Research and Voluntary Sector Supports

Community Focus Factsheet Series

Issue 2014: 1 Populations Changes in Ottawa based on the 2011 Census. Ottawa's population is growing! In 2011, there were 883,390 residents in the city of Ottawa. Ottawa’s population grew 8.8% overall between 2006 and 2011. This is nearly double the population growth experienced between 2001 and 2006...

Ottawa and Region Data Consortium

The Social Planning Council of Ottawa is pleased to be the host for the Ottawa chapter of a national Community Data Program created by the Canadian Council of Social Development.  This exciting initiative enables community based organizations and municipalities to access data from Statistics Canada and other institutions to identify and better understand the social and economic trends within their individual communities.  The Community Data Consortium reduces the cost of acquiring community data, builds community data analysis capacity and connects a national network of data users. 

Building Vibrant Communities

The Ottawa Neighbourhoods Social Capital Forum (ONSCF) was established in 2011 to support the building of strong and vibrant neighbourhoods. The ONSCF has three components:

Engaging residents in community development projects to improve issues which matter to the residents;
Creating changes in programs, policies and systems to support the neighbourhood issues
Evaluating progress and sharing learning
The Social Planning Council chairs the ONSCF and is responsible for the research and evaluation supports.

Visit www.onscf.ca

Community Research Collaborative

Through our “Community Research Collaborative (CRC)” we are increasing the research and evaluation capacity of agencies and residents in support of action on social and economic issues.  The Collaborative includes the creation of new community based research, support for action research projects, a program of skill building activities on various research and evaluation topics, development of tools and templates, research mentoring , and significant involvement from skilled volunteers.  

 

Our Priorities

COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

ACCESS TO BASICS

CREATING INCLUSION

RESEARCH AND VOLUNTARY SECTOR SUPPORTS

Research and Voluntary Supports

Research that Matters: The SPC delivers five broad types of research the voluntary sector needs, specifically:

  1. Overview, such as socio-demographic trends based on census or mapping of community infrastructure and services
  2. Strategic, e.g. analysis of neighbourhood level qualitative data to identify issues, strengths, proposed solutions & to develop community action plans
  3. Practice based, e.g. best or promising practices, intervention practice guidelines
  4. Evidence based operational, e.g. program evaluation, needs assessment related to program development
  5. Participatory research or action research, i.e. community groups doing their own research

Supports to the Voluntary Sector: The SPC is pleased to lend its experience in social research, policy analysis, and community consultation to not-for-profit organizations and community members. Our goal is to increase the research and evaluation capacity of agencies and residents to take action on social and economic issues.