This short report presents the results from an evaluation conducted by the Research Shop of a campus food market on campus at the University of Guelph. The Campus Community Market Pilot Project was a six-week, student-led initiative that aimed to bring local, healthy food to campus. It was supported collaboratively by The Arrell Food Institute, the U of G Sustainability Office, the SEED, and the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute.
This report presents the findings of the program evaluation for The Mural Project conducted by CESI’s Research Shop in collaboration with Art Not Shame. The purpose of this project was to evaluate The Mural Project, which created a digital mural to bring people together, encourage creativity and better understand the impact of the pandemic on a range of individuals. A survey was distributed to participants to better understand the successes and lessons learned from the six-week workshop.
This project was prepared for, and in partnership with, Family Counselling and Support Services for Guelph Wellington's Breaking Free Program. The Breaking Free program is a psycho-educational group program for youth ages 13-18 that have been considered high-risk of using abusive behaviours in relationships.
Author(s):
Sarah Feige, Melanie Davis
Product(s):
Evaluation
Report
Program(s):
Research Shop
Project Partner(s):
Family Counselling and Support Services for Guelph-Wellington
This report presents the findings of a program evaluation conducted by CESI’s Research Shop in collaboration with the Better Ballot Campaign (BBC). The goal of the BBC is to positively influence the political climate by promoting civil discussion and debates. The program evaluation engaged with candidates, voters and volunteers to assess the successes, challenges and lessons learned to explore potential future directions for the campaign. In addition, a case study examined how the Better Ballot Campaign took shape in Dufferin-Caledon in 2018.
This evaluation was prepared for, and in partnership with, Out On The Shelf (OOTS), a queer library and resource centre in Guelph, Ontario. This project aimed to evaluate OOTS programming and processes. Evaluation activities were carried out from October 2019 to February 2020 and consisted of a program participant survey, board member and volunteer focus groups, a graffiti wall, and attendance tracking.
Author(s):
Alexandria Vincent, Laura Frielingsdorf, Emily De Sousa
This experiential First Year Seminar course challenged students to think beyond volunteering and charity as the means to have a positive impact in the community. Over the course of one semester, interdisciplinary teams of students addressed specific challenges identified by community-partners using tools and techniques from lean business models and social enterprise startups.
Throughout this course, students worked with a community partner to analyze and approach broad social issues from a multidisciplinary perspective. A unique aspect of the course was that there were no clear rubrics or mark breakdowns established. Students were informed about bare minimum requirements, but were encouraged to think beyond how to perform to meet expectations, and engaged in conversations with the instructors regarding appropriate learning goals and outcomes based on their discipline and year-level.
Over two semesters, students worked in pairs to conduct a program evaluation to meet the needs of a community partner. Together, the course instructor and CESI staff composed a list of partners for the students to choose from, and the students were coached (through guest lectures and class sessions) on how to do community-engaged work and interact with their community partners.
As a capstone course for several streams of geography students, students worked in small groups to contact community partners and organize projects that aligned with their interests and the course learning objectives. The core of the course was a group project; in small teams, students identified a problem, designed a solution, gathered the necessary data, implemented the solution, and presented their results.
Working in groups of 2 or 3, students worked with community partners to complete several components of a program evaluation depending on the needs of the partner. Components included a program overview, exploratory assessment, logic model, evaluation questions and an evaluation framework. The instructor also hosted a workshop to inform participating community organizations about program evaluation.