Sarah Flicker, professor and 91亚色 Research Chair in Community-Based Participatory Research in the , is the principal investigator on the project, titled "Theatre Making Impact (TMI): Scaling-Up a Youth-Led HIV Prevention Play Across Ontario." Shira Taylor, adjunct professor at 91亚色 and director of TMI, is co-applicant and the program's founder. The OHTN funding will support the next phase of the program's expansion across Ontario, extending its reach into urban centres and northern Indigenous communities where HIV rates remain disproportionately high.

TMI 鈥� formerly known as SExT, or Sex Education by Theatre 鈥� is a trauma-informed, culturally responsive not-for-profit that uses peer education and theatre, alongside music, dance, rap and poetry, to engage youth in open conversations about sexual health, HIV prevention, mental health and healthy relationships.

Taylor founded the program in 2014 in Toronto's Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park neighbourhoods as part of her doctoral thesis, and later expanded it through a postdoctoral fellowship at 91亚色 in collaboration with Flicker. To date, it has reached more than 12,000 young people across Canada, with a focus on communities most affected by HIV 鈥� including newcomer, Indigenous and 2SLGBTQIA+ youth.

"I really wanted to build an evidence-based program that put the youth voice centre stage on these topics," says Taylor.

What sets TMI apart is how it delivers that education. Instead of pamphlets or classroom lectures, the program uses peer-led performance, humour and storytelling to model difficult conversations and build skills in a lower-stakes environment 鈥� one that engages young people both intellectually and emotionally.

鈥淟ack of awareness usually isn鈥檛 the reason people don鈥檛 use condoms," says Taylor. "There's a peer pressure element, there's an emotional element. Theatre is uniquely positioned to take into account our full humanity."

The program also benefits from an intergenerational model that, over the last decade, has deepened. Many of the original cast members who joined as high schoolers 鈥� initially, Taylor jokes, for the free pizza 鈥� have stayed on and trained as trauma-informed peer mentors. They now co-facilitate the program alongside a new generation of youth from the same community, sharing similar cultural backgrounds and immigration experiences.

The evidence from a recent Toronto District School Board (TDSB) tour, co-led by Taylor and Flicker and supported by a LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health Catalyst Grant at 91亚色, underscores the approach's impact. Across eight performances at five TDSB high schools, 61 per cent of student audience members reported improved sexual health knowledge, 49 per cent felt more confident managing their own sexual health and 46 per cent reported greater awareness of where to access HIV and STI testing.

Mental health outcomes were also significant: 49 per cent reported improved mental health knowledge, 44 per cent indicated feeling more comfortable seeking help and 41 per cent reported using new coping strategies.

While the student audience feedback provides crucial insights, the program鈥檚 impact extends beyond statistics. During a tour to an Indigenous community in Saskatchewan, a youth performer's rap about navigating her identity and her family's cultural expectations moved a young audience member to share a poem she had written but never shown anyone.

"She had it stuffed in the back of her locker," Taylor recalls. "She'd been too scared to share it publicly. And we all gathered around as this young Indigenous girl read us this poem. I still remember the words."

With OHTN support, the project will reach youth beyond Toronto by bringing performances to urban centres and northern and Indigenous communities across Ontario over the coming year.

Taylor and Flicker are thrilled that the award allows the program to continue to reach young people across the province.

"It's really validating how much impact arts-based approaches can have in this sector," says Taylor, "and how important it is to empower community-based, culturally responsive, trauma-informed programs around these topics, which has been historically lacking in sex education."

With files from Mzwandile Poncana

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BuildHER Future: Newcomer Women in Construction, developed by non-profit organization Newcomer Women鈥檚 Services Toronto (NEW), brings together post-secondary and community partners to support workforce development, improve access to employment and strengthen pathways into the construction industry.

NEW is a non-profit organization that provides settlement, employment and language services to immigrant and refugee women and their families and will deliver the program in collaboration with Schulich ExecEd and Humber Polytechnic.

It aims to bring together expertise in executive learning, workforce development and applied, hands-on training to ensure learners benefit from industry-informed curriculum design, practical skills and pathways opportunities.

鈥淪chulich Executive Education is proud to partner with Newcomer Women鈥檚 Services Toronto on BuildHER Future,鈥� says Rami Mayer, executive director of Schulich ExecEd. 鈥淏y contributing our expertise in construction project management, we are supporting newcomer women in accessing meaningful career opportunities in a sector that will benefit from their skills.鈥�

Funded in part by the Government of Canada鈥檚 Foreign Credential Recognition Program (FCRP), BuildHER Future aims to improve labour market integration, advance gender equity and address critical workforce shortages while expanding access to construction careers for internationally trained women.

