School of Social Work Archives | Research & Innovation

ACT for Youth Project brings interdisciplinary researchers together, discussing youth in urban communities

fmaquito — Mon, 30 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

The celebrated its youth researchers with an awards ceremony at the conclusion of a day-long partnership group meeting at Black Creek Pioneer Village.

Above: From left, front row, ACT for Youth Project research interns Stephanie Lucas, Stephanie Henry, Aziz Mohammed, Muzna Rehman, Enoruwa Osagie, with youth co-chair Alex Lovell, a 91��ɫ grad, in the back

Dozens of students from area high schools joined the participants on April 14 to celebrate the Youth research interns and youth-led committee leaders, who worked on the project in 2010.

The ACT for Youth Project, which began in 2009 and is funded through 2014, brings together an alliance of stakeholders and interdisciplinary researchers from 91��ɫ in a program of applied research, capacity building, knowledge transfer and evaluation that is focused on youth in urban communities.

The project hopes to develop a comprehensive youth strategy that articulates how places like the Jane-Finch community can energize local assets that support positive youth development.

One of the goals of the project is to build the research capacity of youth in the Jane/Finch area so they can participate in asking and answering questions about issues of importance to their community. The project created its Youth Research Internship to facilitate this goal. ACT also has a youth-led committee to ensure that youth have a space to contribute to their research.

Youth-led committee co-chairs Antonius Clarke, executive director of the youth-led community agency Friends in Trouble, and 91��ɫ grad Alex Lovell [BA Spec. Hons. ’02, MA ’06], now a doctoral student at Queen’s University, introduced each award recipient and outlined their research contributions, volunteer activities and future study plans.

Above: From left, front row, youth-led committee leaders Abubakar Sultan, Edwin Chacon; middle row, Alexander Toolsie, Erica Holness, Taneese Jones, Olivia Agyemang, Tara Sherif, Suhentha Suthaharan; back row, co-chairs Lovell and Antonias Clarke

The youth-led committee leaders recognized at the event were:

Olivia Agyemang, Westview Centennial Secondary School
Edwin Francis White Chacon, Emery Collegiate Institute
Ann Duong, Earl Haig Secondary School
Nicola Holness, University of Windsor
Taneese Jones, Westview Centennial Secondary School
Suhentha Suthaharan, C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute
Alexander Toolsie, 91��ɫ co-op student
Tara Sherif, Westview Centennial Secondary School
Abubakar Sultan, Emery Collegiate Institute

The youth research interns recognized at the event were:

Ryan Edwards, 91��ɫ
Stephanie Henry, Seneca College
Femi Lawson, Ryerson University
Funmilola Lawson, 91��ɫ
Stephanie Lucas, Westview Centennial Secondary School
Aziz Mohammed, Northview High School
Enoruwa Osagie, William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute
Muzna Rehman, Westview Centennial Secondary School
Judy Truong, Weston Collegiate Institute

Uzo Anucha, professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Social Work, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, co-chairs the ACT for Youth Project with Sue Wilkinson, executive director of the .

ACT is funded through a $1M grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. For more information on the Act for Youth Project, visit their website.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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LA&PS series on why research matters to feature 91��ɫ's Knowledge Mobilization Program (KMb)

fmaquito — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0000

It’s been a year of research-intensive events and activities in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and one of the most notable initiatives has been the Research Matters series. It attempts to answer the question: “Why does research matter?” In particular, it focuses on the ways in which LA&PS researchers – both faculty and students – are using their skills and expertise to address timely community, cultural, social, economic and industry challenges.

Missed out on a Research Matters session? Videos and audio files are available online.

There are two more Research Matters sessions scheduled this year, open to the 91��ɫ community. The first, which will be held on March 24 from 10am to noon in 109 Atkinson Building, takes up the theme of knowledge mobilization. Michael Johnny, manager of 91��ɫ’s Unit, will provide general insights into what knowledge mobilization is and how it ties to LA&PS researchers. Professor from the School of Social Work will discuss his knowledge mobilization efforts in the field of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender research.

The second session will be held on April 19 from 10am to noon in 305 91��ɫ Lanes and will focus on human rights, international law and global health policy. Political science Professor Lesley Jacobs, director of the , will present in collaboration with four emerging 91��ɫ scholars: Hope Olumide Shamonda (PhD candidate in philosophy); (PhD candidate in philosophy); Ruby Dhand (PhD candidate in law); and Mariette Brennan (PhD candidate in law).

The series has also explored topics ranging from pandemic planning, indigenous research and China’s competitive advantage in the world market to the grammar of aid in international development, community engagement as methodological practice, and, most recently, the value of Canada’s North.

