GSFS 400 Community-based Research Symposium

I would like to invite you to a symposium that will feature undergraduate students majoring in GSFS studies who designed and conducted fantastic original research in close collaboration with a community organization working for social change. The symposium will be held on November 27^th, 2:30-5:30,in MAASS 217 (McGill University campus). Find below a list of organizations and projects that GSFS 400-ers will introduce:

Chez Doris (see http://www.chezdoris.org/en/), a “charitable organization offering daytime shelter 7 days a week for all women in difficulty.”
Project:Conduct a feasibility study, needs assessment, and provide recommendations on inclusivity & accessibility for a forthcoming women’s night shelter.
Student researchers:Elsie Chan, Marion Daigle, Maya Smith, and Nicole Whitmarsh

AIDS Community Care Montreal (ACCM, seehttps://accmontreal.org), Montreal's only English-language “volunteer-driven community organization that provides support services and treatment information to people living with HIV/AIDS and/or hepatitis C.”
Project:Develop an audit and an action plan that considers questions of representation and inclusivity for women, trans folks, and current ACCM membership at ACCM.
Student researchers:Beau Kimpton, Abigail King, Kyle Stewart, and Valerie Wood

F*EM(Femmes* en Musique,see https://www.facebook.com/femmes.en.musique/),a grassroots network that supports self-identified women and LGBTQ+ people working in Quebec's music industry.
Project:Document inequities regarding women and LGBTQ+ folks working in Quebec’s music industry. Provide infographics, pamphlet, or other web-friendly material to publicize findings.
Student researchers:Cheryl Chu, Mara Luks, and Ada McVean

Project 10 (P10, seehttp://p10.qc.ca), a grassroots organization that “works to promote the personal, social, sexual and mental well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, intersexed and questioning youth and adults 14-25.”
Project: Collect impact stories from members and groups involved with P10 and develop web-friendly #myP10story narratives.
Student researchers:Jo Marie Chio, Bei Evely, Jackie Lee, Natalie Olivares, and Carla Trigoso

Quebec Native Women (QNW,see https://www.faq-qnw.org/en/), an organization that“defends the interests of Aboriginal women from Quebec and Aboriginal women living in urban areas.”
Project: Design a framework to gather data on indigenous girls/women 18-35 and their needs for QNW Strategic Plan 2020-2022; provide educational resources for QNW’s web and social media platforms.
Student researchers:Corinne Bulger, Flynn Gottselig, Sarah Graham, and Rebecca Scarra

The Laboratory for Urban Culture(LUC, seehttps://www.mcgill.ca/ihsp/salon-1861-and-laboratory-urban-culture), an organization that seeks to establish “innovative and progressive projects and partnerships grounded in the principles of social justice for the betterment of the surrounding community” of Little Burgundy.
Project: Provide support and assessment for after school programs in music, creative writing, visual arts and/or else offered at Le Salon 1861; establish a framework for a community assets inventory and map (provisionally titled CYAN: Community Youth Arts Network); provide a sustainability study for the arts programming at the LUC.
Student researchers:Emma Jansen, Catherine Morrison, and Yonnika Vernon

If you participated in one of these research projects, if your are interested in community-engaged learning, or if you’d like to support the wonderful research that undergraduate students are conducting at McGill, please consider attending the symposium. Food and drinks will be served, and you will have an opportunity to meet up with student researchers, with representatives of community organizations, with faculty interested in integrating community-based learning, with me, and/or with representatives of SEDE (Social Equity and Diversity Education) to help you navigate this process.

If you can’t make it but are still interested in learning about this research, reach out to me and/or to Greta Schwarz at CKUT 90.3 McGill (allthingsmcgill [at] ckut.ca) and tune in to hear GSFS 400-ers introduce some of this research on air in the forthcoming weeks.