Engaging evaluation research: Reflecting on the process of sexual assault/domestic violence protocol evaluation research

In keeping within the theme of CU Expo 2013, ‘Engaging Shared Worlds’, this case study examines and reflects on a complex community-university partnership which developed to conceptualise, design, conduct and communicate evaluation research on one community’s sexual assault and domestic violence protocol. As community-university partners coming together for the first time, we reflect on the purpose of our engagement, the characteristics and principles which define our partnership and our potential to teach graduate students how to undertake community-engaged scholarship.Keywords: Community-engaged research, evaluation research, complex community-university partnerships, scholarship of engagement, practice researc

A comparison of four epidemic waves of COVID-19 in Malawi; an observational cohort study

Background: Compared to the abundance of clinical and genomic information available on patients hospitalised with COVID-19 disease from high-income countries, there is a paucity of data from low-income countries. Our aim was to explore the relationship between viral lineage and patient outcome. Methods: We enrolled a prospective observational cohort of adult patients hospitalised with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 disease between July 2020 and March 2022 from Blantyre, Malawi, covering four waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Clinical and diagnostic data were collected using an adapted ISARIC clinical characterization protocol for COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 isolates were sequenced using the MinION™ in Blantyre. Results: We enrolled 314 patients, good quality sequencing data was available for 55 patients. The sequencing data showed that 8 of 11 participants recruited in wave one had B.1 infections, 6/6 in wave two had Beta, 25/26 in wave three had Delta and 11/12 in wave four had Omicron. Patients infected during the Delta and Omicron waves reported fewer underlying chronic conditions and a shorter time to presentation. Significantly fewer patients required oxygen (22.7% [17/75] vs. 58.6% [140/239], p < 0.001) and steroids (38.7% [29/75] vs. 70.3% [167/239], p < 0.001) in the Omicron wave compared with the other waves. Multivariable logistic-regression demonstrated a trend toward increased mortality in the Delta wave (OR 4.99 [95% CI 1.0–25.0 p = 0.05) compared to the first wave of infection. Conclusions: Our data show that each wave of patients hospitalised with SARS-CoV-2 was infected with a distinct viral variant. The clinical data suggests that patients with severe COVID-19 disease were more likely to die during the Delta wave

A comparison of four epidemic waves of COVID-19 in Malawi; an observational cohort study

Background: Compared to the abundance of clinical and genomic information available on patients hospitalised with COVID-19 disease from high-income countries, there is a paucity of data from low-income countries. Our aim was to explore the relationship between viral lineage and patient outcome. Methods: We enrolled a prospective observational cohort of adult patients hospitalised with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 disease between July 2020 and March 2022 from Blantyre, Malawi, covering four waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Clinical and diagnostic data were collected using an adapted ISARIC clinical characterization protocol for COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 isolates were sequenced using the MinION™ in Blantyre. Results: We enrolled 314 patients, good quality sequencing data was available for 55 patients. The sequencing data showed that 8 of 11 participants recruited in wave one had B.1 infections, 6/6 in wave two had Beta, 25/26 in wave three had Delta and 11/12 in wave four had Omicron. Patients infected during the Delta and Omicron waves reported fewer underlying chronic conditions and a shorter time to presentation. Significantly fewer patients required oxygen (22.7% [17/75] vs. 58.6% [140/239], p &lt; 0.001) and steroids (38.7% [29/75] vs. 70.3% [167/239], p &lt; 0.001) in the Omicron wave compared with the other waves. Multivariable logistic-regression demonstrated a trend toward increased mortality in the Delta wave (OR 4.99 [95% CI 1.0–25.0 p = 0.05) compared to the first wave of infection. Conclusions: Our data show that each wave of patients hospitalised with SARS-CoV-2 was infected with a distinct viral variant. The clinical data suggests that patients with severe COVID-19 disease were more likely to die during the Delta wave

34. Community-Based Learning: Practices, Challenges, and Reflections

This paper will highlight an innovate practice in teaching and learning by reflecting on two fourth-year sociology seminar classes that participated in a community-based learning project at York University. Fifty students collaborated in three to six person teams to work on a problem/issue identified by one of five not-for-profit organizations who work with and/or for women as victims, offenders, and/or professionals in the Canadian criminal justice system. Reflections on the process and outcome of the experience offer insights into organizing and engaging in a community-based learning experience as well as point to some of the substantive benefits. These include the opportunity for increased student engagement, access to, and awareness of, course and community related issues, and citizenship. The paper also identifies potential opportunities to incorporate the dimensions of participation and collaboration between institutions of higher learning and the community/world to mobilize knowledge and offer unique scholarship opportunities for faculty

Practicing Principles of Community Engaged Scholarship in a fourth-year seminar

This paper helps to address a gap in the literature by articulating ways in which practicing community engaged learning (CEL) align with the foundational principles and values of community-university engagement (e.g. social change, collaboration, identified community need) and pedagogical best practices (e.g. Constructive Alignment, High Impact Educational Practices, Authentic Assessment). I reflect on the model of community-engaged learning I use within a fourth-year Sociology course at the University of Guelph, Canada and highlight specific course-based examples to demonstrate the promising practices and challenges of CEL.

Graduate Students, Community Partner, and Faculty Reflect on Critical Community Engaged Scholarship and Gender Based Violence

This article reflects on the challenges and opportunities associated with community engaged learning at the graduate level, and challenges higher education to do more to support the teaching&#8315;research&#8315;service nexus. The community university partnership involved a graduate student class, a faculty member, and a community member from a provincial not for profit association. We examined our principled and collaborative process of critical community engaged scholarship geared toward addressing violence against women, and more specifically, femicide. Our research resulted in knowledge mobilization tools that could be used to inform various audiences (e.g., women&#8217;s shelter staff, the public, government, and journalists) about how mainstream media sources report and portray the issue of femicide. Our work had an explicit social justice focus with aims to generate a better understanding of the structural causes of violence against women and historically-created gendered hierarchy and its ongoing impacts. This paper offers insights for others interested in pursuing community engaged research within a community engaged learning environment

Towards a Framework for Building Community-University Resilience Research Agendas

In this paper, we ask: &#8220;How can we scope multiyear, multiscalar community&#8315;university collaborations that draw on the university&#8217;s diverse resources and contribute to community resilience&#8222;? We approach this question by presenting the development and application of the Advancing Collaborative Transdisciplinary Scholarship Framework (the &#8220;ACTS Framework&#8222;) which we argue has been successful at helping us better understand, foster, and work towards communities&#8217; resilience. The ACTS Framework, informed by our collective expertise in critical community-engaged scholarship (CES) and community resilience, contributes to knowledge and practice in critical CES, in particular by providing guidance for scoping and sustaining complex community&#8315;university collaborations. The structured yet iterative process involved in the framework development and application affirms and extends the work of other scholars interested in the links between CES and community resilience. Our contributions offer two other important practices&#8212;centring community concerns and facilitating cross-project collaboration&#8212;to critical CES knowledge and practice and highlight two promising practices of linking structures that facilitate community&#8315;university collaborations&#8212;specifically, a well-organized institutional memory and holding and bridging relationships