Dr. Lois Berry supports rural sustainability conference with SSHRC grant
Small, rural communities across Canada are facing decreasing skilled labour pools, inadequate access to technology, aging residents, unique health challenges,loss of services and rising crime.
In consideration of those challenges, the College of Nursing’s Dr. Lois Berry spearheaded the University of Saskatchewan’s involvement in leading the 2018 Rural Revitalization Foundation (CRRF) Conference, themed Health and Shared Prosperity. She says the national conference plays an indispensable role in bringing together academics, practitioners and government stakeholders from across the country to share their experiences and lessons learned.
“It is integral to Canadian well-being and prosperity that we better understand what policies can contribute to the sustainability and self-determination of rural regions,” Dr. Berry says. “Rural and northern communities require access to equivalent standards of public services, such as municipal infrastructure, education and health services; rural and northern economies need to be strong, resilient and increasingly knowledge intensive; and rural governance needs to be effective, representative and responsive.”
Dr. Berry and a group of co-investigators and collaborators (see below for names) applied for and received a $25,000 SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) connection grant to support the CRRF Conference held in Saskatoon, October 10-12. The proposal called for rural development students to participate and present at the conference. Dr. Berry and Dr. Heather Exner-Pirot, co-investigator and strategist for Outreach and Indigenous Engagement, College of Nursing, were co-chairs.
They allocated particular efforts and funding to attracting northern, First Nations and Metis participants to the conference.
Photo courtesy Bojan Furst
“We are excited about this opportunity to broaden the conversation about rural development,” Dr. Exner-Pirot says. “Health and reconciliation are critical aspects to rural sustainability, and the CRRF national conference is an ideal platform for these discussions.”
The CRRF, co-hosted by the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation, Saskatchewan Economic Development Association and the University of Saskatchewan, focused on:
- Relationships and partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians living in rural areas
- Northern Canada as a rural region that needs to be included in and informed about rural development policy research
- Health, in particular rural mental health, and access to services, as a key component in the success of rural revitalization efforts
“These issues are of particular importance to residents of rural Saskatchewan, positioning this conference as relevant and impactful to our local stakeholders,” Dr. Berry says.
| Principal Investigator: Dr. Lois Berry, College of Nursing
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