• Canada
• Research softwareclose
• Other research productsclose
• VIUSpace close
• COVID-19 close

This thesis, “Enhancing Capacity of the Coalition of African, Caribbean, and Black Nurses (CACBN) to Support Black Nurses in British Columbia to Achieve Greater Psychological Health in the Workplace” utilizes the methodological frameworks of the Action Research Engagement model, Black Feminist Thought and Intersectionality, Participatory Action Research and Appreciative Inquiry to answer the following question: How can the CACBN support Black nurses to achieve greater psychological health in the workplace? The African, Caribbean, and Black nurse participants were predominantly from CACBNs membership, held various nursing designations, and came from different practice environments. Data collection methods included a survey, interviews, and reflective journaling. Several sub-themes emerged from five overarching themes: Relational Connection: “Fitting In”, Factors that Contribute to Safety in the Workplace, System Level Supports Needed from Health Care Organizations, CACBN Supports for ACBNs, and Impacts of COVID-19 on ACBNs. Study recommendations for health organizations include developing workplace anti-racism policies and providing career supports and leadership opportunities, while recommendations for CACBN include providing anti-Black racism education to health authorities and schools, offering mentorship, and creating safe spaces for dialogue.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused me to reflect on how my home economics grade 8 to 12 pedagogy changed during crisis. In addition, the quarantine period from March to June of 2020 created an immersion in rapid adaptation of food practices during a time of socio-economic disruption. This multidisciplinary approach to resilience research explored autoethnographic narratives of personal identity and transformation with regard to food systems during crisis using an ecofeminist lens, in addition to writing as inquiry comprised of a selection of themed Twitter comments about quarantine baking intended to explore the relationship between cooking and socioecological resilience. A growing sense of connection to nature through food and finding my place in the feminist movement emerged through reflective practice and reflexive responses to bake from the public domain that I discovered. Finally, I reflect on how these insights fed my teaching practice to become more aligned with the values of environmental education and the caring ethic of feminism.

In response to the severity and tenacious nature of COVID-19, the United Nations (UN) identified the cessation of intensive animal agriculture as one of three foci necessary to prevent another pandemic as well as to bring human society and the planet back on a healthful course. Animal health, human health, and environmental health were deemed to be the three critical factors, and the UN stressed that all three need to be addressed collaboratively as an integrated whole. The Farmed Animal Advocacy Movement (FAAM or Movement), is a social justice movement working on behalf of farmed animals used for food. Currently, the majority of the work undertaken in Canada and the United States to combat intensive animal agriculture is undertaken by women. Numerous measures, however, assert that the FAAM is failing. A core cause is the troubled state of many FAAM organizations, and the impact this is having on the women employed as vocational animal activists. This qualitative approach to research sought to explore the experiences and recommendations of these women through their stories as a means to deepen the understanding of the FAAM’s organizational practices, and suggest tools for sustainability. A reflexive thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 33 FAAM vocational activists was conducted. Ubiquitously, the interviews revealed a pervasive culture of oppressive ‘isms’, including racism and sexism, as well as significant illegal employment-based activities. Participants were also queried as to their suggested recommendations in regard to employment and organizational practices. One significant result of these recommendations was the creation of a proposed, practical, reasonable, and abundantly actionable checklist of practices, that, if implemented, may be instrumental in assuring a positive, highly engaging, highly ethical and more sustainable work culture able to perform the essential labour of protecting animals, and by extension, supporting the proposal by the UN to protect society from another pandemic.

For decades, the Canadian news media industry has been eroded by a myriad of factors including media conglomeration, the changing digital landscape, and declining advertising revenue—a situation which has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This research examines six community news organizations across the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia who are using new journalism practices and revenue models to serve their communities as a response to the ongoing crisis narrative currently surrounding the Canadian media industry. Through an action research appreciative inquiry methodology, this research focuses on what is working well for these organizations to create new regionally based knowledge regarding the keys to their current success, to future sustainability, and to potential replicability. In addition, the data is analyzed through Carlson’s metajournalistic discourse framework to uncover in what ways these journalists are challenging or changing the discourse surrounding local news production in their communities and in the wider industry. It concludes there are several foundational blocks other community news publishers can build upon to help create healthy and diverse media ecosystems, and while readers are showing support for these news organizations, the wider industry could be doing more to legitimize their organizations and metajournalisitc discourses.

