This research reflection and provocation emerged from a series of dialogues convened and facilitated by CESI between 2021 and 2025. It reflects an evolving set of questions, commitments, perspectives, and practices that emerged from contributors’ conversations about the constraints, strengths, and possibilities they have witnessed in the field of community engaged scholarship.
Women and gender-diverse entrepreneurs are vital to Canada’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. In Canada, these businesses contribute about $150 billion to the economy and hire more than 1.5 million people (Cukier, Hassannezhad Chavoushi, et al., 2022). Supporting women and gender-diverse entrepreneurs’ empowerment boosts the economy and improves social and environmental outcomes (Cukier, Hassannezhad Chavoushi, et al., 2022; Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, 2022).
Author(s):
Justina Walker-Mohamed, Fayza Abdallaoui, Dr. Mary Ferguson, Allison Prieur
Between 2021-23, student researchers, Tanja Samardzic and Britanny Pompilii, from the University of Guelph’s Community Engaged Scholarship Institute, were engaged to work with Sustainable Livelihoods Canada in the development of an Annotated Bibliography and an associated Literature Review. The work of the student researchers was supervised by Dr. Mary Ferguson of Eko Nomos, an independent consultancy.
This article investigates the impacts of CESI’s Research Shop, which works with local and regional organizations to carry out high-impact community-engaged scholarship by training and employing graduate students to conduct community-engaged research. The article includes a case study on the impacts (benefits and challenges) of the Research Shop on community partners and student researchers from 2009 to 2018.
This Master's thesis (supported by Dr. Liz Jackson and the Guelph Lab) explores and illuminates the phenomenon of postsecondary student food insecurity using qualitative methodologies. It uses a phenomenological framework to better understand what constitutes the lived experience of students with food insecurity; the researcher conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with students, all but one from the University of Guelph, who were recruited primarily through the campus food bank.
Every day at CESI, we have the privilege of partnering with a number of individuals and organizations who work tirelessly towards a more just, inclusive, and caring community. Their vision is bold and fierce, their passion is contagious, and their commitment to social change is driving tangible transformation. Together, they make Guelph and Wellington a better place to live for all.
Despite temporarily being closed, the 10C gallery space remained lively and activated in the front window throughout COVID-related lockdowns in 2021. As part of the collaborative agreement between the University of Guelph and 10C, CESI has access to the 10C gallery space for one month per year.
This summary highlights key impacts reported by the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) from May 2020 - April 2021. In keeping with CESI's mandate and priorities, the metrics are separated into three categories: capacity development, partnerships, and research projects.
The Community Engaged Scholarship Institute’s (CESI) Scholars are a small group of graduate research assistants enrolled in the PhD in Social Practice and Transformational Change program. During the admissions process, some students with interest and/or expertise in community engaged work are identified and offered a position at CESI as part of their funding package.
This literature review was prepared for the In Good Company Collaborative and Sustainable Livelihoods Canada to discuss the situation of women in small-to medium enterprises in Canada. More specifically, the review explores the current trends, policies, practices, challenges, and barriers faced by women in the areas of technology and engineering, skilled trades, and transportation.
This infographic was prepared by Nishnawbe Aski Nation with the support of the Northern Food Systems Community Project Coordinator in partnership with Eko Nomos and the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute. It explores a spectrum of First Nations' food self-determination activities, including:
This collection of literature reviews was prepared for the Nishawbe Aski Nation (NAN) to investigate food self-determination in Indigenous communities. The collection explores some of the challenges as well as ongoing efforts to improve food self-determination in Indigenous communities. Topics include indicators of Indigenous food self-determination, education programs available for youth, the role of social enterprises, and existing import and export systems.
The University of Guelph places high value on being a leader in post-secondary teaching and learning, as well as providing students enriched learning experiences. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented changes to how instructors teach, how students learn, and what society expects a university education to look like.
This report presents the findings of a survey conducted by CESI's Research Shop in partnership with eMERGE Guelph to better understand the perceived incentives and barriers to purchasing electric vehicles in Guelph. The purpose of this research is to better inform eMERGE’s initiatives that promote renewable energy technologies, and more specifically electric vehicles.
This summary highlights key impacts reported by the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) from May 2019 - April 2020. This document is a summary of a larger, internal report on CESI's activities and impacts; the numbers presented were identified as being of particular interest by the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences. The metrics are separated into three categories: capacity development, partnerships, and research projects.
The Community Engaged Scholarship Institute’s (CESI) Community Advisory Term (CAT) is a small group of community members and leaders, each with expertise in unique areas, services, and groups. They provide high-level guidance to the CESI Director to ensure that CESI is informed and supportive of community-driven mandates and interests.
