Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program

Andrea Charise receives Connaught Community Partnership Research Award

lanthierj — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 15:59:48 +0000

Andrea Charise receives Connaught Community Partnership Research Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Thu, 03/02/2023 - 10:59

Faculty

Scarborough

Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program

U of T Scarborough

landscape

Andrea Charise, an associate professor in the department of health and society at the University of Toronto Scarborough, has received an award from the Connaught Community Partnership Research Program for a project exploring ways that arts-wellness programs can support 2SLGTBQ+ youth in Scarborough.

Researchers from the FLOURISH Collective, an interdisciplinary arts-based research cluster, will collaborate with community partners and use arts-based programming to look at existing barriers for 2SLGTBQ+ youth in Scarborough. They will also explore culturally sustaining arts-based interventions and generate knowledge that can help inform public policy on social wellness through these programs.

Charise is one of four researchers at U of T to receive the award this year. The others are Beverly Essue and Angela Mashford-Pringle of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Pedro Mateo Pedro of the Faculty of Arts & Science.

“This comes with a deep responsibility to ensure that we show up as accountable co-creators of knowledge that serves our community partner's needs first and foremost,” says Charise, who will co-lead the project with Dirk Rodricks, assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of curriculum, teaching, and learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).

The Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program creates new collaborative research partnerships, or nurtures early-stage partnerships, between U of T and community partners. This fosters access to each other’s unique knowledge, expertise and capabilities on issues of shared interest that may evolve into more established relationships that will attract external funding.

Read the U of T Scarborough story

Learn more about the Connaught Community Partnership Research Program

UTSC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Farzaneh Hemmasi receives award from Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program

lanthierj — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 17:58:37 +0000

Farzaneh Hemmasi receives award from Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Thu, 10/01/2020 - 13:58

Faculty

St. George

Faculty of Music

Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program

U of T Mississauga

landscape

Associate Professor Farzaneh Hemmasi of the Faculty of Music has received an award from the Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program for her project, Keeping Kensington “Kensington”: Value and Affordability in Toronto’s Kensington Market.

The project will build on relationships initiated through the University of Toronto Ethnography Lab’s Kensington Market Research Project and Hemmasi’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council-funded research on music, sound, and noise in Kensington Market.

“Everyone knows that Toronto is increasingly unaffordable. It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of the rising residential and commercial real estate prices that not only make it difficult for many people to live or operate a business downtown but simultaneously threaten the social and cultural diversity Torontonians are so proud of,” Hemmasi said. “Residents and business owners in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighbourhood experience these pressures every day, and have come up with many creative ways to address the forces that endanger their neighbourhood’s distinctiveness.

“I’m thrilled that the Connaught Community Research Partnership Program has funded this project, a collaboration between resident-led activist organization Friends of Kensington Market (FOKM), the Kensington Market Business Improvement Area (KMBIA), and U of T ethnomusicologists and anthropologists, to better understand the interplay of value, (un)affordability, and culture in Kensington Market,” Hemmasi said. “I also want to thank and acknowledge the many contributions of Assistant Professor and Ethnography Lab Senior Researcher Andrew Gilbert of U of T Mississauga to the proposal and project as it is unfolding.

“It's a great collaboration all around.”

An ethnomusicologist, Hemmasi is the author of the recently released Tehrangeles Dreaming, Intimacy and Imagination in Southern California's Iranian Pop Music.

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Pamela Klassen receives award from Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program

lanthierj — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 15:44:32 +0000

Pamela Klassen receives award from Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Thu, 10/01/2020 - 11:44

Faculty

St. George

Faculty of Arts & Science

Department for the Study of Religion

Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program

landscape

(photo by Annie Heckman)

Professor Pamela Klassen of the Faculty of Arts & Science has received an award from the Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program for her project, Treaty Teachings: How Universities, Communities, and Museums Can Work Together to Tell the History of Treaty 3.

“I’m so grateful for the support of the Connaught Community Research Partnership Program, and want to give a shout out to Dr. Krista Barclay, my postdoctoral fellow, whose intellectual leadership and community engagement expertise is at the heart of this project,” said Klassen. “Building relationships beyond academia ensures that our research is accessible to broader audiences, but also that it is grounded in and responds to the Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities who are invested in the work of being treaty people.

