Why Social Innovation?

If we were to associate "applied research" solely with technology, such as Industry 4.0, digital sensors and networks, 3D printing and green technologies, we would be ignoring one of Humber’s largest research areas: Social Innovation.

Though it has many definitions, social innovation research, in essence, builds partnerships to develop new and innovative solutions to systemic social problems. The goal is IMPACT, building healthier and more resilient communities and social systems that will improve the lives of everyone. We continue to witness increasingly harsh effects as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as time goes on, and it is evident that we need more social innovation in our communities—measurable, impactful and sustainable social innovation. In fiscal 2021, Humber received CCSIF funding for two grants totalling $720K (read more on page 31).

What Is Social Innovation?

“Social innovation is the process of developing and deploying effective solutions to challenging and often systemic social and environmental issues in support of social progress. Social innovation is not the prerogative or privilege of any organizational form or legal structure. Solutions often require the active collaboration of constituents across government, business, and the non-profit world.”—Sarah A. Soule, Neil Malhotra, Bernadette Clavier, Stanford University, Center for Social Innovation.

At Humber, we proudly focus on community development through social innovation research. The research projects that faculty and community partners undertake aim to address social challenges. Social innovation research is about co-creation, and our research brings all stakeholders together—including those the targeted problem impacts the most—to take collective action.

In 2020, Humber College received five multi-year grants totalling $1.6M in research funding from the College and Community Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF), a fund managed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Four CCSIF projects are being led by professors in the Faculty of Social & Community Services (FSCS), and one CCSIF project is being led by Ginger Grant, PhD., Dean, Office of Research & Innovation (ORI).

From affordable housing initiatives to cannabis education to the measurement of the impact of 21st-century experiential learning on new immigrants’ workplace performance and Indigenous economic development, these projects represent only a sample of the impactful research undertaken by the Humber community. Humber’s Office of Research & Innovation (ORI) has identified five key research areas, and, you guessed it, Social Innovation is one of those key areas. So, what do social innovation projects look like?

They pursue a raison d’être

All applied research comes from a need; as phenomenon-driven research, social innovation must respond to a complex social challenge that may not have a straightforward answer.

Consider the work of Daniel Bear, PhD. Daniel is a professor in Humber’s Bachelor of Criminal Justice degree program, part of the Faculty of Social & Community Services. He and his team realized that there is a gap in education for young cannabis users. Daniel’s project, Engaging and Educating Young-Adult Cannabis 2.0 Consumers (grant amount $344K), set out to develop an evidence-informed base of information for cannabis consumers to reduce potential harms resulting from frequent and long-term smoking of cannabis, or inaccurately dosing new cannabis 2.0 products. This research is in partnership with the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) and the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA).

“If our cannabis education research project does a little bit to help people make better or more informed choices about how they are going to consume cannabis, then we can safely state that we have taken one more step forward in the right direction.”

—Daniel Bear, PhD.

This project represents the first concerted effort to develop a scientifically accurate, harm-reduction-focused cannabis 2.0 public education campaign that is based on a human-centred design approach with synchronized materials for both consumers and retailers. The research team seeks to understand how young people in Canada are engaging with public education information about cannabis and to use that information in collaboration with our partners to create more effective, stigma-free, honest public education materials. You can read more on Cannabis Education Research, a website dedicated to this research. Phase 1—Data Collection is now complete. The research team is in Phase 2—Development and

Production. Daniel is supported by Ashley Hosker-Field, PhD., professor in the Faculty of Social & Community Services, and Marilyn A. Cresswell, professor in the Faculty of Media & Creative Arts, and four research assistants, Annemarie Antunes, BSc, Carter Mooney, Diarra Bakary and Stefania Piedimonte.

They collaborate with community partners.

Applied research often engages external partners, which build relationships between the college and industry, provides student research assistants with the opportunity to work on industry-focused problems, and plays a role in ensuring college programming is relevant. Tina Lackner is a professor in Child and Youth Care Practitioner programs. Tina’s project, with research partner Sara Nickerson- White, PhD., Experiences of hope, self-compassion and authentic collaboration: Foundations for a consumer informed compassion-based human services delivery framework in a Canadian Context (grant amount $323K), aims to develop and establish a guiding framework that can aid Canadian Human Service (HS) Organizations and service providers in their ability to be responsive to the aspirations and preferences of consumers in ways that strengthen their ability to lead self-directed lives.

