Research Report

2015/
2016
Report

In 1912, Henry Marshall Tory
established the Department of
Extension at the University of Alberta
to “take the university to the people” because he believed that
valuable knowledge and insights into social issues were co-located
in the communities in which the university lived. In other words,
the university is a community member, and an important resource,
like every other member. Tory was dedicated to building an institution
that was socially responsible, founded on equitable access to learning
and knowledge creation.
Dr. Katy Campbell
Dean, Faculty of Extension
The Faculty of Extension has always been involved in community
building, through its programs, partnerships, relationships, and
engagement scholarship. As one of the core faculties of the University
of Alberta, we are proud to be part of the global movement of engaged
universities. The Talloires Network, for example, is an organization
that “envisions universities around the world as dynamic forces in their
societies,” incorporating community engagement in their teaching
and research missions. What does that mean? It means mutual learning
and reciprocity between communities and scholars. It means diversity in
perspectives and approaches to engagement. It means that universities
and communities work together to build social capacity.
With engagement as a framework, the Faculty of Extension has been
able to initiate, facilitate, and support our communities, including
those inside the university, to tackle common societal issues that
are global in nature and local in impact. Extension scholars partner
with organizations to end poverty, and with rural and First Nations
communities to advocate for digital access. They ally with Métis leaders
to empower youth, and engage with immigrant families to address the
challenges of raising multilingual families. They search for sustainable
strategies that could help communities plagued by boom-and-bust
economies. You will read of these and other made-in-Extension
projects in this report, which we are excited to share with you.

The Faculty of Extension plays a unique,
distinguishable role in the University
of Alberta and in our communities.
We are the only post-secondary faculty in Canada with a primary
research mandate of engagement scholarship. Our mission is to
provide leadership for social and individual betterment through
community-university engagement. Our researchers partner with
communities to undertake engaged and collaborative research,
with the goal of mobilizing positive changes at personal, social,
and system levels, as well as developing a better understanding of
how communities and universities can work together to address
key societal issues.
The theme of this new research report is social justice. The stories
featured highlight some of the great work accomplished by our
researchers over the past few years. From advancing food security
and empowering communities, to committing to end poverty in
Edmonton, our researchers are working to tackle the social challenges
and inequities of our time. Importantly, none of this work would be
possible without the support, trust, and expertise of our community
partners, as we continue to build these sustainable partnerships to
inform and mobilize our work.
Dr. Yoshi Iwasaki
Associate Dean, Research (2015/2016)
As I reflect back on my time as Associate Dean, Research, I am very
proud to have witnessed this meaningful and impactful work, and I
look forward to seeing what’s next for this exceptionally talented
group of engagement scholars. Together, we hope to build a bright,
empowering, and flourishing future!

Mothers and
mother tongues
Mobilizing family-generated knowledge
for heritage language development
Immigrant parents know the drill: talk to your schoolaged
kid in your native language, and chances are the
child will reply in English. Repeatedly. Despite gentle
encouragement or heartfelt pleas. Raising a multilingual
child—and keeping a heritage language alive at
home—is not an easy task. That is true of families
where both parents share a mother tongue, but even
more so for mixed, interlingual couples, a category
that has been steadily on the rise in Canada according
to census data. Yet, not much is known about the
unique challenges faced by this type of family.
“Families of mixed linguistic backgrounds are minimally
represented in the literature,” says Martin Guardado,
academic director of Extension’s English Language
School. Along with Rika Tsushima (a PhD candidate at
McGill University), Guardado is currently wrapping up
a study funded by a SSHRC grant, Allophone Mothers:
Japanese Female Immigrants’ Perspectives on Heritage
Language, a project based on the experience of
Japanese-descent mothers living in Montreal.
“Trying to ensure that your child will grow up fluent
in your heritage language is often an emotionally
demanding and labour-intensive task,” explains
Guardado. For the Japanese mothers in the study,
the daunting task at hand is to keep the little ones
fluent in Japanese while the children are also
expected to learn English, do their schooling in
French, and—in many cases—speak their father’s
language.
Why do these mothers want their children to speak
Japanese? Passing on a cultural legacy is one of the
reasons. Socializing the child with the extended family
back home is another. But maybe the most compelling
force powering their efforts is the bond they’ll be able
to establish with their sons and daughters, one that’s
filtered by the very notion of identity that is conferred
by language. One of the participants in the study
gives an eloquent example of this issue when she says:
“Well, it’s my language, isn’t it? My words. Japanese is
not just a tool, but myself. Myself. So, if it’s rejected, it
would shock me as if I were rejected by [my children].”
Providing expert advice
Knowledge mobilization is a crucial component of this
project, which was conceived not only as a means to
learn along with the mothers, but also to develop
information-sharing opportunities and provide researchbased
advice for the target population. With this goal
in mind, booklets and workshops with the mothers
were designed as one of the study’s phases, providing
participants with much-needed guidance on how to
navigate the everyday Babel of interlingual families.
“Participants were very vocal about their unsuccessful
efforts to access good expert advice,” says Guardado.
“Perhaps the most powerful research implication
emerging from this study concerns the need for
researchers to build appropriate knowledge translation
and mobilization components into their study designs.”
Among other things, the workshops served to debunk
a few multilingual education myths that are a source
of great anxiety for many families. One such myth,
sometimes passed along by concerned friends and
school teachers, is that speaking different languages
at home will have negative consequences in the child’s
performance at school. “In fact, multilingual children
are nearly always better than their monolingual friends
at reading and writing,” says Guardado.
4

