Innovative Partnerships Shift the Poverty Dynamic

Donna Jean Forster-Gill, Vibrant Communities Canada

Tom Cooper, Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction

www.vibrantcommunities.ca

www.thecommunityfirst.org

CF:ICE Research Question

How can community-campus engagement, including community service learning (CSL) and community-based research (CBR), be designed and implemented in ways that maximize the value created for non-profit community-based organizations?

CF:ICE Research

Sub-Themes

Scale and Replication of Models

Creation of Value for Partners

Ability to Share Control

Processes of Effective Engagement

Impacts on Campus-Community Partners

Ethical Issues

CFICE Violence Against

Women Hub

Community Environmental Sustainability

Hub

Poverty Reduction

Hub

Food Security Hub

Knowledge

Mobilization Hub

Poverty Reduction Hub Partners

Poverty Reduction Hub Outcomes

Build a Learning

Community

Research and

Evaluate Models

Document Community

Impact

Create and Share

Knowledge

Influence Policy

Change

Living Wage Research

Perceptions of Poverty

Impact of Mentoring

Models of Collaboration

2012-2014 Poverty Reduction Hub Projects

Living Wage Partnership

Living Wage Campaign

Background: Living Wage Hamilton Campaign • Multi-sector committee developing engagement

strategies to dialogue with: public institutions, private employers, and small – medium businesses.

• Living Wage Hamilton has its roots in a University-Community partnership: School of Labour Studies, Social Planning and Research Council, and HRPR

Year One Results

• McMaster Community Poverty Initiative’s Dr. Don Wells (Labour Studies) presents to Hamilton’s City Council about the research supporting becoming a Living Wage Employer

Year One Results: Hamilton

• Hamilton Wentworth District School Board approves Living Wage Policy – first school board in Ontario, and first elected body in Ontario to do so.

• City of Hamilton currently developing strategy to become Living Wage employer

• Next steps: engage small-medium businesses

Year One Results: Partnerships

• HRPR & MCPI develop new partnership with DeGroote School of Business at McMaster

• Dr. Benson Honig & doctoral student Elly Zang

– Develop best practice guide and handbook for small-medium businesses implementing a LW

– Conduct focus group and key informant interviews with Hamilton employers

Year One Results: Benefits

Benefits:

New partnership with traditionally uninvolved Faculty (on this issue)

With research conducted by School of Business, credibility with community business increases

Dialogue with businesses as part of research design hopes to increase buy-in

Shifting Societal Attitudes Partnership

Shifting Societal Attitudes 2008 - present

Background

• Engaged national partners

• Representatives for 26 organizations from across Canada

• Working group met to develop a plan

• www.shiftingattitudes.pbworks.com

May, 2009 - finalized a concept paper

Attitudes and beliefs affect behaviour. Collective behaviour affects public policy decisions.

Goal: Identify current deep-seated societal attitudes towards Canadians living in

poverty, and to “shift” those attitudes.

Why: Only after shifting current attitudes, can we collectively begin to engage in

new behaviour that will direct our policy makers and politicians to enact legislation to significantly reduce the poverty level in Canada

Shifting Societal Attitudes 2008 - present

PHASE 1: Research and examine current Canadian deep-seated attitudes. PHASE 2: Research and examine “best practices” related to shifting attitudes and behaviours. PHASE 3: Design and launch a comprehensive, long-term, multi-faceted national initiative.

Shifting Societal Attitudes 2008 - present

Community – University

Partnership 2008 - present

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

– Shown photos (10 in total)

– Given 5 minutes to write a story answering the 4 questions

Study 1 Materials:

Projective Test

19

Relative

Absolute

• Limited awareness of poverty

• Acceptance of poverty

• Conditional compassion

• Gender

Qualitative Results Summary

MacKeigan, M., Mitchell, T., Wiese, J., Stovold, A., & Loomis, C. (2013). It's not a Canadian Thing: Researching attitudes toward poverty.

• People distance themselves from those in poverty

• Distancing is a protective strategy allows people to: – maintain the belief that the world is fair and just – absolve themselves of responsibility for their inaction – manage their negative emotions (e.g., guilt, hopelessness)

• Assumptions matter – Ascribed/external sources of poverty

• Associated with more empathy and understanding

• Hope? – Education and awareness

Overall Summary

• All students admitted that previous to the course, they viewed poverty as an individual problem and they also applied common stereotypes to those living in poverty.

• Following the course all students reported that their understanding of why people are living in poverty had dramatically changed as they are now aware of the numerous variables that impact one living in poverty and their inability to escape.

Education as Intervention

4th year students focused on poverty as a societal issue

Impact of Mentoring

Promise Partnership

Year One Results: Impact of Mentoring

The University of New Brunswick Saint John’s (UNB Saint John) Promise Partnership is a community-based and university-run academic enrichment and poverty reduction initiative focused primarily on the priority neighbourhood of Crescent Valley, Saint John, New Brunswick.