What began as four has blossomed into eight community partners from across Canada collaborating on the project:

• Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) Diversity & Inclusion—Central Offices in Toronto, ON; Calgary, AB; and Moncton, NB

• Family Transition Place—Orangeville, ON

• Heartache2Hope—Oakville, ON

• Hope Resource Centre Association—Westlock, AB

• Lutherwood—Waterloo Region, ON

• Southwest Nova Transition House Association —Juniper House—Southwestern, NS

• Wellspring Cancer Support Foundation—Toronto, ON

• Wellspring London And Region—London, ON

These partners are primarily non-profits, supported and managed by volunteers. And while pauses due to COVID-19 put so many activities on hold, Tina believes taking a step back allowed the research team to develop deeper and more meaningful relationships with their community partners.

We had to delay our project by a year out of respect for the organizations and the communities they support. This period of rest gave us time to honour the process they needed, to clearly understand the scope of this research. As a result, we have nurtured deeper relationships with our partners [who] firmly believe in the concepts and are aligned with the trajectory of this study.

—Tina Lackner

The research team is collecting stories of hope from people who have participated or worked in human service programs at any of the partner organizations. The next step will be collecting stories of self-compassion (year 2) and stories of authentic collaboration (year 3). This is done through the research team’s website, Share Your Stories, dedicated to this study. Tina is supported by two research assistants, Kevin Pedrosa and Raquel Sinclair.

They develop robust research methods.

Researchers use a variety of methods to explore their research questions. Many social innovation projects engage in some level of community-based participatory research due to their collaborative nature: how can you really know you have made change and impacted a community unless you include them in the research methodology?

In her research, in collaboration with community partner LAMP Community Health Centre (LAMP CHC), Salomeh Ahmadi considers how a Community of Practice (CoP) can sustain advocacy efforts that support new models for affordable housing through social policy change. The first phase of the project focused heavily on engaging communities and agencies impacted by the rising cost of housing and the inaccessibility of affordable housing.

Affordable Housing Needs in South Etobicoke (grant amount $360K) has become an urgent issue, with over 25,000 projected units in the city books. Housing affordability, defined provincially and federally, is spending less than 30% of a household’s pre-tax income on housing. Minimum wage earners need to spend 70% of their income to afford the average asking rent of a one bedroom apartment in Toronto (ACORN, 2018).

We are adopting the attitude of being researchers with our partners and the community; not just researching their cause for them.

—Salomeh Ahmadi

Some achievements to date include a National Housing Day event in November 2020 and 2021, workshops on Above Guideline Rents, Housing Rights and Community Benefits, the formation of an Advisory Group, presentations to over 40 organizations at the South Etobicoke Community Coordination Plan cluster, and to 43 individuals, a monthly community newsletter, and the launch the South Etobicoke Housing Affordability (SEHA) website and social media accounts, including Facebook and Twitter.

As a result of a direct network with Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN), a South Etobicoke chapter for community benefit agreements (CBAs) has been established in order to pursue social procurement including affordable housing through community development charges. There are over 17,000 units currently slated, and over 36,000 more projected in South Etobicoke alone.

With the Affordable Housing Needs in South Etobicoke study, the research team is moving into Phase 1 of collecting data, interviewing, and working in focus groups. Salomeh is supported by her research assistant Natalie Pilla .

For National Housing Day (22nd November 2021), the research team hosted an online viewing, moderated by Salomeh Ahmadi, of the documentary Push, followed by a Q&A with Global Director of The Shift, Leilani Farha, activist and Canadian human rights lawyer, previously the United Nation’s special rapporteur on adequate housing.

They involve students

Experiential learning is a key component of applied research. Participating in social innovation research allows student research assistants to engage with the kind of complex social problems they may face in their future careers.