“We’re especially looking forward to the online teaching materials that will be developed during this project, which will be useful for students and museum visitors alike.

The new initiative builds on the Kiinawin Kawindomowin Story Nations website, a digital humanities project rooted in a long-term collaboration with Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre of the Rainy River First Nations, and will include small and large museums seeking to teach audiences about Treaty 3, an area west of Lake Superior that extends into Lake of the Woods.

“Professor Klassen’s Treaty Teachings project is a wonderful example of the exceptional work that can come to fruition through collaboration with Indigenous peoples and community Elders, fellow researchers, museum professionals and students,” said Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Read the Faculty of Arts & Science story

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Lori Ross receives award from Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program

lanthierj — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 15:20:22 +0000

Lori Ross receives award from Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Thu, 10/01/2020 - 11:20

Faculty

St. George

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program

landscape

(photo by Sean Howard)

Associate Professor Lori Ross of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health has received an award from the Connaught Community Partnerships Research program for her project, Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer (2SLGBTQ+) Ontarians’ Experiences with Social Assistance: Conducting Preliminary Research to Nurture Partnerships in the Area of 2SLGBTQ+ Poverty and Health.

“I'm delighted to receive this Community Partnership Research Program Award to support our work on 2SLGBTQ+ peoples' experiences accessing social assistance,” Ross said. “Particularly at this time, when economic disparities in our society are widening, it's critically important to understand these experiences in order to ensure equitable access to social safety nets.”

Ross, who is also an affiliate scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches in her research work, with a strong focus on community-based research.

“It's my hope that this work will help to build new collaborations between those working to address inequities for 2SLGBTQ+ people, and those working to address poverty and its impacts," Ross said. "This award enables us to work in close partnership with those who best understand the issues – 2SLGBTQ+ people who have accessed social assistance – to ensure that our work is grounded in community need and has the maximum possible impact.”

Read the Dalla Lana School of Public Health story

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Laura Rosella receives award from Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program

lanthierj — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 15:06:11 +0000

Laura Rosella receives award from Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Thu, 10/01/2020 - 11:06

Faculty

St. George

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program

landscape

Associate Professor Laura Rosella of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health has received an award from the Connaught Community Partnerships Research program for her project, Community Partnerships in Action: Using Data Science to Improve Population Health, Community Safety and Community Wellbeing.

“This award provides a novel opportunity to partner with community leaders responding to Ontario legislation to develop and implement a Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan,” Rosella said. “We will use our collective expertise and experiences to develop new ways to enhance the use of diverse sources of data and new measures to inform community wellbeing.”

A leading population health researcher and data scientist, Rosella holds a Canada Research Chair in population health analytics. Her research uses a range of diverse data and analytic approaches to gain a comprehensive perspective on population health and health system performance to inform prevention programming, health and social equity, and system sustainability.

“It is an honour to receive this award, allowing us to work in partnership with an interdisciplinary team that is directly connected to the community and leading new strategies and initiatives to support wellbeing in cities,” Rosella said.

Read the Dalla Lana School of Public Health story

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Michelle Firestone receives award from Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program

lanthierj — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:49:08 +0000

Michelle Firestone receives award from Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Thu, 10/01/2020 - 10:49

Faculty

St. George

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Connaught Community Research Partnerships Program

landscape

Assistant Professor Michelle Firestone of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health has received an award from the Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program for her project, Community Voice and Leadership from within Institutionalized Care Models: Lessons from COVID-19.

A research scientist in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital, Firestone’s teaching and research focus on the social determinants of health, applying interdisciplinary, community-based approaches to Indigenous health research and knowledge translation. For this project, researchers will use reflexive journaling and social media to uncover the experiences and expertise of community workers and frontline workers who provided services for those experiencing homelessness and those who use drugs.

“Embedded in research processes are power imbalances and hierarchies that marginalize the expertise and knowledge of peers and people with lived experience,” says Firestone. “Data collection methods such as reflexive journaling will allow peers to provide stories, observations and narratives in diverse and adaptive formats during these challenging times.”

Too often, public health decision-making is driven by political and institutional systems without acknowledging or prioritizing on-the-ground expertise, Firestone said. Community workers’ recommendations are critical to curbing the spread of COVID-19 and minimizing health and social harms for those who are most vulnerable.

Read the Dalla Lana School of Public Health story

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off