In this episode, Emily Kraemer (she/her), who completed her Masters degree in the Applied Politics program at Laurier, shares her research findings from an Equity Diversity and Inclusion study completed in partnership with the Region of Waterloo. Emily’s research focused on diversity in municipal policy settings and how diversity enriches good decision-making at the municipal level.
This episode features:
WLU Research Chat S03 Emily
Shawna Reibling 00:04
Welcome to the third season of research chat. In this season, graduate students share the challenges of their research work as they complete their studies at Laurier. In this episode, Hannah McGurk will interview Emily Kramer, but before they do so, I would like to introduce you to this episode's participants.
Shawna Reibling 00:24
Hannah McGurk, who uses pronouns she her is a recent graduate of the Masters of Applied politics program at Wilfrid Laurier University. During her graduate degree, Hannah specialized in Canadian housing policy and co authored an article on the regulation of unsheltered homelessness in Canada. Hannah's research has been sought after by the Region of Waterloo, and other nonprofit organizations such as the Canadian observatory for homelessness, the right to National Housing Network and the Peterborough drug strategy. Hannah's actively sharing her research findings and recommendations with community members and policymakers. She previously received her undergraduate degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, and her research interests include housing and public policy.
Shawna Reibling 01:09
Emily Kraemer, who uses pronouns she her is a recent graduate from the Master of Applied politics program at Wilfrid Laurier University. She specialized in Legal Studies in her undergraduate degree and has a special interest in international relations and geopolitics. She is engaged in equity, diversity and inclusion, also known as EDI policy creation and research during her graduate research practicum at the city of Waterloo. Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Wilfrid Laurier University alongside her Master's of applied politics. She is passionate about the environment, evidenced by her work with environmental political organizations such as greenpac.
Shawna Reibling 01:50
Thank you, Hannah and Emily for chatting today about how both your research projects influence policy to make lives better for residents. You've both been engaged in providing evidence based recommendations to shape policy in the areas of EDI and encampment management. These issues must be addressed at the local government level as governments and citizens alike are grappling with the features of their communities as they change. And as they're impacted by growing homelessness and changing community demographics. hennas research is focused on using a human rights based approach to create encampment related policy.
Shawna Reibling 02:25
In this episode, we will explore Emily's research, which is focused on concrete ways to measure progress as city governments change to reflect the diversity of the citizens it governs. Thanks so much for speaking with me today. I will turn the microphone over to you, Hannah, to learn more about Emily's work.
Hannah McGurk 02:50
Hi, Emily, thanks for chatting with me today about your research. Can you tell me about the partnership where this research emerged from?
Emily Kraemer 02:58
Yeah, so what I wanted to get out of my master's was experiential learning. So real hands on political learning in an environment to learn more about potential careers that I might take. The city of Waterloo works with students in lots of their departments, and has a relationship with Laurier. So this new EDI department connected with the professor my placement course and asked if they had some sort of stats background to help them do measurement research.
Hannah McGurk 03:22
What issues or questions did you explore in your research?
Emily Kraemer 03:27
The main question that we explored was how to measure equity, diversity and inclusion in a community to ensure that citizens were being more included. And so normally, typical EDI research focuses on HR and hiring metrics, whereas ours was focusing directly on citizens and trying to make them feel more inclusive. And so another question we explored was how to measure in this way when this research is so new, and how do we get people involved and make them feel included in a digital age with the tools available to us now?
Hannah McGurk 04:00
Emily, we hear this term lived experience. Can you explain what this means and how it relates to EDI and a community?
Emily Kraemer 04:09
Yeah, so in short, lived experience is a person's story. It's their knowledge gained through direct firsthand contact with the world. It's the experiences that you have lived. So example my lived experience as a woman. So we wanted to take everyone's story into account when doing equity work in the community, want to hear the lived experience of staff members so that we could help create better EDI policy, as well as making sure they're being treated with respect to the workplace. And we wanted the community to give feedback on how they have been treated, and the experiences that they have lived with to create a more inclusive plan and to make the community a safer space.
Hannah McGurk 04:47
How did you go about exploring your research question?
Emily Kraemer 04:50
Well, it started with a lot of reading, reading through government laws and policy on the subject, going through municipal government business and tomorrow EDI plans that already exist, going through how to create such a plan and some of the best practices and challenges in EDI research and creating such a plan. And then general equity literature. So why should we engage in it and the benefits of it. And I took notes on all of this. So I wrote down the most important parts of it. But I also got to engage in a whole bunch of networking.
Emily Kraemer 05:22
So I reached out to professionals in the industry, be it from businesses, cities, academic institutions, and they either responded by email, with lists of reading for me to conduct or we would meet virtually and hold conversations about where it came from, where it's going, and what the city could possibly do to make it more inclusive for their citizens. And then the most important part was, I would meet with the measurement and monitoring team at the city. And so they gave me insights into how to take my research and apply it to municipal government, as I didn't really have much direct experience with this. And so they would say, Okay, we have something like this in place, you can bridge off of that bus might make a research easier. And they could also give insights on recommendations to include that I would never have thought of.
Hannah McGurk 06:10
So you mentioned before about how you wanted an experience that would really hone in on experiential learning. And so I'm curious, Emily, how did this back and forth interaction with the city help you to work on that skill?
Emily Kraemer 06:26
Yes, so it helped me to understand how I could get into a research field as my potential career. It allowed me to see that that is a part of municipal government as much as everything else. And it also really helped me to understand the structure and organization of working for government, and to meet with people who have been there and allowed me to reach out to them outside to it as well, and really get some of their mentorship.
Hannah McGurk 06:50
What challenges have you faced throughout your research and all of that reading?