“The workshop was a great
opportunity and inspired my
partner and I to think more
seriously about our multilingual
education strategies.”
Workshop participant

A road map
to end poverty
Listening, learning, and collaborating to
build a just and prosperous society for all
Creating a city with no poverty and where all have
equal opportunities to thrive: that’s the goal the
EndPovertyEdmonton (EPE) initiative is striving to
achieve within one generation.
Poverty is one of the greatest social challenges of our
era, and many Canadian leaders and municipalities
have made commitments and formed working groups
to address it in their areas. Edmonton’s approach,
however, is unique in two ways. Firstly, EPE has
made a bold pledge to eliminate, not merely reduce
or alleviate, poverty in our city. Further, EPE has
committed to reaching this goal through evidencebased
action. Such an ambitious goal calls for
collective community vision and action from diverse
city stakeholders, including business leaders, service
workers, and researchers.
Since 2014, Extension researchers and centres,
including the Centre for Public Involvement (CPI) and
Community-University Partnership for the Study of
Children, Youth, and Families (CUP), have been key
partners in EPE. As consultants and advisors,
Extension researchers have helped develop the initial
EPE Strategy (unanimously approved by City Council
in October 2015) and the Implementation Road Map
(May 2016). This latter document outlines specific,
achievable directions for action over the next five
years, and establishes the structure for a governing
stewardship body to take over management of the
initiative starting January 2017.
Throughout all stages of the initiative, Extension
researchers have brought to the table expertise in
research processes, policy development, community
engagement, and collaboration. Their contributions
have included facilitating community and expert
discussions on practical steps forward, consulting on
governance strategy, as well as mining a povertyrelated
data set to create case stories of families living
in poverty, which have been built into and used to
critically evaluate the content and relevance of the
Strategy and the Road Map.
Our researchers have been champions for evidencebased
action, ensuring that all EPE actions are
grounded in rigorous research, evidence, and the
need for ongoing evaluation. They have brought key
questions to the table, such as: How are Edmontonians
experiencing poverty? What barriers have prevented
them from thriving? How can we measure poverty?
What do we mean when we promise to “lift people
out of poverty?” How will we know we are making an
impact? Thanks to this focus, the principles of research,
evaluation, and accountability are built right into the
Road Map and governance structure.
A shift in policy-making
Maria Mayan, associate professor and CUP assistant
director, has been involved in all stages of this work.
For Mayan, Extension’s involvement in the task force is
a sign of an important shift in the policy development
process. “What is really exciting is that when it comes
to community and EPE, research was welcomed,”
says Mayan. “Research was considered important.”
Similarly, Extension’s considerable investment in
EPE is a great example of the faculty’s own strategic
priorities. “This kind of work aligns perfectly with our
values as researchers,” says Mayan, citing our faculty’s
commitment to community engagement, collaboration,
social justice, and research-informed policy.
6

“Having Faculty of Extension
representatives around the
EPE task force table with
some of Edmonton’s most
influential community
stakeholders is a powerful
example of the university’s
commitment to community
service, and of the power of
university and community
collective action.”
Martin-Garber Conrad, CEO
Edmonton Community Foundation
Mayan is currently working alongside city staff and
stakeholders on a transitional committee responsible
for getting key processes and tools in place for the
incoming stewardship body. This includes developing
a comprehensive evaluation framework, including a
theory of change and logic model, shared measurement
system, and robust measure of poverty. These tools will
ensure that EPE is able to measure the long-term impact
and relevance of our collective efforts.
“We have created a strong foundation for the strategy
to come to life,” says Mayan. “The governance structure
of the stewardship body, alongside the Strategy, Road
Map, tools, partnerships, and the momentum we have
generated to date have set the initiative up for success.”
7