It responds to the growing demand for skilled workers across Canada鈥檚 construction industry and the persistent systemic barriers that many newcomer women face related to credential recognition and limited access to industry networks.

鈥淲ith the support of the Government of Canada, we are equipping highly skilled newcomer women with the training, mentorship, and work experience needed to succeed in the construction sector,鈥� says Sara Asalya, executive director of Newcomer Women鈥檚 Services Toronto. She adds the program is focused on creating opportunities for employment and recognizing the value of internationally trained professionals.

鈥淲e look forward to the impact this initiative will have on participants and the broader workforce,鈥� says Mayer.

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At the 91亚色 Psychology Clinic, however, researchers and graduate students are working from a different premise: that understanding a child means understanding the family around them.

Heather Prime, a clinical psychologist and associate professor in the , is leading that effort with a team of graduate students.

At the clinic 鈥� a mental health care facility for families in the community and training centre for 91亚色鈥檚 emerging clinical psychologists 鈥� graduate students study family mental health while also engaging directly with clients. As part of their clinical training, the students deliver services and conduct supervised assessments with families.

PhD candidate Gillian Shoychet鈥檚 doctoral dissertation sits at the centre of this work: she is studying how to implement family assessments in a university clinic, using feedback from families to refine the model.

Their work, alongside researcher Maya Koven, is outlined in an published in JAMA Pediatrics which argues that family systems assessments remain underused in the care of older children and youth.

"The family system 鈥� all family members and the interactions between them 鈥� influences a child's development and mental health," says Shoychet. "Children's mental health does not exist in isolation."

The approach centres on the Lausanne Trilogue Play Paradigm, a structured assessment that originated in Lausanne, Switzerland. During the assessment, families complete tasks while clinicians film the sessions. In a follow-up meeting, clips are played back to the family and observations are discussed collaboratively.

"We don't say 鈥榟ere's what we learned, and here's what you need to do,鈥�" says Prime. "We say, 鈥榟ere's what we saw 鈥� how does that make sense to you?鈥�"

A key focus of this approach is the co-parenting relationship: the parenting team and how both caregivers work together to support their child. The team鈥檚 research states that this dimension is rarely examined in standard child mental health care, where assessments typically involve only one caregiver.

"We're interested in all those relationships that are co-occurring," says Shoychet. "Without observing all those different pieces, it's hard to get a full sense of the child in a holistic manner."

The assessment spans four sessions and concludes with a tip sheet compiled by the clinical team and a follow-up check-in. For some families, that is enough. For others, it becomes a roadmap 鈥� pointing toward individual therapy for the child, parental support or longer-term family therapy.

"It's really a broader systemic map of what services families might be able to access," says Prime.

Building that map required significant groundwork by Shoychet. With support from Koven and the graduate student team, Shoychet worked to merge two existing clinical manuals into a single program guide designed for the 91亚色 Psychology Clinic and its clinical, research and training teams.

"It takes a lot of time, a lot of attention to detail, a lot of patience,鈥� says Shoychet of that project. 鈥淎s a graduate student, I'm not just getting training to do this program 鈥� I'm supporting the implementation of it in my clinic, which is a very unique experience."

Graduate students are trained through a deliberate scaffolding approach. They begin by observing how Prime leads a case, then they work alongside her as co-therapists. Eventually, they take the lead themselves. Between sessions, the team gathers for group consultations 鈥� typically joined by collaborator Diane Philipp, a child psychiatrist at The Garry Hurvitz Centre for Community Mental Health at SickKids who was instrumental in bringing this training model to Canada.

"Even if the student isn't the primary clinician, students on the team can come watch, provide feedback and learn," says Shoychet. "It's a really beautiful learning opportunity."

Families are also active participants in shaping the program. Surveys provide meaningful feedback on time commitment, session satisfaction and whether families felt their clinician was supportive.

"We're not just evaluating outcomes," says Shoychet. "We're really trying to understand how the program works in this specific setting and what we need to change to meet the needs of the communities we serve."

"I actually get to see the value that this has for families and be part of changing it to make it more valuable," she adds. "That was one of my aspirations for coming into grad school."

Both Prime and Shoychet share the same vision for the program: to serve those in need while creating meaningful learning experiences for grad students.

Success would mean sustainable program, says Prime, characterized by ongoing training opportunities for graduate students to serve a continuous intake of families.

"We put so much heart and soul into this project," adds Shoychet. "I'm hopeful that people will know more about it."

