Student learning can reach far beyond the classroom. Through community-engaged learning, faculty, students and community organizations partner to co-create research programs that have a real impact. The Community Engaged Scholarship Institute works to integrate community-driven research into the course context, introducing students to collaborative research and key issues of relevance in our community.
On October 29th, CESI hosted an event showcasing innovative and unconventional approaches to community engagement. Through this event, attendees began to learn more about the multiple ways that people in various roles and locations pursue community-university collaborations. Presenters and participants explored how radical, emergent, and unconventional work can generate significant impact.
The day featured panels, presentations, workshops, and roundtable discussions covering a range of topics, including:
The rise of open access and open data publishing has increased the amount of research and data freely available online. However, finding this information and knowing how to access it can sometimes seem impossible.
The Community Engaged Scholarship Institute hosted its third annual event on March 1st and 2nd, 2017 in Downtown Guelph. 'What We Know' brought together 49 posters featuring diverse research on Guelph and Wellington from community organizations, municipal staff, faculty and students. Attendees learned about feral cats, farmland loss, food waste, the wellbeing of children and more - all specific to the communities that they live, work and play in.
The Community Engaged Scholarship Institute hosted its second annual event on February 25, 2016. A total of 76 individuals representing 22 community organizations and groups joined us to explore the ways by which we can enhance and improve our community-university partnerships. The day consisted of two separate sessions, with the opportunity for all participants to meet and network over lunch.
On November 9th, 2012, the Research Shop celebrated the many community and university partnerships developed over the last three years!
The posters were presented at the River Run Centre, where remarks highlighting the past three years of partnerships were given by university and community members. There were 26 posters, displaying a variety of topics and partnerships. Some of these topics included:
The Community Engaged Scholarship Institute organized and hosted the workshop How to Build a Research Shop on May 26th, 2015 at Algonquin College as a pre-conference workshop to the CUExpo.
On February 11th, 2015, CESI hosted a full-day event on community-engaged scholarship to explore themes of complex partnerships, research tensions, and how to structure engaged projects. Over 40 faculty, staff and students attended from various departments at the University of Guelph.
In 2009, faculty members from the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences (CSAHS) at the University of Guelph were surveyed about their community-engaged activities. The survey resulted in a report which documents faculty involvement in community-engaged work and identifies important facilitators of engagement in research, teaching, and service. The report also offers ideas of successful practices which could be used to inform new initiatives intended to recognize and support community-engaged efforts.
On May 15, 2012, Dr. Don Lenihan, Vice President, Engagement at the Public Policy Forum ran a workshop on “Rescuing Policy: a public policy forum seminar”, hosted by the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute.