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Heidi Weigand, Nyasha Mandeya, David Kerr, Kristin Williams, George Frempong, Kim Brooks, Rick Nason

Understanding collaboration practices guiding the road to economic well being of African–Nova Scotian communities

Collaboration exists as a midpoint on a continuum ranging from cooperation to partnership. Collaboration involves two or more parties acting together to achieve a common goal and can be used as a strategy to empower community economic prosperity. Despite the growing body of literature investigating ways to build collaborative relationships with Indigenous populations, there is a dearth of similar literature addressing collaborative relationship-building with Black communities. One objective of this community research partnership is to fill a gap in our understanding of the collaboration process with the goal of creating knowledge that can be used in an academic setting, workplace setting and in the community. Historically, there have been harmful relationships between Black communities and researchers, resulting in mistrust. By engaging in participatory action research (PAR), the project is putting an emphasis on building trust between participants in the study and the research team. PAR is an applied research approach in which participants—those with a stake in the outcomes of the research—take on an active co-researcher role. Our goal is co-create knowledge with community on how collaboration between organizations (e.g., academic institutions, government, non-profit) and the community can create innovative opportunities to remove systemic barriers for economic prosperity for marginalized African–Nova Scotian and Black community members in Halifax.

Community Partner: Delmore Buddy Daye Learning Institute, Dr. George Frempong and Sylvia Parris.
Grant Funder: Mitacs Accelerate Grant - $30,000

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