With files from Mzwandile Poncana

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More than 480 students developed and tested projects in collaboration with external partners across two distinct programs 鈥� the interdisciplinary Cross-Campus Capstone Classroom (C4) and the 鈥檚 ENG 4000 Capstone course.

While separate cohorts, both groups engaged in projects that advance work ranging from sustainable energy systems and health technologies to responsible uses of AI, with an emphasis on applied research focused on real-world solutions aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The outcomes of this collaborative approach highlight the role of partnership-driven design in accelerating innovation. Students worked directly with organizations to refine project scope, test feasibility and consider pathways to implementation.

Students in both cohorts showcased their work to faculty, partners and peers during two separate Capstone Day events. Lassonde students shared their innovative ideas, spanning disciplines and real-world applications, from developing an autonomous EV charging robot to a system that provides data to satellites about resident space objects or space debris.

鈥淲hat makes Capstone especially powerful at Lassonde is seeing students evolve from early-stage engineering design into confident engineers capable of designing, building, integrating, testing and communicating complex solutions that address meaningful societal and industry challenges,鈥� says Edris Hassan, Lassonde capstone course director and teaching team lead.

Students in the interdisciplinary C4 cohort developed solutions focused on community wellness, decentralized clean energy, ethical supply chains, campus accessibility and more 鈥� projects that underscore meaningful solutions to complex challenges. 鈥淐4 offers students the opportunity to move beyond theory to address real-world challenges 鈥� and the results show how interdisciplinary collaboration can generate solutions with real impact,鈥� says Richard Hornsey, co-academic lead for the C4 program. 鈥淭hese projects demonstrate the value of bringing together different perspectives to create practical, community-focused solutions.鈥�

Several projects were recognized with awards for their potential impact:

Lassonde Capstone Day Awards

Class Favourite (design, creativity, presentation)
Team 1 鈥� LaunchLab
Autonomous Pickleball Launcher
Team: Adam Hallag, Doluwamu Olubiremi, Dominic Igumbor, Leonard Gladzah, Mohammed Abbas Jega, Sarimah Chindah
Supervisor: Kai Zhang

Engineering Capstone Prize (impact on human well-being)
Team 20 鈥� VitalSense
Rewearable Health Monitoring
Team: Ayesha Shahid, Dave Hiralall, Jakub Przystupa, Maria Ahmed, Muhammad Zafar, Ossama Benaini
Supervisor: Peter Lian

Y-Space/SmartTO Mobility Award (innovation in mobility solutions)
Team 29 鈥� Team PE鈬孠E
Drop-in Regenerative Braking for Bicycles
Team: Eugene Park, Hassan Dannyal, Mohammed, Faizaan, Raiyyan Husein, Vincent Hasbun, Yunus Akcor
Supervisor: Thomas Cooper

C4 Spring Capstone Awards

Best Project Award (Quanser) (creativity, inclusion, community impact)
3.0-credit: Team A1 鈥� Seasons of Wellness: Outdoor Programming for Peel Region Youth
Team: Quratulain Alvi, Jessie Enokela, Zarin Hasan, Mihai Puscas, Catalina Tulcan Meza, Gadion Woldemariam
Partners: TRCA; Jack.org

6.0-credit: Team C19 鈥� Go Green: Decentralizing Electrical Energy in St. James Town
Team: Rajendra Brahmbhatt, Steven Chen, Aahana Dube, Nicolas Madronero Martinez, Nisha Panai, Junting Wang
Partner: Engage

Innovation Award (YSpace) (market readiness, creativity)
3.0-credit: Team C12 鈥� Project Walkway: Weather-Protected Areas for the Hangar District
Team: Mohamed Abdel Rahman, Danielle Burnett, Shuwayne Fyne, Haytham Hassan, Akshar Jadhav, Anthony Pham, Shami-uz Zaman
Partner: Northcrest Developments

6.0-credit: Team B10 鈥� Clicking with Conscience: Digital Tools to Combat Forced Labour in Supply Chains
Team: Dimitri Arjoon, Alannis Hopkinson, Dhruv Kapadia, Tony Mendoza Sanchez, Gabisan Sritharalingam, Daniel Vinitski
Partner: International Justice Mission

Sustainability Award (Honda Canada) (SDG impact)
3.0-credit: Team C11 鈥� Cultivating Continuity: Co-Creation in Parks and Open Spaces at YZD
Team: Harsha Bonthagorla, Sina Heidari, Ben Petlach, Nathan Pillinger, Alessandro Policicchio, Deepanjali Syal, Camilo Vargas Cardenas, Nicolas Vargas Gonzalez
Partner: Northcrest Developments

6.0-credit: Team B15 鈥� UNITY: Understanding Needs and Inclusivity Throughout 91亚色
Team: Prabhjyot Grewal, Abigail Laverick, Mazha Memon, Ariana Ram, Asad Rehman
Partner: Open Architecture Collaborative Canada

People鈥檚 Choice Award
Nrup Patel 鈥� 91亚色Pulse: 91亚色鈥檚 Verified Student Community Platform

See more moments from the day in the .