The CESI Faculty Advisory Board provides guidance and advice to the CESI Director and staff on high-level issues including program development and design, staffing, strategic plans, and priorities. It is composed of senior CSAHS scholar-practitioners in the fields of community engaged scholarship, community-engaged research, and teaching and learning.
This page contains links to a variety of resources related to COVID-19 and the current pandemic context; they have helped the CESI team think through how to continue to do our best, most principled work in these very disrupted times. It includes practical resources, reports and primers, resource collections, and opinion pieces that may be helpful and interesting to CESI's partners, collaborators, students, and affiliated faculty as well as the local Guelph-Wellington community.
The year 2019 marked the 10th anniversary of the Research Shop, one of the five programs through which the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) fulfills its mandate to support and carry out community engaged scholarship. At the Research Shop, staff and graduate students work with local and regional organizations to design and carry out projects that address community research priorities.
Product(s):
Event
Poster
Program(s):
CESI Special Project
Knowledge Mobilization
Research Shop
Project Partner(s):
The SEED
Toward Common Ground
Focus on Nature
Yorklands Green Hub
Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy
Guelph and Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination
This three-part guide is designed for anyone interested in how virtual partnerships work, how they can be integrated with community engagement and/or experiential learning, and how they can enrich university-level courses. It provides an introduction to virtual community-engaged experiential learning, tips for virtual exchange and engaging partners online, and key values to consider when bridging global and local community engagement practices.
This literature review was conducted by CESI's Research Associate for the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto as a part of the Canadian Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Committee (MARAC) Model program. It aims to review literature pertaining to risk factors that predict women’s vulnerability to intimate partner violence or intimate partner homicide, as well as identify current domestic violence risk assessment tools and provide an overview of their strengths and weakness.
Critical community-engaged scholarship (CCES) is “a form of community-engaged scholarship that is informed by critical theory, including anti-racist and other anti-oppressive theories, asset-based understandings of community, and an explicit focus on and commitment to justice” (Community Engaged Scholarship Institute, 2019; Gordon da Cruz, 2017).
On Thursday, November 7th the Community Engaged Scholarship Instiutte hosted participants from a range of sectors to learn with and from international community engagement experts Dr. Emma McKenna (Queen’s University Belfast) and Dr. Henk Mulder (University of Groningen).
On Friday, November 8th 2019 the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute marked the 10th anniversary of the Research Shop by holding a public symposium to reflect on our work and continue to enhance our knowledge of community-university research practice and impacts.
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.
The Research Shop is one of five programs through which the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) fulfills its mandate to bring together community and campus skills and resources to directly support and carry out community-engaged scholarship and develop others' capacities tto do so. At the Research Shop, staff and graduate students work with local and regional organizations to design and carry out projects that address community research priorities.
The impacts and experiences of community engaged research and community-university partnerships can be challenging to share via traditional research and knowledge dissemination methods.
This project is a collaboration between the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute and the Guelph-Wellington Local Immigration Partnership to explore the needs of international students hoping to transition to permanent residents. Through a review of the literature and key interviews with staff of post-secondary institutions and settlement service organizations, this research identified offerings and gaps in services to international students in Guelph and Wellington.
In collaboration with Faculty Affiliates and community partners, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute is leading the development of a community research agenda focused on the interconnections between community energy and the economy. This pilot explores ways to coordinate activities across the university to meet community research needs in a specific thematic area.
In February 2018, CESI held a poster exhibit at the 10C community hub in downtown Guelph. The poster exhibit at 10C provided a snapshot of the innovative and community-driven research conducted on a breadth of topics by researchers at Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) and the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences (CSAHS).
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:
This poster exhibit was displayed at the 10C community hub in downtown Guelph in February 2018. It features 10 innovative research projects conducted by researchers at the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) and College of Social and Applied Human Sciences (CSAHS). Projects were selected by CESI and CSAHS Dean's Office and covered a variety of themes, including food waste, violence against women, sustainability, and civic issues (see below for a full list). Together, they provide a snapshot of the innovative research underway on a range of topics at both CESI and CSAHS.
This report highlights key findings from a research study conducted with Focus on Nature (FON) by Mark Shakespear, Undergraduate Research Assistant at the University of Guelph, with the guidance of Jeji Varghese.
The Engaged Practitioner in Residence program creates a campus presence for a community expert, generating opportunities for them to contribute to student, faculty, staff, and community-partnered activities. Each Engaged Practitioner in Residence (EPR) brings their own knowledge and expertise to this role, allowing for maximum innovation, creativity, and reach across the University.
