Annual Activities Report -- Metropolis Project CERIS Toronto Fiscal Year 1997-98 Submitted to SSHRC April 30, 1998 CERIS Activities 1997-98 Key Events and Accomplishments For CERIS the past year, our second full year of operations, was both very active and extremely productive. We expanded and refined our research program, greatly broadened our dissemination activities, and developed our working partnerships both locally and with our Metropolis partners across Canada and internationally. During the same period CERIS was able to consolidate its management structures (Management Board and Partnership Advisory Council) as well as its office and communications infrastructure. Expanded Research Program The expansion and refinement of the CERIS research program and activities during the past year has included: awarding the second round of funded research in June, 1997, bringing the total number of projects to twenty-three across our three (original) domains. These projects engage many student and community researchers, reflecting a wide range of disciplines and research methodologies, and involve extensive collaborations between universities, and community agencies and organizations. in response to recommendations from our community and government partners as well as academic researchers, development of a theme-based research competition for 1998 in the areas of Children and Youth; Cohesion, Citizenship and Social Climate; and Institutional Restructuring and Policy Change. addition of two new research domains. CERIS domains, now more compatible with those of our other Metropolis partners, were redefined as: Economics, Education, Health, Housing and Neighbourhoods, and Community. formalization of the process of affiliation with CERIS through the activities of the Data Committee, making Metropolis license data accessible to CERIS-affiliated researchers establishment of a Major Research Initiatives (MRI) Working Group to develop proposals and solicit additional funding for CERIS research initiatives outside of the annual research competition process Broader Dissemination Dissemination activities supporting our research program have expanded dramatically during the past year. Among the accomplishments: production of three informative newsletters under the guidance of our Communications Committee initiation of a series of Monthly Research Seminars to bring together university-based researchers, community and government partners to hear from CERIS-funded researchers, visiting scholars, guest speakers, and CERIS affiliates and to discuss policy and programmatic implications development of the CERIS WebSite, linked to other Metropolis WebSites nationally and internationally opening of the CERIS Resource Centre in collaboration with CJRT-FM Open College, development of a twelve-part series of public radio broadcasts on the impact of immigration in Canada (Strangers Becoming Us, launched April, 1998) Development of Partnerships The success of CERIS' research program depends on active support from a network of partnerships locally, across Canada and internationally. The past year has seen our links with potential partners begin to turn into productive collaboration in a number of areas including joint activities at the municipal level and invaluable input into our research agenda from community and government partners. Community groups gave essential support to building the collection of documents for our Resource Centre. New forms of collaboration were developed with organizations like the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF). A variety of national and international organizations have visited CERIS for mutually beneficial exchanges on the dynamics of immigrant settlement. Among the most important forms of collaboration during this past year was our participation in the second annual National Metropolis Conference in Montreal in November, 1997. Twenty-five CERIS delegates -- staff members, directors, board members, community and academic partners and researchers on CERIS funded projects -- attended the conference. All were impressed with the quality of the stimulating plenary sessions, the opportunities to hear results from some Metropolis funded projects, and the forums in which to discuss current and future challenges. We are confident that the work begun in Montreal lays a solid foundation for domain-focussed, collaborative and policy-relevant research throughout the Metropolis project. Consolidation of Management and Infrastructure Extensive efforts devoted to our management structures and infrastructure during our first year of operations bore fruit in the second year of activities. While meeting less frequently than in the first year, CERIS' Management Board was able to assume fully its responsibilities in directing our research program, addressing the vital concerns of our local community and government partners, and responding to a number of crucial issues that arose within the Metropolis network. During this past year our Partnership Advisory Council (PAC) became fully operational and our management structures were further consolidated when two members of its four-person Executive Committee became members of the Management Board. Hiring a full-time, permanent secretary made office operations more reliable, and our communications infrastructure (mailing list database, group faxes, email monthly bulletins etc.) developed in pace with the extensive demands of the multitude of overlapping networks within which CERIS interacts. Back to Table of Contents