The Lassonde Capstone team welcomes project proposals for the 2026-27 academic year. Industry partners, community organizations and alumni are encouraged to submit ideas that give the next cohort of engineering graduates a meaningful challenge to solve. Reach out to capstone@yorku.ca to learn more.

C4 is preparing for courses in fall (3.0 credits), winter (3.0 credits), and a full-year fall/winter (6.0 credits). Contact c4class@yorku.ca to explore partnership opportunities.

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In a new video series titled Renaissance, two Black Canadians 鈥� one from the world of academia, the other from the arts, culture or community leadership sectors 鈥� sit down for an unscripted conversation about Black life in Canada.

The participants have no idea who they are about to meet.

The four-part video project is produced through a partnership between 91亚色鈥檚 Glendon College and SHIFTER, a Canadian media platform focused on Black culture, entertainment and community storytelling.

For Glendon, the project brings together alumni engagement, public storytelling and the campus's broader community engagement work. It marks the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance 鈥� the early 20th-century movement where Black intellectualism and Black culture converged 鈥� and uses the anniversary to explore Black cultural visibility in Canada today.

The partnership grew from an alumni connection: Kevin Bourne, SHIFTER's director and producer, is a Glendon graduate. After Glendon's communications team took notice of his work in journalism and entertainment, Bourne reconnected with the campus and collaborated on a 2023 written profile series spotlighting Black members of the Glendon community 鈥� students, professors, staff and alumni.

Renaissance grew from there.

"We always kind of had the idea that this will be the beginning of not just one collaboration but multiple collaborations," says Bourne.

For Glendon, Pascal Arseneau, executive director of strategic communications and community engagement, says the project reflects a word students often use to describe the campus: community.

"Glendon is special because of its capacity to create spaces for dialogue," he says. "People come from a variety of perspectives and places and manage to quickly form alliances, work on what brings them together, get involved in different causes, tackle challenges and seek out solutions together."

Arseneau says Glendon approached the project to connect several of its communities at once: current students, faculty, staff, alumni and wider audiences. By pairing Glendon-connected participants with community figures from outside the University, the series extends critical conversations into a broader public setting.

That emphasis on bringing together different perspectives also shaped the format of Renaissance. Glendon provided funding, studio space at the Glendon Theatre and a list of community members to participate. SHIFTER handled production and brought its own network of artists, creatives and community leaders. The pairings were intentional, but participants were not told in advance who they would meet 鈥� even on set. The two were kept apart until the cameras were rolling.

"It's in the place of spontaneity that potential collaboration can happen," says Bourne, adding several participants exchanged numbers after filming and spoke about staying in contact.

Bourne also says the team was conscious of Glendon's bilingual identity throughout. One of the four episodes is in French, a deliberate reflection of Glendon鈥檚 francophone community.

The first episode, now available , pairs Excellencia Bambi, a fourth-year psychology student at Glendon, with 4KORNERS, an international DJ and music producer. Their conversation ranges from the influence of Black artistry at the Juno Awards to whether visibility, gathering and institution-building are needed before Canada can be described as being in a Black cultural renaissance.

Anna Mossakowska, a digital strategist in Glendon鈥檚 strategic communications and community engagement unit, says the series also gives viewers a chance to see representatives of Glendon in conversation with people whose experiences may differ from their own.

鈥淚鈥檓 excited to see our community members connect with people from different backgrounds and perspectives, and to discover not only what makes us different, but also the many things we share,鈥� she says.

The overall goal, says Bourne, is to foster greater understanding of the Black experience in Canada.

"I hope that people who don鈥檛 identify as Black can look at it and say, 'Oh, wow, I've learned something,'" says Bourne. "By partnering with an academic institution, we are hoping this is a way of educating people that's outside of the norm of what they would typically think of as education."

The remaining three episodes are expected to be released over the next few months, with specific dates still being finalized. The series will continue to bring together participants from different fields, backgrounds and parts of the Glendon and broader Black Canadian communities.

"I definitely felt a very strong sense of pride to bring my crew into my former school," says Bourne.

For him, the project also represented a chance to bring culture into an educational space. "I think we need to do more of that," he says.

