Weekly Updates

Week 12 (March 29th-April 1st)

In order to answer our research question, “how would a job shuttle program address transportation barriers for youth employment in Williams Lake,” we are working closely with our community partners to formulate a mock grant application of our compiled research on the subject. The two main research methods we will be using to answer this question are interviews and focus groups. We want our research on the transportation barriers to youth employment to be tangible; therefore we are compiling our final product in a way that is useful for the Williams Lake community members it effects. Dave from the CDC will potentially be able to use our research to apply for funding to start the job shuttle that is needed in the community. This fits together with the importance of conducting research that is not only valuable but tangible as well.

We are currently reaching out to different organizations in Williams Lake to gather youth between the ages of 18 and 29 to participate in our focus groups. We are only able to contact organizations via phone and e-mail at the moment, but we have also sent an informative poster to these groups and our community partners to advertise that we are looking for participants. Ideally, we wish to conduct two focus groups while we are in Williams Lake consisting of at least five participants each. In addition to our community partners Jessica of the Social Planning Council, Dave of the Childhood Development Centre, and Matt of the Boys and Girls Club reaching out to youth they know that may be interested in participating, we are also contacting the Cariboo Chilcotin Aboriginal Training Employment Centre (CCATEC), School District 27, the Williams Lake Band, Youth for Christ, and the Pioneer Log Homes.

The questions we are preparing for the focus groups include:

• General questions about transportation and how it may limit access to employment
• What do you think about the transportation options available in Williams Lake? Do you use them? (for example, take the bus to go somewhere)
• If you had a job, what method of transportation would you use to get to work?
• Are you considering moving away from the community in order to find more employment opportunities?
• How significant is the issue of transportation from your point of view (ask because perhaps their perception of the problem is not as grand as what the research says, or some other problem that they focus on more rather than employment/transport.  Important for us to know the larger story at hand).
• Hypothetical questions:
  If a job shuttle were to be established, how would you envision it?
  • Which locations would be of most interest to you for work?
  • Where would be an accessible place to meet?
  • What times do you expect the shuttle would be the most useful?
  • How far are you willing to travel for a job?
  • What would be the best form of communication for you to participate in the shuttle (phone/internet?)
  • What would have a major influence on whether or not you use this service?

We are hoping that through conducting focus groups with youth in the Williams Lake area and asking these questions we will create a discussion to address the transportation and employment barriers they potentially face. During our focus group sessions, we also want to incorporate participant mapping to find out where the effected youth are located, and where they believe potential jobs would be located in order to map out a potential bus route for the job shuttle.

In addition to conducting focus groups, we will be arranging interviews with our community partners that we consider to be experts on the subject. Through conducting phone interviews (which we are already in the process of) and interviews while in Williams Lake, we have developed specific questions for each interviewee we plan to speak with.

Matt (Boys and Girls Club)

• Bus logistics (fuel, model)
  • What is the bus model?
  • What is its mileage?
• What are some of the seasonal barriers to driving within Williams Lake?
• Would we be able to use the Boys and Girls Club as meeting point/hub? How accessible is this location for the youth within the community? Is it a diverse community?

Dave (Child Development Centre)

Employers (e.g. Pioneer Log Homes)

• How willing is the Pioneer Log Homes to hire young adults?  What are its hiring rates?
• What is the average shift length and when do they normally begin?
• Seasonal?
• Warehouse?
• Does carpooling occur among employees?  If so, how does this typically happen?

Chris Hutton (City Planner)

• From your point of view as a city planner, what are the connections you see between transportation and youth access to employment
• What are the existing resources for transportation for youth?  How will they or won’t they address the need?
• What are the main aspects to consider when planning for transportation?
• What are the potential routes to take based on identified focus areas?
• May we follow-up to receive feedback on project draft?
• Are there any foreseen issues / challenges with the implementation of such project?

