1. Rural Development in Alberta:
A New Approach and Evaluation
Method
Critical Junctures – Guelph
November 4th, 2010
Paul Watson, Dee Ann Benard, Judy Ferguson,
Leslie Ayre-Jaschke
2. Alberta Rural Development Network
(ARDN): Background
• Stand-alone, not-for-profit that is a partnership of Alberta’s
21 public post-secondary institutions (PSIs)
• Mandate
– The ARDN will use the combined expertise of Alberta’s post-
secondary institutions to support rural development in Alberta and
help rural communities grow.
• Vision
– ARDN is a network of committed universities, technical institutes
and colleges from across Alberta, working together in rural Alberta
to support and enhance the well-being of individuals and the
vibrancy of communities through learning.
3. ARDN Background
• Primary Objective: to facilitate collaboration
– Get PSIs to work with each other and with communities to develop
research that provides tangible benefits to communities
• Get universities to work with colleges and other universities
• Have communities involved from project inception through project
dissemination
• Represents a significant commitment to Community-
Engaged Scholarship (CES) in rural communities by Alberta’s
PSIs
4. ARDN Background
• Research Objective
– Facilitate strategic research on economic, cultural, environmental
and social issues affecting rural communities through collaboration
among institutions and with communities and other partners
5. ARDN Background
• Community Objectives
– Provide a resource to rural communities
• Work with communities to identify their needs & help communities
partner with PSIs to address those needs
– Become a proactive source for up-to-date information, knowledge
and models of beneficial practices in rural development
• Allow communities to learn from experiences in other locations
• Access not only information but also people, expertise and ideas
– Identify and address gaps in training and education in rural
communities
6. ARDN PSI
Members
Board of
Directors
Executive
Director
Community & Member
Engagement Director
PSI Key
Contacts
Executive
Assistant
Accountability
& Reporting
Communications
& Website
Research Director
Research
Advisory
Contractors
Organizational Chart
Committees
7. Three Key Themes
• Research & Community Networking
– Help develop partnerships for collaborative research, knowledge
exchange, transfer, & mobilization with PSIs and communities
– Work with rural communities to identify needs and facilitate research
and knowledge transfer to enhance their future growth and vibrancy
• Knowledge Translation, Exchange, and Mobilization
– Collect, collate, translate and enhance access to information and
knowledge - fairly standard types of KTE&M
• Education & Training
– Identify opportunities to improve rural access to education and skills
training and transfer that information to the PSIs
8. Three Key Themes
• All 3 relate to CES by bringing parties together, sharing
learning using a common language
9. Community Networking
• Predominantly job of Director of Community & Member
Engagement
• Seek out community-driven research needs
– Partner researchers with rural communities with researchers and PSIs
and ensure two-way communication
• Create opportunities for community leaders to get together
with each other and with researchers
• Inform communities about options, opportunities and
beneficial practices
– Website
10. Research (Project) Networking
• Develop an understanding of the rural development
expertise and capacity of each institution
– Partner communities with researchers when requests arise from
communities
• Seek out and facilitate opportunities for research
collaboration with Communities
• Populate website (www.ardn.ca) with rural research and
information
11. Networking – Mechanisms
• ARDN provides financial contributions for projects
meetings, conferences, networking events TO ITS MEMBERS
– New partnerships required (Community &/or PSI)
– Ideally multi-institutional, broad geographic base
– ARDN will assist in finding partners and does assist in developing
funding sources & writing grant proposals (if capacity is limited)
• Networking Events
– http://www.ardn.ca/pages.php?pid=7&sid=2
• ARDN Projects
– http://www.ardn.ca/pages.php?pid=7&sid=4
12. Evaluation
• Novel Approach to Evaluation possibly unique to ARDN as NFP in
Canada
• Outcome Mapping methodology
• Based on CIDA approach
• Do not measure only “usual” types of deliverables
• Instead measure our influence on people and organizations (our “Boundary
Partners”)
– Claim “contribution”, not “attribution”
• E.g. Water Purification
– Quality of water (standard evaluation parameter)
– Do people have the skills to maintain the system (outcome mapping )
15. Researcher Outcome Challenge (ROC)
• Expect to see. Applied researchers connect with rural communities and
other applied researchers to develop relationships with individuals,
groups and organizations in order to move research into action and to
develop new research projects.
• Like to see. Researchers and rural communities exchange information
and knowledge and together identify topics/priorities for new research.
• Hope to see. Each gains an appreciation of the extent of knowledge
and information that is available from each other and finds ways to use
this knowledge and information to help improve health, quality of life,
and sustainability in rural communities.
16. Evaluating ROC
• Expect to see. Develop and submit research proposals that include
rural partners
• Like to See. Researchers develop relationships with rural communities
or practitioners and respond to questions or resource requests
• Hope to see. Change in attitude where researchers value knowledge
and contribution of communities to project development.
17. What Success Looks Like
• New relationships forged among and between PSIs
• Especially universities – colleges
• PSIs value CES
• Already true, since ARDN exists
• Rural community leaders can and do make direct contact with PSI
researchers about research
• Rural communities understand and value the research process
• Rural communities feel part of the research process
• Communities are actively involved in needs assessment and direction
setting of research agendas
18. QUESTIONS?
• Contact information
– 780-449-1006
– Paul Watson – Research@ardn.ca
– Dee Ann Benard – Exec.Dir@ardn.ca
– Judy Ferguson – Engage@ardn.ca
www.ardn.ca
