The Community Engagement Network offers guidance, support, and mentorship to project teams, ensuring a community-led approach to CanScreen T1D’s research activities. As a member of the Community Engagement Network, CanScreen T1D project teams will work with you throughout the research process, actively seeking and considering your feedback to help inform our research and shape initiatives.
The Network defines strong community engagement as the process of building relationships between researchers and community members, focusing on their perspectives. When community engagement is strong, research projects can better address the needs and concerns of the people involved and serve their best interests.
The Community Engagement Network brings together CanScreen T1D members, people impacted by T1D, parents or guardians of young children, health workers, researchers, members of advocacy groups and people from the general public. Given these diverse backgrounds, we strive to ensure we match each member to the most suitable role. To do this, we consider three things:
- The person’s interests align with the role.
- The person’s experience and knowledge are used effectively.
- The opportunity for participation matches what the person wants to do.
Express Your Interest
Interested in joining the Community Engagement Network? We invite you to complete this form and a member of our team will contact you soon.
For more information, check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) below.
Community engagement is defined as the process of meaningfully involving communities impacted by research findings in the research process. Community engagement is important for improving the way research is prioritized, communicated and used in real-life settings (Han et al., 2021).
CanScreen T1D is committed to engaging a wide range of communities to ensure its research activities, including the pilot screening program, are informed by, understood by and relevant to those affected.
Opportunities to contribute in many ways are available, including participation in other committees, focus groups, presentations and much more.
Activities include, but are not limited to:
- Sharing your knowledge, views and experiences to help shape CanScreen T1D’s research.
- Reviewing and providing feedback on CanScreen T1D communications and research materials (for example, participant consent forms, community engagement plans, recruitment strategies).
- Helping to develop strategies for community outreach and involvement, offering guidance on how best to engage with diverse communities.
- Serving as a bridge between CanScreen T1D and community partners, ensuring that all voices are heard and meaningfully integrated into the research.
There may also be opportunities to participate in project-specific work. For a list of our projects, please refer to the Our Research page on our website.
CanScreen T1D welcomes a range of individuals living in Canada with diverse backgrounds, knowledge and experiences. This may include, but is not limited to:
- Parents or guardians (or soon to become parents or guardians) of young children with or without a health condition
- Individuals living with T1D and parents, caregivers, or family members of those living with T1D
- Members of advocacy groups (diabetes-focused; health equity-focused; research or health care-focused)
- Professionals with experience in T1D care or research
- Health policy specialists
- Individuals with experience in community or patient engagement work
- Individuals from the general public with or without knowledge of T1D
We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive Community Engagement Network that represents and uplifts the voices of equity-deserving groups. We warmly welcome participation from individuals of all backgrounds, including racialized communities, Indigenous Peoples, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, rural and remote communities, people from different economic backgrounds, newcomers, people with disabilities, and those with diverse cultural identities.
Members must also be 18 years or older and living in Canada.
If you are interested but you’re unsure this is the right fit for you, we encourage you to express your interest anyway! We would love to connect and explore opportunities together.
The expected time commitment for this opportunity is approximately 15 hours per year for two years, with 2-4 meetings a year up to 60-90 minutes each. You may also communicate occasionally with the CanScreen T1D team through email.
As a member of the Community Engagement Network, you will play a vital role in shaping T1D research by sharing your insights, knowledge, and lived experiences, ensuring that community perspectives drive our work. You’ll also have the opportunity to collaborate and connect with individuals from across Canada, expanding your network and impact.
Members will be compensated at $25.00 CAD per hour.
Since members will be living across Canada, access to a smart phone or computer and internet will be needed to participate in virtual meetings (such as on Zoom or Microsoft Teams) and communicate via email.
If you do not have access to a smart phone, computer or internet but are interested in participating, please send us a message via the Contact Us page on our website and a member of our team will contact you to explore alternative options.
Meetings will be held in English, but we will do our best to provide meeting materials in French. If you speak another language and are interested in participating, please let us know.
If you have accessibility needs or require an accommodation, please let us know using the expression of interest form linked above.