With files from Mzwandile Poncana

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When Rick Powless learned that Health Sciences North in Sudbury launched its first Indigenous hospital menu, he felt a shift happen.

The third-year doctoral student at 91亚色's Faculty of Education is a Red Seal-certified Indigenous chef, an Ontario College of Teachers-certified educator and a member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Oneida Nation of the Thames, Bear Clan.

He was also the primary consultant on an initiative led by Compass Group Canada to bring Indigenous meals into Ontario hospitals 鈥� a project that recognizes the role of traditional and cultural food in healing.

His contributions also serve as a testament to his work to advance meaningful cross-cultural engagement.

"It was emotional for me," he says of the menu鈥檚 launch in Sudbury. At 91亚色, his PhD research draws on Indigenous food sovereignty, food insecurity in urban centres and strategies to integrate traditional foods and land-based knowledge into Kindergarten to Grade 12 education.

Much of Powless's work focuses on how traditional foods and land-based knowledge support well-being, identity and learning for Indigenous people living in urban communities. His research explores the impact of food and cultural disconnection on mental health while also examining how Indigenous knowledge is taught 鈥� or overlooked 鈥� in Ontario鈥檚 Kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms. For Powless, that means pushing beyond superficial, checkbox-driven approaches and creating space for stories, reciprocity and food-based learning rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing.

鈥淚f you give somebody a recipe to cook Indigenous food but don't have the stories or the history behind those recipes then the students aren't getting anything out of it,鈥� he says. 鈥淏eyond mere sustenance, our food is also a form of cultural transmission.鈥�

Part of what makes his work distinct is its attention to access. Indigenous ingredients 鈥� such as sun chokes, wild rice, butternut squash 鈥� have been more commercialized, driving up prices and making them less accessible.

"We're being priced out of our own ingredients," he says.

That tension shapes his approach to teaching. During cooking demonstrations and teaching kitchens across Ontario 鈥� including at 91亚色, Hart House and the University of Toronto 鈥� Powless shows students how to prepare traditional dishes using affordable, accessible ingredients. For example, Three Sisters Soup 鈥� made from corn, beans and squash 鈥� becomes a lesson in both food sovereignty and practical food literacy.

The collaboration with Compass Group Canada is a clear example of how his teaching has translated into real-world institutional change. In January 2025, Powless was approached to develop traditional Indigenous recipes for hospital menus across Ontario 鈥� including Brantford, Cornwall, Brockville, Newmarket, Niagara Regional Health and Health Sciences North.

He curated and vetted the recipes, wrote the cultural stories to accompany each dish and worked within Health Canada guidelines and hospital food requirements to preserve the recipes' Indigenous identity while adapting them for institutional settings.

For Powless, the menus are about more than nutrition; they reflect what happens to an Indigenous patient when they see their culture represented on a hospital food tray.

"If I can offer a piece of bannock and Three Sisters Soup and our people get that, they're going to instantly recognize the food," he says. "It's going to warm them up inside. It's going to take them back to the territory, back to community, back to family again. When that happens, mental health begins to heal."

Early responses to the menu have confirmed what he hoped for. In September 2025, a man from Akwesasne territory had an extended hospital stay in Cornwall. When the menu appeared, he recognized the dishes immediately.

"He had this smile on his face," Powless recalls. "He said, 'I get to have my food.'"

Looking ahead, Powless hopes to expand the Compass One menus into seniors' homes, correctional facilities and offshore operations focusing on areas with Indigenous populations.

He is also offering teaching kitchens to outpatients at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health鈥檚 Shkaabe Makwa, Canada's first Indigenous-led hospital-based centre. A second recipe menu featuring traditional Indigenous food tied to ceremony and seasonal changes is also in development.

91亚色, he says, has been central to his path as an advocate and educator. When Powless introduced Indigenous dishes to 91亚色's student dining halls, he recalls being stopped by nursing students who shared that their entire class had been coming down for the soup.

Those conversations reinforce what he already believed: that food is the most direct route to cross-cultural understanding.

"If it wasn't for 91亚色, I don't think I would be where I am today," he says. "91亚色 gave me a voice. It gave me a purpose. It gave me real value to what I think the world should look like through an Indigenous lens."

With files from Mzwandile Poncana

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The funding, awarded through SSHRC鈥檚 Indigenous Capacity and Leadership in Research Connection Grants program, supports Indigenous-led research and partnerships that strengthen community-based research capacity and advance projects aligned with priorities identified by First Nations, Inuit and M茅tis communities.