Through these interview we hope to be able to get a better idea of what the logistics of having a job shuttle in Williams Lake are, the potential employer’s thoughts on the subject of youth employment, and the views of other community members in Williams Lake. We think that these methods fit well with our research questions and goals for the outcome of the project, as well as practical expectations considering our short amount of time in the field. With this information we collect during our research, we will be able to formulate a cohesive report addressing these barriers and provide possible solutions to this problem that effects such a vulnerable group in the community.

Week 10 (March 14th-18th)

Over the past two weeks, we have confirmed with Dave Preeper from the CDC that our help would be useful to help him build up the research needed to apply for a grant and establish the job shuttle program. This has allowed us to move away from the exploration process where we were sifting through various possibilities, and focus more concretely on the theoretical framework and methods that fit our specific research area. We have solidified our theoretical framework to focus more closely on issues of youth employment and its relation to transportation, the importance of employment, the issue of youth migration, and the importance of transportation as a whole. Our methods have become more clear as we have decided to focus our attention on two main methods (interviews and focus groups) which we can split up and tackle as a group. This is something all of us have been hoping to reach, a point when tasks can be more clearly delegated and tracked.

The next step is to thoroughly organize our focus groups by being in close communication with various youth-focused organizations who can help be intermediaries between our group and the youth. This will require a lot of effort on all of our parts as there are a number of organizations that we have identified as potential partners (CCATEC, School District 27, Williams Lake Band, Youth for Christ, Boys and Girls Club (Matt) and the Child Development Centre (Dave)). As we make contacts and plan the logistics of the focus groups, we are starting to compile a list of questions that will frame the discussions which we plan to share with Dave before heading up to Williams Lake.

A similar process of preparation is taking place in terms of our intended interviews, and we hope to have some interviews done on the phone before actually arriving in the community. We expect that these will be more flexible in terms of timing (since they will only involve one person at a time) but since the people we hope to speak to are professionals of various kinds, we will need to schedule with them quite early. We have also started brainstorming interview questions for each interviewee.

Week 9 (March 7th – March 11th)

This week, we were able to talk to Professor McPhee regarding some thoughts on writing our final submission in the from of a grant. The reason for this is because we thought it would provide more of a format in addition to providing something to the community that they may directly use. Professor McPhee is supportive of this idea, yet suggests to talk to community members (Dave and Jessica) regarding the specificity and context of the grants. In addition, she advised us to ensure that we explain why we have chosen to use a grant format as our final submission. We also asked her for some insight as to what projects well last year so that we may be able to learn from them and she says that the SPC group last year did a great job and to look at their work.

A few questions that Professor McPhee also suggests to answer for the week 12 submission are:

1. Is what we are sending in a viable research proposal?
2. Does everything fit well together?
3. Will this work while we are in Williams Lake?

Our next steps will be to work on the specifics of our methodologies, contact groups to find participants for our focus groups (youth) and think of content that we can organize / research about now to save time while we are at Williams Lake.  But overall, the project is becoming much more clear after finding a specific need of the community rather than tackling the broad concept of carpool systems and transportation.  We hope to continue our research and work with the community tailored with the more specific research question.

Week 8 (Feb 29-March 4th)

This week we were able to contact Matt Neufeld, the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club, as well as have another conversation with Carrie Sundahl of the “Better at Home” senior’s service. One of our ideas included researching how we could potentially reach both the youth in the community as well as the seniors who would need transportation options. Carrie suggested that it might not be the best idea to have the same service running both because the needs of the seniors and the needs of the youth are so diverse. It appears that the seniors already have several transportation services but there are internal issues with the structure that they are run including possible issues with the schedules and funding. We decided that this is probably not something, as outsiders to the community, we should take on if most of the issues or barriers of the transportation options for seniors are internal ones.

At this point we are leaning towards working with the youth in transition on Dave Preepers’, from the Child Development Centre, “job bus” idea. We would be very excited to be able to do research for this idea and help set up a framework for something that has such potential in the community. We are thinking of ways to research where the youth demographic in the community in need of transportation are primarily located, where they are going (to potential work sites?), and if they are going to the same places for work, in order to potentially find a route the job bus would be feasible for. We were able to speak with Matt Neufeld who was enthusiastic about the idea and might be able to help us find youth to reach out to as part of our research. We will definitely keep in contact with him as our ideas develop.

