Speciesism – discrimination by species - is recognized by some moral philosophers as a social justice issue. It is a problem for animals and humans alike since studies show that how we treat animals is related to how we treat each other and to public health. We aim to raise awareness of speciesism among social workers - a group likely to respond to social justice issues – to see if they become more willing to advocate for animals. Animal advocates, social workers and I form the participatory action research team.

The 2017 Neighbourhood Small Grants Program Evaluation will deepen understanding of grassroots grant making through an analysis of program outcomes and participant feedback from the Vancouver Foundation’s 2017 Neighbourhood Small Grants (NSG) program. Using data collected by the Vancouver Foundation, the project intern will produce a report that highlights the outcomes, opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned from the program activities of the 2017 granting year of the NSG.

The Hey Neighbour! pilot program evaluation intends to draw conclusions about the potential of social policy interventions into urban neighbourhoods. First, we will review the multidisciplinary research trends and approaches related to the question of improving social quality in urban neighbourhoods and communities. This will include review of the terminology, definitions of related terminology, overlapping usages across disciplines, co-citations, and different methodological approaches in the past generation, in the scholarly literature.

The Connections and Engagement Survey Breakdown Project will provide a deeper understanding of relevant community health issues in the Metro Vancouver area by studying various elements associated with civic engagement and citizen participation. Using data collected by the Vancouver Foundation, this project will produce several reports on key issues of neighbourhood and community well-being and engagement and several reports pertaining to the engagement profiles of various cities in the region.