McMaster’s Office of Community Engagement

McMaster University’s Office of Community Engagement partners with groups, organizations and individuals to strengthen approaches to creating healthier communities. Over the last year, more than 2,500 McMaster students were trained in community engagement.

The McMaster Community Poverty Initiative is one such initiative that exemplifies our approach and our commitment to the SDGs. It brings together faculty, students, and staff not only with community groups, but also with people living in poverty. Another initiative, The McMaster Research Shop, works with public, non-profit, and community organizations in Hamilton to provide plain-language answers to research questions.

International Black Health Conference  

Ingrid Waldron, the HOPE Chair in Peace and Health in the Global Peace and Social Justice Program in the Faculty of Humanities, collaborated with community partners and groups to organize the International Black Health Conference to address health disparities in Black communities. The first of its kind in Canada, the conference brought together researchers, health policymakers, community organizers, government officials and members of diverse Black communities — all stakeholders who need to develop cross-sectoral partnerships in order to create better health outcomes for Black communities. 

Prison Education Project 

The McMaster Indigenous Research Institute’s Prison Education Project?increases access to?post-secondary education?for?incarcerated Indigenous peoples. The project brings university courses into prison settings through the Walls to Bridges?Program; introduces post-incarceration support for students living in transition homes and offers mentorship to assist formerly incarcerated people who are interested in applying for university as full or part-time students with administrative and?social?support, supplies,?tutoring, and professional development. 

Chronic disease prevention in vulnerable newcomer populations 

SCORE! — Strengthening Community Roots: Anchoring Newcomers and Sustainability is a project focused on co-creating interventions aimed at preventing chronic disease in vulnerable populations in an east Hamilton community. With $870,000 support from the federal government, the project will foster partnerships between families, schools, government, health-care facilities and community organizations. to optimize healthy active living to prevent obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The community-driven project will target behavioural risk factors, such as unhealthy eating and physical inactivity, which can lead to chronic diseases that significantly contribute to cardiovascular disease.

Reimagining Primary Care

Helping people stay healthier longer is the goal of Health Tapestry, a McMaster University outreach program that is improving health, driving down the cost of health care, and further strengthening McMaster’s connection to our local community.

Tapestry is just one of five key community-focused initiatives of the David Braley Primary Care Research Collaborative, led by McMaster’s family medicine department.

It also includes programs aimed at lowering the number of medications an individual takes, reducing 911 emergency calls, enhancing health for those who are incarcerated in local jails, and connecting with Indigenous clients.

All of these programs deliver health care focused on the person, not the traditional disease-centred model.

Tapestry trains volunteers to visit older patients where they live to help understand their health goals and identify needs such as social isolation, nutrition, and polypharmacy issues. The volunteers then share the information with medical professionals and help to link the patient with community programs and assistance that go beyond doctor visits or trips to the hospital.

The initial 421 clients saw reduced visits to emergency rooms and fewer hospitalizations, reducing health-care expenses by close to $250,000 in just over six months.

The research collaborative launched in September 2020 through a $4 million investment — seeded by a $1 million contribution by philanthropist David Braley.

School of Nursing outreach programs

• Administering COVID-19 vaccines: McMaster Nursing Students worked in the local community to administer vaccines as part of their placement process. Through this initiative, McMaster Nursing students contributed meaningfully to the largest public health intervention in Canadian History.  
• COVID-19 testing centre volunteer work: Nursing faculty and students are serving the McMaster community as volunteers within McMaster’s Asymptomatic Covid-19 Testing Centre on campus. Nursing student volunteers are serving in leadership and staffing roles at the clinic. 
• Aging Community Health Research Unit: Faculty members from the School of Nursing are engaged in enhancing physical and community mobility for older adults. Examples of these collaborations include improving hospital to home transitions, engaging older adults as patient partners, and enhancing mobility. 
• BScN program community setting experiences: Students in this program engage in professional practice experiences which require the application of this knowledge to practice in communities and community settings. McMaster nursing students have:
  
  • Enabled communities to collect and analyse information to support grant applications to fund community projects. 
  • Developed health education materials with communities tailored to best meet their needs and preferences. 
  • Assisted with language classes (in class practice with newcomers), literacy for children (reading buddy) and with the McQuesten Urban Farm

Nursing student community health experiences also include working with children, youth, older adults, seniors, helping others live well with chronic diseases such as diabetes, mental illnesses or addictions.

