Sheridan launches community-driven life skills curriculum

For many of the estimated 235,000 people experiencing housing precarity in Canada each year, achieving long-term housing stability and making meaningful community connections can be challenging due to the absence of essential life skills.

A collaborative social innovation research partnership between Sheridan, Halton Region, the Oakville Community Foundation and more than a dozen not-for-profit community organizations, aims to address this gap through the launch of a comprehensive life skills curriculum comprised of client-centric modules.

“Community Ideas Factory: The Life Skills Project” received highly competitive initial funding through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) College and Community Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF) in 2021.

The project aims to provide an innovative response to the need for effective life skills programming among marginalized and/or precariously housed individuals in Halton region. Developed over three years, the project is designed to meet the needs of these groups through the design, development, and implementation of a virtual life skills program that draws from the lived experience of participants and is guided by equity, diversity, and inclusion principles. 

The comprehensive life skills program is available to participating partner organizations in Halton region in the form of client-centric virtual modules and interactive applications. Learning modules include financial literacy (budgeting, consumer awareness, paying bills); skills for success (foundational skills, goal setting, Canadian culture, time management); and critical thinking skills (critical thinking, decision making). The curriculum was launched amongst the 15 not-for-profit organizers that partnered with the project, who have in turn made the curriculum accessible to over 200 service users. Over the past year, findings from the project have been showcased at community action tables and presented at both national and international conferences.

Sheridan’s “Community Ideas Factory: The Life Skills Project” is led by Dr. Sara Cumming, professor in the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences (FHASS), with co-investigators and professors Dr. Julianne DiSanto (Faculty of Applied Health & Community Studies), Dr. Brandon McFarlane (Pilon School of Business) and Mark Shufflebottom (Faculty of Animation, Arts & Design), along with Dr. Humaira Siddiqui (SPARK) and Leah Burton-Saliba from Home Suite Hope.  

The community organizations participating in the “Community Ideas Factory: The Life Skills Project” serve a diverse range of marginalized populations — vulnerable youth, including those who have aged out of care with the Children’s Aid Society; women who are pregnant and experience homelessness; newcomers and refugees; victims of domestic and sexual violence; and individuals who are chronically homeless and facing food insecurity. Participating community service organizations include: YMCA of Oakville; WoodGreen Community Services; Kerr Street Mission; Halton Multicultural Council; Halton Children's Aid Society; Shifra Homes Inc.; Oak Park Neighbourhood Centre; Halton Women's Place; Bridging the Gap; SAVIS of Halton; Food for Life; Peterborough Housing Corp; United Way Halton Hamilton; Big Brothers Big Sisters Halton and Hamilton. 

Thanks to Sheridan's NSERC Mobilize grant, work under the Life Skills Project will continue. Funding will go towards the creation of additional content on the theme “Understanding Canadian Culture as a Life Skills”, addressing the need for social programming for newcomers to Canada.

Read the Life Skills Project Community report here. For more information on the Community Ideas Factory, please visit communityideasfactory.com.

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