Our Organization
The Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) is a not-for-profit organization, a registered charity, and a pioneer in the use of social experiments in Canada. SRDC’s two-part mission is to help policy-makers and practitioners identify social policies and programs that improve the well-being of all Canadians, with a special concern for the effects on the disadvantaged, and to raise the standards of evidence that are used in assessing social policies and programs. It accomplishes this mission by evaluating existing social programs, and by testing new social program ideas at scale and in multiple locations before they become policy and are implemented on a broader basis.
What makes SRDC unique in Canada is its experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating large-scale demonstration projects using random assignment evaluation designs. This pioneering work involves combining rigorous quantitative analysis with innovative qualitative research techniques in order to be able to tell what works, for whom it works, and why it works. Consequently, SRDC has assembled staff with a broad range of skills and experience, including project management, program administration and field operations, quantitative and qualitative research, systems design and implementation, and data collection and analysis. It is the combination of program operations and research skills that allows us to design and put in place prototype programs in real-world settings, and to assess the results using complex methodologies, sophisticated analysis, and longitudinal follow-up of participants over several years.
SRDC was established in December 1991 with the encouragement of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) to develop and implement a long-term, multi-site demonstration project — the Self-Sufficiency Project. As an intermediary organization, SRDC attempts to bridge the worlds of academic researchers, government policy-makers, and on-the-ground program operators. Providing a vehicle for the development and management of complex demonstration projects, SRDC seeks to work in close partnership with provinces, the federal government, local programs, and private philanthropies.
SRDC’s core research activities are focused on rigorous impact and benefit-cost evaluations of new program models. However, we also conduct implementation research and formative evaluations designed to study the processes by which new programs are introduced, and to identify obstacles to implementation and bottlenecks in service delivery. In addition, observational field research and case studies across a number of programs or service delivery sites provide a means for extracting “good practice” lessons.
The focus of SRDC’s research is learning what works. Our goal is to find effective ways of helping disadvantaged Canadians, and through our work, to raise the standards of evidence that are used in assessing the effectiveness of social policies and programs. The belief that underpins all our work is that credible, well-communicated evidence can make a difference in social policy development and program practice.
In 2000 the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation was presented with
The Outstanding Research Contribution Award by the Policy Research Secretariat.