As the calendar turned to 2022, like all of you, we hoped that COVID-19 would be in the rear-view mirror along with 2021. But the Omicron variant is giving the Pandemic one last major spike – hopefully - before we reach the endemic stage. Despite the ongoing pandemic CBRCanada has continued to keep its head down and develop and offer timely and relevant services and programs to our growing membership.
Speaking of our members, we are now 46 organizations strong and we would like to acknowledge our newest members: Participatory Cultures Lab, Pacific Aids Network, People for Education, and the Institute for Community Research. Based on the entire membership CBRCanada has very strong representation from post-secondary institutions, research institutes, and community organizations from across Canada.
We would also like to comment on our recent board renewal process. At our Fall AGM we sadly said goodbye to Monica Mulrennan from Concordia University and Charlotte Loppe from the University of Victoria. Both Charlotte and Monica were exceptional team players and made important contributions to the development of CBRCanada’s strategic plan and provided ongoing support to sub-committee work and program development. We thank you both for all your contributions to the amazing growth of CBRCanada. We know that our paths will continue to cross as you continue to support CBRCanada at your institutions.
At the same AGM we welcomed the following five new board directors: Shaun Hains, Saybrook University; Lanyan Chen, Nipissing University; Renee Monchalin, University of Victoria; Andrea Clarke, Concordia University; Karen Villanueva Paez, Toronto Centre for Learning and Development. The new and current board members are a diverse group of 15 individuals (link here) representing institutions from across Canada. The board is in a very good place to lead CBRCanada to further community engaged research in the context of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Indigenizing research, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In 2022 CBRCanada will continue the expanded program of webinars and live discussions as well as variety of platforms to enable community engaged researchers to connect and learn from one another. In addition, this May CBRCanada will be hosting an awards gala on the theme of celebrating excellence in community-based research nationally. This is the second time CBRCanada will be conferring two new national awards: Award for Emerging Community Based Researcher and Award for Excellence in Community-Campus Research Partnership. We encourage you to nominate those who are doing great work in the community engaged research field by April 10th (learn more here).
Stay tuned by subscribing to the e-News or following us on Twitter and LinkedIn to learn about these opportunities as they emerge. And do not hesitate to drop us a line or two. We invite you to communicate your requests and ideas and to share your projects and news with all network members. Please keep in touch with the Secretariat and board members.
Stay well
Joanna Ochocka and Stephen Dooley
Co-Chairs of CBRCanada