Research & advocacy program
Community-driven research for social transformation
Bridging Concordia’s research capacity with our partners’ advocacy efforts to advance social transformation.
About the Program
SHIFT’s Research and Advocacy Program (RAP) connects Concordia researchers with community partners to drive social change. We help researchers address community priorities, build collaborations, and turn research into actions that make a difference.
Our Fellowship program invites Concordia graduate students into a year-long collaboration with a Montréal community organization in a research project designed to serve the organization’s systems change goals.
Selected research fellows work directly with community partners to understand their needs and create relevant research outputs that serve their work. At the same time, as a cohort, research fellows participate in training and co-learning sessions to hone their capacity to conduct research that contributes meaningfully to social change work. Fellows also have access to SHIFT staff throughout their engagement for coaching and support.
Across Montreal and in cities around the world, neighbourhood improvement initiatives including increased green space, improved public transportation, community gardens, and better housing conditions have frequently resulted in rising costs and the displacement of long-term residents and local businesses.
In this context, low-income communities are placed in a paradoxical
position, forced to resist changes that would otherwise make their neighbourhoods healthier, greener, and more livable in order to avoid displacement.
This year, SHIFT’s Research and Advocacy Program brings together a cohort of community-led projects to explore alternatives to this cycle of development-driven displacement.
Working within a shared framework, research fellows and community partners will develop models of urban improvements that prioritize stability, affordability, and environmental care, while remaining attentive to the local context and needs of the most vulnerable residents.
This year's community partners include Brique par brique, Chinatown Round Table, Comité d’Action Parc-Extension, Climate Justice Montreal, JIA Foundation, and Logifem.
Fellows
Dalia Assi, MSc, Geography, Planning, and Environment
Climate Justice Montreal
Dalia Assi (she/ they) is an artist, researcher, and environmentalist based in Tiohti:áke. Their practice explores relationships between people, place, and the living systems that shape urban environments. They are currently pursuing an MSc in Geography, Planning, and Environmental Studies, where their research focuses on developing community-led urban planning scenarios that respond to local needs while supporting the long-term health of urban ecosystems. Their research approach uses participatory mapping and collaborative art-making as tools for communities to create and exchange knowledge, and to collectively imagine new futures. Their work is grounded in the belief that people who inhabit a place are essential to imagining its future, and that creative practices can open up possibilities beyond conventional planning processes.
Irtaza Hussain, MSc, Geography, Planning, and Environment
Comité d’Action Parc-Extension
Irtaza Hussain is an MSc student in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment. He holds a BA Honours in Urban Planning from Concordia University. His work centers on housing justice, tenant rights, and urban inequality, shaped by close collaboration with community organizations engaged in housing and tenant-rights advocacy.
Jing Wang, MA, Applied Linguistics
Chinatown Round Table
Jing Wang (she/her) is an anthropologist and current MA student in Applied Linguistics at Concordia University. Her earlier research focused on Tibet, where she examined aging, care, intergenerational relations, and community-based social entrepreneurship amid rapid tourism-driven development. More recently, her research has turned toward immigration, particularly the experiences of Chinese and Tibetan immigrants in Canada, and the intersections of language, culture, belonging, and social inclusion. Drawing on her academic research and experience working and volunteering with NGOs serving underserved communities, Jing is increasingly committed to applied and advocacy-oriented research that supports community-led change. As a RAP Fellow, she is excited to collaborate with the Chinatown Round Table to explore food insecurity among older Chinese residents and the broader policy and power dynamics shaping Chinatown’s development.
Luisa Kraft, PhD, Geography, Planning, and Environment
JIA Foundation
Luisa Kraft is a PhD candidate in Geography, Urban and Environmental Studies at Concordia University. Her research explores the intersection of climate change mitigation, transit-oriented planning and housing policy – with a focus on who benefits from urban development, who is excluded, and how we can change the systems that produce inequity. She is committed to bridging research and community action and values the power of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Luisa brings extensive experience from the federal public service, where she contributed to policies and regulatory frameworks related to news media in a digital age, accessibility for persons with disabilities, government innovation, and the ethical use of artificial intelligence. Through this work, she developed the ability to navigate complex systems, understand multifaceted societal challenges, and strategically position community needs to enable transformative change.
Having immigrated from Brazil in her early teens, Luisa believes in cross-cultural connection and translation as tools for social transformation. She has long been involved with community organizations supporting immigrants and vulnerable populations, from language sharing to food security, in Montreal and abroad. She is fascinated by moving across physical and social spaces in the city, observing and participating in the many worlds that shape her own identity.
Marylin Chahine, PhD, Geography, Planning, and Environment
Brique par brique
Marylin Chahine is a PhD student in Geography, Urban and Environmental Studies at Concordia University. She spends a lot of time thinking about how cities change and what those changes mean for the people who live in them. Her research explores how different policy frameworks mediate the relationship between transit investment, housing and displacement.
