Earlier this summer, we heard from Geraldine Cahill, Director of UpSocial Canada, about the initiative’s work to collectively look after Toronto-based community organizations, and how that work has been shaped by COVID-19. As mid-September looms around the corner, she gives us an update on where UpSocial is at.
I’d be lying if I said I’ve had no doubts about the progress of our Caring Community Challenge over the last few months. When we launched the project back in March, COVID-19 was just revealing its menacing intent in Canada and the nonprofit sector was poised to spring into action to support those most affected by it.
In my last article, I was candid about my internal battle with patience, knowing that the most important thing to do first in social project work is to build relationships. So, while I keep checking my timing anxieties, it was with enormous pleasure I was able to virtually meet some of the local residents living in the Bathurst and Finch neighbourhood two weeks ago.
In selecting our community partner, Unison Health and Community Services, in May, we knew we were gaining more than just service experience; we were being brought into a community where thousands of Torontonians live and beginning a process of building trust and engagement. Even though I’ve only had the opportunity to meet the dozen or so residents on our first call, I feel a million times better about moving slowly forward in the project. It will be their experience and participation that will make or break our Caring Communities Challenge, and it was hugely energizing to hear their enthusiasm for the project.
As a reminder, we are engaged in an 18 month-long social lab project and the residents are essentially our co-social scientists. They inform the direction of the research, they select the found innovations alongside organizational stakeholders, and importantly, they are at the centre of testing, iteration and scaling the most impactful programs in their community.
At this point in the journey we are learning about the Bathurst and Finch community behind the data. While statistics on housing, income and employment are accessible and important, we have been keen to speak with and learn from the residents themselves. We have launched a survey to safely gather information about how people are responding to and supporting each other during the pandemic, how involved people feel in decision-making processes in their community and how invested they are in neighbourhood activities and issues.
Following analysis, we will write up a context paper to share with stakeholders before beginning our workshops. At the same time, we are identifying critical organizational partners to participate in the workshops with the residents. These collaborators will provide different perspectives, infrastructure, human and other shared resources to improve the chances of successful program growth beyond the lab period.
We opened this project with a broad call: we want to look after each other better in the places where we are. The first workshop with residents and other stakeholders will focus our research question. From there, UpSocial will search the world for innovative programs and strategies that have answered that research question. Each step in the process is important and we must allow the time required to ensure we are taking that step, together.
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Geraldine Cahill is the Director of UpSocial Canada. She is also the co-author of Social Innovation Generation: Fostering a Canadian Ecosystem for Systems Change, Chair of Jane’s Walk, and sits on the Advisory Board for Liisbeth feminist media enterprise.
UpSocial Canada uses a social lab approach to facilitate the identification and scaling of transformative social innovations with communities. UpSocial Canada is a project of MakeWay.
