Course:LFS350/Projects/2014W1/T25/Proposal
Version Control
| Version | Author | Changes | Date |
| 15.0 | Ivy | Addition of details of questionnaire in Methods | Oct. 28 |
| 14.0 | Tina | Modification of Success Factors/ Criteria | Oct. 28 |
| 13.0 | Kelsey | Addition of approval/Edits to research question/Added Creswell reference | Oct. 28 |
| 12.0 | Samer | Addition of approval/New rough methods section | Oct. 4/ Oct. 26 |
| 11.0 | Tina | Addition of approval | Oct. 4 |
| 10.0 | Ivy Wong | Revision and completion of Methods section | Oct. 3 |
| 9.0 | Kelsey Grey | Revisions for fluidity, reformatted success factors | Oct. 3 |
| 8.0 | Angel Chen | Edit of stakeholder summary | Sept. 30 |
| 7.0 | Kelsey Grey | Edits for fluidity and punctuation | Sept. 29 |
| 6.0 | Wing | Project background added + minor edits overall | Sept. 28 |
| 5.0 | Tina | Addition of Success Factors/Criteria | Sept. 28 |
| 4.0 | Cindy Sontani | Minor edits in communication plan and milestone section | Sept. 28 |
| 3.0 | Ivy Wong | Edited format of Methods section | Sept. 28 |
| 2.0 | Kelsey Grey | Added Purpose and Research Questions portion | Sept. 28 |
| 1.0 | Ivy Wong | Initial version-added to stakeholder summary and methods | Sept. 27 |
Project Background (__ / 10)
The Hastings Sunrise neighbourhood has a rich and deep history in food initiatives including programs at two neighbourhood houses: Kiwassa and Frog's Hollow, and two community centres: Hastings and Thunderbird. The Hastings Sunrise Community Food Network was created in 2012 to better connect these programs with other food related initiatives in the community and to strengthen its capacity for a viable and resilient food system (HSCFN, 2014).
The role of the network is to:
- build individual and community capacity for food security
- learn about the needs of the community and to identify gaps in programs, services, and information
- provide insight, share best practices and bring service providers together to build a just, sustainable, and resilient food system in Hastings Sunrise (HSCFN, 2014).
What we need to be aware of is that the network is still in the stage of development. One of the activities identified in their Strategic Business Plan (HSCFN, 2014) is to focus on resources sharing to facilitate efficient and collaborative access to and use of space, labour, tools, seeds, and food. A problem that has been revealed in the current network is the lack of communication between the various food programs and services. There is little collaboration between the neighbourhood houses and community centres despite the existence of the food network and this may lead to duplicated services and other inefficiencies. As such, our primary goal is to work within the Hastings Sunrise neighbourhood to create an inventory of food programs, services, and business relationships in order to establish the baseline for resource sharing by the food service providers. Through this inventory, we hope to provide community partners with a basis to increase collaboration so that resources can be more efficiently allocated, shared, and utilized to sustain a healthier food system.
Stakeholder Summary (__ /5)
| Name, Role & Organization | Responsibilities |
| Angel Chan
Cindy Sontani Di Wing Wu Ivy Wong Kelsey Grey Yilin Li Samer Naoum Tina Li All members |
|
| Joanne Mackinnon |
|
| Community partners |
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| Nicolas Talloni |
|
Purpose and Research Question (__ / 20)
Our primary goal is to create an inventory of food programs, services, and the business relationships of the four main entities of the Hastings Sunrise Community Food Network: Kiwassa Neighbourhood House (NH), Frog's Hollow Neighbourhood House, Hastings Community Centre (CC), and Thunderbird Community Centre. If in the course of our research we should discover additional food programs in the neighbourhood that are not currently in direct collaboration with the network they will be included. This inventory will provide the network steering committee with a base of data that they may use to more effectively share resources and avoid duplicating programs. The information gathered regarding the CCs and NHs various business relationships will allow the network to develop these relationships and leverage their collective buying power.
Main research question: How can we assist the Hastings Sunrise Community Food Network to more efficiently allocate resources and improve their business relationships?
Key Questions:
What food programs and services are in place at the neighbourhood houses and community centres?
- Where is the food used in these programs coming from?
- What is/are the source(s) of funding for the programs?
What are their business relationships with food providers such as wholesalers and grocers?
- Is there overlap between the CCs and NHs in terms of where they are purchasing or receiving their food? If so, would it be possible to take advantage of this overlap to increase their buying power and build the business relationship?
Methods (__ / 20)
We will be using a mixed method approach for the data collection portion of this project. As described in the paper by John Creswell, a mixed method approach has come to age and to use only one type of data collection method falls short of current major research approaches used today (Creswell, 2003). To begin, we will take our theoretical idea of creating a more efficient inventory system and combine that with a simple research design by creating a survey to collect information from the community partners regarding food services, programs, and business relationships. If in the course of our research we should discover additional food programs in the neighbourhood that are not currently in direct collaboration with the network they will be included. This survey will be designed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data.