We are still compiling background research to strengthen our theoretical framework and hope to have the bulk of our research completed next week and groundwork laid out. We are continuing to keep the conversations going with all of our contacts and community partners, and will update Jessica on the progress of our decision to (hopefully) work with the youth at risk in the community on this awesome job bus idea!

Week 7 (Feb 22-25th)

Over the reading break and this past week, the group has been focused on solidifying our focus within the community. We are very close to determining which group we will be working closely with to help identify a new transit method. The first group identified by Jessica from the SPC was the people who resorted to hitchhiking from the Sugarcane Reserve, however this direction has been deemed unfeasible. From a phone conversation with Carol Archie, Social Development Worker for the Williams Lake Band, we have been told that for safety reasons this group would not be a good option. Carol did mention a need for more transit options for Elders in the community needing to attend medical appointments. We have reached out to the Three Corners Health Services centre that operates the current medical shuttle and remain open to any indication of desire to work with us.

In the meantime, Jessica has suggested various potential groups to collaborate with, including the Child Development Centre and the Better at Home Program for seniors. Dave Preepers from the Child Development Centre works with youth and has specific experience working with youth in transition. Due to the way transit issues create barriers to employment within this group, he is interested in setting up a “job bus” which could fulfill this need and improve access to employment. This program would be focused on youth between 17-22 who have recently graduated from high school. It appears that funding and resources for the implementation of this project may even be accessible, but the missing piece is research about how and why such a program would be beneficial to the community- which is where we would come in!

This idea seemed very interesting to Jessica, with whom we discussed the potential long term social and economic impacts of an effective you job bus. When discussing how we could reach and incorporate the most youth possible, she recommended that we contact Matt Neufeld, the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club, who has worked with last year’s group for the transit survey. This we hope to do at the beginning of next week before the next SPC meeting.

Another conversation with Carrie Sundahl from the Better at Home program has given us a second potential direction should we choose to work with the senior community. It appears that their are several services in place such as the Handidart, which do operate but often need improvement for their lack of convenience and comfort. Working on research in this area could involve identifying the existing infrastructure and which needs are not met within the current setup. While we want to keep our project small scale and manageable, we hope that, no matter the direction we choose, our report can link the various transit needs together and suggest how a program could be adapted to meet different needs.

The next two weeks will involve continuing our conversations with community partners and strengthening our theoretical framework by building up more background research that can lay the groundwork for our research with the community.

Week 6 (Feb 9-11th): Theoretical Framework

Context of the Community (Transit, Social Organization, Cultural Background): 

Our project is building upon the last year’s group project which involved extensive research on the public transit in Williams Lake. The previous group identified many areas of concern that lead to low ridership and issues of safety. Considering the lack of convenience offered by the current system (particularly in terms of the accessibility of the means of transportation due to infrequent timing and inconvenient location), we are working to find solutions that will enable more effective transit for members of the community.

Some of the issues identified by last year’s group include:
-inconvenient schedule
-lack of safety at bus stop
-lack of awareness of bus schedules

We are currently in the process of identifying the group most suited to working with us on this framework. The Social Planning Council is helping us to contact various groups to gauge organization interest and desire to pursue this project. One possible community is the Sugarcane reserve, as the Social Development worker has noted a need for more transportation options to and from the Three Corners Health Service centre for elders’ health appointments.

The Williams Lake Indian Reserve, locally known as the Sugarcane reserve, is located on the East end of Williams Lake. The Williams Lake Band (T’exelcemc) people are members of the Secwepemc Nation (Shuswap people). Out of the 786 band members, 233 members currently live on reserve. There is little to no public transportation to and from the remote location of the Sugarcane reserve into the Williams Lake city centre. If this route is taken by many people traveling into town, it would require a safe form of public transportation.

