Community Scholars Program: Information Research Grants

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Recipients

The call for proposals is closed and the Information Research Grants have been awarded:

Giulia Belotti and Joanne Nellas at CityHive (originally proposed at Kiwassa Neighbourhood House), undertook a project to synthesize published documents on grassroots youth leadership and community development. This review of the literature was shaped into a toolkit - Enhancing Youth Leadership and Agency: a Toolkit for a Successful Leadership Program, which has already been used by CityHive as a tool for reflective planning.

For Battered Women's Support Services, Harsha Walia reviewed and annotated the published literature on policing responses to racialized survivors reporting gender-based violence. This thorough report will complement and be combined with BWSS's primary research on the topic, and will be released in document that will contribute to organizational and advocacy shifts within the sector.

Call for proposals

The Community Scholars Program (CSP) invites applications for an Information Research Grant. These small grants, two valued at $6000 each, are intended to foster information research* in nonprofit organizations and to help turn that research into action. Activities may include conducting a stand-alone literature review or scoping review, exploring or synthesizing what’s been written regarding an area of practice or an approach, or creating an annotated bibliography.

Longer term, the activities supported by the grant will allow the organization to achieve an objective such as: build organizational capacity, prepare for a future grant application, develop a new program or strengthen an existing one, devise a strategic shift, anticipate future -- or enrich current -- primary (original) research. 

 Background

Since 2017, the Community Scholars Program has heard consistently that the urgency of other duties has been an impediment to engaging as deeply with the research literature as desired. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled many organizations to seek out additional sources, knowledge, information, and inspiration in order to bolster or re-imagine the delivery of their missions.

This grant is intended to support the information research* aspirations and research capacity of Community Scholars and their organizations by providing funding for staff time. The grants may be used to backfill or augment the hours of current staff or to hire a researcher.

 We are using the phrase information research to refer to library-type research: Research which relies on published documents – such as the materials available through the Community Scholars Portal, and which are sometimes called secondary research. This grant does not support activities of primary research – for example, research with human subjects (eg. surveys, interviews), scientific experiments or observations, numeric data analysis, etc.

Eligibility

Organizations (BC-registered nonprofits and charities) with an enrolled Community Scholar as of November 17, 2022 are eligible to apply.

Eligible expenditures are limited to staff time and specifically exclude software, equipment, and other non-salary expenses. 

Grant

In addition to the monetary award of $6000, grantees will have the support of the Community Scholars Program (which may include the creation of additional enrolments in the CSP, consultation and/or workshops with CSP librarians) as well as opportunities for sharing the outputs of the grant.

Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated according to completeness, value, and feasibility, and through the lens of the CSP’s approach (values knowledge exchange; promotes (open) access to academic research; encourages and strengthens community/university connections; is relational and grounded in context; values diverse ways of knowing and learning).

Strong proposals will:

  • Address an important issue for the organization, the sector, or the area of practice.
  • Facilitate action on other activities of importance to the organization (ie does it make possible something that would otherwise be difficult or impossible?).
  • Grow capacity within the organization.
  • Have impact beyond the individual organization.
  • Contribute to larger goals or frameworks that the organization is operating within.

Funded proposals must agree to:

  • Pay staff (at minimum) a living wage.
  • Participate in cohort activities (check-ins) with Community Scholars librarians and other grantees (on a schedule to be collaboratively determined) and a post-grant evaluation conversation with Community Scholars librarians. Please allow 5 hours for these activities in the budget.
  • Share outputs of the research with participants in the Community Scholars Program and with a broader research community.
  • Share reflections on the process of participating in this grant with participants in the Community Scholars Program and with a broader research community. This could include, for example, a feature in a newsletter or on a blog, an opportunity to speak at an event, or to be interviewed. Specific opportunities can be determined collaboratively post-grant.

Time required for cohort activities and knowledge-sharing activities should be accommodated for in the budget proposal.

Timeline

November 2022 - call for proposals

January 9, 2023 - deadline for receipt of proposals

Late January/early February 2023 - decisions and notification

October 2023 - conclusion of granted projects

November 1, 2023 - post-grant report

Application 

The application period ended on Monday, January 9th, 2023.