Questions in this survey will consist of both open and closed ended questions; with general closed-ended questions that each include a number of open-ended questions for the community partners to explain and expand. We will implement this strategy by giving our completed survey to Joanne MacKinnon, the director of the Hastings Sunrise Community Food Network who will then distribute our survey to the community partners who are the heads of the community centres (CC) and neighbourhood houses (NH). Through these methods, we hope to gain a key source of information about the current inventory of the Hastings Sunrise Community Food Network. The procedures we plan to use will be considered concurrent because we plan to “converge” all the qualitative and quantitative data we receive from the surveys in order to understand and create a complete analysis of the problem we are trying to solve (Creswell, 2003). There are no major ethical considerations in collecting the data; however, as a group we commit to not sharing any information (e.g. regarding funding or business relationships) with anyone outside the network.
1. Survey
Advantages
- Easy to administer, convenient
- Can be completed remotely (online, email, telephone)
- Numerous questions can be asked
- Can collect data on opinions and suggestions
Disadvantages
- Responses are subjective
- Possibility of misinterpretation of questions
2. Data Synthesis
- Create an inventory by compiling answers provided by the community partners
- Use compiled data to draw conclusions about ways to improve resource sharing and business relationships within the food network
- Completed inventory will be used by Group 24 in creating their Food Asset Map
Deliverables (__ / 5)
To the Hastings Sunrise Community Food Network:
- A survey designed to collect data about the food services and programs and business relationships in place at the CCs and NHs
- A Prezi version of the systems model of the Hastings Sunrise Community Food Network
- Detailed information regarding available community services, including those previously not in collaboration with the network
- Updates on project progress
- Final report (end of November) as an inventory of food programs and services and an exploration of the network's business relationships and how they can be improved
- Strengthened communication among the community partners
- Ensure that the online and print versions of the inventory of community services are accessible to the community partners upon completion
Success Factors/Criteria (__ / 10)
The success of our project will be determined by our ability to:
- Uncover new potential resources in the community
- Provide decision makers with novel information regarding the resources available between the different Community Centres and Neighbourhood Houses in the Hastings Sunrise area
From our findings, we hope to:
- create more dialogue between the community centres and neighbourhood houses
- showcase the resources available to the community
We are hoping that our findings will be useful for stakeholders and decision makers to determine
- ways to effectively allocate resources
- resources which could be shared by all
- presence of duplicate programs
- areas in which programs are lacking
- plausible collective buying power
Scope Change
Scope changes requested by any stakeholder of the project must be agreed upon, approved and signed by all stakeholders. The agreed format is to revise this charter with version controls. Because this is critical to keep track of, the version control is displayed at the beginning of the charter.
Discussion
Communication Plan (__ / 5)
| Action Item | Deliverable | Dates | Accountable |
| Weekly Updates | Progress Report (bullet points) | Wednesdays and as needed |
|
| Group meeting (outside class hours) | Project discussion | Variable |
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| Information sharing as it becomes available | Project Specific Information | Ongoing |
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| Discussion on Wiki page | Updates on progress | Ongoing |
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Milestones (__ / 5)
| Milestone | Event or Deliverable | Target Date | Responsibility |
| Milestone 1 | Initial communication with Joanne | Wednesday, Sept. 17 | Tina Li |
| Milestone 2 | First meeting with Joanne | Thursday, Sept. 25 | Group 25 |
| Milestone 3 | Proposal Presentation | Wednesday, Oct. 1 | Group 25 |
| Milestone 4 | Sent final survey to Joanne | Thursday, Oct. 16 | Tina |
| Milestone 5 | Survey sent to all stakeholders | Thursday, Oct. 23 | Joanne |
| Milestone 6 | Final Presentation | Wednesday, Nov. 26 | Group 25 |
Approvals (__ / 5)
The following individuals hereby approve this Project Charter:
| Role or Title | Name and Signature | Date |
| Group Member | Angel Chen | November 1, 2014 |
| Group Member | Ivy Wong | October 28, 2014 |
| Group Member | Kelsey Grey | October 28, 2014 |
| Course TA | Nicolas Talloni | October 14, 2014 |
| Group Member | Tina Li | November 1, 2014 |
| Representative from Group 24 | Phoebe Luk | November 1, 2014 |
| Group Member | Angel Chen | October 4, 2014 |
| Group Member | Cindy Sontani | November 1, 2014 |
| Group Member | Samer Naoum | October 4, 2014 |
References (__ / 5)
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.
Hastings Sunrise Community Food Network. Retrieved September 28, 2014 from http://hscfn.com/
Writing Quality (__ / 10)
For a proposal report to receive full writing quality marks, it should be well organized and easy to read. It should address all of the topics articulated in the assignment details above, and it should be free of grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes.