Write to Read BC Project

SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi) is SFU’s first research infrastructure developed for the purpose of extending community-engaged research to provincial, national and international communities. As a way to strengthen this infrastructure, this proposal outlines the development of the SFU 312 Main Research Shop in partnership with the Vancity Community Foundation, the operating manager of 312 Main. The SFU 312 Main Research Shop is a public-facing model for community-engaged research that supports community-serving organizations (community groups, non-governmental organizations, and other organizations) by providing research services at low or no cost. It is piloted with Vancity Community Foundation and operates in collaboration with 312 Main which is a social innovation hub in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a project of VCF and where the CERi office is located.
The SFU 312 Main Research Shop provides VCF with valuable research support, enabling it to better develop and evaluate its projects and programs. While VCF supports community organizations through its various projects and programs, it is not able to provide the assistance necessary to address all the research, evaluation and knowledge mobilization needs that arise. SFU 312 Main Research Shop would fill this gap.
VCF and CERi are partnering on this MITACS application to achieve the following objectives:
• Provide funded research support to community organizations working on policy change at 312 Main, benefiting members and partners.
• Explore opportunities to build on research outcomes and recommendations.
• Contribute to the knowledge on housing security, climate justice, poverty reduction, and anti-racism through research projects, informing VCF’s strategy and programs.
For this Part 2 application, the community partner is Write to Read BC.
Since 2011, based on the vision of former BC Lieutenant-Governor, Steven Point, the first Indigenous person in that role, various community-based Indigenous Elders, leaders and educators have collaborated with non-Indigenous organizations and groups to establish libraries and learning centres in 27, mostly rural and remote Indigenous communities. This ongoing, diverse and non-linear collaboration, since its early phases, has been called the Write to Read BC Project or simply “W2R”.
Main activities of the partner:
The Write to Read Project (W2R) in British Columbia is a collaborative project that aims to improve literacy by creating accessible libraries and learning centres in remote and Indigenous communities across the province. The centres provide books, computers, and internet access, which support both literacy development and digital skills, particularly among Indigenous youth and adults.
Challenges the partner aims to solve:
The project described in the plan has the dual goals of 1) informing the public and of 2) re-framing the W2R BC Project from the point of view of Indigenous educators, leaders and Elders through their voices and descriptions; of the impact and effects of this ongoing set of collaborative partnerships.
Social and economic benefit for the partner organization:
Working with a community-led model and mindset, Write to Read brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens in order to break down social barriers, to build bridges across cultures, and to re-establish positive relationships. The efforts to improve literacy support accessible, higher educational attainment, social services and improved employment opportunities. It is a solid example of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
Education and literacy are a central focus of the research and for the purposes of this project “education” includes both Western and Indigenous ways of knowing and the community and group changes that can be described as a result of the presence of these highly localized learning centres. This is the broad approach in this research. A narrower and more engaging portion of the research will include stories from selected communities that provide deeper insight and local detail of impacts and effects of the W2R Learning Centres.