Research Projects

Engaging students in the field:  Possibilities for creative and innovative models for delivery of field education curriculum

Funder: Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund, Ryerson University
Principal Investigators: Lisa Barnoff, Jennifer Clarke, May Friedman, & Jennifer Poole 

Ryerson's School of Social Work has the largest undergraduate social work program in Canada and a history of delivering excellent field education curriculum for almost 50 years. As leaders in the provision of field education, we are aware of the tensions and economic realities that impact field education in the current context. This project will explore alternative models of field education through a review our field education curriculum and interviews and focus groups with various stakeholders.  The aim is to consider new, innovative ways to deliver field education that enhance student engagement and experiential learning for professional social work practice

Occupying social work:  Exploring connections between social work and activism

Funder: Undergraduate Research Opportunities (URO), Ryerson University
Principal Investigator: Emma Palumbo
Faculty Supervisor: May Friedman

Since the first day of Occupy Toronto in St. James Park, Emma Palumbo has been actively engaged with the activist community in Toronto working toward individual and structural initiatives for change. Emma has spent a great deal of time organizing with individuals from various different backgrounds to work toward common goals for change.  She has also regularly participated in organizing and actively promoting social justice initiatives at Ryerson University such as Occupy Ryerson. Emma also anticipates a complementary relationship between this research and her third year placement in a community development and social work advocacy setting.  This connection will aid in bridging the gap between social work and activism at various levels of practice.  Drawing from their diverse experiences and social locations, May and Emma have found a common point of interest regarding the greater need to explore the linkages between social work and activism in Toronto.  We anticipate an ongoing research relationship beyond this project as the work dovetails with both our scholarly and community involvements.Social work/social change:

This project aims to examine activism within social work practice, pedagogy and community settings during a period of cuts to services, labour intensification, increased managerialism, and the evolving discourses of neoliberalism. We propose to create an opportunity for the establishment of a focused social work activist community while simultaneously engaging in community oriented research. This will be accomplished through the hosting of a one-day forum for self-described social work activists. Drawing together these individuals will allow for critical linkages among participants and between faculty and community members. Subsequently, transcription of the event will be analyzed in order to contribute to scholarship about the relationship between social work and activism, and the need for a social work pedagogy and curriculum which contributes to better activist training and consciousness in relation to the current neoliberal context.

Centres for the Integral Attention of Children in the Dominican
Republic (CIANIs) and Local Community Organizations for Child Protection (LCOCP) 

Funder: National European Foundations: Children and Violence Evaluation Challenge Fund.

Principal Investigator: Henry Parada
Canadian Team Members: Susan Silver (Co-principal Investigator), Mike Burke (Co-principal Investigator), Irma Molina (Research Assistant)
Dominican Team: Julia Hasbun (Dominican  Coordinator)

Centres for the Integral Attention of Children in the Dominican Republic (CIANIs) and Local Community Organizations for Child Protection (LCOCP) are the two community-based programs that will be evaluated. CIANIs operate on the widely accepted theory that healthy early child development is critical and influences outcomes throughout the life course, and promote prevention through enhancing parental capacity, improving parent-child relationships and family functioning, and strengthen communities to support families. LCOCPs complement and extend the work of the CIANIs by monitoring and reporting, peer support and surveillance, and conduct public education and community outreach.  Consequently, these two interventions intend to effect change at the individual/family level as well as at the community/societal level. The CIANIs are established in their local communities and ready to be evaluated, while the LCOCPs have been more recently implemented and are ready for the identification of early outcomes. These interventions form a national strategy of violence prevention against children, and thus demonstrating their effectiveness is critical.  This evaluation is a participatory partnership that includes the National Council for the Protection of Children (CONANI) representing the CIANIs and LCOCPs.

