Community capacity

Women First: Building skills for success

Funded through Employment and Social Development Canada’s Women’s Employment Readiness Pilot, the WOMEN FIRST project is a multi-partner initiative aiming to leverage employment and skills training to address barriers faced by multiply-marginalized women. Led by PTP Adult Learning and Employment Programs (PTP) in collaboration with five service delivery providers across the country, the project aims to draw on partners’ collective expertise to develop, test, and evaluate pre-employment and skills development supports. Specifically, the project seeks to build knowledge about approaches to programming, curriculum, and wraparound supports that best serve women facing multiple structural barriers, including low-income women, Indigenous women, racialized women, 2SLGBTQ+ women, newcomer women, and women with disabilities. SRDC is working closely with partners to design and implement an evaluation of the project, including the program delivery across all six pilot sites and new Skill for Success curriculum developed by partner Alberta Workforce Essential Skills. In particular, SRDC is supporting an evaluation grounded in principles of intersectional feminism, anti-oppression, equity, and justice.

Start-end date: July 2022 - September 2023
Sponsor: PTP Adult Learning and Employment Programs

Community Planning Project

The Community Planning Project is a two-year project funded by IRCC’s Service Delivery Improvement stream within the Settlement Program to explore the interest and need for a community-based funding model, and the development of a community-led plan for the Tri-Cities. This project uses a participatory community approach to support collaboration of organizations across multiple sectors and community members on a learning journey to examine, imagine, and co-create a community-based participatory funding model and plan that will address the service needs/areas in the Tri-Cities and better meet community-identified settlement priorities through a coordinated approach to funding and service delivery.  

The Tri-Cities Local Immigration Partnership will manage and provide oversight for the project. SRDC is the research partner. Community members in the Tri-Cities who are interested and affected by funding for settlement services will be engaged in the process to develop the community plan.

Start-end date: January 2022 - March 2024
Sponsor: S.U.C.C.E.S.S. – Tri-cities Local Immigration Partnership

Research and Evaluation Capacity Building for Francophone Service Providers

This project is testing an approach to building the research and evaluation capacity of Francophone service providers in Central-Southwestern Ontario, which consists primarily of practical interventions designed to increase their knowledge and skills in the field. Internal capacity in research and evaluation promotes learning from successes and mistakes in order to better adapt to challenges and be more effective in responding to the emerging needs of different French-speaking immigrant groups. SRDC is working in partnership with the RIF Centre-Sud-Ouest (RIFCSO) on this project. Through this project, staff from participating service providers and the RIFCSO will develop the skills and capacity to gather evidence, measure, evaluate, and report on the outcomes of their existing or future programs. The ultimate goal of this project is that participating Francophone providers will be able to adapt, design, and implement innovative solutions that are evidence-based. Through pre- and post-intervention data collection, the project will identify how capacity-building activities contribute to improved research and evaluation within service providers, as well as how new knowledge has been applied and influences decision making.

Start-end date: December 2021 - March 2024
Sponsor: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

Mobilizing Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit of ice travel

SmartICE is a social enterprise whose goal is to empower Indigenous communities to adapt to increasingly unpredictable ice conditions. With funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada, SmartICE has launched a new pilot project focused on mobilizing Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit ("that which has long been known by Inuit") to increase ice travel safety. SmartICE has hired a team of community members to lead workshops with Elders and experienced ice users in the Inuit Nunangat communities of Gjoa Haven, Arctic Bay, Qikiqtarjuaq, Arviat, and Nain. In the workshops, the SmartICE team members document local ice terminology and local Inuit Quajimajatuqangit related to ice travel. Then, they work with community members to co-develop practical resources – like maps, posters, and booklets – based on the terminology and knowledge shared in the workshops. These resources can then be distributed widely within the community. The overarching goal of the project is to enhance ice-travel safety adaptation by increasing community members’ awareness and uptake of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit. SRDC has been invited to join this pilot project as a developmental evaluation partner. SRDC is working closely with the SmartICE team to plan and conduct an evaluation of program outcomes, focused on understanding who the resources reach and what role the resources play in ice travel safety and decision-making in community.

Start-end date: November 2021 - March 2023
Sponsor: SmartICE

Building Capacity through an Anti-Oppression Lens

This research project An Anti-oppression Framework to Combat Systemic Racism in Settlement Services is designed to test the use of Anti-Oppression Approaches (AOP) to build capacity of immigrant-serving agencies to recognize and combat systemic racism in the sector. The project will engage immigrant-serving agencies in Metro Vancouver to increase their front-line practitioner and leadership’s awareness, recognition, and understanding of anti-oppression in settlement services at the systemic level through 1) workshops and 2) coaching and mentoring. The Centre for Anti-Oppressive Communication will lead the development and implementation of the training. The evaluation is designed to learn not just about training participants’ experience with the project activities and the resulting skills acquisition, but also the outcomes — what did participants actively change at multiple levels — institutionally, interpersonally, and individually.

