2022 Core Value Awards

National & International Award: Research Project of the Year

The Conference Board of Canada - “Empowering Communities to Monitor Major Projects in Impact Assessment”

Honourable Mention: Research Project of the Year

BC Patient Safety and Quality Council - “Themes for evaluating public participation in healthcare system decision-making”

Health sector organizations want evidence-based tools to support evaluation of public participation in healthcare system decision-making. These organizations are not clear on the extent to which available evaluation tools address the key themes of public participation. To fill this major gap and enable evaluation, a comprehensive set of themes would guide how organizations can and should evaluate public engagement initiatives.

What key themes define the quality of initiatives to engage the public (patients and family) in decision-making across the planning and policy levels of healthcare systems.

The Result

They identified a comprehensive set of 18 key themes that is applicable to evaluating public participation in healthcare system decision-making at the planning and policy levels. The 18 themes and their descriptions provide a foundation for identifying constructs and selecting measures to evaluate the quality of initiatives for engaging patients and family caregivers in healthcare system decision-making within the organisation and system domains. The themes can be used to investigate the mechanisms through which relevant initiatives are effective and investigate their effectiveness.

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Indigenous Engagement Award

BC Patient Safety and Quality Council  - “Culturally Safe Engagement: What Matters to Indigenous (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) Patient Partners

In response to the In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in B.C. Health Care, Truth & Reconciliation reports and recommendations, many health organizations want to engage with Indigenous patient partners on health-system decision making projects, but are unsure how to do so in a culturally safe appropriate way. To explore this idea, a relational model of engagement was employed and Indigenous Patient Partners were asked the question, “What Matters to Indigenous (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) Patient Partners in Culturally Safe Patient Engagement?”

The Result

From the circle, 8 core principles with supplementary key messages and actions emerged. They have been translated into two publicly available resources: a 2-page pamphlet, and a 31-page companion guide with expanded actions, notes, and appendices.

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Honourable Mention: Indigenous Engagement Award

Honourable Mention: Ethelo, Haítzaqv Climate Solutions Engagement - The Power of our Territory (Phase II)

The Haíɫzaqv Nation wanted to create a community-led Clean Energy Plan with local energy solutions that would incorporate the local and global context of climate change into the people’s needs and cultural commitment to traditional principles of sustainability.

The Result

More than 416 community members participated in the online engagement and more than 800 comments were collected. Through this process a community-wide consensus for the Clean Energy Plan was achieved that addressed wellbeing, support, risk, innovation and job creation. Once implemented, the plan will achieve a GHG reduction of 19,530 tonnes of carbon ( 9,530 above the minimum target) and with a cost of $19,644,327 ($355,673 below their maximum budget).

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Diversity & Inclusion

Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) - “Engaging Young Canadians and Indigenous Peoples on the Development of an Integrated Strategy for Radioactive Waste (ISRW)

Youth have limited knowledge and awareness on the topic of radioactive waste management in part due to a lack of engagement opportunities on these issues. Our objective was to create processes that would facilitate informed and relevant engagement, where youth from all walks of life felt able to contribute openly and reflect on how the topic connected to their lives and issues they care about. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we required an innovative virtual engagement approach to ensure that interested Canadian and Indigenous youth were able to participate in a safe, respectful, and accessible manner while being mindful of “Zoom fatigue” and the challenges of virtual engagement. We wanted to ensure that our engagement methods equipped youth to design processes that best captured their perspectives.

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The Impact

• Youth participant feedback confirmed guiding principles developed to support ISRW
• Youth influenced how NWMO designed the youth engagement process
• Feedback shared by participants helped NWMO identify steps to address gaps in Canada’s current radioactive waste management strategy and to look further into the future to ensure the strategy is sustainable for future generations
• In drafting the recommendations, insights provided by youth heavily influenced which recommendations are being put forward
• NWMO used the What We Heard Report on Youth Engagement to help frame the development of the ISRW to be released later this year

Extending the Practice Through Creativity, Contribution and Innovation in the Field Award

Impact Plus Consulting -  UVIC HSD 2022-2026 Strategic Plan: Building on our Collective Strengths

Delivering an engaging process that successfully achieves the goals of HSD's first-ever strategic plan was complex and challenging. There was no existing strategic plan to build from and we needed to gather new baseline data that would serve as its first benchmark for future plans. Although HSD has a Strategic Research Plan and ongoing initiatives to develop an Indigenous Plan, the interconnectedness and overlap between these plans were not clearly documented and needed to be integrated through the strategic plan. HSD’s unique Faculty structure of 7 Schools and 2 Centres posed some challenges as the units tend to operate independently.

The objective was to develop a plan that is co- created with the community and by the community, to build on its collective strengths and thrive holistically over the next five years.

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The Result

• Over 90% agreement by the HSD community with the draft plan
• Final approved strategic plan approved by Faculty Council with no revisions
• High project Net Promoter Score (NPS) score of 65, reflecting high participant loyalty and satisfaction

Visual Engagement Award

AECOM Canada Ltd, Marten Falls First Nation Community Access Road

AECOM is undertaking an Environmental Assessment and Impact Assessment for a proposed all-season Community Access Road connecting MFFN, a remote northern Ontario community, to the provincial highway. COVID-19 presented significant challenges for consulting with 23 Indigenous communities, the public and key stakeholders. Visually engaging tactics contributed to their success.

The Result

Made a highly technical Project relatable and easy to understand; enticed people to provide feedback; demonstrated how input would be considered, while being true to and representing MFFN’s community values.

Impact Level

Consultation and engagement with 23 remote Indigenous communities/ organizations, trappers, hunters, environmental non-profits and government agencies.

People Engaged

6,500+ communications tracked; 370+ mailing-list contacts; 255,997 website visitors; 95+ letters exchanged; 40+ meetings; 356 video views.

• Access the project website