The 2016-2017 year of the EPR was focused on evaluation as a form of community engaged scholarship. The 2016-2017 EPR, Andrew Taylor, is a program evaluation practitioner with more than 20 years experience. He has a particular interest in collaborative approaches to evaluation, and on the link between evaluation and community action.
Driven by a desire to apply lessons learned at the local level to a global context, discussions around CESI's Global Engagement Strategy began in 2013 out of the work to create a Vision for a School for Civil Society. Currently being piloted, this strategy builds on the University of Guelph's history of international research and programs, and increase the permeability between the university and global communities.
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.
Systems for faculty career advancement – including promotion, tenure, and professional development – have often not kept pace with changing faculty roles. They further have not met the demands of major funding agencies or the mandate that publicly funded research benefit all citizens. To address this topic, the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences and the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute hosted a 3-hour workshop on May 6th, 2016. This workshop guided participants on how to document and assess engaged scholarship and impact in the context of tenure and promotion application.
The Engaged Practitioner in Residence program creates a campus presence for a community expert, generating opportunities for them to contribute to student, faculty, staff, and community-partnered activities. Each Engaged Practitioner in Residence (EPR) brings their own knowledge and expertise to this role, allowing for maximum innovation, creativity, and reach across the University.
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.
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.
Starting in 2016, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute has taken on a number research and knowledge mobilization projects to support the efforts of the Guelph-Wellington community to create a more welcoming and inclusive environment for immigrants in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis. These projects are part of our commitment to provide timely and engaged research supports, and leverage the University's research expertise for community benefit.
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.
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.
Toward Common Ground is a partnership of 12 organizations working together intentionally and strategically to respond to community needs. This Trillium-funded project builds on Guelph-Wellington's history of collaboration, providing a new structure for local health and social service agencies to work together in an integrated and coordinated way. This initiative weaves together the work of local agencies to gain a greater understanding of the gaps, needs, strengths, and change efforts in Guelph-Wellington.
In 2014, Professor Mavis Morton lead a community engaged evaluation of the First Response Protocol through a community-university partnership between the Action Committee and the University of Guelph. It explored how well the First Response Protocol was working from the perspectives of service users and providers, as well as the successes and challenges of agencies in Guelph-Wellington responding to sexual assault and domestic violence.
CESI Faculty Affiliates are a rotating group of faculty at the University of Guelph who are doing work using community-engaged methodologies and/or work about community engaged scholarship, research, and teaching and learning. They are engaged in formal partnerships and collaborations with CESI, and represent a range of disciplines and career levels.
Most recently, CESI provided support for IICSI's successful SSHRC Partnership Grant proposal. Awarded in 2013, this 7-year, 2.5 million dollar grant involves a research team comprised of 56 scholars from 19 different institutions and partners with over 30 community-based organizations. IICSI aims to create positive social change through the meeting of improvisational arts, innovative scholarship, and collaborative action.
Program(s):
CESI Special Project
Project Partner(s):
International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation
On April 24th, 2012, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute hosted a poster session as a part of the meetings of the Canadian University Presidents' Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada in Guelph. There were 14 posters in total, highlighting collaborative projects led by community engaged scholars, students, and community organizations.
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.
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:
This workshop was aimed at those interested in creating and running Science/Research Shops or other community-based research offices to link researchers with civil society research needs. The workshop was led by Science Shop directors Henk Mulder (Groningen University, The Netherlands) and Norbert Steinhaus (Bonn Science Shop, Germany), who work with Science Shops around the world, and Linda Hawkins from CESI/the Research Shop at the University of Guelph. 33 participants attended from 11 Canadian universities, 1 American university & 2 foundations.
This project emerged from ongoing conversations among a number of organizations in the Guelph-Wellington region about the nature of social planning and decision-making in our current complex web of networks. These conversations led to the development of a more structured partnership, the launch of several interconnected projects, and the joint submission of a proposal for funding called “Engaging for Change: Practicing Collaboration and Planning in Guelph-Wellington”.
Partnership practices was a poster display of 52 posters in the old Quebec Street Mall, showcasing how the University of Guelph works with government, community, and industry to apply research knowledge and address social problems.
Product(s):
Poster
Program(s):
CESI Special Project
Project Partner(s):
Ontario Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs
On November 4th and 5th, 2010, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) co-sponsored and hosted Critical junctures in research, practice, and policy. This conference brought together national and international scholars to discuss emerging research on community-engaged scholarship and its implications for research, policy and practice. Community-engaged scholarship (CES) and community-academic partnerships have been gaining importance in higher education institutions.
Rewarding CES was a self-funded partnership comprised of eight universities and an international organization that worked together to address university culture, policies, and practices to recognize and reward community engaged scholarship (CES).
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.