If collaboration on this project is not taken up by the Three Corners Health Services Centre, we will be waiting to hear back from some other groups identified by the SPC who may be interested in collaborating with us, such as the Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy Society or the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society.

Motivations for a Carpool Project

The Social Planning Council initially mentioned a carpool project as a possible direction, an idea that we shared enthusiasm for. Upon further research, we have uncovered benefits and challenges of carpooling models elsewhere and we think similar benefits will fit into the context of Williams Lake.

In the document “Improving Travel Options in Small & Rural Communities” by Transport Canada, the opportunities and limitations of a rural context are discussed. It is a valuable document that shapes our approach in the sense that the nature of Williams Lake as a rural city as opposed to an urban centre affects the kinds of projects and procedures that have the potential to be successful. It also presents an overview of rideshares in rural areas. Some of the key points that we move forward with:
-Benefits of ridesharing include convenience, cost-saving, reduced emissions, reduced stress, increased safety
-Challenges of ridesharing include reduced independence, and potentially required detours
-Existing models: Ridematching (service designed to help commuters find regular carpool partners), Single Ridematching (for single-trip users)

Understanding how important it is to adapt such a model to its particular context, we have decided to narrow our scope to a very small portion of the population and strive to propose a model that could realistically be implemented. If the Williams Lake Band shares our interest, we will work closely with them to determine which existing informal networks can be drawn upon to create a more formal and systematic carpooling program.

Grassroots Initiatives

After hearing Stella (one of the students working on last year’s project) discuss the complexity and limitations of working with institutions such as the city and BC Transit, we have decided to approach this project in a very “grassroots” way. Inspired by a guest lecture by a CCEL’s representative on the benefits of community engaged learning, we are working to identify the existing assets within the community in order to facilitate a sustainable project based around those strengths.

Klein et al.’s article about university-community partnerships emphasize that such collaboration can be very beneficial to the community based on the self-empowerment that is fostered through engagement. It can provide tools to vulnerable groups, but it necessarily draws on that group’s own energy as long as the project is based around existing needs.  In addition, a grassroots approach allows for community to sustain their projects themselves which contributes to the longevity and flexibility of the program.  This is why we hope to work closely with community members as our project develops.

 

Methodology 

As we deepen our understanding of the social context of the Williams Lake area, we are also refining our choice of research methodologies. To begin with, a talk with Leo has made us realize that a huge portion of our work will be preliminary research on the many existing types of carpool programs and how they work to address particular community needs. This will involve analysis of program outlines and speaking with leaders within this domain.

The next crucial aspect is developing a deep understanding of the group we are seeking to help develop a solution with. This will happen through background research about the cultural context of the area and speaking to a representative of the community we hope to serve. Further research will take place in person when we arrive in Williams Lake. Some of the methods that we hope to incorporate include:

• Participant Observation: in order to develop a better understanding of the experience of community members.
  • Experience transit (more as a background experience than a subject to explore, since this was done by last year’s group)
  • Experience a carpool (if we are able to identify an existing informal carpool system that is open to having one or two of us participant and observe how the process works/its successes and potential downfalls)
• Focus Groups: Considering that this project would be shaped by the people and for the people, we are expecting focus groups to be our primary method of research about the ways in which a carpool system could be successful. Based on Skop’s article about focus groups and Emily Rosenman’s notes on their process, we would work to segment the groups into relevant categories in order to understand the needs of various interest groups. We will communicate a preliminary survey that will invite participants to reflect on their experiences and imagine how a carpool system would fit into their everyday lives. We are specifically curious to find solutions to issues of safety, accessibility and communication through this process. It will hopefully bring up important issues that we have not yet considered ourselves and foster conversations that will strengthen the community in various ways.
• Participant Mapping: We were very inspired by Norris’ article on the benefits of participant mapping for the way it can bring power back into the hands of a community by providing a venue to define a place based on the peoples’ interpretations. We hope to incorporate it into the later steps of the project research, when determining the logistics of the carpool system. Participant mapping would allow us to determine, with the community, where are the most desired destinations, and where are the potential meeting locations. This process could potentially be incorporated into the focus groups in order for us to be more efficient with our research.
• Interviews: We expect that interviews could be useful in our process when we need specialists’ information about a specific area, whether talking to a police officer about safety concerns, or a city planner for transportation logistics. We hope to incorporate this into our project before and/or during our trip to Williams Lake.