The grant was awarded to Jakubchik-Paloheimo as a co-applicant with the Mushkegowuk Council, which represents and serves Omushkego Cree communities in Northern Ontario. It supported a first-of-its-kind workshop held earlier this year, bringing together James Bay Cree Nations from Ontario and Quebec alongside researchers, scientists, management bodies and government representatives to share expertise, ideas and concerns about the southern Hudson Bay polar bear subpopulation.

As polar bears face mounting pressures from climate change, contributing to more frequent interactions with humans, efforts are underway to respond. However, Jakubchik-Paloheimo points to a long-standing gap in how those efforts are shaped. 鈥淧olar bears are recognized as having significant cultural and economic importance for Northern Indigenous Peoples in Canada, but the inclusion of Cree knowledge systems has been overlooked in polar bear management,鈥� she says.

The workshop, supported retroactively by the SSHRC grant, feeds into a larger ongoing effort to address that gap through research tied to her postdoctoral work at 91亚色, supervised by Associate Professor Gregory Thiemann in the , and Joseph Northrup, an adjunct professor at Trent University and research scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.

The project is guided by the Cree principle of Wahkohtowin, often understood as the interconnected relationships between people, animals and the environment, which brings Indigenous and scientific perspectives together in support of protection grounded in lived experience and long-standing relationships with the land. In addition to the Mushkegowuk Council, the larger consortium that contributes to the project includes: Eeyou Marine Region Wildlife Board, Cree Trappers Association, Cree Nation Government, McGill University, University of Alberta, University of Manitoba, Polar Bears International, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

鈥淭hrough this partnership, the research seeks to integrate Indigenous and Western scientific knowledge to advance human-wildlife coexistence and, ultimately, to develop conservation strategies for polar bears that are both locally relevant and ethically sound,鈥� she says.

The SSHRC-supported workshop created space for participants to exchange insights across jurisdictions and systems. Six Omushkego Cree communities 鈥� Fort Severn, Peawanuck, Attawapiskat, Moose Factory, Kashechewan and Fort Albany 鈥� took part, sharing local perspectives on polar bear behaviour and the changing conditions in the region. Organized in collaboration with Angela Coxon, director of the Eeyou Marin Region Wildlife Board and聽a wildlife biologist specializing in species at risk management, the discussions also helped researchers and decision-makers better understand how Cree knowledge can inform land and wildlife management, climate change adaptation strategies and approaches to reducing conflict with polar bears.

For Jakubchik-Paloheimo, the workshop built on nearly a decade of collaboration with Indigenous leaders and organizations in Canada and Latin America, but also her ongoing postdoctoral research at 91亚色. In part also because the Mushkegowuk Council Knowledge and Reserach Manager is Vicki Sahanatien, an adjunct professor at 91亚色 who works closely with Jakubchik-Paloheimo and lending her years of experience leading marine and terrestrial conservation programs.

鈥淚t was an amazing opportunity to get to know people from both sides of the bay and to get a broader picture of how climate change is affecting polar bear behaviour, as well as the history of Wabusk [polar bears] in the region,鈥� she says.

At the same time, the workshop advanced the broader goals of the project by bringing together scientists and community members to share expertise and better understand how Cree knowledge can inform decisions around land and wildlife management, climate change adaptation and approaches to reducing conflict with polar bears.

Jakubchik-Paloheimo says she sees this as an important step in ongoing, community-led efforts to ensure Indigenous knowledge is more fully included in shaping conservation decisions and supporting coexistence in the region.

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Through a newly signed agreement with the University of Toronto, on behalf of the members, 91亚色 Libraries (YUL) will participate as a 鈥楽hare Only Partner.鈥� The pilot introduces a model that expands opportunities for collaboration, stewardship and shared ownership of print collections.

YUL will collaborate with the University of Toronto to identify low鈥憉se titles already preserved by Keep@Downsview at the U of T Downsview facility. 91亚色 will then transfer these local holdings to the jointly owned collection, supporting preservation, access and responsible collection management.

This work not disrupt the user experience; YUL users will continue to have seamless access to these titles and can make requests through for pickup at their preferred location. YUL will share more details on the as the pilot proceeds.

鈥淭his new model allows us to collaborate in a practical and innovative way,鈥� says Joseph Hafner, dean of Libraries at 91亚色. 鈥淏y aligning our holdings with materials already preserved by Keep@Downsview, we are strengthening shared stewardship of the scholarly record while creating flexibility within our local collections to better serve the 91亚色 community.鈥�

Keep@Downsview is a shared print program that supports member academic libraries through secure, environmentally controlled storage and co-ordinated collection management. Located in Toronto, the facility is governed by its members and is designed to ensure long-term preservation of scholarly print materials that are infrequently used while reducing unnecessary duplication across institutions.

