Fall 2024 Collaborative Cohort Projects

Hilary Statton, (Director, People, Culture and Engagement)

This CCP team will work with the department of People, Culture, and Engagement (PC&E) at the Vancouver Foundation. PC&E empowers VF team members in driving transformative change, challenging systemic barriers, and promoting right relations, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) principles. Grounded in reciprocity, they advocate for JEDI employment practices in the community and strive to develop the next generation of philanthropic leaders.

The project they would like to work on with the CCP team has 2 priorities:

• Priority 1: How do you measure employee engagement in an organization that centers JEDI, right relations, decolonization and systems change? The Gallup Q12 are the most commonly used employee engagement questions. CultureAmp also has a similar philosophy, though it is more customizable. But, the PC&E team wants to know: how might we focus on employee engagement, while centering JEDI, right relations and decolonization, if our metric isn’t individual discretionary effort? The outcome we want is an engaged workforce that is taking care of itself as much as it’s investing in the organization, with a goal of supporting our team so that they can offer their best on any given day.
  • How can we define this version of engagement and wellbeing?
  • What are the methods to measure this?
  • What are the questions we should be asking?
  • How frequently should we be asking them?
• If time, Priority 2: How can you hire people while centering JEDI? Specifically, is there a way to hire people without resumes, cover letters, and interviews? Even if you make the application and interview process more inclusive, it’s still a process that centers writing for applications, ability to speak well in an interview, and Western employment knowledge (networking, job boards, etc.). How can we hire differently while also not creating barriers for people?

The CCP team on this project will be expected to produce a report that explores the questions above, specifically through:

• A literature review, including grey literature
• An environmental scan of organizations that are doing things differently
• A list of recommendations about the methods that PC&E at VF should use for employee engagement (and recruitment, if time)
• Executive summaries for each question (4-5 pages each)

VF encourages creativity, different ways of thinking, and we are approaching this project without traditional constraints. You may find interesting material through literature review and other research methods, and you may not. We encourage you to provide recommendations based on your research that may not have been tested.

• Experience in literature reviews and environmental scans
• Excellent writing skills
• Ability to explain complex topics in plain language
• Ability to review multiple sources and organize information into themes/patterns
• Excellent project and time management skills
• Experience or knowledge of anti-oppression, decolonization, right relations and JEDI principles
• Ability to lean into imagination to envision different possibilities to approach task
• Ability to collaborate and work as a team
• Ability to understand diverse perspectives and manage conflict
• Knowledge of human resources, employee engagement, or recruitment is an asset
• Knowledge of or experience in philanthropy sector is an asset
• Knowledge of or experience in charitable sector is an asset
• Creativity, different ways of thinking and a desire to break new ground

• A better understanding of the philanthropy sector
• A better understanding of HR practices in the context of the philanthropy sector
• Knowledge of how JEDI can be centered in the workplace
• Experience in developing recommendations to specific JEDI questions in an organizational/corporate/business context
• Experience in being a consultant to an organization
• The opportunity to be creative and break new ground in your recommendations
• Mentorship and coaching from the Director and Manager related to career pathways, industry trends, etc.

Students will report to Hilary Statton, (Director, People, Culture and Engagement) and Kathy Ma (Manager, People, Learning and Engagement).

Time commitment: 60 hours per person, including required onboarding meetings with the Arts Amplifier team and host organization, to be completed before the end of December, 2024.

Compensation: $1800 stipend, to be paid as a lump sum upon the project’s completion.

Remote: Yes

Eligibility requirements:

• Masters or Doctoral student in the UBC Faculty of Arts. In order to receive a stipend, you must not be on leave and you must remained enrolled as a student for the duration of the project.
• For this project, we have funding for 2 international student positions.

To apply, fill out the Qualtrics survey by end of day October 1, 2024. We anticipate positions to begin in October. If you have any questions, please email arts.amplifier@ubc.ca.

Application form

FNTC has funding to develop a new strategy, A Strategy to Advance Indigenous Leadership in Technology—Digital Skills Training & Career Development. The result will be an actionable strategy for the council to build its Digital Skills Training and Career Pathways Departments

Previous research by the council identified the need for internships, mentorships, and Work-Integrated-Learning (WIL) opportunities as essential career development services to advance Indigenous leadership in tech and tech-enabled industries. This research also identified the need for training opportunities for Indigenous people to apply for job postings in different areas of the province.

FNTC is looking for a graduate student team to create reports in 3 areas relevant to their strategy. Additionally, this cohort will create materials for Indigenous people's working groups to advise on the development of Indigenous Career Pathways and Digital Skills Training departments at FNTC.

The outputs of the 3 research are:

1. A baseline understanding of best practices in career development, specifically internships, WIL and mentorships.
2. A literature review on digital skills training and career development opportunities to support delivery to Indigenous students by Indigenous-led organizations.
3. A survey of tech training available to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in BC.

The cohort would work with Christina Schlattner, the senior manager of Research and Engagement at FNTC, who directs several independent research projects. She has an MA in Adult Education from UBC and 30 years of experience in adult education and communications.

Project objectives

• Advocacy research/literature review of Indigenous-led training for Indigenous learners
• Comparative analysis of digital skills training and career development opportunities for tech skills in BC
• Benchmark research on best practices in career development, including WIL, mentorships, and internships

• A better understanding of key concerns in digital literacy, internet connectivity and data and digital technology for First Nations across British Columbia
• Opportunity to learn from leaders in an Indigenous-led nonprofit
• Experience in contributing to a research team that will shape work at FNTC and have an impact for First Nations in BC
• Experience drawing on research findings to create a wide-variety of materials
• Mentorship and guidance from the Senior Manager of Research and Engagement, as well as other key staff at FNTC

• Knowledge of Indigenous ways of knowing and approaching research questions
• Skilled in conducting online research and literature reviews
• Experience in creating assets based on existing research data (visual presentations, communication materials, etc.)
• Strong communication skills
• Analysis of research to extract themes
• Excellent writing and editing skills
• Ability to take large amounts of information and present it concisely and powerfully, using written or graphical presentation
• Background in social sciences or experience with research, analysis, writing, and presenting

Time commitment: 60 hours per person, including required onboarding meetings with the Arts Amplifier team and host organization, to be completed before the end of December, 2024.

Compensation: $1800 stipend, to be paid as a lump sum upon the project’s completion.

Remote: Yes

Eligibility requirements:

• FNTC is particularly interested in receiving applications from Indigenous graduate students for this project.
• Masters or Doctoral student in the UBC Faculty of Arts. In order to receive a stipend, you must not be on leave and you must remained enrolled as a student for the duration of the project.
• To be eligible for funding for this project, students must hold Canadian citizenship, permanent residency, or refugee status in Canada.

To apply, fill out the Qualtrics survey by end of day October 1, 2024. We anticipate positions to begin in October. If you have any questions, please email arts.amplifier@ubc.ca.

Application form