Emily Kraemer 06:56
So firstly, this placement was entirely remote. So I did all of the work from campus. And so you learn the atmosphere and structure of the organization in a different way, because you're not actually in the office with everyone.
Emily Kraemer 07:09
But all of the meetings were over teams. So I could see everyone when we got into the meetings, their faces, and we got to talk. And I got to attend so many different meetings, for instance, a management type meeting with my actual measurement and monitoring team, and then individual meetings as well. And I got to interact with colleagues over LinkedIn and through email chains, when we would suggest readings to each other. So I did feel very much involved.
Hannah McGurk 07:34
Did you have any other challenges in your research?
Emily Kraemer 07:38
Yes. So once we decided that we were measuring citizens in the community, we started to come up with how we could possibly collect data on how we were doing in terms of equity, diversity, and inclusion. And these recommendations were very digital, such as having online surveys prior to events, or having citizens scan QR codes when they were at events. And the problem became how to engage the older population who does not engage that much of this digital way.
Emily Kraemer 08:06
The answer ended up being using the text terms that everyone receives from the government send out information in paper surveys, that could fill out so that was a unique challenge that we had to debate and work around there. The plan is to eventually have them go out to everyone with their tax returns, if that recommendation of mine is implemented.
Hannah McGurk 08:25
So Emily, what's next? What are the next steps in your work?
Emily Kraemer 08:29
So I put together all of my recommendations and an analysis of the best practices and challenges for community equity, diversity and inclusion work into a report. I sent this off to my supervisor, and it will use to help create the city of Waterloo is first EDI plan.
Hannah McGurk 08:46
I'm curious, can you place your research in the broader context of community EDI professionals.
Emily Kraemer 08:53
So the idea is to make it really based on local groundwork to have community driven EDI that looks at the people and the stories behind the numbers to make real progress and inclusivity possible, and also to make citizens really feel a part of their government and that it's reflective of them. So it's to go beyond the traditional HR hiring and quotas, measurement side of EDI, to have a more concrete plan that truly reflects the community and the lived experiences of the people in that community.
Hannah McGurk 09:21
And what did you learn about the policymaking process at the municipal level?
Emily Kraemer 09:27
I learned that there are so many parts and steps that I wasn't even aware of. So I mean, I would do the research. And then we would debate the research. And I would add more to the research. And then I would put together presentations and reports and then all that eventually comes together for a request for a policy proposal which goes up to management who then will approve it or not. And then they go back and make changes on that policy and then eventually you do get to a real policy document.
Hannah McGurk 09:53
What can people take away? What should they remember about measuring EDI in a community?
Emily Kraemer 10:01
City government needs to reflect the diversity of the citizens it covers to make effective policies. Creating a framework to measure ABI creates a clear indicator of progress towards that goal.
Hannah McGurk 10:12
Why should city government be reflective of the diversity of a community, especially as community demographics change over time?
Emily Kraemer 10:21
So it's important because city governments especially reflect the reality of the local community, they're very much involved on the ground, working with people, more so than provincial or federal government. And so they really need to reflect the values of their community. And this comes from the diversity because a diverse number of people have so many different values and culture. And it is important to do this as community demographics change over time, that is one of the hardest things of EDI research is knowing that it never ends, when it's always changing, always adapting. And so this is why we need to measure and take into account diversity over time as it does change.
Hannah McGurk 11:02
What do you see as the ideal implementation of your research in the community?
Emily Kraemer 11:07
I see the ideal implementation of my research to be that the city takes my recommendations, and they put them in their plan, and that the community really interacts with it. So they give feedback on what's working and what might not be working so that everyone does feel included, and we can measure that everyone feels included and respected.
Hannah McGurk 11:26
What have you learned about EDI that was surprising to you?
Emily Kraemer 11:31
I learned that EDI research, it's more than just regular academic research. So instead of just researching all these sites, I also have to really interact with people in order to get recommendations that I can make that really are important and impactful. And that was a bit surprising, because I am used to so much academic research.
Hannah McGurk 11:51
And I'm just curious, are you more engaged in your community as a result of this research? Why is inclusion important to you?
Emily Kraemer 12:01
I do feel more engaged in the community as a result of this research. I feel like I know it a lot more. But I also got to connect with so many members of the community in terms of this research. And I got to understand what they want from government and what they want from this type of research. And we really got to work together and sort of feel an inclusion in the people who are working on this plan of inclusion is so important to me.
Emily Kraemer 12:25
I think it's really important to understand your positionality. So your privileges, and if you are oppressed in any way, so that you can become not just a better ally, but more aware of your own situation. As a woman, I have some experiences with the community. And so the aim is to make sure that my experiences, some of them at least don't get repeated and that we can ensure that there's a better community for everyone.
Hannah McGurk 12:49
Emily, I want to thank you for sharing your research with us today and being here today. Thank you so much for your time.
Emily Kraemer 12:57
It was wonderful chatting with you. Thanks for having me.
Shawna Reibling 13:01
Thank you to you both. It's easy to see the impact both of your research projects will have on the places we live to influence policy and to make lives better for residents. It's wonderful that your research is contributing to that providing evidence based recommendations to help policy be more effective, responsive, and better serve residents is a wonderful outcome of research.
Shawna Reibling 13:32
I hope you enjoyed listening to today's discussion. If you want to learn more about measuring EDI progress in communities or addressing homeless encampments, listeners like you are encouraged to share these episodes and use these podcasts to discuss these topics with your friends, family or as an assignment in the classroom.
Shawna Reibling 13:50
There are resources additional readings and details about the work of each researcher on our website, w lu.ca/research-chat. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to be notified a new research chat episodes. Research Chat is a partnership between the Office of Research Services, the faculty of graduate and postdoctoral studies in the Laurier Library. Thank you to everyone who's contributed to the creation of research chat. The gratitude list can be found on our webpage.