Date/Time
Date(s) - 14/11/2022
12:00 am

Community-Engaged Research (CER) Graduate Student Internship Program

The Community-Engaged Research (CER) Graduate Student Internship Program, facilitated through the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Community Research Platform (CRP), provides opportunities for MA and PhD students to work with CRP partner organizations on research projects that support organizational needs and priorities and have tangible benefits for communities.

Inter Job Posting

Project: Emotions Matter: Skill Building, Emotional Resilience and Social Support for Care Workers

Job Description: CMHA Hamilton is seeking a graduate student intern to support the second phase of the Emotions Matter study. Emotions Matter, launched in Winter 2021, is led by Dr. Diana Singh (Executive Director, Advanced Research on Mental Health and Society, McMaster University) in collaboration with the CMHA Hamilton clinical team. The project is focused on understanding emotional labour-intensive work and its associated health consequences for frontline service and care workers in community work contexts. This project is the first of its kind to bring together expertise in community-engaged research methodology, emotional labour, and psychotherapy to develop evidence-based research at the community-level that directly informs the development of supportive workplace resources and strategies to promote emotional resiliency among frontline emotional labourers. The project has been extended to library staff through a partnership with the Hamilton Public Library (HPL) and its partner library systems (Grimsby, Burlington & Brantford).

The intern will work with Dr. Singh and leads from CMHA Hamilton and HPL to coordinate phase 2 of the project. As a project coordinator the intern will liaise with project stakeholders regularly to help coordinate all aspects of the project including scheduling meetings, helping to supervise research assistants, taking meeting minutes, and ensuring knowledge sharing across partners. Other key tasks include:

1. Assist with obtaining research ethics approval for phase 2
2. Assist with the launch of the Emotions Matter follow-up survey (survey programming) and perform entry, verification, cleaning, coding, and statistical analysis of the data for the research project.
3. Support grant writing and development for the project.

Required Skills and Experience

• Demonstrated interest in community-engaged, action-oriented research
• Previous experience with project coordination
• • Knowledge of statistical data analysis and quantitative methodology
• Skills in cleaning and coding survey data
• Ability to work with survey software programs and program surveys (Ex. Qualtrics, Survey Monkey, Lime Survey)
• Use statistical software (STATA, SPSS and Excel) to analyze and interpret data
• Ability to contribute to technical reports and documents

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Hamilton Branch is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from all qualified individuals, including visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples and persons with disabilities. CMHA Hamilton will accommodate any needs under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Duration of Internship: 7.5-10 hours per week for approximately 26 weeks.

Value of Award:$8,000

Application Deadline: November 14, 2022

To Apply: Please ensure that you have discussed your interest in this opportunity with your supervisor. As part of your application, we require an email from your supervisor confirming that they support your application. If your supervisor has any questions about the graduate internship program, please encourage them to reach out to the Community Research Platform Program Manager Leora Sas van der Linden (sasvandl@mcmaster.ca). We are happy to meet with you and your supervisor to discuss the CRP graduate internship program.

Please email completed applications to sasvandl@mcmaster.ca. Ensure the subject line includes the internship posting title and attach a Resume and Cover Letter as a PDF.

In the body of the email, include the following:

• Internship Posting Title
• First and Last Name
• Pronouns
• McMaster Email Address
• MacID
• Student Status (MA or PhD)
• Department/Program

The Cover letter (1-2 pages) should describe how your work, volunteer and academic experiences prepare you for this specific internship position. Please include any relevant research experience, highlight knowledge/experience related to working in the community or with a community partner, and highlight other relevant experience as it pertains to the community agency and/ or to the specific job posting. Please also confirm that you are in good academic standing (not on academic probation) and financial standing (no outstanding financial accounts on your student record) with the university.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis based on opportunities available.  All applications will be reviewed by a Community Research Platform committee comprised of McMaster and community organization representatives. Applicants will be notified of a decision within 3 weeks of submitting their application.

For general inquiries about the program, please contact Leora Sas van der Linden, CRP Program Manager at: sasvandl@mcmaster.ca