Meet the Recipients of the 2026 Community-Based Research Excellence Awards!

The Community-Based Research Excellence Awards is an annual CBRCanada program that nationally recognizes outstanding individuals and partnerships that exemplify what it means to do community-based research well. Launched in 2021, this marks the sixth year of the Awards program, and we continue to be inspired by the caliber of nominees across all award categories: Excellence in Community-Campus Researcher Partnership Award, Emerging Community-Based Researcher Award, and the newly introduced, Emerging Francophone Community-Based Researcher Award (Prix chercheur·euse émergent francophone en recherche ancrée dans les communautés).

A heartfelt thank you to all 61 nominees this year for your incredible contributions.

CBRCanada is pleased to introduce you to the 2026 Community-Based Research Excellence Award recipients!

The 2026 Excellence in Community-Campus Research Partnership Award recipient is:

PACE Society & CARE Study Collaboration

PACE Society & Simon Fraser University

PACE Society and the CARE Study Collaboration is a long-standing community-campus partnership between PACE Society, a peer-driven sex worker-led organization in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and researchers from Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. For over a decade, the partnership has advanced participatory action research focused on sex workers’ occupational health, safety, labour rights, and experiences of criminalization and stigma. From 2021-2025, the team led a Vancouver Foundation-funded arts-based participatory action research project exploring how sex workers navigate workspaces and envision pathways beyond criminalization. Guided by a Community Advisory Team of sex workers, the project supported participants through paid leadership roles, artistic mentorship, and collaborative skill building, resulting in a documentary film, public art exhibition, catalogue, and peer-reviewed publications. In 2026, the collaboration received a new Vancouver Foundation Participatory Action Research grant to explore sustainable, community-led care and mutual aid models for sex workers in response to shifting support service landscapes in Metro Vancouver.

The 2026 Emerging Community-Based Researcher Award recipient is:

Elene Lam

Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, York University

Elene Lam is an activist-scholar, social worker, and community organizer whose community-based research advances migrant justice, sex workers’ rights, racial justice, and gender-based violence prevention. Grounded in human rights and social justice, her work centers the leadership and lived experiences of migrant sex workers, racialized communities, and people living with HIV. With over 25 years of grassroots experience, her participatory research approach emphasizes reciprocity, long-term relationship building, and research conducted with and for communities. She has contributed to more than 30 community-based research projects in Canada and internationally, co-designing research with community members and supporting collective action for policy and social change. Her work has informed municipal, provincial, federal, and international policy discussions, including constitutional challenges to sex work laws and consultations at the United Nations. Through publications, trainings, public education, and collaborative projects with organizations such as Butterfly and the HIV Legal Network, she continues to advance community-led research that challenges systemic inequities and amplifies marginalized voices.

The 2026 Emerging Francophone Community-Based Researcher Award recipient is:

Renaud Goyer

Professor, School of Social Work, UQAM

Renaud Goyer stands out for his commitment to Francophone research rooted in communities and focus on understanding and transforming social inequalities, particularly in the area of housing. A sociologist and adjunct professor at the School of Social Work at the Université du Québec à Montréal, his work examines housing policies, residential evictions, and the institutions that govern landlord–tenant relations in Quebec, in close collaboration with community organizations advocating for tenants’ rights. His career path stems from his doctoral research conducted in partnership with the Comité logement Saint-Laurent, where he carried out qualitative research centered on tenants’ lived experiences, with community partners involved in defining research questions, collecting data, and interpreting findings. This approach supported local mobilization efforts and strengthened the recognition of experiential knowledge. It also led to the creation of the Collectif de recherche et d’action sur l’habitat (CRACH), a collaborative space for the co-construction of knowledge between researchers and community organizations. His work, published in French, contributes to accessible, collaborative, and engaged research in support of the right to housing and social justice.

The CBRCanada Award Adjudication Committee has selected two Honorary Mentions for the 2026 Excellence in Community-Campus Research Partnerships Award:

The Rural One Welfare Research Partnership

Alberta SPCA & the University of Alberta

The Rural One Welfare Research Partnership is a collaboration between the Alberta SPCA and researchers at the University of Alberta focused on improving animal welfare and farmer well-being in rural communities. The partnership was developed in response to concerns raised by Alberta SPCA Peace Officers, who increasingly encountered farms where animal neglect appeared linked to farmer stress, declining capacity, aging, or mental health challenges. Through interviews and focus groups with officers across Alberta, the research identified interconnected indicators related to property conditions, animal care, and human behaviour that may signal escalating risk on farms. These findings informed the development of the Wellness and Safety Indicators (WASI) tool and RuralWise training modules, which help officers recognize signs of distress, engage more effectively with farmers, and connect individuals to appropriate supports. Grounded in a One Welfare framework, the partnership demonstrates how community-driven research can strengthen both animal welfare and rural mental health outcomes.