An Anti-Oppression Framework for Child Welfare in Ontario

Funder: Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies

Principal Investigators: Dr. June Yee & Helen Wong

Co-chairs of the Anti-Oppression Framework Workgroup: Lorna Grant & Christian Hackbusch

The over-representation of particular, marginalized groups in child welfare has brought those working in child welfare to come together in a more coordinated way within Ontario’s child welfare system.  What began nearly a decade ago as a modest effort to produce a diversity curriculum, the Anti-Oppression Roundtable now has a membership representing over half of Ontario’s child welfare agencies.  The Roundtable aims to foster lasting change within child welfare policy, practice and administration. “Change in this context refers specifically to building agency capacity for the inclusion of anti-oppressive principles in the policies, structures, practices and relationships with both internal and external stakeholders of the child welfare system in Ontario” (Grant & Ojo, 2009).

A consultation with the field was carried out with over 100 participating staff and management members from over 40 Children's Aid Societies in Ontario. The AO Framework combines the use of an organizational change process and a logic model to help in the identification and discussion of the challenges in implementing AO, as well as the processes and mechanisms required to support anti-oppression work. It is an analytical and practical tool that can be used to help individuals, teams and agencies to systematically and consistently identify both the processes and actions necessary to achieve anti-oppression outcomes.  In essence, it provides a roadmap in the form of a practical tool that is useable within a flexible, holistic and ongoing approach.  It is hoped that this tool will help to better define what is anti-oppression in child welfare as well as to develop anti-oppressive strategies and approaches to address the over representation of marginalized groups of children and families in child welfare.  Some child welfare agencies have already begun applying the AO Framework in different ways to reflect on and evaluate their AO practices, processes and policies.

The Anti-Oppression Framework for Child Welfare in Ontario is available at:

http://www.oacas.org/pubs/external/antioppresssive.pdf

Mothers Under Fire: Examining Criminalized Mothering and Criminal Mothers

Funder: SSHRC Standard Institutional Grant (SIG)
Principal Investigators: May Friedman & Emily van der Meulen

While there has been a recent growth in research on criminality and gender as well as in the field of motherhood studies, few research projects have looked at the specific implications for mothers who engage in criminalized activities or are criminalized through their social locations. For example, mothers experiencing incarceration, including those jailed with/as a result of significant mental health diagnoses, mothers who consume and/or traffic narcotics, mothers with precarious immigration status at risk of deportation, and mothers who work in the sex industry have thus far been largely neglected from research studies. This understudied area is especially pertinent in light of significant increases in the number of women being admitted to Canadian federal prisons, 70% of whom are mothers and nearly two thirds are single mothers, suggesting an analysis of criminality and maternity is extremely timely.

Our collaborative undertaking has three key aims: 1)  To identify a gendered gap in the literature and research on criminalization and mothering studies;
2)  To enhance interdisciplinary collaborations and develop the research capacity of members of the Ryerson community; and 3)  To advance new questions and directions for future research on criminalized and marginalized mothering.

Social Work/Social Change: Pedagogy and Curriculum for Activist Social Workers

Funder: Seed grant from the Faculty of Community Services (Awarded but not funded)
Principal Investigators: Dawn Onishenko & May Friedman

This project aims to examine activism within social work practice, pedagogy and community settings during a period of cuts to services, labour intensification, increased managerialism, and the evolving discourses of neoliberalism. We propose to create an opportunity for the establishment of a focused social work activist community while simultaneously engaging in community oriented research. This will be accomplished through the hosting of a one-day forum for self-described social work activists. Drawing together these individuals will allow for critical linkages among participants and between faculty and community members. Subsequently, transcription of the event will be analyzed in order to contribute to scholarship about the relationship between social work and activism, and the need for a social work pedagogy and curriculum which contributes to better activist training and consciousness in relation to the current neoliberal context.

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Children and Youth Human Rights Empowerment  Project

Funder: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Partners for Development Grant

General Project Director/ Principal Investigator: Henry Parada 
Canadian Team Members:  Purnima George, Ken Moffatt, Susan Silver, Margareth  Zanchetta, Samatha Wehbi (Ryerson), Adrian Guta (Carelton University), B.Lee (McMaster), Mirna Carranza (McMaster University), Irma Molina (Research Assistant) 

Dominican Republic Team:  Marisela Duval, Pastor de la Rosa (Autonomous University of Santo Domingo), Alberto Padilla (National Council for the Protection of Children -CONANI), Rafaela Burgos (Universidad Madre y Maestra), Felix Rodriguez (Dominican Federation of  municipalities -FEDOMU)
 
