this project.
“We benefit greatly from our relationship with Carleton particularly in understanding the impact of the services we offer to people, from children to seniors and helping us design programs that better meet their needs. The work we have done and continue to do with Carleton is also very enriching for our staff.”
Kimberly Peterson, Vice President, Clinical Care for the Champlain Community Care Access Centre
If students are interested in participating in a program like the Kids in Ottawa Project through the I-CUREUS program, they are asked to go here to learn more. Please do not individually contact the community organizations involved in the project for research opportunities, but instead go through Carleton.
By Heather McAlister