THE LIFE SKILLS PROJECT
In 2021, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Cumming with Sheridan College colleagues Mark Shufflebottom, Dr. Julianne DiSanto, Dr. Brandon McFarlane, and Dr. Humaira Siddiqui, along with community partner, Leah Burton, came together to launch CIF 3.0; formally known as The Life Skills Project. The project received a NSERC/SSHRC research grant ($356,400 for three years) to fund the project's efforts. Sixteen community organizations also partnered with the project, which included Big Brothers Big Sisters Halton Hamilton (BBBS), Bridging the Gap (BtG), Children’s Aid Society (CAS), Food For Life (FFL), Halton Multicultural Council: Connections (HMC), Halton Women’s Place, Halton Region, Kerr Street Mission (KSM), Oakville Community Foundation (OCF), Oak Park Neighbourhood Center (OPNC), Peterborough Housing Corporation, Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Services (SAVIS), Shifra, United Way Halton Hamilton (UWHH), Woodgreen, and YMCA of Oakville.
Despite Halton Region’s housing first approach for their homelessness strategy, many individuals that were provided access to housing were found incapable of maintaining their housing status due to the lack of life skills, rather than a lack of income (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2019). Life Skills programs are offered throughout the community but facilitating life skills programming for non-profit agencies are expensive with limited funding pools that often leave agencies competing for the same funds. Many categories that are covered are also not informed by EDI lens and while NFPs understand the importance of running evidence-based programming, they rarely have the capacity or resources to carry out research, development, implementation, and evaluation. In addition, COVID-19 presented new barriers for both agencies and clients.
CIF 3.0 served to be a solution for this issue, as the team developed a quality, creative and applied virtual life skills program aimed at enhancing the lives of marginalized populations in Halton Region and its surrounding areas. The Life Skills programming included a lived-experience and EDI-informed lens across several key topics and associated interactive applications that allow the learner to practice the skills being taught in a virtual setting to prevent homelessness. The project resulted in a virtual Learning Management System (LMS) that became a shared platform across all project partners and made available to the clients they served.
