Beyond the Toolkit
Resources
Videos
Want a quick snapshot of our project and findings? Check out the videos below
To cite these videos: Burkholder, C. and the Community Engagement in COVID-19 study team. (August 2021). Title of video. [video]. Beyond the Toolkit. www.beyondthetoolkit.com. Insert URL
Recorded Presentations and Panels
Community Engagement in Covid-19: A Practitioner-Led Panel
Thursday April 29, 2021
3:00-4:30 EST
Panelists:
Dr. Ananya Banerjee, Assistant Professor, School of Population & Global Health, McGill University
Khari McClelland, Creative Facilitator and Musician
Jessica Bleuer, Theatre of the Oppressed Facilitator, Registered Drama Therapist and Lecturer, Concordia University
Dr. Lori Chambers, Community health researcher and post-doctoral fellow, Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Adam Barrett, Program Coordinator at East End Arts, and playwright, performer, producer, and projection designer
Moderated by: Dr Sarah Switzer, Popular Educator, Participatory Researcher and Post-doctoral fellow, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Publications
Switzer, S., Vela Alarcón, A., Gaztambide-Fernández, R., Burkholder, C., Howley, E., & Ibáñez Carrasco, F. (2024). Online and Remote Community-Engaged Facilitation: Pedagogical and Ethical Considerations and Commitments. Journal of Participatory Research Methods, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.35844/001c.116337
Abstract
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many community-engaged practitioners struggled with how to meaningfully and ethically build, maintain or sustain relationships, partnerships, or community-engaged projects, amidst mass upheaval, loss, and uncertainty. Prior to the pandemic, workshops, meetings or community events happened in community drop-ins, social service organizations, or in neighbourhood meeting places. Due to social distancing restrictions, these physical environments abruptly changed to online meeting and messaging applications, phone, and even postal mail. This drastically impacted how community-engaged practitioners approached their facilitation work with communities. This rapid shift also amplified many ethical complexities, like privacy and confidentiality, equitable access, and safety, for those facilitating workshops or programs in non-profit, community-based and participatory research contexts. This article explores findings from a participatory study on how community-engaged practitioners (i.e., community artists, community facilitators, participatory researchers, and participatory visual methods practitioners) across Canada adapted their facilitation approaches to online or remote platforms in the context of COVID-19. We briefly describe our process of doing participatory research online during a pandemic and share findings on how community-engaged practitioners articulated the ethical commitments they brought to their facilitation practice as well as pedagogical and ethical considerations identified for online or remote (i.e., phone, mail) community-engaged facilitation. We conclude by offering reflections on what might be gleaned about online and remote community-engaged facilitation for the present moment. We hope that this article - and the illustrations enclosed - will serve as a guide for emerging and established community-engaged practitioners to reflect on their ‘how and why’ of facilitation when working with and alongside communities for social change.
External Resources
The following articles, websites and online guides may be useful for community-engaged practitioners looking for more information on online and remote facilitation in the context of COVID-19.
General Facilitation Resources:
Canadian Artists Representation – Le Front Des Artistes Canadiens. (n.d). Tools for artists. Retrieved from https://www.carfac.ca/tools/
Kaner, Sam (1997). Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, 3rd Edition. Wiley and Sons.
Seeds for Change. (n.d.). Facilitation tools for meetings and workshops. Retrieved from https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/tools.pdf
Showing up for Racial Justice. (n.d.) The nuts and bolts of acccessibility. Retrieved from https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/disability-justice.html
Taylor, P. & Murphy , C. (2014). Catch the fire: An art-full guide to unleashing the Creative Power Of Youth, Adults and Communities. New Society Publishers.
Tremblay, N, Malla, A., Tremblay, J. and Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. (2016). Artful anti-oppression: a toolkit for critical and creative change makers. Toronto, ON: AVNU. Retrieved from: https://youthrex.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/02-Artful-Anti-Oppression.pdf
Flavours of open (2021). Community-run open source tools for video and text collaboration. Retrieved from: https://flavoursofopen.science/community-run-open-source-tools-for-video-and-text-collaboration?fbclid=IwAR2KFGSZQkdo9PMaFySHXT6r5CxWSTEDRwoUQ8qQmCxoMlqJt64-TObDkqE
Online Facilitation Workshops and Webinars:
CATIE. (2020, April 30). Adopting to COVID-19: Delivering programs remotely. Retrieved from https://www.catie.ca/en/webinars/adapting-covid-19-delivering-community-programs-remotely
Partners for Youth Empowerment. (n.d.). Online Facilitation. Retrieved from https://www.partnersforyouth.org/online-facilitation/
REDE4BlackLives. (2020, July 23). Data, algorithms, and automation as “weapons of math destruction”. Retrieved from Data, algorithms, and automation as “weapons of math destruction”
Fedorowicz, M., Arena, O., & Burrowes, K., (2020, September). "Community Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond. A Guide for Community-Based Organizations". Retrieved from: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/102820/community-engagement-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-beyond.pdf
Articles,Guides and Other Resources:
Andrey, S., Dorkenoo, S., Malli, N. and Masoodi, M. Mapping Toronto’s digital divide. Brookfield Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Retrieved from https://brookfieldinstitute.ca/mapping-torontos-digital-divide/
Burrington, I. (2015, December 16). The environmental toll of a Netflix binge. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/there-are-no-clean-clouds/420744/
The Canadian Network for Arts and Learning. (2021, January 26). Resources for the arts and learning sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.eduarts.ca/resources-for-the-arts-and-learning-sector-during-the-covid-19-pandemic
Coldeway, D. (2021, January 20). Remote workers are greener but their tech still has a real carbon cost. Technology Crunch. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/20/remote-workers-are-greener-but-their-tech-still-has-a-real-carbon-cost/
Community Campus Engage Canada. (2020, August). CCEC Summer Webinar Series. Retrieved from https://ccecanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Summer-Webinar-Series-Summary.pdf
Kasprzak, M. Anti-video chat manifesto. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://michelle.kasprzak.ca/blog/writing-lecturing/anti-video-chat-manifesto
Oliver, Lindsay. (2020, March 19). What you should know about online tools during the COVID-19 crisis. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/what-you-should-know-about-online-tools-during-covid-19-crisis
Rier, Doug. (n.d.). Zoom security practices and protocols. AIDS Committee of Toronto. Retrieved from http://sagecollection.ca/en/system/files/act_zoom_best_practices.pdf
Rocha, Jara. (n.d). A catalog of formats for digital discomfort… and other ways to resist totalitarian zoomification. Cornell Tech and TU Delft. Retrieved from https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Accessibility/General-Accessibility-Design-Guidelines/ba-p/252642
University of Toronto. (n.d.). Inclusive & Universal Design Repository. Retrieved from https://q.utoronto.ca/courses/186335
Valdez, E.S. & A. Gubrium. Shifting to virtual CBPR protocols in the time of corona virus/COVID-19. (2020). International Journal of Qualitative Methods 19, p. 1–9. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1609406920977315
Virtual Care Lab. (n.d). Homepage. Retrieved from https://virtualcarelab.com/