Research by and for Community: SHIFT Research and Advocacy Program Showcase

This project supports 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 will use community-based research methodologies to document current barriers to access for DESTA members, understand the political landscape and power dynamics surrounding post-release employment opportunities, and analyze the development of similar pilot programs to inform DESTA's awareness strategy.

This project contributes to Climate Justice Montreal’s Free, Expanded, and Accessible Transit campaign. The SHIFT Research and Advocacy Program Fellow will play 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.

This project contributes 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 will use research the policy and power landscape around mental healthcare in Quebec, document current barriers to access, and analyze recent campaigns that have effectively moved the healthcare system to inform the Kapwa Centre’s entry into policy advocacy.

This project supports 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 will examine the policy and power landscape around Montreal’s urban agriculture policies and funding decisions, document existing mismatch with the needs of marginalized communities (including cases of green gentrification) and analyze recent  municipal green policies to inform Growing A.R.C.’s advocacy strategy.

This project supports 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 will examine the policy and power landscape around Montreal’s urban agriculture policies and funding decisions, document existing mismatch with the needs of marginalized communities (including cases of green gentrification) and analyze recent  municipal green policies to inform Growing A.R.C.’s advocacy strategy.

This project contributes 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 will analyze the policy and power landscape around family reunification legislation in Canada and study 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.

This project supports 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 will examine 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.