Week 5 (Feb 1st-5th)

This week, we were able to flush through some aspects collaboratively such as scope of project and research question. Athough, we’ve realized is still much to be done moving forward, it is great to know that we are progressing and have a clearer path for our next steps forward.

Team Meeting

• We considered whether we would like to talk to another previous Geog 379 student named Ian next week. Stella recommended speaking with him and we feel that it would be very valuable to speak to him once we know the specific community we would like to work with.
• It seems as though our community partner from the social planning community has been quite busy this week and we were unable to speak with her. Hopefully we will have an opportunity to speak to her in the following weeks regarding how we would like to relate our project to a specific community within Williams lake and hear her insight on this.
• Some communities that we are considering are the older community or the indigenous community.
• We are considering talking to other community partners, such as the Cariboo Friendship Society, for insight on communities that may benefit from a carpool system the most or perhaps which carpool system would fit best for a specific community.
• We took the time to specify our research question and sub-questions (mentioned below). This was a beneficial process for us as it allowed us to clarify and specify as a group what our questions are for this project. It also allowed us to relate these questions with specific research methodology that we learned in class, such as focus groups. Once we have made those links, it was easier to visualize which methodology would be useful for which sub research question addressed.

Research Question

• How would a carpool program address the public transit issues identified in Williams Lake for X group.

Sub research question

• Have there been previous ride share initiatives; if there were attempts, what factors hindered their success?
• What assets within the community can be drawn upon to strengthen such a program and assure its sustainability?
• How to navigate cultural tensions when developing collaborations in the community?
• How to ensure access to the program given communication barriers?
• Develop model based on other existing carpool initiatives adapted to the context of Williams Lake
• What are the geographical areas in the community that should be incorporated into the project (safe zones/unsafe zones/ points of interests) -> participant mapping

Methodologies Brainstorm

• Participant Observation
  • Experience a carpool
  • Experience transit
• Focus Groups
  • Preliminary Qs (survey)
  • Safety issues
  • communication
• Participant Mapping
• Interviews
  • Police officer (safety)
  • Anyone “official”
• Survey (less useful)
  • Doesn’t reach group of interest

Meeting with Leo

• Leo gave us some really great insight that helps us with our next steps forward. Specifically, she suggested creating a framework for our research in the sense that we should either focus on a carpool program then find a community that would benefit from it, or find a community and tailor the program towards it. Creating a framework also would allow a clear flow when we are writing up our report (ie: what is a carpool? Why is it used? Why is it good for this community? How was it adopted for this community? Etc).
• She suggests also making connections with other groups such as the city planners of Williams lake, the downtown business association and the Cariboo Friendship Society.
• She stressed the importance and value of doing extensive preliminary research in order to help refine our research question.   A lot of background research is required to frame our question but it will also be valuable for our report so it is a great use of our time.
• Part of our initial research could be looking at the survey results that were retrieved from last year’s group. We can contact the SPC for these details
• Leo also reminds us of the scope of our project; that it is better to do something small that can be implemented into the community rather than something that is very abstract and broad.
• Leo notes that sometimes, it is easy to get emotionally attached to the ideas that you are researching and it is important to be okay with changing what you are focusing on something new as the needs of the community chance.
• Leo said that there are tensions and conflicts that we should be aware of when working at the community, such as racism and discrimination. This may be important when facilitating trust within the carpool system. For next week’s activity regarding the timeline, we may use this opportunity to understand the historical context that may be an influencing factor of these tensions.
• Our next steps may be to get an in-depth pool of knowledge on “carpools” by digging into the literature. We can look at past examples in similar and different geographies.
• 3 big thing that we got for future steps also include
  • Knowing the community (willing participants, culture etc)
  • Justification of WHY the carpool system is good for this specific community we decided to investigate
  • Find ways to adjust the carpool system to best fit them