Start-end date: November 2021 - March 2024
Sponsor: S.U.C.C.E.S.S. – Tri-cities Local Immigration Partnership

The Two-Eyed Seeing Network

While Indigenous youth could provide a significant source of local labour to industry in BC, they are often disengaged, not well networked, and left out of conversations about the future of skills and training. Focusing on sectors with high future demand (clean technology; clean energy; natural resource extraction and processing; marine shipping; the built environment; and manufacturing), the Two-Eyed Seeing Network will work to bridge the gaps between the needs of industry and the potential Indigenous workforce of tomorrow. The network includes participation from Indigenous communities, Industry leaders, workforce and social development organizations, and education and training providers all working together to establish a viable pathway to future work for Indigenous youth that meets the needs of, and is relevant to, both Industry and Indigenous communities. Network partners will work to determine the critical elements to bridge gaps, remove barriers, and engage communities in workforce development, to enable successful labour force participation for Indigenous youth.

Start-end date: April 2021 - May 2023
Sponsor: Construction Foundation of BC

Evaluation of the Family Capacity Advocate program

The Family Capacity Advocate program delivered by the Britannia Woods Community House (BWCH) supports families who have a loved one from the ages of 12-25 that are involved in some capacity with the justice system and/or engaged in criminal activity. BWCH is a community-based agency that focuses on providing responsive supports for children, youth, and families who live in fixed and low-income communities, through an equitable and strength-based lens. The Family Capacity Advocate supports siblings, parents, and caregivers using a holistic, coordinated, and equitable approach. Services include counselling, mentorship, crisis intervention, and resource navigation support. SRDC is supporting BWCH in planning and conducting an implementation and outcome evaluation of this new program. SRDC is conducting qualitative key informant interviews, and developing data collection tools and an information management system. Evaluation-capacity building is an important focus of this work, as SRDC and BWCH work together to plan a sustainable approach to ongoing program evaluation efforts.

Start-end date: January 2021 - December 2021
Sponsor: Youturn Youth Support Services + Britannia Woods Community House

Grouped Evaluation of the Official Languages Support Programs (OLSP)

The Department of Canadian Heritage (PCH) supports two official languages funding programs from which several initiatives are derived. The collective goal of these programs is to: 1) enhance the vitality of English- and French-speaking minority communities; and 2) promote the English and French languages in Canadian society. These two programs represent PCH’s largest grants and contributions programs. Through these programs and their respective components and sub-components, PCH provides financial support to provincial and territorial governments and organizations to support minority-language education, second language learning, and the provision of services and programs in both official languages. SRDC is responsible for the grouped evaluation of these two programs. The evaluation will take the form of a longitudinal impact study since the first Action Plan for Official Languages in 2003, and aims to measure the achievement of the program’s medium- and long-term outcomes as well as the relevance and efficiency. The evaluation will be conducted in two phases. Phase 1 of this project consists of developing an evaluation approach and appropriate methodologies. The full scope of the evaluation will be conducted in Phase 2.

A methodology combining various methods will be used to collect primary and secondary qualitative and quantitative data. The longitudinal impact study will establish the sequences of events that have marked OLMCs and bilingualism in Canada since 2003. It will cover the national level, and if possible, regional characteristics.  

Start-end date: September 2020 - May 2022
Sponsor: Canadian Heritage

CreateAction: Inclusive Social Innovation

CreateAction: Inclusive Social Innovation — This project is evaluating the role that six-month work experience opportunities in the social innovation, social finance, and social enterprise sectors can play in supporting youth who are either not in employment, education, or training (NEET). The project is being led by the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) in partnership with SRDC and the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC). The project aims to recruit
100 Indigenous youth, new immigrants, young people living in poverty, those who identify as LGBTQ2S+, young people with disabilities, racialized youth, youth in rural/remote communities, and official language minority youth. SRDC is supporting the project design, coordinating tailored supports to participants, and leading the project’s evaluation activities. The evaluation is examining how the placement opportunities facilitate the transition of young people to secure employment in the labour market through the development of skills, workplace experience, professional networks, and tailored wraparound supports. It is also examining how hosting the youth placements will support the capacity and sustainability of innovative social purpose organizations across Canada to hire youth facing barriers from the communities they serve, connect to regional Social Innovation and Social Finance ecosystems, and leverage investments of the Investment Readiness Program and Social Finance Fund.