Fighting sexual exploitation
with mobile technology
Research collaboration uses messaging
to reach out to sex workers
A sex worker is checking the text messages on her
disposable “burner” phone. Her phone number was one
of many advertised on the classified ads section of an
adult-only website. She scrolls down the screen looking
for messages from clients when an unexpected text pops
up: “We’re here to help you if you need it.” The text
also includes the website address and phone number
of the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE),
an Edmonton-based organization that aims to reduce
harm and create long-term solutions for individuals and
communities caught in the web of sexual exploitation.
Since 2012, CEASE and the Faculty of Extension
have been working together on Project Backpage,
a community-university research collaboration to explore
the use of mobile phone text messaging as a method
of making initial contact with potential victims of sexual
exploitation and human trafficking, to provide them
with support information.
The project is a technology-based response to a
challenge also created by technology: the migration of
much of the sex trade from the physical space of the
streets to the screens of adult websites where online
advertisements are posted. “Outreach in this area
used to be an activity that involved making face-to-face
contact with sex workers on the streets,” says associate
professor Gordon Gow, director of the Master of Arts in
Communications and Technology (MACT) at the Faculty
of Extension. “In a growing number of cases, however,
this kind of contact is now difficult,” he explains.
The messaging campaigns are facilitated by the MARS
(Mobile Applications for Research Support) Lab, a set
of resources and expertise established in 2011 as part
of the MACT program. Telephone numbers are drawn
from classified ads at Backpage.com with the help of
GSA Email Spider, an application that automatically
extracts phone numbers from websites. Campaigns are
then built and sent using FrontlineSMS, a free, opensource
text messaging application created for community
development projects, which turns a computer connected
to a mobile phone into a two-way messaging hub.
Each campaign sends messages to about 300 numbers.
To date, over 5,000 messages have been sent through
the project.
One-on-one interaction
“The text messages are intended only as an initial
contact,” says Gow. “They’re not a substitute to one-onone
interaction.” An increase in one-on-one interactions,
in fact, is the primary goal of the project—and one
that’s not easy to measure. “It is difficult to know in any
given case whether contact between CEASE and a client
is due to them receiving a message,” he explains. But
even though numbers may be hard to get, there were
several occasions in which the messages are mentioned
as the “click” moment that lead someone to call the
CEASE line or show up for a face-to-face meeting.
The campaigns are structured around a MACT elective,
a special-topics course that explores digital technology
as a means of enhancing outreach communications.
“The students work with CEASE and me to plan and
design the communication campaign,” explains Gow.
“It’s a great opportunity for them, and it helps CEASE
with their outreach strategy.”
A development in the works at Project Backpage will
be extending it regionally to make it Alberta-based:
“We hope to build connections with organizations
in Calgary, Lethbridge, and other cities across the
province.”
8

“Project Backpage has proven
to be an invaluable tool in
our ability to connect with
vulnerable persons through
technology. We are appreciative
of the partnership between
CEASE and UAlberta and
look forward to continued
collaboration.”
Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation

From farm to table
Crossing silos to strengthen local
food systems
How would you like to eat healthier, support a
sustainable and environmentally friendly industry,
strengthen your local economy, and foster stronger
communities?
According to Mary Beckie, associate professor
specializing in local and alternative agri-food systems,
these benefits may be more attainable than you think.
As the Western Canada academic lead for the Food:
Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged (FLEdGE)
research partnership, Beckie is exploring the current
and potential role of community food initiatives in
Alberta and across Canada. The international FLEdGE
network of researchers was kick-started by a SSHRC
partnership grant, bringing together experts and
community leaders from across Canada, Europe, and
the U.S. Their goals? To enhance the impact of local
food production, raise awareness of the benefits of local
food systems, and help shape future agricultural policy.
Sustainability of the food system is a pressing social
issue, and local food production represents a critical
counterpoint to conventional industrial agriculture.
Due to benefits such as superior freshness and taste,
reduced carbon emissions, higher and more reliable
incomes for small-scale farmers, increased food security,
and overall stronger local economies, locally sourced
food has experienced a tremendous and continuous
surge of popularity across Canada. Alberta is no
exception to this trend—even during times of economic
recession, local food distribution through farmers’
markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms,
and farm-to-table restaurants has continued to thrive.
Beckie is careful to point out that local food systems do
have limitations. For one, Alberta has a cold climate,
and cannot sustainably grow food year-round. Further,
the current infrastructure for growing, processing, and
distributing food within Western Canada is fragmented
geographically and across sectors, and lacks the scale
and governance structure to keep up with increasing
consumer demand. To move beyond these barriers,
she says, “we need to grow our local, regionalized
food systems, and become more sophisticated about
how they are structured.”
Case studies
Beckie’s research began with an environmental scan
to map existing and emerging initiatives in Alberta
and neighbouring regions. She and her team are
also developing a handful of in-depth case studies
to showcase and evaluate innovative approaches to
integrating and strengthening local food systems.
One featured case study is Lady Flower Gardens,
a program that invites disadvantaged community
members to tend a communal plot of land. Participants
build relationships and make a meaningful contribution
to their community. They are also invited to take home
a portion of the produce they cultivate, while the rest
is donated to local charities and food banks.
This research, which Beckie will continue to develop
over the next five years, is also setting the stage for
her larger-scale goals, to help Alberta’s local food
stakeholders scale their operations up and out. She has
already brought on board numerous organizations and
academic partners, and plans to continue to develop
and expand this network to engage more stakeholders.
Next steps have included partnering with Northlands to
evaluate and strengthen their Alberta Flavour initiative,
a working group to increase institutional procurement
10

“FLEdGE connects local efforts
to national and international
leaders, all trying to build
more sustainable food systems.
FLEdGE also allows us to
research, document, and share
how organizational changes
impact our community. It is an
exciting project to be part of.”
Jessie Radies, Local Food Associate - Agriculture
Northlands
of local foods through relationship-building and a
dedicated online platform. Beckie has also joined
forces with Alberta Food Matters (AFM) to co-host
Cultivating Connections, a provincewide forum that
will, in February 2017, bring together farmers,
processors, distributors, community and social justice
groups, food retailers, chefs, and researchers.
Attendees will forge new relationships, identify
opportunities to collaborate, and, as Beckie hopes,
“inspire new and innovative initiatives and grow
vibrant and sustainable local food systems.”
Cultivating Connections and the FLEdGE project as a
whole represent a step forward in a movement that has
been a long time coming in Alberta. “I think it’s time,”
concludes Beckie. “This is something that is not going
away. Demand for local food is only going to become
more prevalent, as people are more concerned about
where their food is from.” As people are able to better
understand the journey their food made to get to their
plate, who was involved in its production, and how that
process impacted their lives and their communities, they
can make more informed decisions about what to eat.
11

