Kwantlen's $1-Million Research Award Reflections the Strengh of Community Collaboration
Written by By Dr. Gira Bhatt, CURA Project Director
While we rejoice at the news of receiving the $1 million research grant to identify protective and preventive factors of youth involvement in gang-related violence, it is to be acknowledged that the winner is the whole community. The parents, teachers, youth, frontline workers, service providers, community activists, policy and lawmakers, and academic researchers, all came together to enhance the efforts of the community to close the gates to the recruitment paths of the dangerous gangs that target our young kids.
Our community is very proactive and as such an impressive array of groundwork and innovative approaches to address the issue of gang-related violence is already in place. These approaches include grass-root level actions such as involving youth in meaningful after-school activities, institutional efforts such as safer school programs, to lobbying the lawmakers to create special forces such as the BC Integrated Gang Task Force.
So what is new about this substantial research award, Community University Research Alliance (CURA) granted by the federal agency Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)?
CURA is the only academic research award that mandates that academic experts seek the collaboration of the community to address a social issue. Kwantlen’s strong commitment to be a community partner, and the community’s continual support to Kwantlen in turn facilitated formalization of the existing partnerships and establishing new connections. Importantly, mutual trust was the key to forming the tight collaborative network.
When Kwantlen sent out a call to community stakeholders in 2006 to explore ways to put an end to youth involvement in gang-related activities, the response was overwhelming. A total of 53 representatives from 23 community organizations attended these meetings. The concern was common, and the will was strong to work collaboratively to build on the existing efforts. Not to re-invent any wheel, but to extend and complement these efforts to create a multi-layered, evidence-based action plan became the focus. The approach to be positive, to build on the community strengths and the assets of our youth rather than focus on "what's wrong."
[...]
Read the full article at the Indio-Canadian Voice.
Editors: Sandy Alfonso, Sandra Lenore Gutierrez & Meiko Assoon. Design: William Szilveszter