Start-end date: August 2020 - March 2023
Sponsor: Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet)

Tri-Cities Local Immigration Partnership: Research on Community Priorities

SRDC is engaged to support S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and the Tri-Cities Local Immigration Partnership (TCLIP) to identify community priorities, measures of success, and strategies to support immigrant integration in the Tri-Cities. The research, guided by a collective impact framework, will help understand the relationships between different community stakeholders, leverage their strengths, and identify opportunities to improve collaboration, community development, and service coordination to better meet the needs of newcomers in the Tri-Cities. More specifically, the proposed research activities will gather the necessary information from diverse stakeholders to help strengthen conditions necessary for successful collective impact projects, and enhance the collaboration and increase the TCLIP’s capacity to use data and evidence to set actionable insights and achieve strategic goals. The research activities include a document and literature review, interviews with key stakeholders, a stakeholder survey, focus groups in multiple languages for newcomers, and facilitated workshops.

Start-end date: June 2020 - December 2020
Sponsor: S.U.C.C.E.S.S.

Surrey Intercultural Seniors Social Inclusion Partnership Network – Phase 2

The SISSIP Network is a collective impact initiative funded by Employment and Social Development Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program. This community-based initiative is being implemented by six collaborating partners. Collectively, the Partners are committed to develop and implement culturally sensitive pilot initiatives to address social isolation issues in order to better integrate all seniors 55+ living in Surrey’s six town centres, one of Canada’s most diverse communities, with a particular focus on immigrant, seniors with disabilities, and Indigenous populations. More specifically, this collective impact strategy will address systemic barriers to social inclusion of vulnerable multicultural seniors. SRDC is conducting the evaluation of this initiative.

Start-end date: April 2020 - August 2024
Sponsor: Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society

Surrey Intercultural Seniors Social Inclusion Partnership Network

This Network is a collective impact initiative developed by the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society (PICS) in collaboration with the City of Surrey’s Seniors Advisory and Accessibility Committee and its five collaboration partners. Collectively, the partners are committed to develop and implement culturally sensitive pilot initiatives to address social isolation issues in order to better integrate all seniors 55+ living in the Cities of Surrey and White Rock, with a particular focus on immigrant, seniors with disabilities, and Indigenous populations. As a first step in the process to better understand and address these issues, PICS is commissioning an environmental scan in order to obtain information for the needs assessment, and identify areas or gaps that are promising for developing new initiatives to address systemic barriers to social inclusion of vulnerable multicultural seniors 55+ across Surrey’s seven neighbourhoods in BC.

Start-end date: October 2019 - December 2019
Sponsor: Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society

Strathcona County Youth Needs and Assets Assessment

Strathcona County, located in central Alberta, is commissioning a report on how the County is currently serving the needs of resident youth, ages 14 to 29, and that identifies potential gaps in these services. The research will include opportunities for engagement and inform recommendations or potential policy directions for Council’s consideration. Yardstick Assessment Strategies Inc. is leading the research on behalf of a team of consultants. SRDC is responsible for preparing statistical profiles of youth and young adults in the County, comparator communities, and Alberta more broadly; conducting an online scan on root contributors to youth issues/challenges and how small urban and rural communities can best serve the health, social, and community needs of resident youth; and contributing to the development of a directory of service provider organizations accessible to youth and young adults in the County.

Start-end date: March 2019 - December 2019
Sponsor: Yardstick Assessment Strategies Inc.

Feasibility Study for the Creation of a WISE Outcomes Database

This research study is assessing the feasibility of creating an outcomes database on work integration social enterprises (WISEs) in Canada. Through research and consultation with WISE stakeholders, the project will enable ESDC to be well-positioned to work with the WISE sector to develop a coherent outcomes database for Canadian WISEs.

Start-end date: February 2019 - March 2019
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Connecting multi-barriered newcomers to the Canadian labour market

This project involves the design, delivery, and evaluation of a comprehensive package of employment services for the increasing numbers of refugees and other newcomers who have trouble transitioning from settlement to sustained employment. The program model augments traditional language training by offering a holistic suite of employment services including Essential Skill upgrading, technical training, work placement, and job retention support. A randomized control trial design is used to evaluate program impacts, by comparing the outcomes of those who are randomly assigned to receive the new suite of services with a control group who continue receiving existing services.

Start-end date: July 2018 - March 2021
Sponsor: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

Field trials and evaluation of three WISE programs in Northern Simcoe County Ontario

SRDC is implementing a four-year research study in partnership with three work integration social enterprises (WISE) that are part of a co-operative network, known as the Karma Project. These social enterprises provide a range of services and green occupations in demand in the North Simcoe county region of Ontario. The study, spanning four years, will examine the effectiveness of WISE in improving the employability and social inclusion of youth in rural communities. At the same time, it will assess changes in the capacity of social enterprises and examine variations in outcomes by alternative models of work integration.

Start-end date: March 2018 - May 2022
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Environmental Scan and Analysis: Monitoring and Evaluating Impact – Options for Federal Accessibility Legislation

The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) is the Government of Canada’s focal point to advance the full participation of people with disabilities in Canadian society. It also supports the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities on the mandate to develop and introduce new federal accessibility legislation. The goal of the federal legislation will be to eliminate systemic barriers in areas of federal jurisdiction and promote equal opportunities for all Canadians living with disabilities. In order to assess the outcomes and impact of the new accessibility legislation and complementary programming, a measurement framework will also be designed and implemented. SRDC has been engaged by ODI to conduct an environmental scan and analysis to help inform the development of this framework.