WEEK 4, January 25^th-29^th

Our group decided that we should meet this Thursday at Seedlings in order to discuss with a woman named Stella about our project. Stella had been a group member of last year’s Social Planning Comity group, and was working on the project plan/idea that we are currently working on. The plan is to create some sort of ride share or carpooling system for communities around Williams Lake in order for them to get to work, or take care of errands and be able to safely make it back to their homes.

Before we met we all did a little bit of researching about current carpool/ride share ideas potentially already implemented in Williams Lake, or public transportation options already in use. With these in mind we were able to ask important questions that filled in the gaps of our knowledge.

When we met with Stella we discussed all of the issues that her group had run into in the previous years. Some of these issues were as follows: the roads are dangerous to walk on, so having a central meeting place for people to be pick up or dropped off could have some issues. The weather being cold and snowy creates an issue for people to walk to any pick up and drop off sites. The busses that do exist do not run late, so people working a night shift do not use the public transportation system. There are not many people that use social media in Williams Lake because many young people have left the community to find jobs and a life in bigger cities. Stella told us that as the semester progresses, we will slowly lose more and more time in our days to work ont he project as we are assigned more and more assignments and midterms. She gave us an awesome idea which was to work and study together even if it was not on the project its self and was just for other classes, that way if an idea pops into someone’s head they can bring it up while everyone is there and not forget about it.

There were many other issues, and things that our group would not have been able to figure out as easily without the help of Stella and put a new tone to the project. I personally realized that there are far more complications with our project idea then I had before.

These issues lead our group to the following idea: instead of a carpooling system for many communities going to many places in or very near Williams Lake, (which after talking to Stella seems unrealistic to accomplish in the time we have) we decided (but have not finalized) the idea to instead figure out maybe one place such as a community center, major employer, school, etc and create a ride share that goes from that place back to a community and the organization and logistics that would encompass this simplified and narrowed down approach to our project proposal. After this idea was thought of, it also came into perspective that this small simplified idea could be put into place for other areas of Williams Lake and be used as an example for other potential rideshares to and from other communities.

WEEK 2

In the second week of class, we were able to touch base with the Social Planning Council and our contact, Jessica. As a group, we decided that on one hand, we wanted to build off the hard work that was completed last year, while also implementing a new project where community members directly benefit. We decided that researching the implementation and feasibility of a carpool project, would thus be appropriate. Upon speaking to Jessica, she pointed out a few key things that necessitate an accessible transport program such as carpooling: the geographic nature of Williams Lake, where multiple small communities on the outskirts of town have a need to commute into the city centre; and the demographics of Williams Lake, who may face various barriers to transportation.

Going off of this then, we assigned roles to each team member. Bridgitte will be in research accessibility, Wiley will work with GIS/Geography, Kianna with employment, Adele on Safety, and Marcus will undertake issues related to communications. All of our research will likely intersect, but this provides us a useful jumping off point for research.

While collectively brainstorming on our roles, there were a range of initial questions that we are asking for our research.  These questions include;

• Whether or not the people of William’s lake have had a carpool system before?
• Where are the areas within William’s lake that has the highest population density
• Where are the major destination and points of departure for the people who are interested in using a carpool system
• What are the existing methods of transport that are used?  Is there a way that we can find assets within their previous transport system?

We also discussed as a group the scope of the project that we hope to tackle.  At this point in time, we believe that we will not be able to implement such a program but rather collect data that will serve as a foundation for the social planning council to make decisions from.  In addition, considering the pilot carpool program will be used and sustained by the community members, the program should not be implemented by us but rather the member themselves so a sense of ownership of the program may be created.

Although there is much work to be done, we are excited to be working with this community on the specific challenges of transportation, yet it is a challenge that extend to many other aspects of the community’s wellbeing.