“One of the highlights of the year for me in the role of associate dean, research, has been the launch of this series,” says Professor Barbara Crow. “I’ve gained helpful insight into the individual and collaborative research undertakings of faculty and students, and enjoyed watching connections being made between academic research and what’s going on in our communities, our workplaces and our lives.”

To RSVP for either of the upcoming sessions, e-mail Lorraine Myrie at lmyrie@yorku.ca.

Republished with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Video: Prof's film explores CNN effect in global aid response to 2004 tsunami

fmaquito — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Due to what is sometimes called the CNN effect – the rapid transmission of images and news – the media can have a huge impact on global aid response to a disaster. The most dramatic images of suffering attract the most funds and push other, more protracted emergencies, off the radar.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami represented a dual disaster for Aceh province in Indonesia and for Sri Lanka, both wracked by another kind of disaster – civil conflict – before the waves hit.

In her film Hidden in the Limelight of the Tsunami: Aceh's Silent Disaster, to be screened tomorrow in 102 Accolade East Building at 6pm, 91��ɫ social scientist and geographer Jennifer Hyndman explores how media coverage influenced global response and relief efforts following the 2004 tsunami that devastated Indonesia’s northern province. While support poured in for the victims of this natural disaster, the damage caused by a protracted and violent conflict between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement was ignored.

Released five years after the tsunami, Hidden in the Limelight offers valuable lessons for aid operations and presents original research on what happens when environmental disaster comes on top of human-made disaster.

Environmental disasters cannot be separated from human ones, says Hyndman, who studies humanitarian response in conflict and disaster zones. Like the recent earthquake in Haiti, the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami provides evidence that the legacies of conflict, poverty and inequality shape the impact of disaster. Likewise, global media coverage of such emergencies conditions the aid provided.

Hidden in the Limelight is funded by the . If you miss the March 2 screening, view the film . The password is Lhokse.

Hyndman is resident faculty member in the Centre for Refugee Studies and a professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies' School of Social Work.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Social Work prof assists healing and cultural restoration in China's earthquake-ravaged Sichuan province

fmaquito — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0000

With any kind of catastrophe, such as the recent earthquake in Haiti, helping victims cope and figuring out what to do differently in the future can take years. This is something 91��ɫ social work Professor knows a thing or two about.

Following the 2008 of China, Wong has been working with students at in one of the hardest hit counties of the country. She is part of an art-based participatory action research project focusing on healing and cultural restoration, which could lead to changes in the way China responds to disasters.

Over 70,000 people in Sichuan province died in the earthquake. Beichuan Middle School, which teaches students from Grade 7 to 12, was at the centre of the disaster. It is the only complete high school in Beichuan, which is the only autonomous county of the Qiang ethnic minority. For parents in the area who want their children to go to college or university, this is the school they send them to, and most of the students live there as their homes are too far to travel from daily.

Left: A workshop run by Renita Wong with Grade 12 students at Beichuan Middle School in China

More than half of the Beichuan Middle School’s approximately 3,000 students and teachers were killed in the quake. Most survivors lost loved ones. “Seventy per cent of the Grade 10 students died and quite a lot of the teachers,” says Wong. “This is an ethnic minority area, so it is not only the loss of life, but a cultural loss as well.”

The high number of casualties at the school has drawn national attention, including about seven visits from Premier Wen Jiabao of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the past year. The school has received some 600 computers, athletic shoes, shirts, stationery and more, but there has also been a lot of pressure on the students and teachers to perform. It was the first school to start classes after the earthquake, and the nation was watching to see their recovery defined in terms of their academic performance in the university entrance public exam.

Right: Beichuan immediately after the earthquake

Wong has been part of the Post-Earthquake Community Rebuilding and Cultural Restoration Project in Sichuan, China in collaboration with Long Di and her team from the Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Timothy Leung and his team from the Department of Social Work of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “We wondered, 'How can the culture continue and be sustained with the loss of the younger generation?',” says Wong.

When the earthquake happened, Wong was already in Asia and was on her way to Beijing regarding another research project. Long Di asked Wong to come to Beichuan – a four-to-five hour trip by plane and ground transportation from Beijing. At that time she stayed a week. “Everything was quite chaotic,” says Wong. The quake affected the urban areas as well as the rural areas in the mountains. “Tens of thousands of people were all relocated to different sites.”

Left: Renita Wong

Many of the students were not able to go home immediately to see their families. Some whole villages were buried, some were later flooded. The students were anxious for news. Finally, the younger junior-high students were allowed back home, and when they returned to the school site “they were much calmer,” says Wong. “We wanted to reconnect them with their families at a deeper level and reconnect them with their cultural roots and the land because the whole land shook. As a rural area, they are close to the land.”

Wong and her fellow collaborators wanted the participants involved as active partners in the design of the research. “The purpose and the result of the research has to be directly tangible to them,” says Wong. “It has to have a direct implication and relevance for them.” The research also needed to be a form of healing.

