Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR)
Last Updated on December 14th, 2011
Based in the city of Saskatoon, The Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR) is a partnership between community-based organizations and researchers (both students and faculty) at the University of Saskatchewan. The alliance not only serves to improve the research capacity of organizations but also enhances the quality of life of the people within those communities. CUISR focuses on three main research modules: community health determinants and health policy; community economic development; and quality of life indicators.
Isobel Findlay, CUISR’s Academic and Research Co-Director, is leading the leading the research being done in Saskatchewan. Dr. Findlay (M.A. Aberdeen, M.A. Sask, Ph.D. McGill) is an associate professor in the Department of Management and Marketing, and a Scholar with the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives. She teaches business communication, business and community, co-operative studies, and law and culture. An active member of CUISR since 2003 and associate member of the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO), she is committed to interdisciplinary and collaborative research on Aboriginal and associative organizations, Indigenous women’s CED, membership and identity, law and culture, crosscultural communication, postcolonial education, community 
economic development, and justice. A proud recipient of a University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union Teaching Excellence Award, she is also co-winner of the Saskatchewan Book Awards Scholarly Writing Award, 2000.
Assisting Isobel with project management and administration is Mark Brown, CUISR’s Community-University Liaison.
Linking, Learning, Leveraging research projects being led by CUISR are:
- A Place to Learn, Work, and Heal : An Evaluation of Crocus Co-operative (CL4-07-SK) | Completed
- Advancing the Saskatchewan Co-operative Sector: Mapping Development Needs of Co-operatives in Emerging, Under-represented, and Struggling Sectors (CL1-17-SK)
- Building Social Economy Support in Urban Settings (CL5-20-SK)
- Collaborative Governance Model Initiatives (CL3-05-SK)
- Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Innovation: The Case of the Social Economy in La Ronge (CL4-03-SK) | Completed
- Cypress Hills Abilities Centres, Inc.: Exploring Alternatives (CL1-16-SK) | Completed
- Evaluation of Crocus Co-operative (CL4-07-SK)
- Evaluation of Saskatoon Urban Aboriginal Strategy (CL1-23-SK) | Completed
- Exploring Key Informants’ Experiences with Self-Directed Funding (CL5-06-SK) | Completed
- Exploring Social Entrepreneurship in Saskatchewan (CL5-16-SK)
- Exploring the Social Economy in Saskatchewan: Urban, Rural and Northern (CL4-19-SK)
- Factors Affecting the Decisions of International Students and their Spouses to Settle in Saskatchewan/Canada (CL5-17-SK)
- Growing Pains: Social Enterprise in Saskatoon’s Core Neighbourhoods (CL4-04-SK) | Completed
- Houses and Communities: Learning from a Case Study of Co-operative Assisted Home Ownership in Saskatchewan (CL5-14-SK)
- Investing in the Successful Reintegration of Aboriginal Peoples Returning from Incarceration in Federal, Provincial, and Youth Institutions (CL1-19-SK)
- Leading a Vibrant Co-operative Sector: A Communications Strategy for Saskatchewan Co-operative Association (CL1-18-SK)
- Lessons Learned on the Justice Trapline (CL5-18-SK)
- Linking, Learning, Leveraging: Sustainable Social Economy Organizations in Rural, Southeast Saskatchewan: A Research Report (CL4-02-SK)
- Mapping Health Disparity: The Role of the Social Economy in Duck Lake (CL1-26-SK)
- Mapping Social Capital in a Network of Community Development Organizations (CL4-05-SK)
- A New Vision for Saskatchewan: Changing Lives and Systems Through Individualized Funding for People with Intellectual Disabilities (CL1-15-SK) | Completed
- Overcoming Barriers to Worker Co-operative Development in Saskatchewan: Problems, Prospects, and Proposals (CL1-25-SK)
- Participatory Action Research: Challenges, Complications, and Opportunities (CL1-05-SK) | Completed
- Self-determination in Action: The Entrepreneurship of the Northern Saskatchewan Trappers Association Co-operative (CL3-01-SK) | Completed
- Self Directed Funding: An Evaluation of Existing Self-Managed Contracts in Saskatchewan (CL5-19-SK)
- Self Directed Funding Supporting National Partnership Building and Developing a Model that can Work for All (CL5-21-SK)
- Sharing our gifts: The Story of Ohpahow Wawesecikiwak Arts Marketing Co-operative Limited (CL1-20-SK)
- South Bay Park Rangers Employment Project For Persons Living with a Disability: A Case Study in Individual Empowerment and Community Interdependence (CL5-15-SK) | Completed
- Through the Eyes of Women: What Social Economy Can Mean in Supporting Women During Confinement and Integration (CL1-31-SK)
- Urban Aboriginal Strategy Funding Database (CL1-14-SK)| Completed
Research Units and Clusters
economic development, and justice. A proud recipient of a University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union Teaching Excellence Award, she is also co-winner of the Saskatchewan Book Awards Scholarly Writing Award, 2000.
