Actions

Problem observed

There is a severe lack of essential supplies available to residents of the DTES who are disproportionately at risk of experiencing crises. In the last 3 years, we have repeatedly been asked for basic emergency support items and have only been able to supply a portion of them due to our unpredictable donation supply. We have also observed a lack of appropriate funding opportunities for crisis preparedness and awareness. With last year’s heat wave response being overwhelmingly positive, we found it still only scratched the surface of meeting the needs of at-risk groups in the community. 

Proposed Solution

We are proposing to coordinate a community-led research program in partnership with the Hub network to evaluate the nature, frequency, and distribution of emergencies across multiple equity-deserving groups in the DTES. With the consent of the participants, we plan to share the data with partner organizations and institutions, along with a strategy for distribution. We hope that this transparency motivates donors to send appropriate materials to the neighbourhood, which will be distributed in a time-appropriate manner through the Hub network. 

We believe that this would be a beneficial tool that can build over time to become increasingly useful to the community. The community researchers will be trained to evaluate the emergency response program and provide recommendations on how it might improve in the following years. Beginning the process would allow for the introduction of grassroots public census data sharing strengthening the culture of resource sharing and community encompassing projects. 

We have started working with UBC and the Learning Exchange, as well as other community-led research projects such as those conducted by SRO-C in hopes that they will be able to support the development of an ethical research protocol. We hope that this initiative contributes to a mutually beneficial relationship between the DTES and research institutions. 

Not only will this project create a living narrative of the community’s emergency responses, it will also contribute to the evolving culture of community-led research in the DTES.

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Methods

The proposed framework for this project would include the following in two waves. Wave 1 will be for summer heat emergencies and general response and Wave 2 for winter cold emergencies and general response. 

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Phase 1: Planning with Advisory Committee

• Form an advisory committee made up of experienced community researchers, UBC faculty, DTES organization leaders, and fundraising experts.

• Review strategy, discuss ethical considerations, and formulate SMART performance metrics

Phase 2: Training and Distribution Planning

• Select approximately 12 community researchers for different community groups and train to facilitate focus groups and surveys

• Coordinate a distribution plan with community leaders and outreach worker network

Phase 3: Data Collection - Emergency Preparation

• Community researchers facilitate focus groups about emergency preparation

• Meet with community researchers to process data and write community-specific surveys

• Community researchers administer surveys and report back to Hub

• Debrief with community researchers

Phase 4: Request for Support

• Publish data online and coordinate with corporate donors and partner institutions to collect donations of supplies

Phase 5: Distribution

• Communicate with the distribution network and move supplies to people in response to specific and general emergencies.

• Track distribution metrics and report data

Phase 6: Evaluation

• Prepare community researchers for second round of focus groups and surveys

• Community researchers facilitate program evaluation focus groups and meet to write surveys

• Community researchers administer program evaluation survey

• Publish data online and report program efficacy and recommendations