• McMaster Student Outreach Collaborative: One of the local outreach programs of McMaster University’s School of Nursing is the McMaster Student Outreach Collaborative (MacSOC. This is an interdisciplinary group of volunteer students, staff and faculty who work with the community to provide food, clothing, basic personal needs, health information, and foot care to those who are marginally housed, homeless, or at risk of homelessness in the City of Hamilton. MacSOC led a mask-drive early on in the pandemic, supplying masks to marginalized members of the local community. 

Free vision screening for school children

EYE MAC is a multidisciplinary, not-for-profit community project that brings together Hamilton’s eye care professionals, school boards, and the McMaster Pediatric Eye Research Group (MPERG) to deliver high-quality free vision screening to school children.

The project has developed an evidence-based method of training volunteer vision screeners to a high standard. Volunteers perform vision screening in schools, where children with reduced vision are identified and referred to local optometrists for further care and treatment.

MPERG founder and director Dr. Kourosh Sabri is currently working on a project that will help create accessible vision care for Indigenous children living in northern Ontario. The project involved screening children as well as training local health-care workers in how to conduct vision screenings. The results of the project can act as a major catalyst towards enabling other health-care providers to create a uniquely Indigenous-focused vision care program for the many other children in underserved parts of Canada.

McMaster Optimal Aging Portal

The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal is a free database that curates the best available scientific research evidence on health and aging for the general public (as well as providing a comprehensive inventory of scientific reports for clinicians and public health professionals).

Evidence Summaries provide key messages from research that’s ready to be acted on; Web Resources Ratings are evaluations that specify whether free resources on the internet are based on scientific research; and Blog Posts are commentaries on what the scientific research on a topic actually means and why good science matters.

The Portal has also published information for the public on how older adults are an integral part of the solution in reaching the 17 SDGs.

Indigenous Health Learning Lodge

The Indigenous Health Learning Lodge (IHLL) works alongside the Faculty of Health Sciences towards creating a learning environment that is culturally safe – to work with humility to enable sustainable systems change and to advance the work around concepts of truth, reconciliation and anti-colonization with all aspects of Indigenous health and well-being.

The Indigenous Early Career Women’s Heart and Brain Health Chair at McMaster University helps train health professionals to treat Indigenous women with heart disease in a culturally relevant way. The five-year program will tap into both Indigenous and Western knowledge to help Indigenous women to self-manage their heart disease and/or risk factors.

The Sustainable Future Program

The Sustainable Future Program in McMaster University’s Academic Sustainability Programs Office encourages students to develop and implement a sustainability-focused project within the community. For instance, students have worked with CityHousing Hamilton to help residents of two seniors’ buildings participate in the city-run wellness programs. The students worked with city staff and residents to identify barriers and opportunities for engagement.

Community fridge

This student-led initiative began as a third-year Academic Sustainability project. Born out of students’ concern their peers over food insecurity, it is a collaboration between students, the McMaster Student Wellness Centre and the McMaster Student Union’s Food Collective. The McMaster Community Fridge shelter was built by staff from Facility Services and artfully painted by Selina Shi, through a collaboration with the McMaster School of the Arts and volunteers. The shelter’s artwork was designed to confront the stigma associated with food insecurity, and the layout respects privacy and dignity. 

McMaster Children and Youth University

The McMaster Children and Youth University (MCYU) delivers free programming for children and youth aged 7 to 14 in all areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM), including topics such as healthy eating, diabetes prevention, and science education.

This longstanding, successful initiative offers on-campus lectures by university professors as well as community outreach workshops facilitated by McMaster University students. MCYU’s goal is to empower and academically prepare youth, especially those at a socioeconomic disadvantage. All our programs focus on family learning, which allows for greater long-term retention of the health information and overall well-being of children, youth, and their families.

Free higher education for the community

The McMaster Discovery Program, offered through the Arts & Science Program of McMaster University, is a free course for Hamilton residents who have experienced barriers to post-secondary education. Students in the course have overcome a variety of hurdles, including financial obstacles, health issues, accessibility problems, and social conditions.

