Obstacles and Opportunities in Improving Social Service Intake Referral Processes

When people seek help from a social service, the assistance they need may be best provided by another service in the community. In these cases, they should be referred to the appropriate service. At this stage, things sometimes go wrong: Sometimes the service agent misunderstands the person’s needs or misunderstands the kind of help provided […]

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Supporting Non-Profits through COVID-19: Online Social Innovation Labs

United Way will be adapting their resources around the creation of a Social Innovation Lab to provide support to organisations impacted by COVID19, specifically be increasing their capacity to deal with new COVID-related challenges. The research will provide evidence and direction for the creation an online collaborative platform that allows community service agencies to access […]

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Combating loneliness at the neighbourhood level: Developing a Community Cohesion Index

With an increasing concern toward social isolation and loneliness issues in society, there is growing interest in social initiatives aiming to enhance social connectedness within communities. To make such efforts sustainable, the next step would be to evaluate their effectiveness to develop evidence-based practices. The goal of this project is to build a reliable assessment […]

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Digital data: linking rural innovation, access, and resiliency through community hubs

Online Digital Hubs (ODH) have the capacity to promote resiliency and connectivity, countering barriers to accessibility and disruption (Lamport-Lewis & Deacon 2020; McShane et.al 2012; Rundel et.al 2020). This is of particular relevance in rural and peri-rural spaces as traditional third spaces such as churches and community centers are in decline, taking with it opportunity […]

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Journeys through Early Learning and Care

The Mitacs project will build on the findings of a 2019 study and explore the experiences of newcomer families—specifically those in the cultural minority—with children 0-5 years old in community-based early learning and child care (ELCC) in Edmonton. The study will look at the lived experiences of these families as they access and receive ELCC […]

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