Oct 02, 2009

To all our Centre Friends and Colleagues,

Welcome to volume seven of the "Community Basis" newsletter! This is one of our ways to communicate news and innovation in community based research locally, nationally, and internationally to our network, colleagues and friends. 

To view Community Basis in a browser click here.

Since our last e-news communication, we have been involved in many exciting new projects and community engagements. The Centre has been busy over the summer preparing for a range of community events, conferences and forums occurring over the next few months, not to mention our regular research activities. We have also been busy with planning activities and collaborations in preparation for CUExpo 2011 (The Community University Partnership Conference) which will be hosted by CCBR in May 2011 in the Waterloo Region. Please click here to view a flyer announcing this exciting conference.

Please read on for some brief updates on  what's new at the Centre. This issue of Community Basis also features one of our current projects and two articles on the work we are doing. Our featured project is Ethics in Community Based Research, written by student researcher, Norah Love.  Our first featured article is entitled Reflections on theBelfast Living Knowledge Conference, by Joanna Ochocka.  Our second featured project is the CURA Demonstration project, summarized by Centre Researcher, Jocelyn Booton. But first some news from our Centre...

Proposals Due Oct 16 for Community-Campus Partnerships for Health Conference, May 12-15, 2010, Portland, Oregon, USA

The Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) is holding their 11^th Conference "Creating the Future We Want to Be", on May 12-15 2010, in Portland, Oregon, USA.Proposals are due Friday, October 16, 2009.

For more information on the Call for Proposals, click here.

Winner of the 2009-2010 Helmut Braun Scholarship Award

Congratulations to Amanda Freeman-MacOwan, this year's recipient of the Helmut Braun Scholarship Award. The award ceremony took place at CCBR on Friday, September 18^th.  This was another opportunity for our community to come together and connect over a worthy cause and good food! For more information about the Helmut Braun Scholarship, please follow this link.

Congratulations to Centre staff!

We congratulate Jason Newberry on his new position at the Centre as Research Director. Jason has been at CCBR since 2003. And more congratulations to our two new Senior Researchers, Elin Moorlag and Tanya Darisi. For more information about the staff at CCBR, and their research interests and backgrounds, please clickhere.

Chiefs Assembly Presentation: Presentation of Evaluation Finding

Aug 18, 2009- Andrew Taylor and Sarah Lord presented the results of the three-year Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin Evaluation Project at Tikinagan Child and Family Services Annual Chiefs Assembly in Sandy Lake First Nation, Ontario. Read more...

CUexpo2011, Bringing Global Perspectives to Local Action

The Centre for Community Based Research, as lead organization for the conference, is busily planning the Fourth International Community-University Exposition set for May, 11-15, 2011. CUexpo2011 is a Canadian-led, international conference designed to showcase the exemplars in Community-University partnerships worldwide, and together to introduce creative ways of strengthening our local communities. Complex social issues require global perspectives to inform local action. The Conference website: www.CUExpo2011.ca is under construction. Stay posted for the launch.To download the flyer, click here.

For more information, please contact: Linda Norton via email at: linda@communitybasedresearch.ca or by telephone: (519) 741-1318 x 223. 

New and Recent Projects

CCBR continues to manage over 20 to 30 Community Based research projects at any one time. A number of new projects were developed at the end of 2008, contributing to and enriching our diverse theme areas.  Below are some examples:

Payday Lending: In Search of a Local Alternative

The purpose of this research study is to look at the nature of existing payday lending services and to explore the possibility of a 'made-in-Waterloo' microcredit alternative to payday lending. The project idea was initiated by staff at CCBR and developed as a result of discussions with a community partners. To read more, click here.

A CURA Demonstration Project: Leaders Mobilizing Change -A Workshop for Leaders to Make Mental Health Services More Culturally Responsive,

"Taking Culture Seriously in Community Mental Health" is a 5-year (2005-2009) Community University Research Alliance (CURA) bringing together over 40 diverse university and community partners in the Toronto and Waterloo regions of Ontario. Now in its third and final phase, the focus of the CURA project is on developing, implementing and evaluating innovative demonstration projects. 

For more about this project, please visit ourTheatre Leadership project page.

Project Database

CCBR has expanded its searchable database for all projects, associated publications and presentations. The database now includes even more information on CCBR's work. To check out the database, please click here. Please also note that our website now has a general search option at the top of each page. This will allow users to search the entire content of our website.

A selection of CCR projects are described here.