The program inspires lifelong learning, encouraging participants to consider higher education and learn how to contribute to society. Launched in 2011, the McMaster Discovery Program has covered topics such as “Plagues and the People of Hamilton” and “Diversity and Resiliency: Human Differences and Our Ability to Overcome Challenges.”

Downtown Health Sciences Centre

Located in downtown Hamilton across from city hall, the David Braley Health Sciences Centre combines the McMaster University’s Department of Family Medicine and numerous educational programs with a large family health clinic and Hamilton’s Public Health Services — brought together to promote and easily facilitate these critical health services within the community. The Centre welcomes 54,000 patient visits each year and is home to 550 staff.

Sport Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre

The David Braley Sport Medicine & Rehabilitation Centre is a world-class facility located on the McMaster University campus in the David Braley Athletic Centre. The Centre is open to McMaster athletes, students, faculty, staff, and the Hamilton community. Our team of experts work in partnership with other health-care providers to optimize performance and help everyone from youth to elite athletes achieve their personal goals and improve their well-being.

PACE (Physical Activity Centre of Excellence)

PACE is a specialized exercise training and research centre where scientists, students, and staff are committed to improving the health and well-being of seniors and adults with chronic health conditions and disability. PACE is home to state-of-the-art laboratories where a team of exercise physiologists, neuroscientists, and exercise psychologists study and enhance the benefits of exercise for people with cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. Research initiatives at PACE are supported by McMaster’s internationally renowned faculty in the department of Kinesiology. PACE provides five community-based exercise programs led by a team of registered physiotherapists, registered kinesiologists, certified exercise physiologists, and more than 200 McMaster undergraduate students. 

LiveWell

LiveWell is an innovative partnership between McMaster’s School of Rehabilitation Science, the YMCA of Hamilton/Burlington/Brantford, and Hamilton Health Sciences. Through LiveWell, SRS provides services to the Hamilton community through programs such as MAC H2OPE and Fit for Function.  

• The MAC H2OPE clinic provides free occupational therapy and physiotherapy services to eligible adults in downtown Hamilton. The clinic merges opportunities for rehabilitation service delivery, student learning, and research to improve the health of people in downtown Hamilton. Rehabilitative services are provided through a consultative model by either registered therapists or student therapists
• Fit for Function is a community-based wellness program for people with stroke that combines group and individual exercise sessions, and education and support through the Living with Stroke program. 

Free online course promotes fitness for all

Hacking Exercise for Health: The surprising new science of fitness is a free online course presented by exercise physiologists Martin Gibala and Stuart Phillips, both professors in McMaster University’s Department of Kinesiology. The course features tools and techniques to help even the most inexperienced exercisers get fit and strong, while exploring the cutting-edge science behind cardio fitness and strength-building.

Spicing up community outreach

Student Proposals for Intellectual Community and Engaged Scholarship (SPICES), offered through the School of Graduate Studies at McMaster University, is a non-academic program that supports creative projects addressing a community need or opportunity. Recent examples include “Let’s Talk Health”, a podcast on health economics, and “Science on tap”, a public lecture series. Other projects have offered reading and activity groups for people with intellectual disabilities, helped incarcerated youth train rescue dogs, and delivered programs that support student and seniors living together.

The Hamilton Anchor Institution Leadership (HAIL)

HAIL brings together a cross-section of institutional and private sector leaders in Hamilton — McMaster University, healthcare institutions, industry leaders, local school boards — to find common solutions on major issues such as the community health and integrated health and social support for the city. HAIL was conceptualized in October 2011 during a McMaster health forum that focused on addressing the health and poverty issues at the neighbourhood level.

Master of Science in Global Health Practicum

Prioritizing work-integrated learning, the Global Health program requires students to complete a ten-week practicum to gain hands-on experience in the global health field, with activities targeted to the UN SDGs, students complete practicums global and local organization. For example, one of the practicums targeting SDGs at the local level was a group focused on community-based solutions for menstrual health and hygiene through education, advocacy and improved facilities.

Cancer care in Kenya

Andrea Hemmerich, sessional faculty member in the W Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology, has been working to support a new collaboration between Academics Without Borders and Meru University of Science and Technology in their pursuit to develop a curriculum that works to equip the Kenyan population with more professionals in cancer care.