The "Children and Youth Human Rights Empowering Project" will address one of the CIDA’s priority themes—“Securing the Future of Children and Youth”—with emphasis on child protection against violence and abuse, including trafficking for the purpose of sexual commercial exploitation, and labour exploitation. The project is consistent with CIDA’s committed focus on increasing the safety and security of children and youth, advocating for human rights, and promoting public sector capacity building and good governance. The project will support the enhancement of services for protecting children and youth against violence in the Dominican Republic (DR) by enhancing the capacity of government and civil social institutions responsible for the protection of children and adolescents from abuse, sexual labour exploitation, and strengthening youth participation. The project’s purpose is to build capacity within targeted institutions to design, implement, and evaluate effective and sustainable programs and services for children and youth at risk in the DR. The project will also establish a baseline to determine the level of child and adolescent trafficking for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of exploitation.

Disability rights activism in the context of war: Case study of Lebanon

Funder: SSHRC
Principal Investigator: Samantha Wehbi

This study explored the challenges, tensions and opportunities facing disability rights activists in a context of war.  Through interviews with disability rights activists from a leading organization in Lebanon, the study highlights not only the negative impacts of war but also the possibilities provided during a time of conflict to advance a disability rights agenda. 

Health Promotion With Aboriginal People in Northwestern Ontario

Funder: Ontario Trillium Foundation

Co-Applicant: Dr. Cyndy Baskin
Partnered with Ve'ahavta: The Canadian Jewish Humanitarian Relief Committee

In partnership with a Toronto based Jewish humanitarian focussed organization and a First Nations community in northwestern Ontario, this research project aims to explore the notion of health promotion with Aboriginal peoples, support the community's decisions on the creation of health related services and explore sustainability for such. The team consists of representatives from the First Nations community, this organization and Aboriginal  people in Toronto who will conduct the research and advise on these matters. Once this project is completed, other communities across the country, which have already been approached, will be brought in for further research on the topic of health promotion. The national advisory committee is co-chaired by Phil Fontaine and Paul Martin.

Indigenous Peoples and Disability Rights

Funders: SSHRC

Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Cyndy Baskin
Partners: Disability Studies, York University


This research project begins with a literature review and environmental scan concerning Aboriginal people with disabilities using a human rights lens.  It will then explore specific avenues for research, community development and developing partnerships among Aboriginal people and people with disabilities. Through the implementation of Indigenous values and research methodologies, it will explore how Aboriginal people with disabilities can live lives with dignity and rights.  It is an effort to assess the existing systemic and social infrastructure available to Aboriginal people with disabilities, to highlight the current gaps and major issues within the system, and to foster responsive and inclusive practices that may support the meaningful realization of rights by Aboriginal people with disabilities. The partnership is with York University, Ryerson University and several Aboriginal organizations within Toronto.

Pilot Project: Understanding Vehicle Safety in First Nations, Inuit and Metis Communities: Phase 1 in New Brunswick

Funders: CIHR

Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Cyndy Baskin
Partnered with School of Social Work Windsor University


This pilot project will create a foundation regarding vehicle safety in four First Nations communities in NB. Through surveys conducted by Mi'kmaq PhD students, the aim is to gain a better understanding of what community members know about vehicle safety and what they do or do not incorporate in keeping themselves and their children safe in cars, boats, etc. The findings will inform a larger research project in the communities whereby members will explore how they can educate and promote vehicle safety.


Understanding Vehicle Safety in First Nations, Inuit and Metis Communities: Phase 2 With Mi'qmaq and Maleseet Communities in New Brunswick


The findings from the above pilot project will be presented to community members through gatherings and forums. They will then be part of research that takes into consideration how community members view vehicle safety in order to come up with creative, innovative, culturally specific ways to promote safety for the purposes of lessening  accidents, injuries and deaths. A further component will be to learn whether or not these methods have been helpful in lessening these. This research is part of a Canadian wide project which also includes First Nations communities in BC, Ontario and Quebec.