A summer
to remember
From resilience training to
community empowerment
The Alberta Métis Settlements are unique, self-governing
communities in Canada. Located across northern
Alberta, they boast rich cultural traditions and histories
that blend First Nations and Euro-Canadian values,
spiritual beliefs, and customs.
In 2010, Extension researchers Fay Fletcher and Alicia
Hibbert approached the Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement,
seeking a partnership to develop a life skills program for
local children and youth. Beginning with a communitydriven
needs assessment, Fletcher and her team worked
with local leaders to develop a summer camp curriculum
from scratch, focusing on issues identified through
conversations with residents, youth, and Elders.
The original Métis Settlements Life Skills Journey (LSJ)
camp curriculum, still in use today, was designed to
help children grow their capacity to resist negative
behaviour such as smoking, drinking, and bullying.
Campers build relationships and confidence through
indoor and outdoor activities that range from beading
and sharing circles to shelter-building, while facilitators
deliver a range of resiliency-focused learning modules,
such as “kinship,” “communication,” and “community.”
Six years later and the program is still going strong,
having expanded from Buffalo Lake to include
Kikino, Elizabeth, and Fishing Lake Métis Settlements,
and engaging hundreds of campers and facilitators
to date. The research team has become an integral
presence in the participant communities, fostering
strong ties with camp facilitators, teachers, Elders,
and other local leaders.
In addition to developing and delivering research-based
resiliency training, Fletcher has been collecting data
with each community to better understand the impact
of the camps on the campers, facilitators, and the
communities as a whole. Each year, the team conducts
focus groups, surveys, and other research activities to
gauge the personal growth among participants (using
the validated Resiliency Framework), tracking positive
gains in participants’ capacities for reflective thinking,
confidence, and relationship-building.
Handing over the reins
To any casual observer, however, it is clear that the
Life Skills Journey team has accomplished a whole
lot more than research. Over the years, Fletcher and
her team have cultivated an environment of growth,
shared learning, and mutual trust in each Life Skills
Journey site. All findings are shared with, and owned
by, the settlements. Further, as communities have seen
the positive results and feedback from the camps,
they have become more invested in the research
process and program success. “It’s an exciting time,”
remarks Amanda MacRae, a project coordinator for
LSJ. “This year we are seeing more initiative from some
of our participants, greater collaboration and resourcesharing
between communities, and even independent
community-based research. We [the university-based
researchers] are naturally starting to hand over the reins,
continuing to support the community without providing
all the answers or dictating project direction.”
As research project lead, Hibbert notes that this shift
is an important one, especially in our current funding
environment. “We have been lucky to receive ongoing
grants and support from Alberta Health Services and
the Alberta Centre for Child, Family, and Community
Research. However, there’s no guarantee we will
be able to maintain this level of involvement for an
extended time.” As competition for research and
community development grants increases, the LSJ team
is focusing its efforts toward project sustainability.
12

“For me, I think just
throughout the last years,
[I learned about] becoming
more of a leader, I guess...
This just gave me the
opportunity in a safe place to
learn those skills and to get
better at them.”
Facilitator, 2015
Métis Settlements Life Skills Journey
According to Hibbert and MacRae, the team is
maintaining an open line of communication and
partnership, but rethinking their role in the community.
For example, the team has trained some of the longerstanding
facilitators to serve as “lead facilitators.”
These individuals are now equipped to train new
camp facilitators and staff to deliver LSJ in future
years. This “train-the-trainer” approach will not only
support program longevity, but also support facilitators’
professional development and inject valuable leadership
skills into the communities. Communities are also taking
on more responsibility in terms of logistics and program
delivery. In the meantime, the LSJ team is looking for
opportunities to serve in an advocacy capacity,
bringing awareness to community issues amongst
academia and potential funders.
For Fletcher and the rest of the LSJ team, it’s been
hard to let go. “We have built such strong and trusting
relationships in these communities,” says Fletcher.
However, this transitional process is a learning
opportunity, for the communities as well as for the
university. “Through this transition, we hope to better
understand how academics and funders can work
collaboratively with communities, to empower them
to build their own agency and self-determination to
shape how their community grows and improves.”
13