Start-end date: October 2017 - February 2018
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Alleviating Homelessness: Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISE) Research (Quasi-experimental design)

This project being led by the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) in partnership with SRDC and Social Enterprise Toronto (SET) will provide a longitudinal assessment of the effectiveness of WISEs and compare them with other interventions for people who are homeless and at risk of homelessness. The first study of its kind in the Greater Toronto Area, the project will identify the impact of WISEs on both hard and soft outcomes including employment and housing stabilization, as well as the returns for government investment in these types of WISEs. Finally, it will identify effective practices to maximize impacts for several models of training under various circumstances. As evaluation partner, SRDC will be responsible for leading the measurement of the impact and effectiveness of WISEs on social and labour market outcomes for people who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness through a quasi-experimental design study. An additional objective is to build the capacity of participating WISE to measure their social outcomes using professionally designed research tools.

Start-end date: June 2017 - May 2022
Sponsor: Canadian Community Economic Development Network

Phased approach for Options for a rigorous test for an online micro-grant

This project is for the development of a pilot test for an online micro-granting tool as a means of funding, in a more direct and streamlined fashion, youth-led projects aligned with public policy objectives. While the pilot will be designed in the specific context of Canadian Heritage's goals of enhancing youth engagement and diversity, evidence on the feasibility and effectiveness of the tool as a crowdsourcing platform will have pan-governmental benefits, and support further innovation in Grants and Contributions across all federal departments. The key output of the project will be a design report for a “choice” experiment that will help refine the micro granting model as well as an evaluation and implementation strategy for a full pilot.

Start-end date: March 2017 - March 2018
Sponsor: Canadian Heritage

Enhancing Volunteer Recruitment and Retention

The study explores the motivations and constraints facing volunteer firefighters to support the development of an enhanced set of recruitment and retention practices, particularly in rural communities. The project is a partnership with the Community Development and Homelessness Partnerships Directorate of Employment and Social Development Canada, funded by the Canadian Safety and Security Program. The project seeks to augment existing outreach strategies and messaging to create better alignment with volunteers’ motivations and constraints through multiple methods, including behavioural-based analyses. The feasibility of the new model will be tested through a small-scale pilot.

Start-end date: January 2017 - December 2018
Sponsor: Canadian Safety and Security Program

Developing an effective public health approach to cannabis

In light of the Government of Canada’s announcement that it would introduce legislation to legalize and regulate cannabis, the Canadian Public Health Association has been funded by Health Canada to engage a range of individuals and organizations from the health, public health, and social service communities to enhance their knowledge of, and capacity to address issues related to cannabis and other substance use. The project is grounded in a public health approach to the legalization of cannabis. SRDC is working with the Association to evaluate the project, with a particular focus on outcomes related to knowledge transfer, capacity-building, and stakeholder engagement.

Start-end date: December 2016 - March 2019
Sponsor: Canadian Public Health Association

Determinants of Participation in Indigenous Labour Market Programs

The primary goal of this project is to identify barriers to participation in ESDC Indigenous Labour Market Programs: the Aboriginal Skills and Training Program; the Skills and Partnership Fund; and the First Nations Job Fund (joint project with IAND). The project includes: a document review and environmental scan of program evaluations and recent policy research; key informant interviews with program agreement holders; and an exploratory analysis of program administrative data.

Start-end date: February 2016 - March 2016
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

The Role of Employment Social Enterprises in Supporting Transitioning Youth

The BC Centre for Employment Excellence and its partner, the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria, are conducting a demonstration project to evaluate the role of Employment Social Enterprises (ESEs) in supporting the labour market transitions of youth facing barriers to developing their career potential. The project partners with local social entrepreneurs, employment service providers and employers to generate work placements in new or existing ESEs that focus on employing barriered youth, giving youth participants the opportunity to gain valuable work experience and skill development that is in line with local labour market opportunities. This project is designed to fill a gap in knowledge with regard to understanding the role that transitional placements in ESEs can play in improving employment outcomes for at-risk youth.

Start-end date: February 2016 - December 2017
Sponsor: British Columbia Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation

Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Local Poverty Reduction Fund Program Evaluation

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has engaged SRDC to evaluate the impact of its Local Poverty Reduction Fund initiative. The Local Poverty Reduction Fund is a six-year initiative launched by the Ontario government in 2015 to support innovative, community-driven projects that measurably improve the lives of those most affected by poverty. TDSB has been granted funding through the initiative to introduce innovative process improvements at its Next-Steps Employment Centres, including a coaching-based case management framework and Motivational Interviewing. The changes are designed to improve outcomes for clients who are not in education, employment or training, and clients who are long-term unemployed. SRDC is serving as a third-party evaluator that is designing and conducting an evaluation of the implementation and impact of these process improvements on clients’ outcomes.