Promise Partnership Programs

• Student Mentoring Club

• Backyard Book Club

• Discovery Nights

• Book’n It Tutoring

Program

Mentor Research Questions

1a) What has been the impact for UNB Saint

John students who volunteer as mentors?

1b) How do the mentors feel about their mentor

mentee relationship and about the program

in general?

Parent Research Questions

• 2a) What are the parents perceptions of the

Promise Partnership?

• 2b) What are the parents perceptions

on education/university?

Participants

• Target Populations – Mentors (56)

– Parents of children involved in our programs (55)

• Control Populations – University students who do not mentor (56)

– Parents of school-aged children from another priority neighbourhood who have not had access to our programs (55)

Highlights from the Mentor Survey

• 80.5% reported a close relationship with mentee

• 94.1% reported a successful relationship with mentee

• 70.6% reported mentoring was what they expected

• 86.3% reported their intention to continue with the program when the new semester starts

Highlights from the Parent Segment

• 85% reported that they felt the Promise Partnership had a positive impact on the Crescent Valley community and that it improved their child's: – Interest in school (80.5% )

– Reading skills (75.6%)

– Confidence in social settings (70.7%)

– Ability to work independently (68.3%)

– Confidence in their ability to do school work (67.5%)

– Writing skills (65.9%)

Highlights from the Parent Segment

• The HWSF parents showed significantly more parental support than controls for children to attend university. – 56.1% believed their child could obtain a university degree

– 4% believed their child would drop out of high school

• Control Parents – 30.2% believed their child could obtain a university degree

– 16.3% believed their child would drop out of high school

Models of Campus-Community Partnerships

When looking at the models of Campus- Community Partnerships this is what they look like

and how they have changed over time:

http://prezi.com/art7skh0gv48/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

What Poverty hub has learned: Relationship, Relationship, Relationship

•Ethics Process

•Transferring money to the community

Impacts on Community

Campus Partners

•Learning University Culture

•Need for Patience & Perseverance

•Need for Strong C-C Relationship

Process of Effective

Engagement

•Initiation of partnerships

•Challenges & Benefits

Lessons about

Models of Engagement

Community Campus

Funding challenges

Faculty support and incentives

Meeting the community’s needs

Faculty and staff time to dedicate

Work did not fit into community priority

Slow moving process

Funding challenges

Perceived Power imbalance

Challenges to Collaborations

Benefits of Collaborations

Community

• Participation in innovative project

• Can see how the initiative will lead to poverty reduction

• Relationship with campus faculty

• Sustained relationship with specific faculty

• University sharing their knowledge and resources

• Addressing community needs / Strengthening community assets

• Providing a genuine opportunity for both the student and the organization to grow

Campus

• Providing the opportunity for students to learn skills in the community

• Community organization sharing their knowledge and resources

• Participation in an innovative project

• Access to community mentorship

• Proving a genuine opportunity for both the student and the organization to grow

• For students to make connections beyond the campus

• Students will gain knowledge in the areas of the nonprofit and voluntary sector

Equalizing Power in Campus Community Partnerships – Academic Ideas

• Pick a strong partner with clear ideas of what they want to achieve and a proven track record.

• Clearly put on the table what you have to offer and what your goals are, what you want from the partnership, be clear about why you are doing this.

• Be willing to let someone else’s agenda drive the research. Put the academic agenda on the back burner.

• Listen more than you talk. • Avoid university jargon, learn their jargon, agree on the jargon that you’ll use. • Take the time to look at the world through their lens of reality, listen to their

stories. • Be honest about what you can offer and the time frame. • Attend their meetings, conferences, gatherings. • Consider the possibility of long term relationships. • Give the gift of your time.

Equalizing Power in Campus Community Partnerships – Community Ideas

• Select an academic partner who understands community and has worked in community previously.

• Clearly put on the table what you have to offer and what your goals are, what you want from the partnership, be clear about why you are doing this.

• Spend time together to learn about each other’s work, personalities and the politics at play

• Create a comfortable space for community experts to share • Avoid Community jargon, learn academic jargon, agree on the jargon

that you’ll use. • Be honest about what you can offer and the time frame • Attend some academic meetings, conferences, gatherings. • Commit as much as possible to a long term relationship.

Next Steps

Finalize Models

Add New Partners

Test Models in Northern Community

Review Models and

Create ToolKit

For More Information

• Vibrant Communities Canada:

www.vibrantcommunities.ca

• Communities First Impacts of Community Engagement:

www.thecommunityfirst.org

• Donna Jean: donnajean@tamarackcommunity.ca

Follow us on Twitter! @VC_Canada, @HamiltonPoverty

Thank You!