WHERE WE BEGAN
Prior to the formalization of the SPECTRUM Partnership and grant proposal, meetings were held with the directors, deputy ministers, assistant deputy ministers, policy analysts, and managers from the Manitoban Government Departments of of Education, Families, Finance, Indigenous and Northern Relations, and Justice from 2016 – 2018. Between 2017 – 2018, meetings were held with community organizations such as the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth, Public Interest Law Centre, United Way Winnipeg, and Winnipeg Harvest. Two workshops were held in 2017 to bring together academics from the University of Manitoba, government department representatives, and community partners to explore what could be achieved through a partnership and identified projects and focus areas to be examined in the Partnership. Partners were consulted throughout the proposal development until the proposal was submitted at the end of 2018.
July 2019
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council announces that it will award $199,960 for the "Across the Spectrum: Building a Multi-Sector Partnership to Conduct Social Policy Evaluation and Research Using Big Data" project.
September 2019
SPECTRUM partners meet for the inaugural full-day workshop, to get to know each other, discuss what SPECTRUM might achieve, and to consider who might be missing and invite them to join the partnership.
December 2019
SPECTRUM partners meet for full-day workshop to 1) explore ideas for a “demonstration project” of how the partnership might engage with the Repository to further our goals, and, 2) to begin small and large group discussions of mission, values and structure.
January 2020
Working Groups begin work that will support the partnership development, including development of a Mission Statement and collective Values for the partnership, and mapping out guidelines for how the partners will work together and make decisions.
Manuscript on documenting the process of the SPECTRUM partnership started; students mentored on drafting manuscript.
March 2020
Plans for our third in-person workshop disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic.
October 2020
SPECTRUM partners meet virtually for updates on the activities of the different working groups and progress on the development of the demonstration project, as well as discussions around the mission and values.
February 2021
SPECTRUM Partners meet to discuss how they will work together, and what the partnership values mean. Demonstration Project 1 has progressed and the partners involved in this work present an update.
May 2021
Next SPECTRUM partners workshop planned for late May.