Start-end date: January 2016 - January 2017
Sponsor: Toronto District School Board

BGCC National Youth Outcomes Consultation

As part of a longstanding commitment to quality programming and continuous improvement, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada developed its Model for Success framework to describe the common features of Boys and Girls Clubs’ environments, the core programming they offer, and the desired positive outcomes for children and youth that drive these efforts. To further this work, SRDC was engaged to help BGCC develop a plan for evaluating program outcomes at a national level. This project includes background research, interviews, feasibility assessment, and development of options and recommendations.

Start-end date: December 2015 - April 2016
Sponsor: Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada

Evaluation of the Active Outdoor Play Strategy

'Active outdoor play' is unstructured and of varied intensity, takes place outdoors with natural materials, and involves an element of risk (e.g., due to the height, speed, context, or tools involved). A wide range of sectors and organizations has recently begun to promote active outdoor play as a means of correcting a perceived over-emphasis on safety/risk and injury prevention, as well as promoting healthy child development in the long term.

The aim of the Lawson Foundation’s Outdoor Play Strategy is to better understand how to support Canadian communities to foster children’s opportunities for outdoor play; in other words, how to create environments that enable – rather than hinder – such play. The Strategy is designed to support the development and implementation of a variety of creative ideas across sectors and a range of contexts, including community programs, services, and supports as well as policy and research initiatives. SRDC conducted an evaluation of the Strategy to develop understanding about how and why funded initiatives experience success, and to what degree. The evaluation includes information about both implementation and early impacts of the Outdoor Play Strategy, at three levels: individual projects/grantees; the collective cohort of grantees; and the broader landscape of stakeholders involved in outdoor play. In addition to examining multiple levels of operation and impact, the project takes a developmental evaluation approach – one that is flexible, future-oriented, and focused more on learning and performance improvement than on narrow definitions of merit and accountability.

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Start-end date: November 2015 - April 2019
Sponsor: Lawson Foundation

School Choices and Educational Trajectories of Youth of French-speaking Immigration Backgrounds

As stated in the Roadmap for Canada’s Official Languages 2013-2018 : Education, Immigration, Communities, education plays a vital role in strengthening Francophone minority communities (FMC). This project aims to understand the factors (environmental and social) and motivations of students (and their families) of French-speaking immigrant backgrounds living in FMCs in their choices and educational trajectories in three different education systems, namely French-language schools, English-language schools offering various French-second-language educational options, and English-language schools offering no classes in French. Moreover, the impact of these choices on Francophone identity and the sense of belonging to the Francophonie will be explored. The project scope is limited to Ottawa, Ontario.

Start-end date: November 2015 - February 2017
Sponsor: Citizenship and Immigration Canada

Supporting Analyses of Cost Effectiveness for Innovation Strategy Interventions

Through its Innovation Strategy, the Public Health Agency of Canada funds and supports promising interventions to improve population health and reduce health inequalities, particularly in terms of achieving healthier weights and promoting mental health. To strengthen these public health interventions' readiness for scale-up, SRDC developed an approach that provided information on various ways to understand project costs and financial valuation of benefits, and considerations for determining which approach to economic assessment would be most appropriate and feasible for them. These approaches were selected with respect to best practices for conducting economic assessment, consistency with the IS program's focus on equity and population health, and leveraging the extensive data on IS projects' processes and outcomes.

Start-end date: November 2015 - March 2016
Sponsor: Public Health Agency of Canada

PSE Mobility of French Immersion Secondary School Students in Central Southwestern Ontario

The study surveys high school students in grades 11 and 12 enrolled in English high schools offering a French immersion program to establish the viability of offering PSE programs in French immersion in the central and southwestern regions of Ontario. A stratified sample frame is used to select 12 school boards and 22 high schools offering French immersion and Extended French programs. Secondary school students complete an online survey on their language preference for university and/or college studies (i.e., French, English, or both) and factors they are considering when selecting a postsecondary program and a location.

Start-end date: April 2015 - January 2016
Sponsor: University of Ottawa

Measuring the value of Food Banks Canada’s work

SRDC was engaged by Food Banks Canada to assist in the development of an evaluation approach and framework for measuring the social impacts of its work. The approach and framework support Food Banks Canada's effort to measure the impacts of its programs and initiatives supporting the national food bank network, including its food sharing initiatives and research and advocacy, as well as report on the effectiveness of the financial investments its donors make to the network. SRDC assisted Food Banks Canada by: developing recommendations for an evaluation approach and framework for measuring the organization’s social value; developing recommendations for evaluating funding requests; and applying the new framework to prepare a report for donors on the impact of the organization’s Capacity Grant program.