Digital divides
and destinies
Technology ownership and agency in
rural and First Nations communities
Our world is fast becoming one driven by innovation.
Thanks to faster and more efficient telephone, cable,
and broadband internet connectivity, many Canadians
are reaping benefits such as increased access
to government and social services, rapid remote
communication, expanded job and sales markets,
and limitless opportunities for learning.
But what about the people and communities that are
excluded from this technological revolution? What about
communities that, due to a remote location or small
population, do not present a strong enough business
case to attract investments from big telecommunications
companies? Communities that lack the infrastructure
needed to truly take advantage of modern digital
technology? Communities that want to take control
of the solutions to these challenges to shape their
digital destinies?
Rob McMahon has made these questions the focus
of his research. With a background in technology
and communications research, McMahon is the
coordinator for the First Mile Connectivity Consortium
and a co-investigator on the associated First Nations
Innovation (FNI) research initiative. First Mile is a nonprofit
organization that celebrates and advocates for
technological capacity and independence within First
Nations communities. Their activities are informed
by the FNI research team, who explore how remote
and rural First Nation communities are currently using
broadband and other technologies to access e-health,
e-learning, e-business, and other services, and how
these networks can be expanded and leveraged.
The FNI research approach is participatory and
community-driven. “The communities and the technology
organizations they have set up,” McMahon notes,
“are our partners. Each one has unique needs and
strengths. We seek to honour that.” McMahon and his
FNI colleagues employ a flexible research process,
co-developed with community partners, that begins
with a thorough inventory of existing technology
infrastructure, such as broadband or cellphone towers,
and assessment of how it is used. They then work with
regional and local partners to explore new potential
applications for and additions to the existing capacity
and connectivity. This may include identifying funding
or policy supports for new infrastructure, or training
community members in valuable digital literacies and
skills, such as assessing technology needs, accessing
equal data usage records, setting up digital applications,
and advocating for fair pricing in their communities.
New partnerships
Although First Mile supports communities across
Canada, much of the FNI research to date has been
centred in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada.
As a newly appointed Extension faculty member,
McMahon is bringing this research focus and process
to small-town Alberta. He has begun by building
relationships with local leaders at the Buffalo Lake Métis
Settlement, the first step of an in-depth study. “Buffalo
Lake,” explains McMahon, “presents an exciting
opportunity to adapt our partnership model with a Métis
community,” a uniquely Canadian cultural context not
yet explored by other FNI researchers. McMahon is
also partnering with the University of Alberta School of
Library and Information Studies and the Alberta Ministry
of Economic Development and Trade to develop an online
community broadband resource portal and toolkit. With
funding support from the Kule Institute for Advanced
Study and the U of A Libraries, their team will curate
14

“Our goal at the First Nations
Education Council is to support
First Nations to achieve full
jurisdiction over their education.
Through partnerships such as
First Mile and the FNI project,
concrete information is produced
in close collaboration with our
members that aims to empower
our communities to offer their
children the best opportunities
in education and life.”
Tim Whiteduck
Techonology Director, First Nations Education Council
success stories, business models, policy briefs, academic
research, and training tools to help leaders in rural
communities improve local access to broadband.
So why does this research matter? Aside from the
immediate benefit of improving communities’ access
to much-needed services, it also empowers people
living in rural and remote areas to actively participate
in the wider world. As McMahon says, “I think these
communities have a lot to offer. They have their own
capacities, their own knowledge that can benefit the
rest of society.”
Further, through his focus on community empowerment,
McMahon works with participating communities
to identify ways to advocate for themselves, make
informed decisions, and take charge of their digital
futures. “In the near future,” he says, “everything
will be connected; everything will require access to
internet and telecommunications. There is tremendous
opportunity here, in Canada, to set the stage for
digital independence on a global level.” The lessons
that we learn with First Nations through FNI can help
communities around the world—communities that are
small, rural, and perhaps excluded from the digital
revolution—discover their own creative pathways
to digital empowerment.
15

Small communities
seeking big changes
Resilience, adaptability, and self-determination
in boom and bust communities
Western Canada is known as one of the world’s largest
producers of energy and agricultural goods. Boasting
rich natural resources—including coal, oil, wheat,
aluminum, fish, and lumber—the provinces of Alberta
and British Columbia have a long history of attracting
shrewd investors and prospectors, seeking to make
their fortune in remote and rural communities. Many of
these communities rely on a single or limited resource,
making them vulnerable to periods of extreme growth
and decline as resource availability, global markets,
and other factors shift over time. Although larger cities,
such as Edmonton and Calgary, are not immune to
the ups and downs of a resource economy, smaller
communities tend to be more vulnerable to the
excitement of “boom” periods and the decline of “bust”
periods, with fewer options available for recovery.
The extreme nature of boom and bust cycles has
become an area of fascination for Kristof Van Assche
and Monica Gruezmacher, researchers for Extension’s
City-Region Studies Centre (CRSC). Alongside a team
from CRSC and several University of Alberta faculties,
Van Assche and Gruezmacher have spent the past
two years embarking on a series of road trips to small
boom and bust communities across Western Canada.
Their goal has been to learn more about how these
places can survive, and even thrive, in the face of
such adverse and unpredictable conditions, and what
other communities and academics can learn from
their past experiences.
According to this dynamic team, much of the existing
research on boom and bust dynamics and sustainable
planning tends to be prescriptive or only focused on
part of the problem. In a world where expertise has
become increasingly specialized and quick and easy
answers are highly valued, many “bust” towns that seek
external help are provided with formulaic processes and
tools that don’t necessarily translate to their unique set of
experiences and contexts. Says Van Assche, “We have
found such an amazing diversity of experiences, beliefs,
stories, and creative governance structures. Each place
we have studied has created its own story. No one
‘recipe’ for overcoming a bust could possibly succeed
in all of them.” For example, a sustainability strategy
that works in a coal mining town facing reduced demand
would not work in an old forestry town struck by forest
fires. Nor would the residents of those towns necessarily
even agree on what success means. “Success” is a
subjective concept, largely shaped by the stories that
communities tell about themselves. Residents in that mining
town may equate success with increased mining activity,
and find it difficult turn to tourism or eco-farming as
their main economic activity.
Self-analysis and other tools
of the trade
Van Assche and Gruezmacher understand that
communities have a right to set their own path, and that
decisions about a community’s future should be based
on serious self-analysis and a critical look at their past
and the current context. Outsiders and experts, including
academics, can help in this process by offering insights
and structure for self-analysis. Self-analysis is far from
simple, and can often be painful or exacerbate internal
conflict. However, when properly managed, this process
is an invaluable tool for helping the community overcome
challenges and move forward.
The researchers have developed tools and resources to
guide communities through this challenging process of self-
16

