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Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre

Project: Expanding Visibility and Deepening Community Engagement

is a non-profit, artist-run centre that’s been around since 1977. We support the presentation, interpretation, and production of contemporary visual, time-based, and interdisciplinary arts. For nearly 50 years, we’ve provided a platform for emerging and mid-career artists—locally, nationally, and internationally—to share work that pushes boundaries and challenges traditional forms.
This year, we are excited to partner with the PhD Community Initiative on a project focused on expanding our visibility and deepening community engagement. Our goal is to better connect with both current and untapped audiences, ensuring more people are aware of—and actively using—our unique resources.

A key focus of this project is our : a publicly accessible digital media lab designed to support artists working in audio, video, and lens-based practices. This space was created in response to a pressing need for accessible digital production tools in Katarokwi-Kingston. Beyond simply offering equipment, the New Media Workspace is envisioned as a hub for experimentation, collaboration, and the growth of a vibrant media arts community.

Through this initiative, we aim to strengthen awareness of this resource, remove barriers to access, and support the continued development of contemporary media practices in our region.

Surrey Place

Project: Wellness Evaluation and Review

Surrey Place is a not-for-profit organization that helps people of all ages with autism-, developmental-, and sensory-related concerns push the boundaries of what’s possible to achieve new victories.

We’re able to bring together caring clinicians, staff, valued partners and other experts in the sector to give our clients a comprehensive, yet centralized care program. This holistic approach ensures everyone in a client’s circle of care – their behaviour therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, physiotherapists, speech-language pathologists and more – can collaborate to work in the client’s best interests. 
We work with our clients throughout their lives, creating inventive and innovative programs so they can keep building their skills, grow their self-confidence and set their sights even higher. For children, our approach revolves around the family unit. For adults, we support their independence.

We would like to partner with a team of students to support Phase 2 of our Wellness Department evaluation (a client family and community engagement and service offering review). Phase 1 of the evaluation has been completed, and the information will be available for the team to begin Phase 2. In Phase 2, we’d like to gather feedback from our clients and community for further shaping our service offerings and to conduct a review of our current offerings to ensure alignment with the . 

Learn more about our . 

Boys and Girls Club (BGC South East)

Project: Details coming soon!

(formerly Boys and Girls Club of Kingston & Area) has been serving children, youth, and families for more than 30 years. As one of the largest BGC Clubs in Canada, we operate 12 sites across Kingston and the region, reaching over 6,200 young people annually. Our inclusive programs include before and after school care, licensed childcare, camps, aquatics, sports, and education programs, all designed to meet local needs and remove barriers to success.  Recent investments in education include the Reg Shadbolt Learning Centre and a 9,000 square foot STEM & Robotics Centre, which together deliver over 100 programs each year in literacy, numeracy, executive function, STEM, and skilled trades exploration. Our mission is to provide safe, supportive spaces where children and youth can discover opportunities, build confidence, and develop skills for life.

All-Together Affordable Housing Corporation

Project:  Evaluation of Quinte Community and Housing First Partnership

is a non-profit housing agency and registered charity. All-Together provides efficient, sustainable and affordable solutions for some of the most vulnerable members of our community. We value partnerships, diversity and inclusiveness.

All-Together is the lead agency for the Quinte Community and Housing First Partnership (QCHP), which sets out a collaborative approach to affordable and supportive housing service provision. Our approach recognizes the critical role played by private market landlords in the Housing First model and the equally important role of community agencies in supporting vulnerable individuals both within their ‘home’ and in the broader community. Through this partnership, All-Together Housing stives towards the provision of support to tenants to achieve successful tenancies and a better quality of life in the community.

The QCHP is guided by four goals:

1. Ensure that appropriate clients are referred to the buildings.
2. Ensure that tenants have the support they need to maintain successful tenancy
3. Ensure that early identification of individual tenant needs leads to i) a reduction in social isolation, ii) opportunities for assuming leadership roles and iii) greater involvement in the decisions that affect tenants within their ‘home’ and community.
4. Work collaboratively to build strong relationships with all partners.

Our model is being implemented at two dwellings in Belleville. Importantly, these locations are mixed-income, multi-residential dwellings, reflective of our goal to offer socially inclusive and economically diverse multi-residential dwellings. We are looking for support from a team of students to evaluate the success of all parties involved in QCHP in achieving the four goals of the partnership. We would also like research-based evidence of our success in fostering socially inclusive and economically diverse dwellings in the region.

City of Kingston

In collaboration with the Frontenac Lennox & Addington Ontario Health Team (FLA OHT), KFL&A Public Health, and others.

Project: Co-Designing a Regional Health & Social Data Governance Consortium: A Community-Informed Framework for the Kingston Region/Eastern Ontario 

This project will support the early-stage design and stakeholder alignment necessary to establish a Health & Social Data Governance Consortium in Eastern Ontario, with Kingston as a leading node. The goal is to explore and codevelop a framework for governance, collaboration, and regional alignment that enables safe, ethical, and effective use of shared data to support improved population health, social outcomes, and planning decisions. Graduate students will conduct jurisdictional scans, stakeholder interviews, and apply participatory methods to explore how regional actors—including municipalities, public health units, health service providers, researchers, and community organizations—can align around shared data governance principles and technology platforms like Esri’s ArcGIS Hub. 

Project Context: Building on the City of Kingston’s initiative to position itself as a “leading community of practice” in health data integration and on the region's growing interest in collaborative GIS-based planning, this project emerges at a critical moment. Current efforts across jurisdictions are often siloed, and many actors (including nonprofits, municipalities, and health organizations) lack clarity around data ownership, privacy standards, platform access, and role delineation.

For more project details see this PDF document.