Start-end date: February 2015 - May 2015
Sponsor: Food Banks Canada

International students immigration in Francophone minority communities (FMCs) in Canada

Immigration is one of the proposed solutions to promote demographic growth, economic health, and vitality in FMCs. Amidst the diversity of the newcomers, integrating foreign French-speaking students into FMCs seems a promising avenue to ensure the viability and sustainability of FMCs. A series of three projects together aim to deepen our knowledge about separate but connected aspects of the immigration process for foreign French-speaking students to FMCs. The first project draws up a profile of the international student community in FMCs. The second identifies the recruitment strategies as well as the orientation, settling, integration, and retention services offered to foreign students in FMCs. And the third project studies the facilitators and issues connected with the immigration process for foreign students and looks at the promising services and programs that are already implemented at the FMC level or that could potentially reach the pilot project stage.

Start-end date: December 2014 - March 2016
Sponsor: Citizenship and Immigration Canada

Measuring the Impact of the YMCA of Greater Toronto on Community Health

The project supports the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s 2010-2020 Strategic Plan and the establishment and continuous improvement of its new Centres of Community by identifying a community health monitoring strategy that cuts across life stages and the community level, the regional level, and the GTA. The project provides a set of options for a community health monitoring strategy based on an analysis of other community health monitoring initiatives in Canada and abroad, data availability and quality for selected indicators in the GTA, and the YMCA’s outcomes of interest related to its programming.

Start-end date: November 2013 - March 2014
Sponsor: YMCA of Greater Toronto

Mapping Experiences with Inclusive Employment

A pilot project delivered in partnership with researchers at UBC to evaluate the use of an online mapping tool to document positive experiences with inclusive employment for 30-35 people with developmental disabilities (self-advocates) across BC. The project is designed to collect first-hand knowledge from self-advocates, their families, employers and service providers regarding the factors that contribute to positive, inclusive employment for individuals with developmental disabilities. It informs the BC Centre for Employment Excellence (CfEE), its partners and other stakeholders about best practices in providing supports and creating inclusive workplaces for individuals with developmental disabilities. Based on the success of the pilot, the CfEE and its partners continue to host the map and explore options for extending this approach to other populations of job seekers facing significant barriers in the labour market. This project is managed by the BC Centre for Employment Excellence, a division of SRDC.

Start-end date: November 2013 - September 2015
Sponsor: British Columbia Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation (with financial support from Community Living British Columbia)

Evaluation of the Healthy Eating After School project

Healthy Eating After School (HEAS) is a pilot project funded by the Ministry of Health and implemented by the YMCA of Greater Vancouver. SRDC was contracted to conduct the evaluation. The purpose of the project is to create an environment that supports healthy eating in the after-school care setting. The objectives of the project are to: 1) improve the knowledge and confidence of after-school care staff in healthy eating and in food skills and their confidence to implement these; 2) develop and implement healthy eating policies/guidelines for an after-school care setting; 3) engage parents of children in after school care, in implementing and maintaining children’s healthy eating behaviours; and 4) increase the interest and ability in food skills for children attending after-school care programs.

Start-end date: July 2013 - March 2014
Sponsor: YMCA of Greater Vancouver

Study of the gaps between French-language and English-language postsecondary education and training systems

SRDC reviews the French-language postsecondary education and training system in Ontario through comparative analyses of the French and English systems. Of particular interest is a review of the gaps between the two systems in terms of access, retention, and participation, as well as the quality of services offered by the French-language postsecondary education and training system in Ontario. In close collaboration with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities and the Ministry of Education, SRDC developed a tool to assist postsecondary and training institutions self-assess the quality of the services they provide to Francophones. The results of this review provide information to both ministries on the strengths of the French-language system and aspects that would benefit from greater attention in order to better serve the student population wishing to pursue studies in French and increase the number of individuals studying in French in Ontario.

Start-end date: December 2012 - March 2013
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities

Summative Evaluation of HealthLink BC – Phase Two

HealthLink BC (HLBC) provides BC residents with 24-hour, 365-day access to medically approved information and advice. The aim of the second phase of this project is to conduct a summative evaluation of HLBC client facing services. This includes examining awareness, use, satisfaction, outcomes, impacts, and cost-benefit associated with the HLBC programs and services.

Start-end date: December 2012 - June 2016
Sponsor: BC Ministry of Health, HealthLink BC

School engagement in middle and secondary schools – Phase II

Pilot project for testing educational practices that encourage school engagement among middle and secondary school students. This second phase of the study focuses primarily on creating the measures required for evaluating implementation of the educational practices tested during Phase I of the project. The tools were developed in close collaboration with stakeholders from four schools in the Ottawa region, in particular school board and teaching staff members, as well as students. The third phase of the project aims to evaluate the effect of educational practices on student school engagement. To achieve this, student engagement is examined based on the degree of implementation of educational practices.