Staff Updates

CCBR has been very fortunate to welcome many new excellent people to the CCBR family over the last little while. Alongside these new arrivals, we have also had to say a number of bittersweet goodbyes and good luck to staff who are moving on to pursue graduate education or new career paths. 

Welcome to students Cara Dowhaniuk, Alexis Buettgen, and Catherine Bailey. Cara is doing her placement with us for her last year at Renison, BSW placement and Alexis is completing her placement for the MA in Community Psychology at Laurier.  Catherine is doing an MSW placement from Laurier University.

We are going to miss fomer staffers: Michelle Bissonette, Jocelyn Booton, Sarah Lord, and Troy Rieck. We wish them all well in all their future pursuits and adventures! To go to our staff pages please clickhere.

Featured Project

In each issue of Community Basis, we profile a current project to give our readers an idea of the type of work we engage in here at CCBR. In this issue, we are pleased to profile Ethicsin Community Based Research, written by student researcher, Norah Love.

Ethics in Community Based Research

In January 2008, CCBR hosted an open community meeting to discuss the need and vision for ethical reviews of community based research in Waterloo Region. Since the community meeting, the working group has been collaborating to translate ideas into action. It was decided that a needs assessment and feasibility study in the Waterloo Region would be the most effective way to explore the issues, challenges and dilemmas related to the practice of community-based research and research ethics.

To read more about this project, click here.

Featured Articles

In each volume of e-news, we present research articles, theoretical perspectives, interviews, editorials, or other written pieces related to the work we do and the social issues we are concerned with. In this issue our first featured article is entitled Reflections on theBelfast Living Knowledge Conference, by Joanna Ochocka. Our second featured article, written by Centre Researcher Jocelyn Booton, discusses the CURA Demonstration project Leaders Mobilizing Change.

Impressions from the Belfast Living Knowledge Conference

From August 27-29 2009 Queen's University in Belfast,  Northern Ireland,  hosted a conference to mark the tenth anniversary of the Living Knowledge Network. Living Knowledge is an international Science Shop network, 'to promote and support public access to and influence on science and technology', and in this manner moved beyond promoting community-based research (CBR) to engaging the much larger and far more conse­quential world of research. To read more click here.

 To read the press release, click here.

Leaders Mobilizing Change

Leaders Mobilizing Change is a CURA demonstration project about a workshop for leaders to make mental health services more culturally responsive. The project's three phases (each using a PAR approach) are the following: (1) exploring diverse conceptualizations of mental health problems and practice, (2) developing culturally effective practice, and (3) evaluating demonstration projects. While 5 cultural linguistic communities are actively involved (Somali, Sikh Punjabi, Polish, Mandarin, Spanish Latin American), one of the project's goals is to emphasize the transferability of knowledge gained to all of multicultural Canada.  Now in its third and final phase, the focus of the CURA project is on developing, implementing and evaluating innovative demonstration projects. Read more.

New Publications

Our researchers continue to publish and disseminate findings and issues associated with our research projects.  Here is a list of our most recent publications.

Janzen, R., Walton-Roberts, M., & Ochocka, J. (submitted). Chapter 6: Waterloo Region. In J. Biles & C. Andrew (Eds.) Immigration, integration and inclusion in Ontario Cities. Montreal PQ: McGill-Queen's University Press.

Janzen, R., Ochocka, J., Jacobson, N., Maiter, S., Simich, L., Westhues, A., Fleras, A. & the Taking Culture Seriously Partners (submitted). Synthesizing Culture and Power in Community Mental Health: An Emerging Framework. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health.

Nelson, G., Janzen, R., Ochocka, J. & Trainor, J. (in press). Participatory Action Research and Evaluation with Mental Health Self-help Groups and Organizations: A Theoretical Framework. In L. Brown & S. Wituk (Eds.), Mental Health Self-Help: Consumer and Family Driven Initiatives. New York: Springer.

Newberry, D.J. & Strong A.D. (in press). Beyond Mental Health Maintenance: An Evaluation Framework Driven by Recovery-Focused Outcomes. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health (Special Issue, Fall 2009)

Simich, L., Maiter, S. & Ochocka, J. (under review). From social liminality to cultural negotiation: Transformative processes in immigrant wellbeing. Anthropology and Medicine Journal.

Simich, L., Maiter, S., Moorlag, E. & Ochocka, J. (2009). Taking culture seriously: Ethno linguistic community perspectives on mental health. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 32 (3), 208-214.

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