“Our need to understand
and adjust to the highs and
lows of economic cycles has
only been magnified in recent
years. Citizens, including
leaders in Alberta and
northern British Columbia,
should welcome this
contribution to what
we know.”
Ted Binnema, Historian
University of Northern British Columbia
analysis and strategic planning, and are now sharing
them publicly with several of their partner communities.
Rather than outlining specific steps to reinvigorate
the community, they instead provide the background
and structure for critical thinking and engagement.
Communities can draw on their research to identify
factors that caused the bust, set goals for the future,
and develop a strategy to achieve that vision.
By offering an alternative to pre-packaged solutions
and equipping towns with the internal capacity to
review and critically reflect on their circumstances,
Van Assche and Gruezmacher hope to influence
how communities are able to manage radical ups
and downs, and ultimately become more resilient.
“Communities are constantly developing and
changing,” Gruezmacher explains. “There’s never
any guarantee that circumstances or community values
and desires won’t shift over time. Governance is
adaptive and in constant co-evolution.” Their research
presents an opportunity to understand how the different
contexts and dimensions of governance can change
over time, and how a community can manage these
changes to shape its own destiny.
17

The kids are
(not) all right
Project puts young children’s
struggles on the map
When young Albertans blow out the candles on
their fifth birthday cake—around the time they will be
entering school—how many of them have reached
the developmental milestones expected for their age?
If you were to ask this question to researcher Susan
Lynch a few years ago, she would have guessed that
most of our kids (around 60% to 65% of them) would
be developing the way they were supposed to. That was
before Lynch started at the helm of ECMap, a multi-year
project that looked into the development of pre-school
children across the province.
The Early Childhood Development Mapping (ECMap)
project painted a province-wide picture of how children
are developing before they go to school. But the picture
that emerged from the study wasn’t a pretty one. “I
was surprised when I learned from our work that only
46% of the children were developing appropriately,”
says Lynch. “There are many children with poor
developmental outcomes in every community of
Alberta. No community is exempt.”
Financed by the government of Alberta, ECMap was
a $12 million large-scale population study that, for the
first time, comprehensively measured Alberta children in
five areas of development: physical, social, emotional,
language/thinking skills, and communication/
general knowledge. With the assistance of Alberta’s
kindergarten teachers using the Early Development
Instrument (EDI), data were gathered and analysed on
over 72,000 children during their kindergarten years.
The project allowed for a broad understanding of
how young children are doing in Alberta and how
their development compares to the Canadian norm.
Perhaps more importantly, it generated a detailed map
that provided information at the community level.
“We gave every community their own results and
helped them understand them,” says Lynch. “We also
helped the communities to form coalitions that could
use those results to take action.”
One hundred such coalitions were created during this
process, most of which remained active after project
data collection came to a close in 2014. “One of
the recommendations of our final report was that the
government continue to support the work of the
coalitions, and they have been doing so,” she says.
Keeping track of progress
Another policy recommendation being addressed
was to keep measuring children’s development so that
it could be compared over time against ECMap’s
baseline results. “If you don’t do that, you don’t know
if the things you’re doing to improve the children’s
outcomes are actually making a difference,” explains
Lynch. “Another round of data was picked up just this
year, and the plan is to do it again in another couple
of years.”
ECMap was directed by Susan Lynch and had as coinvestigator
Rebecca Gokiert, an associate professor
at the Faculty of Extension. The project was staffed
by a team of 22 people that included community
development coordinators and specialists in areas such
as test measurement, data analysis, mapping, sociology,
communications, and early childhood development,
among others. The four reports produced by ECMap,
as well as LiveAtlas (an interactive map with information
on every community), are available at ecmap.ca.
18

“The ECMap project has
served as an impetus for
community members to take
ownership of their results, as
well as the actions they have
identified to bring change.”
Iris Spurrell, Bowness Montgomery
Early Childhood Coalition, Calgary