Schools are not immune to crises. Whether it be earthquakes, wildfires, shootings, or global pandemics, schools will always be required to react quickly and efficiently to crises (Liou, 2015, p. 248). One large component of this reaction is communication. Therefore, school leaders need to be prepared to communicate quickly, efficiently, and effectively both internally and with the broader community during times of crisis. The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 created an exceptional urgency for schools to practice and refine their crisis communication as they dealt with the ongoing pandemic (Government of Canada, 2022). In British Columbia, the pandemic caused a state of emergency that has lasted nearly a year and a half (Lawson et al., 2021). During this time, schools went through many different situations of crisis, including short-term emergencies and long-term sustained stress. Schools also needed to react quickly to changing government guidelines, community exposures and public health directives (BC Ministry of Health, 2021). The purpose of this study is to examine the opportunities and challenges that arose as school leaders attempted to develop best practices, processes and procedures that amounted to effective communication during an unprecedented international health emergency.

Building equitable, accessible and affordable campuses through Co-operatives. Webinars discussing co-operatives, what they are and how they could make for more equitable and accessible campus communities. Co-op webinar 1. This video is part of the first webinar in the webinar series on "COVID-19 Response: Building Higher Learning Resilience in the Face of Epidemics". Webinar occurred on February 24th, 2021.

Gateway communities throughout the intermountain west are an important part of the tourism experience. They are often the doorstep to the national parks and public lands that draw millions of international and domestic visitors each year. Along with many benefits, tourism brings unique challenges to these communities, and they face them with limited staff, resources, and time. This chapter explains the recent development of the Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative and its current efforts to assist gateway communities in the intermountain west region of the United States. The GNAR Initiative is a Cooperative Extension program of the Institute of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism at Utah State University. The Initiative is a hub for gateway community stakeholders to identify shared needs, and cooperatively develop, share, and access resources. The initiative utilizes the infrastructure and mission of the university land grant extension system to operationalize its own, similarly aligned three-part mission: multidisciplinary, trans-boundary research, community and student education, and community capacity building. An overview of the GNAR Initiative’s development is provided as a possible model for similar efforts in other regions. The GNAR Initiative’s internal structure and development path focused on using a collaborative, grass-roots effort to build peer-to-peer networks that link GNAR communities to GNAR communities, and GNAR communities to research and resources in an arena that continues to rapidly evolve. The Initiative’s efforts to include a diverse stakeholder group to guide its efforts resulted in the initiative being equipped to quickly respond to the evolving issues in gateway communities during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/25258/PowellRumoreSmith.pdf?sequence=3

Building equitable, accessible and affordable campuses through Co-operatives. Webinars discussing co-operatives, what they are and how they could make for more equitable and accessible campus communities. Co-op webinar 2. This video is part of the second webinar in the webinar series on "COVID-19 Response: Building Higher Learning Resilience in the Face of Epidemics: Co-operatives and Campuses". Webinar occurred on March 17th, 2021.

This thesis explores the phenomenon of secular transformative tourism on the Camino de Santiago, identifying catalysts that facilitate the experience. As primary motivations for walking the Camino have shifted from religious and spiritual towards secular, this research corroborates that many modern pilgrims seek transformation rather than transcendence. Four main themes of catalysts were observed: communitas, liminality, physical elements, and Spanish elements. The catalysts identified allow individuals to address explicit issues in their lives and tap into unrealized potential for transformation. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals need to re-establish their physical, mental, and emotional health. For tourism organizations looking to enhance transformative experiences, the elements of motivation, catalyst, and transformation within this study may be incorporated into activities and events. Based on a sample of 15 Canadian participants, this study identified 25 catalysts that link motivations to walk the Camino with the transformations experienced by participants. Overall, this study offers a way forward for the emerging field of transformative tourism by providing insights into the importance catalysts have in facilitating transformative experiences for individuals seeking transformation and for tourism organizations wishing to create an environment that is conducive to transformation for their guests.

Building equitable, accessible and affordable campuses through Co-operatives. Webinars discussing co-operatives, what they are and how they could make for more equitable and accessible campus communities. Co-op webinar 1. This video is part of the first webinar in the webinar series on "COVID-19 Response: Building Higher Learning Resilience in the Face of Epidemics". Webinar occurred on February 24th, 2021.