Start-end date: October 2012 - April 2013
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario

Focus Groups for the Expert Panel on French-language Post-secondary Education

To conduct focus groups with high-school and post-secondary students, learners, and parents from Francophone communities in the Centre and South-West regions of the province, with a view to inform the work of the Expert Panel on the most efficient models to adopt in order to increase the capacity to offer post-secondary education in French in those regions.

Start-end date: February 2012 - May 2012
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Education

Foreign Credential Recognition (FCR) Loans Pilot Project

Launched in 2012 by then Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, the FCR Loans Pilot Project targets internationally-trained workers who are unable to or experience difficulty in accessing traditional lending sources mainly through financial institutions. The project took place in 9 sites across Canada wherein 11 microloan program models were piloted. SRDC designed and implemented a research framework seeking to: (1) draw lessons learned from the diversity of models tested and the contexts in which they are tested; (2) determine whether the microloan programs have the desired effect and under what conditions; (3) conduct a costs analysis of the FCR Loans Pilot Project; and (4) explore whether the microloan models can be sustained in the longer term.

Start-end date: February 2012 - January 2015
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Evaluation of the 2009-13 Agreement for the Development of Francophone Arts and Culture in Canada

In collaboration with the Department of Canadian Heritage, SRDC developed and conducted an evaluation of the objectives and issues of the Agreement for the Development of Francophone Arts and Culture, as well as of its four management and collaborative mechanisms. This evaluation identifies findings on processes, direct and indirect results, as well as lessons learned from the Agreement. These findings support recommendations on potential areas for improvement to this cooperation mechanism as well as inform the future direction of the Agreement.

Start-end date: January 2012 - August 2012
Sponsor: Canadian Heritage

Summative Evaluation of HealthLink BC – Phase One

HealthLink BC (HLBC) provides BC residents with 24-hour, 365-day access to medically approved information and advice. The goal of the first phase of the project is to develop an evaluation framework to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the HLBC services that examines awareness, use, satisfaction, outcomes, impacts, and cost-benefit associated with the HLBC programs and services.

Start-end date: December 2011 - December 2012
Sponsor: BC Ministry of Health, HealthLink BC

School Engagement in Middle School

A pilot project aiming to develop, apply, and test teaching strategies that enhance school engagement in middle school students. The existing strategies are identified based on document and literature reviews. In addition, new strategies are developed using a motivational framework extensively applied to the school setting. The strategies are then tested in two classrooms in a school located in the Ottawa area.

Start-end date: September 2011 - January 2012
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario

Community Maturity Model

With this project, SRDC provided technical assistance to HRSDC to build on prior work done to develop a Community Maturity Model (CMM), a tool that is designed to allow Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs) to assess their own capacity for human resource and community economic development. SRDC reviewed and revised the CMM tool to make it more relevant to the Enabling Fund’s Performance Measurement Framework, and to the role of recipient organizations within their communities. SRDC’s work also focused on making the tool clearer, more practical, and user-friendly.

Start-end date: March 2011 - April 2011
Sponsor: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

EmbraceBC Program Evaluation

The Welcoming and Inclusive Communities Dialogue Initiative is a program component of the EmbraceBC. SRDC carried out a process evaluation of dialogues convened to encourage and sustain local community engagement on themes related to multiculturalism, anti-racism, and welcoming and inclusive communities in BC.

Start-end date: December 2010 - March 2011
Sponsor: B.C. Ministry of Citizens’ Services – BC Stats

Social Partnerships Roundtable

Participation in an experts’ roundtable on the development and financing of the social economy.

Start-end date: November 2010 - November 2010
Sponsor: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

Multisite evaluation of the Francophone Youth Inclusion Program (YIP)

A multisite evaluation of a youth crime prevention program entitled Youth Inclusion Program (YIP). The Francophone YIP seeks to reduce the number of arrests, truancy, and school expulsions for a group of high-risk youths within the same community. To achieve its objectives, the program offers youths, by way of an individualized intervention plan, a combination of sports, education, training, and interventions on subjects such as health and drugs. The evaluation of the Francophone YIP is spread over five years and was conducted in Montreal (Quebec) and in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield (Quebec). SRDC conducted a process evaluation, an impact evaluation, a costs analysis and a relevancy evaluation.

Start-end date: November 2010 - December 2016
Sponsor: Public Safety Canada

Successful Programs That Were Effective at Economically Integrating Immigrants Into Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs)

This research project seeks to understand the support and services available or needed for newly arrived families in Official Language Minority Communities to help them settle and adapt to life in Canada and to find gainful employment. It also seeks to identify promising ideas that can be implemented and evaluated in the Canadian OLMC context.