Making a difference
through evaluation
An evaluation network to build capacity
in the field of early childhood
There is wide agreement among researchers,
community organizations, governments, and funders
that Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs
and practices work wonders to give vulnerable children
a better chance in life. Whatever happens during the
first five years of age becomes “biologically embedded”
in a child’s brain, often with lifelong consequences.
But negative experiences can be minimized if support
for children and their parents comes early enough.
During this critical time, meaningful evaluation can
guide practice, programs, and policies, providing
answers to the question that underlies the work of
those in the early childhood field: Are we making
a difference in children’s lives?
“Evaluation plays a critical role in the field of ECD,”
says associate professor Rebecca Gokiert. “It helps
to drive funding decisions, to shape public policy, to
improve practice, and to demonstrate accountability.”
As the principal investigator of the Evaluation
Capacity Network (ECN) project, Gokiert has been
working with her team to establish a multidisciplinary
and intersectoral partnership focused on improving
evaluation practices in ECD.
Building evaluation capacity within community
organizations is one of the goals of the project.
“Organizations are expected to evaluate their efforts
and to incorporate those findings into their daily
practices. Given their limited resources, however,
this can prove to be a challenge,” explains Gokiert.
Further complicating matters, the kind of information
collected varies widely between different sectors
(organizations, funders, government, etc.) and levels
(national, provincial, and regional). That’s why another
important objective behind the ECN is to work toward
aligning evaluative thinking across sectors and levels,
so that the puzzle pieces represented by individual sets
of data can be integrated into a meaningful big-picture
view of current ECD practices and results.
Started in 2014, the ECN has engaged 78 different
partner organizations to date, among them community
organizations, funding agencies, government
departments, university faculties, consulting companies,
and municipal services. A first document produced by
the project, the stimulus paper “Advancing Evaluation
Practices in the Field of Early Childhood Development,”
was used as the starting point for community dialogues
attended by 122 participants in Edmonton, Calgary,
Lethbridge, and Grande Prairie. In addition, a survey
distributed to a range of key stakeholders throughout
Alberta generated 340 responses in which individuals
and organizations reflected on knowledge, abilities,
and leadership in evaluating ECD efforts.
Sustainable network
The feedback gathered through the survey, dialogues,
and engagement with organizations will help ECN
researchers establish priorities for building evaluation
capacity in the field of ECD. Rather than a short-term
group formed only to serve the needs of a research
project, the Evaluation Capacity Network is being
developed as a sustainable collective that will provide
resources, deliver training opportunities, and foster
an open dialogue for ongoing change.
Though at the moment the project is focused regionally
and provincially, the ECN intends to engage new
partners from across Canada who share similar
challenges, express common needs, and seek to
strengthen their evaluation capacity and resources.
“The network acts as a central point of contact and
support for those working in ECD,” explains Gokiert.
20

“The Evaluation Capacity
Network will provide our
agency with the resources
it needs to ensure we are
appropriately supporting
our children and youth
and achieving outcomes
that make a difference
in people’s lives.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton and Area
“We are in the process of creating resources to build
evaluation knowledge, skills, and experience. Our work
will ultimately inform and strengthen practice, programs,
and policies for children and families across Canada.”
The ECN is developed through Extension’s Community-
University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth,
and Families (CUP). Funded by the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and additional
project partners, the study is co-investigated with
Robyn Blackadar, Jason Daniels, Sharla King, Maria
Mayan, Cheryl Poth, Laurie Schnirer, Jane Springett,
and Stanley Varnhagen.
21

Growing up in a
digital world
The good, and bad, impacts of
technology on our children
Technology has become an omnipresent force in the
lives of Canadian children. They bring their phones
to school, they work on computers at school and at
home, they sleep with tablets and other devices on their
bedside table. Almost half of their waking hours, and
those of their parents, are spent in front of a screen.
With such pervasive presence of technology in our
lives, it’s no surprise that there are a lot of strong
opinions about how this new reality is affecting our
younger generation. Many fear that technology is
a peril, one that is holding back social, emotional,
cognitive, and physical development. Spurred on
by media warnings, people also blame exposure
to technology for dangerous behaviours such as
cyberbullying. Others believe technological progress
is inherently good, with benefits such as increased
connectivity and access to information outweighing
any potential risks.
According to Jason Daniels, Extension researcher with
a background in cognitive development, it’s not that
simple. “Technology undoubtedly brings both promise
and peril, benefits and potential risks. The challenge
is looking at a child’s digital life from all angles, to
understand how technology is affecting things like social
connectivity, creativity, problem solving, homework,
identity, and even nutrition and exercise.”
Daniels has dived headfirst into this challenge,
partnering with Harvard University professor Michael
Rich and the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA)
on Growing Up Digital, or GUD, a groundbreaking
research project to examine both the education and
health effects of technology. The GUD research team is
on a fact-finding mission—to move beyond the rhetoric
and fear surrounding debates about technology, beyond
“moral” perspectives on the value of technology, to truly
understand how technologies are changing the way
students learn and socialize, and what it means to grow
up in the digital age.
The first stage of research was a survey of teachers and
principals on how technology is used in the classroom,
and their perspectives on students’ attention, stress
levels, social abilities, and learning capacity. Teachers
were also asked open-ended questions on whether they
saw a link between changes in their students’ abilities
and behaviour and increased exposure to technology
and digital media. Results show that 71% of Alberta
teachers believe that educational technology enhances
learning, by improving access to resources, enabling
communication with parents, and supporting students
with unique learning needs. On the flip side, two-thirds
also report high levels of distraction in the classroom,
and most report increased social and emotional
challenges amongst their students in the past three to
five years. The consensus? Based on this survey, children
are indeed growing up tired, anxious, and distracted.
Next steps
So where does that leave us? The most important thing
for Daniels and the rest of the GUD team is finding a
balanced perspective. “We aren’t going to come out of
this with a recommendation to throw all technology out
or ban children from having access to phones or tablets.
That’s not possible, or really even desirable.”
The next step of their research is a survey of parents,
to find out how families, both children and adults, are
using technology every day at home. Findings will help
teachers and parents make more informed decisions
regarding use of and reliance on technology, at school
22

