Author: melchor berceles

Since we last spoke…

Since our last update, we managed to finish writing our first draft of the survey; we then piloted the survey with an amazing group of seniors at 411 Seniors’ Centre in Vancouver. Their feedback on the survey has been incredibly helpful as we are currently in the process of writing our revised survey and final report.

 

Moment of Significant Change

What?

As mentioned earlier, we were given the opportunity to meet with some seniors at 411 Seniors’ Centre; the discussion around the effectiveness of our pilot survey was rewarding. Our focus group at the centre evoked plenty of meaningful discussion and helped us gain a better perspective on some of the individual concerns.

We noticed the group discussion expanded beyond just evaluating the survey implying that perhaps the survey questions might increase awareness of disaster preparedness. For example, we noticed that the questions included in our survey prompted the group to consider the scope of their ability to help during a disaster, and began a discussion regarding the methods they could use or have used in the past to ensure the wellbeing of the others in their community. The group also proposed some concrete changes to improve the survey including changing the survey response scales to a numeric system of 1-5 and the incorporation of biking as a means for food access.

So What?

After having a dramatic decrease in team morale this term (See Blog 3), this experience at 411 Seniors’ Centre helped rekindle the excitement felt during Week 1 of this project. The process of literature selection, literature review and finally, survey design was challenging and time-consuming; admittedly, we were feeling a bit anxious to take our survey out into the community. This nervousness and anxiety disappeared quickly as we saw how positively the focus group received the survey. Their questions and comments surrounded the important criteria (Table 1) we hoped to evaluate using this survey as well as overarching themes or concepts that we did not ask about directly. As well, we were pleased to see how appreciative they were for being included in our pilot survey, and this also contributed to our positive experience.

These responses helped to reinforce that the tool we produced actually asked the right questions and helped to raise awareness of our topic. These results helped to drastically improve group outlook on the project and came at the perfect moment in the semester. Our pilot study was overall an extremely positive experience.  

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Table 1. Criteria for evaluating resilience

Concept	Criteria	Indicators
Resilience: A food system perspective in resilience planning will prioritize the right strategies to ensure that the food system returns to normal as quickly as possible (Zeuli, 2017).	Communication preferences	Prefered communication methods Past communication methods Do they feel informed Relevance of government recommendations
	Food access	Physical disability How and where they currently get food
	Ease of Recovery	Financial stability Disaster insurance Social support Emergency plan Personal concerns

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Now What?

We hope to use this newfound excitement to motivate us in the last week ensuring our final products meet the highest standards. We can already observe this motivating force in our collaboration efforts as we enter the initial stages of report writing, infographic creation and survey revision. We could also observe the positive benefits of our efforts in the debrief following the survey pilot. We made a streamlined set of deadlines that would work around everyones’ schedules to hopefully minimize stress over the final week but also allowing for sufficient time to revise as necessary.

From meeting with the seniors, it is clear to us that the survey encouraged thinking about their own personal resilience as well as the resilience of the City of Vancouver; we hoped for this outcome in the early stages of our survey-writing. This demonstrates how effective our survey could be if implemented on a larger scale. This process of using representatives of a particular community in the city of Vancouver is one way through which this survey can report on, and contribute to asset-based community development. Through discussing issues with individuals, especially those who may be underrepresented otherwise helps to better understand the mechanisms a community may already employ and use city resources to work synergistically toward improving our collective food security. As well, consideration of specific groups of individuals, such as the seniors in our study, is one example of how this survey utilized a food justice lens; our process could be mimicked for similar groups that may also be underrepresented in food systems discussions. We hope that our survey instrument can be implemented by a future LFS 350 group.

Further studies using our survey could be useful for collecting data on the public perceptions and readiness of citizens of Vancouver as well as provide an incentive for individuals to reflect on their own preparedness.

Since we last spoke…

Since our last blog post and the narrowing of our scope of this project, we have been occupied with researching our topic of Disaster Preparedness in the context of a population 65 years and older. The detailed steps that have been taken over the past few weeks are outlined under the “Weekly Objectives” section near the end of this post.