Current Keep@Downsview partners include the libraries of U of T, McMaster University, the University of Ottawa, Queen's University, Western University and Memorial University. 91亚色鈥檚 participation as a Share Only Partner expands the initiative鈥檚 collaborative framework without altering its shared governance structure.

For YUL, the pilot reflects an ongoing focus on responsible stewardship, collaboration and innovation in library services.

鈥淭his pilot underscores our commitment to working collaboratively with peer institutions to steward shared collections for the benefit of current and future scholars,鈥� says Larry Alford, chief librarian, University of Toronto Libraries. 鈥淚t is an important step in exploring new partnership models that respond to evolving user needs and changing pressures on library collections.鈥�

Hafner says the opportunity reinforces YUL鈥檚 commitment to the teaching, learning and research mission of the University 鈥渢hrough dynamic collections, inclusive spaces and a strong focus on access, sustainability and scholarly communication.鈥�

This partnership agreement will be assessed as a pilot, with YUL and Keep@Downsview working together to evaluate its effectiveness and potential for broader adoption.

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The approval allows Aretek to move ahead with a three-storey student housing project at the University of Windsor, expected to be the largest 3D-printed concrete building in North America by volume.

Researchers at 91亚色鈥檚 have been working with the company to test materials, monitor performance and generate the technical evidence needed to bring an emerging construction method closer to real-world use.

Liam Butler, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, has been working alongside Aretek 鈥� formerly known as Printerra 鈥� through a multi-year research partnership anchored at the Keele Campus. Aretek is one of the few Canadian companies specializing in additive concrete construction, commonly known as 3D-printed concrete.

The collaboration involves developing lower-carbon concrete mixes, full-scale structural testing, performance monitoring, long-term durability testing and the kind of technical evidence regulators need before approving an entirely new way of building.

"This is definitely putting 91亚色 on the map as a key collaborator," says Butler.

The road to that approval, however, was not straightforward. Unlike conventional construction materials, 3D-printed concrete has no formal building code or standard anywhere in the world.

"Aretek has had to overcome the fact that there is no template for how to evaluate these new systems. They've had to create their own through demonstration and testing," says Butler.

Rather than wait for new regulations, Aretek worked within existing masonry standards to design and test a 3D-printed wall system. It applied for code approval through a regulatory pathway that allows builders to prove a new method can meet safety and performance requirements, even when it is not yet covered by existing building codes. Butler was directly involved in that process, called on by Aretek to support discussions with the Building Materials Evaluation Commission on behalf of these new innovative materials.

"We've been asked as academics to join these conversations with building officials to help support their application for these regulatory approvals," he says.

That support was possible because of what 91亚色's Keele Campus offers. Aretek conducts research and development out of 91亚色's Climate Data-Driven Design (CD3) facility 鈥� a civil engineering lab that gives access to full-scale industrial 3D printers. For Butler, that full-scale capacity is one of the partnership鈥檚 most important advantages.

"Most research around the world in 3D-printed concrete is at the lab scale, using lab-sized printers or even printers that fit on a desktop," says Butler. "We actually have access to a full-scale industrial-size printer. The acceleration from lab scale to adoption is greatly shortened. New mixes we design can be immediately tested at the full scale. That is a very unique aspect of this research project."

One of the partnership's central research objectives is reducing cement content in 3D-printed concrete mixes. Cement is essential to the rapid-hardening properties that 3D printing requires but it is also one of the construction sector's most significant environmental liabilities. The cement and concrete sector accounts for around seven per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

"Reducing that cement content in mixes, even by 20 or 30 per cent, could have a large-scale impact across the sector," says Butler.

The partnership also extends into workforce training. As Aretek trains construction workers in 3D-printing methods, those workers need a new skill set: learning to operate robotic printing systems, manage material preparation, read digital files and follow safety protocols specific to additive construction equipment.

"Like any sector that is evolving and changing, there's always a degree of upskilling that's going to have to be involved," says Butler.

The Windsor project, once complete, could also make it easier for future projects to move through approval processes elsewhere.

"Once one solution has been approved by a certain jurisdiction, it sets an important precedent," says Butler. "It will open the floodgates to a lot of other projects and jurisdictions."

Looking ahead, Butler expects 3D-printed construction to grow rapidly with hybrid structures that combine 3D-printed concrete and mass timber or precast concrete. This could lead to more sustainable material mixes and an increasing number of companies entering the space. He hopes 91亚色 remains at the centre of that evolution.

