CBRCanada Webinar: Moving the Dial On: Building Indigenous Community Relationships

Community-Based Research Canada presents “Moving the Dial”: our 2023 E-Learning series. This series will highlight action-oriented community-based research that is ‘moving the dial’ on today’s pressing societal challenges. An important hallmark of community-based research, taking an action-orientated and impactful approach, means research partnerships mobilizing knowledge and mobilizing communities towards positive societal change. The research projects highlighted within this series demonstrate impact of community-based research. We will hear about research partnerships that facilitated actions improving societal conditions, including changes in policies, systems, organizations, and communities where everyone is supported and belongs.

Webinar

In 2020, Niginan Housing Ventures (NHV), a registered non-profit charity formed to address housing needs and requirements of Indigenous people living in Edmonton, started a housing initiative named Omamoo Wango Gamik.  This is a pilot program where youth formerly in foster care are housed in a multi-generational housing facility that provides wraparound supports along with access to Elders and other cultural supports. The pilot created a community-based research opportunity to follow the experiences of youth entering an Indigenous-led housing initiative. Residents from this housing pilot were invited to participate in a research project funded by the Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab. What started as a research project with the intent to understand how an Indigenous-led program can help prevent Indigenous youth houselessness has grown into a more significant collaboration between researchers and community partners.  This presentation will describe how using Indigenous Ways of Knowing has fostered a reciprocal relationship between the researchers and community partners and how this collaboration has led to changing the research to best suit the needs of the community partner.

Live Discussion

Following the presentation, CBRCanada will facilitate a live discussion to explore implications for practice. Breakout groups will be facilitated by webinar presenters. The event will conclude with a large group report-back dialogue. The live discussion will not be recorded. CBRCanada will share a summary of key discussion themes following the event.

Presenters

Dr. Cynthia Puddu, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health and Community Studies, MacEwan University

Dr. Cynthia Puddu (she/her) is a Community Based researcher focusing on youth houselessness and structural barriers to housing.  She has established strong partnerships with houseless serving agencies in Amiskwaciwâskahikan/ ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ/ Edmonton in Treaty 6 territory. Using community-based participatory research methods, she works closely with houseless youth in Edmonton, sharing their stories of difficulty and success. Cynthia is interested in using her research to work as an ally and advocate for populations that have been historically silenced.

Cheyenne Greyeyes, Student and Research Assistant, MacEwan University; Youth Worker, Niginan Housing Ventures

Cheyenne Greyeyes (she/her) is a young nêhiyaw iskwew (Cree woman) from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, residing in Amiskwaciwâskahikan/ ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ/ Edmonton in Treaty 6 territory, traditional home of the Nêhiyawak, Anishinaabe, Niitsitapi, Métis, Dene, Iroquois, Inuit and Nakota Sioux. She has rekindled cultural ties through ceremony, teachings, and serving her Elders and her community. She is a youth worker as Omamoo Wango Gamik, an Indigenous housing pilot program in Edmonton. As a student at MacEwan University, her education is focused on mental health, intergenerational trauma, and Indigenous resurgence. Her hope is to help undo colonial mentality in the systems around her, especially around ideas of home and Indigenous land sovereignty, and elevate other Indigenous youth.

This event will take place in Zoom meeting format. A zoom link* will be sent out by email prior to the event via eventbrite. If you do not receive the link, access will also be available on the eventbrite platform. Use the email you registered with to login. For questions, please email info@communityresearchcanada.ca  in advance of the event.

*This event is intended for CBRCanada members only. If you are employed, studying, or affiliated with any CBRCanada member institution/organization, you are already considered a member. If you are unsure if your institution is covered, learn more here. Individuals whose institution is not on this list are welcome to register as an an individual member. We value community participation and have a free membership option for registered community mobilizers.