CBRCanada Webinar: Moving the Dial On: Equity-Informed Approaches to the Climate Emergency

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

This presentation will bring together perspectives on equity studies, intersectionality-based policy analysis and environmental justice to examine emergency management, planning and policy responses to extreme heat in British Columbia, with a specific focus on a collaborative research project between researchers from the Capital Regional District of Victoria and University of Victoria. This project brings an equity-informed lens to amplify the voices of those most vulnerable to the negative health impacts of extreme heat in the Capital Regional District to understand the impact of that experience as well as their recommendations to decisionmakers that will help them prepare for, respond to and recover from extreme heat events in a way that accounts for equity and intersectional experiences.

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. Sarah Marie Wiebe, Assistant Professor, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria

Dr. Sarah Marie Wiebe grew up on Coast Salish territory in British Columbia, BC. She is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Hawai'i, Mānoa with a focus on community development and environmental sustainability. She is a Co-Founder of the FERN (Feminist Environmental Research Network) Collaborative and has published in journals including New Political Science, Citizenship Studies and Studies in Social Justice. She is the author of Life against States of Emergency: Revitalizing Treaty Relations from Attawapiskat with UBC Press, 2023. Her book Everyday Exposure: Indigenous Mobilization and Environmental Justice in Canada's Chemical Valley (2016) with UBC Press won the Charles Taylor Book Award (2017) and examines policy responses to the impact of pollution on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation's environmental health. Alongside Dr. Jennifer Lawrence (Virginia Tech), she is the Co-Editor of Biopolitical Disaster and along with Dr. Leah Levac (Guelph), the Co-Editor of Creating Spaces of Engagement: Policy Justice and the Practical Craft of Deliberative Democracy. At the intersections of environmental justice and citizen engagement, her teaching and research interests emphasize political ecology, policy justice and deliberative dialogue. As a collaborative researcher and filmmaker, she worked with Indigenous communities on sustainability-themed films including To Fish as Formerly. She is currently collaborating with artists from Attawapiskat on a project entitled Reimagining Attawapiskat funded through a SSHRC Insight Development Grant. Sarah is also a Co-Director for the Seascape Indigenous Storytelling Studio, funded through a SSHRC Insight Grant with research partners from the University of Victoria, University of British Columbia and coastal Indigenous communities.

Kristen Mah, Healthy Communities Planner, Health and Capital Planning Strategies, Capital Regional District (BC)

Kirsten holds an MA in Public and International Affairs where her research focused on intergovernmental affairs and public health. Since completing her education, she has worked in the social services sector holding evaluation and public policy roles. She works for the Capital Regional District in Victoria BC where she coordinates the Community Health Network (CHN). The CHN brings together service providers, municipalities, the health authority and learning institutions from across different fields to work on social and structure determinants of health across the Capital Region.

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.