“Technology undoubtedly
brings both promise and peril,
benefits and potential risks.
The challenge is looking at
a child’s digital life from all
angles, to understand how
technology is affecting social
connectivity, creativity,
problem solving, homework,
identity, and even nutrition
and exercise.”
Jason Daniels, Associate Director - Research Support Services
Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta
and in their private lives. Daniels also hopes to equip
the younger generations with the tools they need to
develop healthfully, and eventually make their own
decisions and practice mindful use of technology.
“They have to grow up in this world. They have to
learn how to navigate it, live successful lives as adults.
It’s not going away,” he says, “so let’s understand
what it means. If there are negative effects, let’s
confirm what they are, and then figure out what we
can do about them. If there’s something that we gain
from technology, something that improves our lives
and ability to learn, we need to find a way to ensure
that everyone has access to those benefits.” The sooner
we understand the long-term effects on individuals and
society, the sooner we can take action to ensure our
children and youth are growing up healthy, balanced,
and happy.
23

Faculty of Extension
2015-2016:
Professoriate
Katy Campbell, Ph.D.,
Dean
Yoshitaka Iwasaki, Ph.D.,
Associate Dean of Research (2015/2016) and Professor
Maria Mayan, Ph.D.,
Associate Dean of Research (2016/2017)
Associate Professor and Assistant Director of Women
and Children’s Health, Community-University Partnership for
the Study of Children,Youth, and Families (CUP)
Kristof Van Assche, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor
Mary Beckie, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor and Director of Community
Engagement Studies
Thomas Barker, Ph.D.,
Professor, Graduate Program in Communication and
Technology (MACT)
Jason Daniels, Ph.D.,
Director of Research Support Services
Fay Fletcher, Ph.D.,
Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs and
Associate Professor
Jennifer Foote, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor, English Language School
Lois Gander, QC, Ph.D.,
Professor
Rebecca Gokiert, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor and Assistant Director of the Community-
University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and
Families (CUP)
Gordon Gow, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in
Communication and Technology (MACT)
Martin Guardado, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor and Academic Director of the English
Language School
Kevin Jones, Ph.D.,
Director of the City-Region Studies Centre (CRSC)
Rob McMahon, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor, Graduate Program in Communication and
Technology (MACT)
Laurie Schnirer, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor and Director of the Community-University
Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families
(CUP)
Rob Shields, D.Phil.,
Professor and Henry Marshall Tory Chair,
City-Region Studies Centre (CRSC)
Stanley Varnhagen, Ph.D.,
Faculty Service Officer
Kyle Whitfield, Ph.D., RPP-MCIP,
Associate Professor
24

Adjunct Professors
Centres
Jeff Bisanz, Ph.D.,
Chair, Psychology, University of Alberta,
Community-University Partnership for the
Study of Children,Youth, and Families (CUP)
Martin Garber-Conrad,
CEO, Edmonton Community Foundation,
Community-University Partnership for the
Study of Children,Youth, and Families (CUP)
City-Region Studies
Centre
Urban and rural development | Regional development |
Sustainable communities | Planning | Community-driven research
| Community-university partnerships
Monica Gruezmacher, Ph.D.,
Environmental Resource Management Program
Susan Lynch, Ph.D.,
Research Project Director, Early Childhood
Mapping Project (ECMap) (2009-2014),
Community-University Partnership for the Study of
Children,Youth, and Families (CUP)
Helen Madill, Ph.D.,
Professor Emerita, Office of the Dean
Patricia Makokis, Ph.D.,
Indigenous Engagement Research Scholar,
Community Engagement Studies
Debra Pozega Osburn, Ph.D.,
Communications & Technology Graduate Program
Jorge Sousa, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor, Educational Policy Studies
Jane Springett, Ph.D.,
Director, Centre for Health Promotions Studies,
School of Public Health, University of Alberta
Community-University Partnership for the Study
of Children,Youth, and Families (CUP)
Mark Wolfe, Ph.D.,
Communications & Technology Graduate Program
Centre for Public
Involvement
Public engagement and citizenship | Participatory and
deliberative democracy | Municipal governance | Communitydriven
research | Community-university partnerships
Community-University
Partnership for the
Study of Children, Youth,
and Families (CUP)
Children | Youth | Families | Community-driven research |
Community-university partnerships
First Nations Children’s
Action Research and
Education Service
(FNCARES)
First Nations | Children | Structural risks | Reconciliation |
Community-driven research
25

www.ualberta.ca/extension/research