Start-end date: November 2010 - April 2011
Sponsor: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

Successful Programs That Were Effective in Developing Entrepreneurship Skills Among Youth and Contributed to Sustainable Settlement of Youth in Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs)

This research project focuses on understanding and developing the role of youth entrepreneurship as a strategy to encourage the sustainable settlement of youth in Official Language Minority Communities. It also seeks to identify promising ideas that can be implemented and evaluated in the Canadian OLMC context.

Start-end date: November 2010 - April 2011
Sponsor: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

Petits pas à trois – Monitoring System

To provide advice and technical assistance with the development of a program monitoring system with the objectives of ensuring that the program delivered is of high quality and that the training needs of early childhood educators are identified and addressed in a timely fashion.

Start-end date: October 2010 - July 2011
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est de l’Ontario

The Community Service Learning Program

SRDC was commissioned to conduct the summative evaluation of the University of Ottawa’s Community Service Learning (CSL) program. CSL is an innovative pedagogical model which allows students to contribute to their community by doing volunteer work that is related to their program of study. This evaluation of the CSL program aims to discover the benefits experienced by participating students, professors, and community partners, as well as to identify ways to improve program delivery and positive results.

Start-end date: September 2010 - June 2011
Sponsor: University of Ottawa

Community Action for Seniors Independence – Evaluation Framework

Workshop facilitation with government officials to develop a logic model for a project delivering non-medical support and services to frail seniors.

Start-end date: September 2009 - September 2010
Sponsor: United Way of the Lower Mainland

Petits pas à trois

Impact and outcome evaluation of a new preschool program targeting minority Francophone preschoolers and their families.

Start-end date: July 2009 - June 2010
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est de l’Ontario

Comité d’action local des Promenades de Gatineau

Funded by the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon as part of an activity of the Québec Enfants’s initiative, the Comité d’action local des Promenades de Gatineau (CAL) is a partnership between local community groups that aims to answer the needs of children, and their families, living in the Gatineau community via different activities. SRDC helped refine the logic model of the six activities already in place to define their objectives and their expected impacts. SRDC designed an evaluation plan and proposed tools to measure the implementation of the activities and follow children’s development. A summative evaluation identifies which activities were the most promising for the children and their families.

Start-end date: May 2009 - July 2010
Sponsor: Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon and Société de gestion du fonds pour le développement des jeunes enfants

Literature Review for the Evaluation of the National Child Benefit Reinvestment Initiatives for First Nations Individuals and Families on Reserve

Start-end date: July 2007 - November 2007
Sponsor: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Audit and Evaluation

Evaluation of the BC Healthy Living Alliance (BCHLA) Initiatives

BCHLA is a provincial coalition of organizations working together to improve the health of British Columbians. The coalition has implemented 16 initiatives in the health promotion and population health areas, designed to deliver activities across the province in three themes: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Tobacco Reduction. In the first phase of the evaluation project, SRDC conducted evaluability assessments for each initiative as well as the clusters or themes to produce evaluation plans and budgets for “evaluable” projects and clusters. In the second phase, SRDC evaluated 6 of the 16 initiatives, as well as a case study of the Community Capacity Building Strategy and provided technical assistance to the other BCHLA initiatives that were not part of the evaluation project. Some of the evaluations involved vulnerable populations, such as Aboriginal communities.

Start-end date: July 2007 - May 2010
Sponsor: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research

Readiness to Learn in Minority Francophone Communities

This large-scale demonstration project was part of the Government of Canada’s 2003–2008 Action Plan for Official Languages and was continued under the 2008–2013 Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality. The tested preschool program combined a childcare component developed specifically to meet the needs of Francophone children in minority settings with a family literacy component targeting the parents of these children. The program aimed to develop children’s language skills, knowledge and use of French, knowledge of and engagement in Francophone culture, as well as to foster their school readiness and overall development. The project involved some 400 children living in six minority Francophone communities in New Brunswick, Ontario, and Alberta. A mixed-methods approach was used to conduct an implementation study and an impact evaluation. Project findings will serve to inform decision-makers, service providers, and program developers on the delivery, effectiveness, and efficiency of a program whose aims are ensuring children master the language of instruction in addition to the preservation and strengthening of minority Francophone communities’ vitality.

Start-end date: March 2006 - May 2013
Sponsor: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

Expert Advice and Participation in HRDC Working Group on Communities

Start-end date: November 2002 - November 2002
Sponsor: National Secretariat on Homelessness

Understanding the Early Years

A study of community process focusing on how information was absorbed, interpreted, and acted upon by community members.

Start-end date: February 2002 - June 2005
Sponsor: Social Development Canada

Community Employment Innovation Project

The evaluation of a multi-year demonstration project that tested the impact on individuals and their communities of an alternative form of income transfer for the unemployed with the aim to increase their employment prospects while simultaneously strengthening the capacity of local communities.

Start-end date: January 1999 - March 2008
Sponsor: Human Resources and Social Development Canada and Nova Scotia Department of Community Services