Research & Evaluation Student
University of Toronto – MPH Practicum Posting |
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Note 1: Students usually complete a first, 16 week full-time practicum starting early May and occasionally complete a second, 12 week or 16 week full –time practicum beginning in early January. To see past practicum projects, recommended pay and supervisors’ roles and responsibilities for MPH Epidemiology and MPH Health Promotion, please visit http://www.dlsph.utoronto.ca/programs/mph-health-promotion-and-epidemiology-practicum/ Note 2: The paperwork required of the supervisor includes a learning contract once the student begins the practicum, a midterm evaluation, and a final evaluation. Note 3: For MPH Epidemiology practicum: The practicum supervisor should be an epidemiologist or a professional with 3+ years of analytical experience. For MPH Health Promotion practicum: The practicum supervisor should be a health promotion professional with a MPH or equivalent and 3+ years of experience. |
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Name of Agency
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Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services |
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Agency Address
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Access Alliance College Site 340 College St Suite 500 Toronto, ON M5T 3A9
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Division/Department within agency (if applicable) |
Research and Evaluation Department
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Type of Agency (Include brief description of agency’s main goals and programs) Include web site if available |
Website: https://accessalliance.ca/ Access Alliance provides healthcare and other allied services (and advocates) to improve health outcomes for immigrants, newcomers, refugees, and their communities, which have been made vulnerable by systemic barriers and poverty.
Main Services Offered: · Primary healthcare and allied healthcare · Health promotion and Food security programs · Community programs, such as Green access, LBGTQ+, etc. · Settlement services · Language services |
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Name and Title of Supervisor : Applications should be submitted to (Access Alliance’s Website): |
Akm Alamgir, PhD, MPhil, MBBS (he/him) Director, Organizational Knowledge & Learning
Christen Kong, MSW, RSW (she/her) Health Promoter – Mental Health Expressive Arts Therapy Project Coordinator
Henah Yoo, BA (she/her) Research Program Secretary practicum@accessalliance.ca Henah Yoo will be the main contact person for the student placement. Christen Kong will be the supervisory contact person for student placement. |
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Supervisor Experience and Education (Provide your professional background and describe any experience working with students) |
Dr. Akm Alamgir (Bio): Akm Alamgir earned a Ph.D. degree in evaluation, a Master’s degree in epidemiology, and a Bachelor’s in medicine. He is the Director of Knowledge & Learning at Access Alliance (Toronto), an Adjunct Professor at York University (Toronto), and an Academic Editor of the scientific journal PLOS One. He is a mixed-method community-based researcher on social determinants of health in Canada (ORCHID # 0000-0003-4804-6609). He generates knowledge, creates learning materials, and builds the capacity of the stakeholders. He is the principal investigator of funded research projects on refugees, youth, mental health, and gender-based domestic violence. He is part of preparing the Canadian national standards in Youth Mental Health and Addictions Navigation Services. He is an “expert reviewer” of the Canadian government for the New Frontiers in Research Fund Transformation Competition (NFRFT 2022) applications. He reviews manuscripts submitted to the Journal of International Migration and Integration, PLOS One, and Health Promotion International. He is supervising students from the MPH. MSW, and MHE programs of different universities.
Christen Kong, MSW, RSW (Bio): Christen Kong earned a Master of Social Work specialization in Human Service Management and Leadership and is a Registered Social Worker (843177). She is a Health Promoter at Access Alliance focusing on Expressive Arts Therapy to improve the health outcomes of newcomer populations. In addition, she is the project coordinator for the Hubs of Expressive Arts for Life – HEAL Project, a multi-year intersectoral implementation research study funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. She has supervised a variety of students for the past three semesters including students from Health in Community, Public Policy, Human Biology and Master of Social Work departments from different universities in Toronto.