Noah Benoit, MA, Political Science
Logifem
Noah Benoit (they/them) is a co-coordinator at the Consent Collective, where they organize services for people having experienced sexual assault while advocating for more inclusive, accessible care in feminist spaces. In addition to their work at the Collective, Noah studies the emotional dimension of political science, currently writing their thesis on the role of nostalgia in Quebec's contemporary political landscape.
Ateş Balsoy, BA, Geography, Planning, and Environment
Erykah Yasmine Kangbeya, MA, Public Policy and Public Administration
Hope Moon, MSc, Geography, Planning, and Environment
Leila Salazar, BA, Anthropology
Marbella Carlos, PhD, INDI program
Rebeca Esquivel, PhD, Education
Sarah Abou-Bakr, PhD, Communication Studies
Elena Tresierra-Farbridge, BA, Sociology and Sustainability
Frédérique Hébert-Mondragon, MSc, Geography, Planning, and Environment
Isabel Teramura, MSc, Geography, Planning, and Environment
Marcus-Xavier Granada, MA, Philosophy
Faculty Advisors
Bengi Akbulut
RAP Hub Faculty Advisor
Assistant Professor, Geography, Planning and Environment and Co-Director, Social Justice Centre at Concordia whose research in political economy, ecological economics, and community-based economic alternatives provides rigorous theoretical grounding in the structural changes the program’s partners are working toward.
Leila Ghaffari
Fellowship Faculty Advisor
Assistant Professor in Geography, Planning and Environment whose research examines the territorial aspect of social inequalities, and a member of the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve urban planning advisory committee between 2018 and 2020.
Meghan Joy
Public Policy Faculty Advisor
Associate Professor in Political Science at Concordia whose research explores: the policy and politics of population aging; urban politics, policy and theory; and changing relations between the state and nonprofit organizations.
Felice Yuen
Program Evaluations Faculty Advisor
Professor, Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University who has worked extensively on the healing and rehabilitation needs of Indigenous women in federal and provincial prisons for nearly two decades. She leads the program’s independent developmental evaluation, bringing methodological rigour and deep alignment with the program’s equity commitments.
Training Facilitators
Patrick Dedauw
Strategic Power Structure Analysis Trainer
Researcher and organizer who provides strategic power research training and curriculum design for unions and social-movement organizations, with experience working in Power Structure Analysis under Jane McAlevey at the UC Berkeley Labor Center in collaboration with a union of healthcare workers. Patrick will teach graduate research fellows to build a power map and design organizing campaigns that strategically target relevant decisionmakers.
The Rover
Investigative Research Trainer
Award-winning reader-funded investigative journalism project reporting from Montreal, across Quebec, and beyond. Largely funded by subsribers, The Rover covers politics, housing, labour, grassroots initiatives, Indigenous issues, culture and more. The Rover will help RAP research fellows develop interview skills to support their research project.
Past projects
Strengthening employment assistance for individuals from the Black community who have been incarcerated or are about to be released
Research Fellow: Erykah Yasmine Kangbeya
This project supported an awareness campaign aimed at expanding employment assistance for formerly incarcerated individuals and those soon to be released in Quebec, particularly within the Black community, through a community-managed pilot employment database. The research and awareness program fellow used community-based research methodologies to document current barriers to access for DESTA members, to understand the political landscape and power dynamics surrounding post-release employment opportunities, and to analyze the development of similar pilot programs to inform DESTA's awareness strategy.
DESTA was founded in 2006 with a mandate to address systemic and personal barriers to employment, such as criminal records, housing, and lack of resources. DESTA's mission focuses on education, employability, and entrepreneurship.
Turning existing popular support for free, expanded, and accessible transit into concrete wins
Research Fellow: Hope Moon
This project contributed to Climate Justice Montreal’s Free, Expanded, and Accessible Transit campaign. The SHIFT Research and Advocacy Program Fellow played a pivotal role in the coalition’s project to catalyze existing popular support for the campaign into concrete wins. Climate Justice Montreal is a group pursuing environmental and climate justice through education, mobilization and collective action in solidarity with directly affected communities. The organization strives to act in solidarity by using anti-oppression and decolonization principles, making decisions by non-hierarchical consensus—these values inform and ground their public transit campaign.
Advocating for more equitable and culturally relevant mental health services for Filipinx youths
Research Fellow: Marbella Carlos
This project contributed to the Kapwa Centre’s advocacy for more equitable and culturally relevant mental health services for Filipinx youths within Quebec’s public system. The Research and Advocacy Program Fellow employed research the policy and power landscape around mental healthcare in Quebec, documented current barriers to access, and analyzed recent campaigns that have effectively moved the healthcare system to inform the Kapwa Centre’s entry into policy advocacy.
Centre Kapwa is a non-profit organization decolonizing Filipinx-Canadian diaspora mental health and wellness through art, movement, and conversations. Its mission is to unlearn, unite, and uplift.
