A valuable community service organization, Peterborough Youth Services (PYS) delivers a variety of support programs for youth and families across the region. Over the past year, five Trent University students collaborated with PYS on a series of community-based research projects—facilitated by the Trent Community Research Centre (TCRC) looking to strengthen their services and programs.

Research Findings Support Family Programs 

With PYS, students led projects evaluating mental health services and crisis response programs, developing new tools for caregiver support and youth custody alternatives, creating tools to measure outcomes of counselling, and assessing the accessibility of the Family Program. They put their academic knowledge to work alongside their supervising faculty to make a lasting impact in the Peterborough community. 

Fourth-year Forensic Science student Chloe Hunt evaluated the Family Program at PYS from an employee perspective, revealing strong support for the program’s accessibility, inclusivity, and responsiveness. Chloe’s research also highlighted the need for greater collaboration among youth-serving organizations, which is an insight that PYS say they are eager to act on.

“This project allowed me to feel connected to the community in a way I hadn’t before. I learned valuable research skills, got a deeper understanding of what it means to work in a community setting, and felt incredibly supported by my faculty supervisor and the team at the Trent Community Research Centre. I would recommend the experience to any student,” Chloe said. 

Building Capacity for Community Organizations

For Peterborough Youth Services, the collaboration brought fresh perspectives and a much-needed boost in capacity. 

“As a small nonprofit, we often lack the time, staff, and funding to take on full program evaluations or research projects,” said Amie Kroes, manager of youth justice programs at PYS. “The students gave us people power and access to academic tools and knowledge we simply would not have had on our own. [Students] brought new energy, asked thoughtful questions, and helped us reflect on how we work. Their findings are helping us improve how we serve youth and families.” 

The five PYS research projects were among more than 50 research projects involving 100 Trent students working alongside 30 community organization, many featured during Trent’s annual Celebration of Community-Based Research, which showcases the broad range of student research happening across the University. 

Students get involved for a variety of reasons including contributing real-world outcomes for the community, professional development to build a diverse skillset, plus networking with local organizations and faculty to start building a career that is meaningful to them.  

“It showed me how research can be meaningful outside of the classroom. I was doing work that mattered to people in my own community. That’s something I’ll carry with me long after graduation,” said Chloe.