Shauna MacKinnon with Joel Templeman and Shanleigh Chartrand
North End Connect was established during the COVID-19 pandemic by organizations situated on Selkirk Avenue. They were concerned about the pandemic’s impact on low-income households in the neighbourhood who were further disadvantaged because they did not have access to the internet. They wanted to better understand the challenges related to digital exclusion and identify potential solutions. In 2021 Joel Templeman, Executive Director of the Internet Society (Manitoba Chapter) and graduate student at the University of Calgary approached the MRA for support for the research component of this community-led project. Since then, North End Connect has moved from research to action, working in collaboration with the community toward its digital inclusion goals.
The MRA wanted to learn more about North End Connect’s transformative research approach and the status of the project. MRA Principal Investigator Shauna MacKinnon spoke with Joel Templeman and Shanleigh Chartrand about North End Connect. Their conversation is below, edited for length.
The Manitoba Research Alliance (MRA) describes its approach to research as one that aims to “transform the process and power-base of knowledge production, to contribute to research from suppressed vantage points and to create knowledge for action and change.”
When asked how North End Connect has subscribed to the MRA approach to transformative research, Joel said that he followed the CLOUT model developed by earlier MRA research (MacKinnon, Hill & Roussin 2018). The CLOUT model is a community-based participatory research approach initially developed in 2008 by a local group of Indigenous women leaders of community-based organizations in Winnipeg’s inner-city. It engages with community partners and program participants throughout the research process, beginning with identifying a research need and designing the research including methods to be used. The CLOUT model integrates local capacity in the research process and moves to an action phase following the completion of research.
The conversation with Joel revealed multiple aspects that demonstrate the transformative potential of North End Connect.
The community-led participatory research framework
As described by Joel, [North End Connect] didn’t come up with the model, but we used a model that in itself is very transformative…We absolutely didn’t follow the kind of standard process”. Joel described using a community-led research approach that:
was very important and probably really the key to the success of it all…I think what the research ended up doing was opening doors for us [the research team]. And it’s interesting because this wasn’t a research team that was different than the implementation team…so all of the work that we did in the beginning was beneficial to ourselves and our future.
Joel described the importance of the community-led research process that also guided the implementation of the technical work that followed.
[the research approach] was a gift to our future selves. We legitimately had questions, from the design and implementation side. We [technicians] could come up with a dozen different technical solutions, how it’s connected, what kind of technology to use, where certain things could be located, [but] there was no good way for us, as kind of outsiders to the neighborhood, to fully understand the problem. So, that was really the reason for the research from the very beginning.
Joel was asked how he felt about taking a research approach that moved beyond research to action. Joel reflected on that for a bit. He said he was always interested in research that led to action, but the participatory nature of this project far exceeded his initial understanding of what a participatory action research project would look like.
I assumed there would be a clear delineation between the research ending and the project starting. I don’t know what world I thought that was in, but that is, uh, the farthest thing from what happened, but in the best possible way. The research has kind of technically ended, but the research relationship, the people that we talked to, um, are still involved…still commenting and contributing and tweaking…they’ve kind of gone from being research participants to project recipients…a lot of them have, received computers or some training or, you know, in the case of [one participant] she’s been involved in teaching assistance in the classroom. So we actually employed her for a bit. So, people who were subjects in the research that we just happened to meet or bump into, became active participants in the implementation. So we’ve had a couple people now receive computers and say, man, this is so amazing. I would love to help, like deliver computers or come to training or help with whatever. So the people who have been involved as a receiver of this product have also become involved in the process as well.. So, as far as this being a community led and community involved project, that is all actually happening.
Joel went on to talk about the importance of the research process and the impact it is having in the community. He said although the research might have been done differently —“I could have sat in an office by myself and read some books and read some articles and done it by myself”— it would not have had the same impact.
“having to come into the community and meet people and discuss the issues, you [get] different viewpoints… I think it, it opened doors… if I came in, knocked on person’s door and said, hey, I want to ask you a bunch of questions…they’d be like “ Who are you? Please go away…
Having taken a different approach, engaging with community members with established relationships resulted in a different response. It was more typical that people responded positively when asked to participate in the research.
…I have this research project and I am interested if you have some feedback…Oh, absolutely. Come on in …and that would grease the wheels of a lot of conversations. The majority of people believed it was needed and worthwhile…They didn’t kick you out after the first sentence.
Joel said that continuing with this community-engaged approach beyond the research through the implementation stage also made a difference.
Getting in the door was one thing… each of those interviews, led to different avenues [and] an incremental kind of slow build. And we never pushed. We never push the agenda. Timelines were thrown out immediately, but we still had progress. So, we focus on progress and quality and not speed for sure. [It has been] way slower than we thought it would be. But at the end of the day, I think it’s like the turtle and the hare, right? Like, I think that we could have gone faster and run into roadblocks faster and ultimately probably be in the same place or further behind that way…So because we went slow and because we just let the situation dictate the next step or the next thing, we learned a couple of things. One, we didn’t make mistakes having to repeat and completely redo stuff, but I think we’re also open to things that we never predicted, which I think if you’re going too fast, you miss those.