Meeting the needs of neighbourhoods vulnerable to displacement through urban agriculture strategies
Research Fellow: Rebeca Esquivel
This project supported Growing A.R.C.’s call for Montreal’s urban agriculture and community garden strategy to better serve the needs of marginalized communities in neighbourhoods vulnerable to gentrification and displacement. The Research and Advocacy Program Fellow examined the policy and power landscape around Montreal’s urban agriculture policies and funding decisions, documented existing mismatch with the needs of marginalized communities (including cases of green gentrification) and analyzed recent municipal green policies to inform Growing A.R.C.’s advocacy strategy.
Understanding ethics approval processes for by/for/with Black and racialized communities research projects
Research Fellow: Sarah Abou-Bakr
This project supported a campaign advocating accountable and community-driven ethics protocols for research projects led by and working with Black and racialized communities. The Research and Advocacy Program Fellow helped PSRR better understand the policies, practices, and decision framework on ethics approval processes within research councils specifically for by/for/with Black and racialized communities research projects.
The Platform for the Self-determination of Racialized People in Research (PSRR) creates collective spaces for those whose knowledge and lived experiences are often dismissed or invalidated in the research community, so they can come together, see themselves reflected in one another, and imagine new ways of doing things — together.
Advocacy for decreasing timelines for family reunification for refugee claimants
Research Fellow: Ateş Balsoy
This project contributed to Welcome Haven's policy advocacy efforts to reduce the timeline for family reunification for refugee claimants and asylum seekers in Canada. The Research and Advocacy Program Fellow analyzed the policy and power landscape around family reunification legislation in Canada and studied recent policy shifts to inform an advocacy strategy for Welcome Haven. The Welcome Haven Project is a community-based, participatory research project that brings regular psychosocial workshops to refugee claimant families in their communities in Montréal.
Expanding access to alternative health services in Quebec
Research Fellow: Leila Salazar
This project supported Community Healing Days’ policy advocacy efforts for more equitable access to traditional therapy modalities within Quebec’s public system. The SHIFT Research and Advocacy Program Fellow examined the policy and power landscape around healthcare in Quebec to inform an activation strategy for the research produced in Year 1 of Community Healing Days’ Research and Advocacy Program Fellowship.
Raising awareness about the transformative potential of community bonds in Quebec.
Research Fellow: Marcus-Xavier Granada
This research supported the impact and social activation campaign for a futurist documentary, produced using participatory methods, about community economic development. The project explored the history of social finance in Quebec, particularly lessons from local experiences with community bonds. The resulting video uses speculative approaches to explore future pathways for scaling up community bonds campaigns in Quebec.
The research student worked with the Brique par brique team to develop power maps, created targeted communications plans for the documentary, and supported outreach to stakeholders for strategic screenings.
Brique par brique is a nonprofit organization founded in 2016 to respond innovatively to the need for affordable housing in the gentrifying and multicultural Parc-Extension neighbourhood. The organization raises community-based investments to fund the development of affordable housing and cultural spaces for residents facing systemic barriers.
Community-led housing and real estate for Montreal's Chinatown.
Research Fellow: Isabel Teramura
This research collaboration supported JIA Foundation's Clark Street Reimagined initiative by conducting a comprehensive overview of community-based real estate solutions including land trusts, community bonds, and real estate management co-ops.
Clark Street Reimagined is a community-led vision for housing and real estate in Montreal's Chinatown.
The campaign focused on three plots of land on Clark Street, which have been acquired by the City of Montreal with the intention of reselling to a community partner for developing non-market housing. In response to this opportunity, JIA Foundation launched Clark Street Reimagined to create a concept plan for a mixed-use housing project in collaboration with Chinatown residents, business owners, and non-profit organizations.
The research team turned findings into community workshops on potential models for the Clark Street development. These sessions will provide space for neighbourhood stakeholders to offer input on JIA Foundation's proposal to the City.
A sovereign, sustainable agri-food hub for Kahnawá:ke
Research Fellow: Elena Tresierra-Farbridge
The research collaboration centres on the work of Tkà:nios, an intergenerational collective of Kahnawake community members working to reclaim traditional Haudenosaunee ways of life by nurturing local foodways and advancing food sovereignty. They are engaged in a collaboration with researchers from the Centre for Engineering in Society to develop technical plans for physical infrastructure (e.g. community kitchen, seed bank, learning pavilion) that will provide a long-term home for their work in Kahnawake.
Understanding municipal land use policies and processes to advocate for the Plateau's unhoused Indigenous population.
Research Fellow: Frédérique Hébert-Mondragon
Plateau Pour Tous is an initiative of the Indigenous Support Work Project (ISWP), a small but tenacious team of Indigenous people supporting the Indigenous Street Community in the Plateau borough in Montreal. The mandate of ISWP is to centre and support the well-being of Indigenous people with lived experiences of homelessness through decolonial advocacy and revitalization practices.
Plateau Pour Tous focused on understanding municipal land use policies and decision-making processes to inform their advocacy and engagement strategies. The project involves a literature review and case study development leading into a co-created strategy.
Want to know more?
Meet the Concordia faculty members already applying their work to address community priorities and turning their research into actions that make a difference.