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Supervisor contact information (email)
If you would like someone else to receive the applications instead, or be copied to each application, please indicate their emails here |
Christen Kong ckong@accessalliance.ca Akm Alamgir aalamgir@accessalliance.ca
Please cc the following mails:
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Preference for contact |
☒ Email ☐ Phone |
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Number of Position |
2 |
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Practicum Position Title |
Placement Student, Expressive Arts Therapy (HEAL) Project |
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Ideal start date May xx – August xx, 2023 (16-week full time practicum at 35 hours/week). A 12-week practicum until July xx is also a possibility. |
5/1/2023 |
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Ideal end date |
8/31/2023 |
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Is this practicum:
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☐ Fully remote ☒ Partially remote and in-person ☐ Fully in-person
Notes: Students will arrange with supervisor appropriate dates/times of remote and onsite days. Access Alliance
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Paid work/Compensation for work |
☐ Yes, this is a paid practicum. ☒ This is an unpaid practicum. |
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Funding available (hourly or total stipend) |
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Opportunity to handle quantitative data |
☒ Yes ☐ No Note that MPH Epidemiology practicum projects must include the epidemiological and statistical analysis of primary or secondary data. |
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Description of the Proposed Practicum One posting can be opened to several programs. (Describe the work experience and/or project: context, health problem, population)
MPH Health Promotion Practicum Requirement: The activities undertaken during the practicum will depend on the needs of the agency/organization sponsoring the practicum, and the student’s own learning objectives. Such activities might include: contributing to or leading a project on behalf of the sponsoring agency/organization (e.g., conducting a needs assessment, evaluating a program, assisting in a research project); participating in the ongoing business of the agency/organization (e.g., attending meetings, participating in committee work, writing reports); producing a report, document or publication relevant to the work done.
MPH Epidemiology Practicum Requirement: Practicum projects must include the epidemiological and statistical analysis of primary or secondary data. A significant element of interpretation of epidemiological data is required. The student must also contribute to one or more substantial work of writing. This may be original research or reports authored by the agency or a working group. Practicum projects could involve work on a community health status report, a specific health needs assessment, a research project, an outbreak investigation or a variety of other possibilities.
MPH–Occupational and Environmental Health requirements: Students will undertake projects related to the identification, evaluation and control of community or work related exposures to chemical, physical (noise, EMF), microbiological (e.g. bacterial, viral, fungal/mould) or musculoskeletal hazards. This can include assessment of health impacts of contaminant/pollutant exposures or development and implementation of hazard prevention and control strategies and programs. |
Access Alliance is requesting two students for the Expressive Arts Therapy (HEAL) Project (MPH Health promotion Practicum). See description below:
Activities undertaken by students: · Contribute to logistical tasks for the implantation of the HEAL project including supporting peer researcher and research fellow; · Support the analysis of data collected from the HEAL Project including organizing, synthesizing and report writing of mixed methods research (quantitative, qualitative and art-based evaluation) · Engage with community members in a volunteer capacity to successfully implement the HEAL program; · Help to produce knowledge mobilization products from HEAL findings including preparing organizational and public-facing reports, presentations, infographics etc.; · Attend the HEAL project meetings as requested and take minutes as needed by the project team; · Complete administrative tasks to further project mission; · Contribute to meaningful discussion during program debrief sessions; · These activities are not limited to, activities will be subject to change depending on the needs of the project.
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Benefit to student (How will this placement be of interest and benefit to a student?)
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Placement will benefit the student in the following ways, but not limited to: · Improve their knowledge, skills, and practice on community-based participatory research. · Hands-on learning of the modalities of expressive arts therapy and evaluation of the arts-based intervention. · Practice-based learning of mixed-method outcome harvesting evaluation principles and procedures. · Opportunity to work collaboratively on a interprofessional team and with other colleagues part of the community based research department · Learn how to effectively communicate on a team and translate complex research knowledge into public facing communication products · Able to work alongside diverse populations specifically newcomer (immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers) · Enhance skills in organization of information and meeting deadlines · Opportunity to receive and give constructive feedback for personal and professional growth · Strengthen ability to write reports from data or synthesizing information |
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Health Promotion Competencies |
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Epidemiology Competencies |
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Environmental/Occupational Health. Competencies |
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Preferred field One posting can be shared with multiple programs. |
☐Epidemiology ☐Indigenous Health ☒Health Promotion ☐Occupational & Environmental Health |
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Application documents required |
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NOTES (Your opportunity to add anything else.) |
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Students should apply by (date): Recommendation is about 2-3 weeks from date of posting. If you are submitting a posting later in the semester such as, it is advised that you leave the posting live for 2 weeks. |
3/31/2023 |
Each application will be emailed to you. You are welcome to interview on a rolling basis once you receive 1 or more applications.
For any questions, please contact Sarah Ko, Practicum Placement and Professional Development Officer practicum.dlsph@utoronto.ca 416 978 8844.
Please note: Due to public health guidelines and organizational precautions around COVID-19, Access Alliance requires all staff, volunteers and students to be fully vaccinated. While onsite at Access Alliance, you are required to wear a mask and follow COVID-19 protocol.
We welcome and encourage immigrants and refugees to have their student placement with us! We encourage applications from students who reflect the broad diversity of communities we work with, including those from racialized and 2SLGBTQ2+ communities.