Joel commented further on the importance of having the time to move as slowly as needed. He said the MRA’s flexibility on timelines made a big difference, as did the fact that there was no competition:
we kind of knew that going in. We were the only show in town, so we weren’t competing against outside pressures. [However], we are competing against our own internal pressure because we want to get this stuff done.
Working with community beyond the research
While the Internet Society Manitoba Chapter continues to work toward its goal of internet connectivity, North End Connect is working with the community to provide computers and computer training. Shanleigh Chartrand, North End Connect Project Coordinator, has been coordinating the distribution of computers and organizing training. In March 2024 she shared that the project had distributed close to 400 computers, with more being delivered daily.
Joel and Shanleigh emphasized the critical partnership with Computers for Schools Manitoba. They will soon be adding smart phones to their distribution. The number of applications is increasing as word spreads about the project. North End Connect is offering training sessions at various venues, including St. Johns Library. They continue to adapt the training to meet the needs of their participants.
Shanleigh spoke to the importance of digital inclusion, noting that the COVID 19 pandemic taught us that access to computers and connectivity to the internet must be viewed as a human right. It is near impossible to function without it.
Joel emphasized that this isn’t easy. “there are a lot of moving parts and things could easily fall apart because it’s not like there’s a quick beginning and a quick end.”
The North End Connect project is now entering the final stage of implementation at Merchants Corner. Antennas are in place on the rooftop of Merchants Corner, and the project has agreements with other buildings in the neighbourhood. The Internet Society recently signed a deal with a major network and work is underway to put that into place. Joel explained:
So, now that we have the equipment in place, we need to be able to kind of manage it and get it working and get users on it.
Building capacity
Joel described how building capacity has been an integral part of the process from the start:
That has been neat to see because I’ve been on my own journey from knowing the technical side but knowing nothing about the community. Yeah, learning all the nuances of the community. At the same time, I’m watching the community [learn the technical side]. Like Shelley. She has actually spliced fiber optic cable and she’s made like network cables. Yeah. You know, on a rooftop… we’re breaking down at least, the mental barriers for people to try to learn something in a field that has a huge barrier to entry.
Joel went on to say:
[this] is something that everybody else takes for granted. But it just opens up the idea “I learned that one thing I guess I could learn [more]. And that’s a huge, big thing.
When asked why he thought they were having success in demystifying the technology, Joel said:
I think it’s the approach. I think the key reason that it’s working is because of the approach that we’re taking, which was learned from all of the other projects before us and supported through the research and through all of the people that we’ve met. So, the approach was key as is the kind of incremental learning. It’s a buffet of knowledge. People can come and pick and choose as much as they want.
From research to action: hardware and connectivity
Digital inclusion requires access to both computers and connectivity to the internet. North End Connect is working with the Internet Society Manitoba Chapter and Computers for Schools Manitoba to ensure that everyone who needs a computer, has one. But that’s the easy part. Joel noted learning from the research that Wi-Fi access in the neighbourhod surrounding Merchants Corner is very limited. North End Connect is currently focused on expanding public access points. Expanding home access using local rooftops in the neighbourhood will follow. Joel emphasized that “you can get people a device and all that kind of stuff, but when you can get the connection into the home that is going to actually impact your day.”
This will be far more difficult than expanding public access points in places like Merchants Corner, especially when it comes to multi-unit buildings. Joel explains that:
it is technically possible”, but service providers currently benefit financially from providing service to individual tenants. “So what we need to do, and we’re doing this now, is negotiating with the service providers to go from either commercial or residential feeds, to a wholesale feed” so entire buildings can share access. The Internet Society is exploring models used in other jurisdictions, such as a Co-Op model in the District of Columbia (DC) in the U.S.
Removing the profit motive and the role of government
Joel was emphatic that North End Connect’s commitment to a non-profit solution has been extremely important. He said “when you remove profit it allows all of these things to happen.” He described a variety of in-kind contributions. “[For example] I have tens of thousands of dollars of equipment sitting waiting to go. All donated.” He also described the contributions of organizations like Merchants Corner, St. Johns Library and other organizations that are providing space for meetings, training and distribution.
Looking to the future, North End Connect would like to see more active participation from governments, including the provincial Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation (MHRC) to ensure internet access, covered through rent, is made available in each of its social housing units. Joel said that they have not had success with MHRC. He said: “Not that they’ve said no, they’ve said nothing. We’ve had a really hard time dealing with them at all.” North End Connect is hoping that once connectivity at Merchants Corner is up and running Manitoba housing and other non-profit providers will see the broader benefit of providing free internet to tenants.
As Shanleigh and Joel see it, digital inclusion should be seen as a basic human right, and the government should be actively engaged in ensuring that digital inclusion is achieved. They believe that social housing is a good place to start: “When you have supported housing – why doesn’t it come with access to the internet?”
When asked for some final thoughts about the transformative potential of the North End Connect project, Joel was quick to respond: “The research is solid—we know what the community needs.” However, Joel and Shanleigh are also clear —digital inclusion won’t be achieved without government support.