It was decided that it would be an oral history action research project involving photographs and art for Grade 11 and 12 students (who were in Grade 10 and 11 at the time of the quake). The students would talk to an elder in their family or their village, listen to their life stories, ask how they coped with difficulties in their lives and identify their indigenous cultural resources. “With creative art media, the students will weave together a collective narrative in the latter part of the project, representing the cultural strengths and the healing journey of individuals, families and communities,” says Wong. That way the students could own their history and gain strength from the weaving together of a collective story of resilience.

Right: The temporary site of Beichuan Middle School

Wong returned again last summer for over a month, working with the students and figuring out where they were now, one year later. About 30 students went home and interviewed an elder and/or took photographs of significance to them. The students will put the stories together with the photos. “It is a story of healing, a story of resilience and of finding different forms to represent this,” says Wong. “It actually helped them to know their families and know the history of their village way more than they did before. They feel a lot more grounded.”

Left: Beichuan after the earthquake

The teachers at the school have said this group of students is able to concentrate better and have better relationships with their peers, and that their sense of hope for the future has increased.

What this project shows, says Wong, is there are ways to approach traumatized teenagers that involve them in the process rather than assuming expert knowledge in providing psychological or trauma counselling. Wong and the team felt the systemic and community determinants of healing were being ignored.

Based on the results of their research, the team plans to make recommendations to the State Council of the People’s Republic of China on the national post-disaster psychosocial healing and education policies in China.

Wong is a faculty associate in the 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research and professor in Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies' School of Social Work.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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New ResearchSnapshots get knowledge to the community

fmaquito — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ’s Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Unit has released 40 new ResearchSnapshot summaries and opened two new Community Collaboration Stations. The announcement of the new initiatives was made Dec. 2 during an afternoon research forum hosted at the University by the KM Unit.

The summaries are available in a located on the KM Unit's Web site. They provide an introduction into the variety and depth of research that is conducted at 91��ɫ and the University of Victoria as part of ResearchImpact, a service-oriented program designed to connect university research with across Canada to ensure that research helps inform decision-making. The KM Unit's new Community Collaboration Stations provide research collaborators with access to a 91��ɫ computer, which allows them to access materials contained in the 91��ɫ Libraries and other online resources.

Some of the new research summaries highlight the work of 91��ɫ education Professor Stephen Gaetz, who studies homelessness, and that of Professor Uzo Anucha of the School of Social Work in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, who studies youth and poverty. The complete library of research summaries consists of 84 entries that present the results of research on a variety of issues, including HIV/AIDS, immigration & settlement, employment and climate change, as well as research on business & management, law and health services, to name but a few.

First announced in the spring of 2009 (see YFile, May 27), the ResearchSnapshot concept was ;tested in focus groups which included University researchers, provincial policy-makers and community social service organizations. The focus group participants were supportive of the initiative, which was described as offering an excellent introduction to research with just enough background and contact information, without being overwhelming.

Above: Participants in the afternoon research forum presented by 91��ɫ's KM Unit. The forum featured 91��ɫ researchers speaking on the topic of youth engagement. The announcement of the new ResearchSnapshots and Community Collaboration Stations was made at the Dec. 2 forum.

There are limitations to the utility of the research summaries, says David Phipps, director of the Office of Research Services at 91��ɫ. He points out that a decision about public policy or professional practice should not be made on the basis of a single research study. “We use ResearchSnapshots as a calling card to alert our non-academic research partners that there is research expertise at 91��ɫ that might be relevant to a partner’s interests,” says Phipps. This calling card helps 91��ɫ’s KM Unit broker relationships between 91��ɫ and potential collaborators or organizations seeking to use research to inform decisions, says Phipps.

“91��ɫ has opened Canada’s first Knowledge Mobilization Unit that is fully integrated into the University’s research infrastructure,” says Stan Shapson, 91��ɫ's vice-president research & innovation. “The expertise of 91��ɫ’s researchers and their graduate students should be accessible in order to maximize the social economic and environmental impacts of public investments in university research.”

Daniele Zanotti, CEO of the United Way of 91��ɫ Region, agrees. “It is important that community agencies are working from the best knowledge available so that they can make well-informed decisions,” she says. “91��ɫ's Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides an avenue for community organizations to tap into the research expertise available in the University. It makes research, as well as researchers and graduate students, accessible to non-academic decision-makers.”

The development of the ResearchSnapshots was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada. Production of the latest 40 research summaries and the Community Collaboration Stations were made possible through the support of the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation at 91��ɫ.

To access the research summary database, click . To reserve time on a Community Collaboration Station, contact 91��ɫ’s KM Unit by e-mail at kmunit@yorku.ca.

From YFile - 91��ɫ's daily e-bulletin

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