Ann Corbold, professor in the Bachelor of Social Science in Criminal Justice and Police Foundations programs, is working with The John Howard Society of Saskatchewan and Street Culture Project (Regina) on Community Agency Partnerships: Best Practices for the Creation of Healthy Communities (grant amount $219K). This project is particularly complex, aimed at identifying the wraparound support services needed for at-risk youth to avoid the criminal justice system. On this project, the research assistants are given autonomy to think critically and come up with actionable solutions. The practical nature of the work allows Ann to better explain social concepts and social innovation out in the field as they are making real change happen. She states, “The students are making outstanding contributions to the project study, and it is impressive to watch them apply their research and analytical skills towards a social cause.” Currently, Ann is assisted by Ashley Hosker-Field, PhD., professor in the Faculty of Social & Community Services, as co-investigator and research assistants Gabriel Hutchcraft and Shelly-Ann Marshal.

The resilience and persistence of front-line community workers are why change happens. They never give up because they know full-scale change takes time and commitment. Obstacles such as lack of funding and resources become challenges. They adapt and keep going. They aren’t doing it for money or acknowledgment; they are doing it to make their communities a better place for everyone.

—Ann Corbold

The research team has completed Phase 1—Data Collection—the quantitative part. They are diving into Phase 2—Interviews—the qualitative component. A support program at each of the partner agencies will be assessed to see whether or not they are: (1) trauma-informed; (2) low barrier to access; (3) free from systemic racism; and (4) aligned with their commitment to reconciliation.

They support Internationally Trained Professionals (ITPs)

In collaboration with ACCES Employment, one particular CCSIF project will Measure the impact of 21st Century Experiential Learning on New Immigrants' Workplace Performance (grant amount of $360K).

The key objective of this study is to develop an evidence-informed base of information which will help measure the impact of both implemented and planned experiential learning opportunities on the employment readiness and actual employment of the ITPs who participate in ACCES’ bridging programs. The aim is to determine efficacy and effectiveness from an ITP and employer perspective and to use this data to inform decisions about which are and are not effective.

Ginger Grant, PhD., Dean, Office of Research & Innovation (ORI), is the principal investigator and is supported by co-investigator Raeshelle Morris-Griffith, BMOS(Hons.), MA, PMP, IMBB™, ORI’s Innovation Program Manager. The project team comprises Barath Roy Michel, MSW, IMBB™, PMP (Data Analysis Expert), Juan Felipe Garcia Bermudez, IMGB™️, PMPG, B. Eng (Project Coordinator) and Fatima Momin (Research Analyst).

The research team is in the process of analyzing data from surveys conducted by ACCESS about several training programs offered on understanding the skillsets and mindsets brought by ITPs to the Canadian labour market. Assessments have been done on individuals enrolled in the following ACCES Programs: Financial Services, IT, Sales & Marketing, Leadership, Supply Chain, HR, Healthcare, Electrical Engineering, and Newcomer Women.

Four assessments have been done by the participants: (1) FourSight Thinking Profile, (2) 21st Century Skills, (3) Five Behaviours of a Team, and (4) Agile EQ. The project team is currently analyzing the data qualitatively and quantitatively before presenting their complete findings to ACCES Employment.

One preliminary finding is based on the peak preferences of the FourSight thinking profiles and the ranking between the profiles and the programs. The research study identified that communication skills, critical thinking, teamwork, and knowledge of relevant software were the most required skills in the job market across the programs offered.

“The data we gathered and analyzed was eye-opening, primarily because we noticed a high preference towards the Clarifier and Developer FourSight profiles. This could well be in line with a new immigrant’s mindset as they tend to ask many questions, prefer facts over ambiguity, are cautious and have a structured approach. It would definitely be interesting to revisit (if possible) the same sample group and understand if their preferences have changed or not (especially considering that preferences do not reflect ability).”

—Barath Roy Michel

CONCLUSION

Social Innovation research pushes us to do better. Research in this field benefits everyone involved on a holistic level. It brings faculty, students, industry and community partners together with a collective goal to make the world a better place one step and one research project at a time. Social Innovation research encourages us to think deeply in engagement with community partnerships to come up with thought-provoking and sustainable solutions to social issues for the good of all. Is there a pressing issue on your mind? Would you like to engage in a partnership with a community organization to tackle any social issues? Connect with us, and let’s spark an idea together.

Written by Anju Kakkar, IMBB™ and Sarah Nieman

Read the full version of this article on the second issue of SPARK.

If you'd like, you can read more articles here.

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