For Butler, that close connection between university research and industry application 鈥� such as the Windsor project 鈥� is what makes the partnership significant.

"It's a wonderful mechanism for creating positive impact," he says, "being able to upscale directly from research to new real-world applications."

With files from Mzwandile Poncana

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Scientists have long understood that alcohol use can interfere with memory. It can make it harder to encode new information and easier to mix up or misremember what鈥檚 already been learned.

As populations age and more people begin to experience cognitive decline, the impact of alcohol takes on new stakes. However, Assistant Professor and clinical neuropsychologist Sara Pishdadian, who teaches in the Faculty of Health's Department of Psychology, says relatively little research has examined how patterns of alcohol use affect older adults 鈥� particularly those already living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), where memory systems are more vulnerable.

In partnership with colleagues at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Pishdadian set out to address that gap. 鈥淲e were motivated to understand how drinking habits impact individuals鈥� memory abilities, particularly those at an increased risk of developing dementia.鈥�

Through research, in the Journal of Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease, Pishdadian and collaborators focused on a specific type of recall error known as intrusions.

Remembering a word involves multiple steps, including learning it, holding onto it and pulling it back when needed. When those steps falter, people don鈥檛 just forget 鈥� they sometimes fill in gaps with mistakes. In verbal memory tests, those slip ups are known as intrusions: recalling words that don鈥檛 belong, come from the wrong list or are loosely related. They offer a window into how well the brain monitors and controls retrieval.

Building on this, the researchers set out to examine whether patterns of alcohol use are linked to a distinct pattern of errors in older adults with MCI 鈥� specifically, whether differences in drinking habits are associated with greater difficulty filtering out or suppressing irrelevant information during recall.

To explore this, the team drew on cognitive testing and clinical data from two large, long-running Canadian research initiatives: COMPASS-ND, a national study of neurodegenerative disease, and the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative, which follows people living with conditions such as Alzheimer鈥檚 disease and vascular cognitive impairment.

The researchers focused on 521 adults with MCI caused by either Alzheimer鈥檚 disease or cerebrovascular disease, drawing on data from the two national studies. Participants were grouped based on self-reported drinking habits: non-drinkers; those consuming up to six drinks per week; those reporting seven or more. None of the participants had a diagnosed alcohol use disorder.

All participants had previously completed the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test 鈥� a widely used assessment measure in which people learn a list of words, are interrupted with a competing list and then try to recall the original words. Because of how it is structured, the test allows researchers to assess not just how much someone remembers but also how well they manage interference.

The team also took a closer look at intrusion errors in the data 鈥� examining not just whether people made mistakes but also what kinds of incorrect words they recalled and when.

When they analyzed those results, a more nuanced pattern emerged. Most participants made at least one intrusion, but differences became clearer when the researchers looked at when they happened. People in the higher alcohol use group were especially prone to making these mistakes after being exposed to new, competing information. In other words, once distracting material entered the picture, they had more trouble keeping it from spilling into their recall of the original list.

This pattern points to a problem with cognitive control rather than memory itself. The issue wasn鈥檛 that participants couldn鈥檛 learn or retain the words 鈥� it was that they struggled to block out competing information when trying to recall them. The key signal was when mistakes happened, clustering after new, interfering material had been introduced and when the cognitive system was under greater demand. The difficulty lay in filtering out distractions, a function tied to the brain鈥檚 executive control systems.

This matters because executive control can already be more fragile in people with MCI. The findings suggest that higher levels of alcohol use may cause additional strain, making it harder to manage interference even when overall memory performance appears similar.

Pishdadian says the findings have important implications. The insights gained into how subtle problems in retrieval control can be detected may help improve how cognitive issues are assessed and diagnosed. She notes that they could shift how MCI is monitored, as memory clinics typically focus on how much a patient can recall.  Tracking intrusion errors could reveal more subtle vulnerabilities, particularly in those who drink alcohol.

The research may also inform more proactive support. 鈥淭he findings highlight the importance of cognitive rehabilitation programs that help individuals with MCI improve how they learn and recall information,鈥� says Pishdadian, noting that targeted exercises built on new insights could help reduce interference-related slips.

While the study is observational and does not prove causation, it adds to growing evidence that alcohol and neurodegenerative disease interact. Because alcohol consumption is a modifiable behaviour, the findings may help raise awareness among people with MCI who continue to drink and support more informed decisions around prevention and care.

Pishdadian also hopes the work can open the door to further research. 鈥淭hese results show how looking more closely at patterns in memory errors can yield important insights for people with MCI,鈥� she says.

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