 

Moments of Significant Change

Emotions

At the beginning of the semester, we felt excited about the potential in this project. The idea of meeting new people and learning about their perspectives on Vancouver’s food system resilience was something that appealed to entire group. The prospect of creating a podcast out of our findings was also something we were all very eager to try. However, as we moved forward in the semester we noticed that our group morale decreased over time. Perhaps it was because we felt very confused about the topic of our project, or because we were struggling with deciding how to carry out our study, but this decline in positivity was felt throughout the team.

Skills

Receiving feedback on our proposal was one of the significant moments of change with respect to our changing skills. Often, seeing work objectively can be challenging, and as a result, growth and development can be difficult to attain. We unanimously found that the feedback we received on our proposal promoted re-examining our proposal to clarify any unsubstantiated claims, as well as further encouraged the use of evidence in the structuring of our study.

Knowledge

In the context of this course, although brief, there were a few lectures that stood out among the rest; Week 5’s lecture on feminism was intriguing and thorough; this lecture served to shed light on the different waves of feminism, and the need for intersectionality when working around problems in the modern food system. Another especially eye-opening lecture was from Week 9; a lecture by a guest speaker, Niisii Guujaaw, on Indigenous Food Security. Experiencing a lecture from a peer, who is so connected to her own culture and heritage felt like a privilege. This lecture stood out as it was a more personal experience, that enhanced our knowledge through a way of learning which was different from traditional academic narratives.

Finishing Strong

Upon completion of this project, we hope to see our skills and knowledge expand from where we began at the beginning of this term. So far we have already seen our proposal writing and literature review skills be tested and improved upon. Through meeting with 411 Seniors, and communicating with Suzi Kennedy at the centre, we hope to become more confident and comfortable interacting with individuals of the community in a professional manner. As well, we will all be new to the creation and designing of an infographic, so this aspect of the course will provide a new and unique learning experience. Finally, by the end of this term, we expect that emotions will be high as hope to have completed this project successfully and on time!

 

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Past Weekly Accomplishments

October 15 – 21

Objectives:

• Revise project proposal as necessary, integrating feedback from our first submission
• Identify which participants we want to recruit for this study

Achievements:

• Narrowing of our scope to focus on the senior population of Vancouver (age 65+)
• Contacted members of the Vancouver Food Strategy Council to find participants for our study

October 22 – 28

Objectives:

• Use flexible learning to make further revisions to the project
• Continue literature review to find methods to carry out our study and come up with potential questions for our survey
• Identify individuals 65y+ to participate in our study

Achievements:

• Reached out to 411 Senior Center, Vancouver, who volunteered to participate in our study

October 29 – November 4

Objectives:

• Individually and as a group, reflect on moments of significant change that occurred this semester
• Begin designing questions for our survey
• Tentatively, produce a first draft of our survey by the end of the week

Achievements:

• Produce a timeline/graph that illustrates how the group has experienced working together this semester
• Set up a date and time to meet with individuals at the senior centre to collect feedback on survey draft

What’s Next?

We hope that over the next few weeks, we will, as compared to the last weeks that were spent updating, modifying and structuring our project:

• Meet with 411 Seniors Centre for feedback on survey
• Meet/contact members of Vancouver Food Strategy Council for feedback on survey
• Revise the survey based on participant feedback
• Finalize the survey
• Begin writing a formal report on our study
• Develop our infographic (upon collection of data and results)

 

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The Graceful Dismount

To successfully complete this project, we have decided to split up each task between the members of our group. Using a table of all the tasks that need to be done, and their end dates, we are each able to sign up for tasks we know we can complete, and can then be held accountable for these tasks. This allows each individual the flexibility to complete tasks at their own pace, but still ensures that each person contributes to the final project and is aware of our deadlines. As well, communicating with each other will remain an important part of completing this project. Communication is an important aspect of all group work, especially with regards to scheduling conflicts or regarding any questions group members may have. As well, it is important for each group member to be aware of the commitments others may have as we near the busy end of the semester, and above all, to remain calm amidst this busy month ahead