Improving Patient Access to Care in the Community (IMPACC)

York Region Paramedic Services & the University of Toronto

Improving Patient Access to Care in the Community (IMPACC) is a community–campus research partnership between researchers at the University of Toronto, York Region Paramedic Services, Ontario health system partners, and community-facing organizations. The partnership focuses on redesigning paramedicine systems to better respond to gaps in access to timely, appropriate, and coordinated care. Grounded in the understanding that patterns of healthcare use reflect unmet community needs, the team co-developed both a national principles framework guiding the future of paramedicine in Canada and the IMPACC model of care, which reimagines paramedicine as an integrated, community-based health resource. The model emphasizes collaboration with primary care providers and coordinated responses to both health and social needs. To date, more than 15,000 patients across nine communities and three Ontario Health Teams have received care through IMPACC, improving access to services while reducing reliance on emergency departments and informing paramedicine policy and practice across Canada.

The CBRCanada Award Adjudication Committee has selected two Honorary Mentions for the 2026 Emerging Community-Based Researcher Award:

Claudette Cardinal

Indigenous Community-Researcher, Feast Centre for Indigenous STBBI Research, McMaster University

Claudette Cardinal is an Indigenous Community Fellow with the Feast Centre for Indigenous STBBI Research whose community-based research demonstrates excellence through Indigenous-led, relational, and ethically grounded practice. Her work centres Indigenous people living with HIV and prioritizes community leadership, cultural safety, and relational accountability across all stages of research. In multiple community-driven projects, she ensures community members co-define priorities, shape methods, interpret findings, and guide knowledge sharing, aligning research with community-identified needs. Grounded in Indigenized ethnography, her work integrates Elder-led teachings, autoethnography, community dialogue, and arts-based methods to reflect holistic understandings of health and lived experience. A key contribution is the Community at the HeART Framework, which supports ethical, community-led research while resisting extractive approaches. Through arts-based projects such as The Stat’s Talk Back and The ART of the Matter… Double Vision, she mobilizes knowledge using storytelling and visual art to share experiences with HIV treatment in accessible, trauma-informed ways, translating research into action that reduces stigma and strengthens community care and advocacy.

Melanie Powis

Assistant Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, and the Scientific Director and Co-Founder of the Cancer Quality Lab at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre

Dr. Melanie Powis is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, and the Scientific Director and Co-Founder of the Cancer Quality Lab at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Her work leverages community-based participatory approaches to partner with patients with lived experience (PLEx) and community organizations to identify and prioritize gaps in care, then co-create and co-evaluate interventions to improve care. Her work has included youth STEM outreach, co-developing a program of supportive care for patients with breast cancer who self-identify as Black in collaboration with Black Breast Health Collective, and collaborating to develop a national roadmap to improve cancer care delivered to patients who use drugs. She is committed to creating opportunities for community capacity building by fostering the scholarship of students from under-represented communities in STEM, and she is a strong advocate for data sovereignty, community engagement, and self-determination in research.

The CBRCanada Award Adjudication Committee has selected two Honorary Mentions for the 2026 Emerging Francophone Community-Based Researcher Award:

Gillian Robinson

Assistant Professor, University of Alberta

Gillian Robinson is an emerging researcher in the Franco-Alberta education community, recognized for her commitment to research conducted with and for communities. Her work, conducted and disseminated in French, actively contributes to the vitality of Francophone minority communities while making knowledge accessible to relevant school communities. Drawing on her experience as a French immersion teacher in Edmonton, she grounds her research in the concrete realities of schools. Her work focuses on equity policies, inclusion, and a sense of belonging, critically analyzing institutional dynamics that may perpetuate systemic exclusion. She employs a theoretical framework combining Indigenous feminist perspectives and Foucauldian thought to shed light on power relations in schools and support concrete change. Her approach is deeply community-based, integrating experiential knowledge, Indigenous protocols, and co-creation with partners. She also conducts research on the inclusion of queer and trans communities, in partnership with community organizations, to promote sustainable and equitable changes in education.

Marie-Hélène Girard

Assistant Professor, McGill University

As a professor and researcher specializing in access to justice for official language minority communities in Canada, Marie-Hélène Girard develops projects that draw on the needs expressed by her partners in the justice sector to produce concrete, useful, and actionable data. At the intersection of law, languages, and public policy, her collaborative research projects combine qualitative and quantitative methods, knowledge mobilization, and innovative approaches. Committed to linguistic justice, she has chosen to conduct her research in French, for and with Francophone communities across Canada. Her work not only helps document lived realities but also builds concrete and sustainable solutions to improve access to justice in Canada.

CONGRATULATIONS!

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all of this year’s winners, honourable mentions, and all the nominees! Your work is so important. It is a testament to the impact of community-based research in building a more just, inclusive, and positive future in Canada.

Access the French version of the post here.

With gratitude,

The CBRCanada Team with the Adjudication Committee

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