Research, Policy Impact, and Innovation
Impact through Research, Policy, and Innovation
The University of Calgary is committed to establishing pluralism through a series of initiatives, programs and policies across campus.
The Civil Society Forum
In June 2018, UCalgary’s Cumming School of Medicine hosted an action-oriented one-day congress which convened policymakers, academics, and Indigenous civil society members from sectors such as arts, sports, and business.
The Interrupting Toxic Stress in Indigenous Youth project tackles the harmful effects of toxic stress—caused by intergenerational trauma—on Indigenous communities.
Participants explored ways to prevent and reduce toxic stress among Indigenous youth. Participants exclaimed it was the most comfortable they had felt on campus – and policmakers from civil society and government found the generative dialogues constructive, productive, and creative – taking away novel, co-created ways to foster Indigenous-led spaces for youth healing.
This initiative exemplifies the Civil Society Forum model, mobilizing diverse stakeholders to jointly assess and address complex challenges and strengthen Indigenous youth well-being.
Inclusive Governance in the Faculties of Medicine and Education
Pluralism is the act of building trust and shared understanding – to know ourselves, each other, and the systems in which we operate – so that we may live well together and create well together. At the heart of pluralism is not to paper over our differences and to seek to understand even if we do not agree; and to view our differences as societal assets to solve our shared problems. The Inclusive Governance project, by embracing pluralism, is modernizing post-secondary governance at the Faculty-level – the first such transformation in over a hundred years.
In 2022 we launched the SSHRC-funded Inclusive Governance Project in two Faculties (Education and Medicine). This project continues to be overseen by a Guiding Circle with voices from local Indigenous Nations and by a Steering Committee of umbrella Civil Society Organizations representing both Charter-protected, underserved, and excluded communities, including rural, recreational, and business innovation communities.
At the core of the new model is a commitment to relationality, dialogue, and creativity. The new model includes many ways forward including novel approaches to strengthen relationships, encourage constructive dialogue, and facilitate shared understanding across our differences; and to see our differences as assets to spark creativity and innovation to solve our shared problems. We embrace parallel paths for Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and create opportunities for communities to shape priorities to activate new research, social innovations, and policies through collaborative, deliberative, facilitated problem-solving across sectors, disciplines, and communities.
Diplomacy Platform – Transforming Municipal Governance
The University of Calgary launched the Diplomacy Platform in 2021 in response to polarization and mistrust that impedes societal progress. Senior policymakers in government, business, and civil society told that wicked problems are challenging to solve because stakeholders are disconnected, don’t trust each other, and often have misaligned incentives to achieve a common purpose on complex and nuanced issues that are not easy to understand, and all compounded because we lack a forum to convene these differences to understand better and solve problems that interact across systems, orders of government, and sectors. In response, cross-sectoral societal leaders invited the university to launch a diplomacy platform to act as an honest broker to increase intergroup contact, foster shared understanding without forcing agreement, and focus on long-term issues that facilitates discourse across sectors and identities.
In 2022, we were invited by the City of Calgary to deploy our multitrack diplomacy model to Ward 9. This approach, stewarded by a third party of scholar-diplomats, built trust between participants and the facilitators, resulted in greater diversity of thought from campaign-style recruitment, strengthened participant agency and built connections between groups, sectors and geographical areas that had not regularly come into contact. Additionally, the project generated insights into how Track Two diplomacy methods helped to overcome a deficit of trust in local governing. In this model, as general community ideas converged, they led to specific focused dialogues that brought in the right mix of policymakers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and community members who continued to steward their challenges or ideas until they achieved resolution.
Concretely, we stewarded three changes through this novel governance process:
- We mobilized free Early Childhood Development supports that was budget neutral by connecting clients with untapped resources.
- We were able to crystallize and demonstrate the benefit and impact of community connectors that empowers local residents to initiate connections and increase resident participation. Community Connectors engage with their neighbours to build relationships, identify local strengths and opportunities, and work on projects for community building.
- Community members felt empowered that the City was governing differently – that their voices was powerful and shaped tangible changes.
Indigenous Mural and Dialogue Area
After months of collaboration with Indigenous Elders and Indigenous community members, the UCalgary Pluralism Initiative and the Indigenous, Local, and Global Health Office unveiled a large new mural in the Health Sciences Atrium, depicting Indigenous stories, knowledge, and traditions about health and wellness. The mural was directed by, curated by, adjudicated by, and unveiled by Indigenous communities – and supported by the non-Indigenous team. Together the mural, augmented reality layer, documentary, and the treed seating area under and across the mural facilitate dialogue, reflection, and exchanges within and across Cumming School community members – establishing a physical representation of our ethical space.
Pluralism Social Innovation Award for Medical Students
Innovate Calgary, the Cumming School of Medicine’s Indigenous, Local, and Global Health Office, and UCalgary’s Pluralism Initiative have partnered up to provide two grants of $2,500 to medical students to strengthen their communities.
Alberta Foundation for the Arts Pluralism Award partnership
UCalgary partnered with the Alberta Foundation of the Arts (AFA) to award five Art or Art History students with $1,000 each for their original artwork. The artworks were then gifted to each of the AFA 2021-2022 Pluralism Awards winners.
For more information on how UCalgary encourages pluralism and generates new opportunities for diverse communities, visit Models of Community Engagement.
