Community-based experiential learning opportunities for students
Challenge question
What are the strategies and best practices that municipalities can use for engaging a wide range of citizens in issues of planning and decision-making, with a focus on the inclusion of marginalized and low-income households?
Criminology Graduate students interviewed key vulnerable sector stakeholders along with in depth secondary research to provide a final report of recommendations highlighting some of the main barriers of engaging marginalized communities in the City of Oshawa.
Key themes of trust, critical consciousness, organizational access, capacity building, comfortability, accessibility, youth engagement, representation, and education were explored.
Recommendations to engage marginalized groups included participatory budgeting, meeting people where they are at, and art festivals as community building initiatives.