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Anyone who’s ever applied for a grant, whether it’s from an institution or a government granting agency, knows the drill: you read the application criteria carefully; you compose your thoughts and your documents; you share it with a supervisor or a professor; and you send it all in before the deadline and keep your fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

Three social work PhD students at the University of Calgary have taken a different approach, and it’s served them well. Roxanne Pereira, Jill Hoselton and Jane Slessor were recently awarded grants from the federal government’s (SSHRC), and they credit collaboration for their success.

“I was aware that these big institutions (like universities) are very hierarchical,” says Slessor, BSW'05, MSW'19. “It can feel very much about competition and the shiny objects, and less about that foundational, integral work grounded in, I would say, social work values, others might say Indigenous values or collective values, and those values of mutual respect and kindness and solidarity, and support for each other.”

Research interests based on addressing important issues experienced in researcher's personal and professional lives

All three researchers have extensive experience, lived or personal, with the issues they are researching. Social work is a profession built on a foundation of social justice, and they are looking to make an impact in improving society and the lives of the populations they're working with.

Slessor, for example, brings her extensive experience as a front-line social worker to examine how colonial legacies have shaped many non-profit organizations and impacted the diverse front-line social workers employed by them. By taking an anti-colonial lens, her goal is to address the structural issues and colonial values that she has observed taking "a physical, emotional, ethical and spiritual toll on workers." The research will centre their experiences, including their personal strategies to, in Slessor's words, "persist and resist. 

"These colonial, Eurocentric values lead to worker dissatisfaction, burnout and turnover, particularly among marginalized cohorts," says Slessor. "I'm hoping this research will challenge the neoliberal discourses about burnout and turnover that are rooted in individual failing or somehow lacking what it takes to do the work."

For more than a decade, Hoselton, BSW'14, MSW'22, has lived in diverse inner-city Edmonton neighbourhoods that have often included large numbers of refugees. She observed that this growing population is systemically under-resourced and the reality motivated her to take action towards positive social change.

"I have witnessed both the struggles and opportunities refugees face," she says. "I believe more work needs to be done to support this growing demographic." 

Hoselton's plan is to use an innovative arts-based approach to understand and elevate the expressed needs and desires of refugees, which should better inform the services and policies designed to help them. She is currently at the University of Ghana in Accra. The recipient of the Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships: Advanced Scholars is studying displacement and migration challenges and successes in the West African context, work that she believes will be critical for improving resettlement processes in Canada.

Like that of her colleagues, Pereira's dissertation study draws from more than 20 years of professional clinical experience working with youth convicted of sexual offences. Her research looks to better understand sexual violence perpetrated by youth, with the goal of preventing further offending behaviours. 

"Many of the youth have extensive abuse experiences and difficult home circumstances, which have been associated with sexual violence," says Pereira, BSW'00, MSW'10. "Their experiences of adversity have also been associated with re-offending."

Pereira's research will consider adversity with a broader lens to include systemic issues such as out-of-home placement (foster or group homes), poverty and racism. 

"No studies have been conducted in Canada on childhood adversities with this specialized population," she says. "So, this project will also provide an important contextual perspective to the existing literature."

Group of seven live the social work values foundational to their work

All three scholars were keen to point out that they’re part of a cohort of seven people who work together on almost everything they do. They and their colleagues Chinonyerem Nwachukwu; Chika Ikeorji; Sarah McGreer, BSW'11, MSW'17; and Leeann Hilsen, BSW'93, MSW'15, see their collaborative emphasis as an important way to live the social work values that are the foundation of their work.

“We as a cohort are committed to decolonizing practices in our actual practice as a group of people,” says Pereira. “What's really special is that we look at our collective identity as more important than individual outcomes.

“When all three of us were awarded the SSHRC grant this year, it just gave me so much joy to be able to be in this group of women and to be able to support each other in that way.”

So, what’s the secret to a successful grant application, beyond collaboration?

“I think a huge learning for me is I can use too much academic jargon, and I lose people through that,” says Hoselton. “I can see it when people's eyes are glazing over.

“The question I ask myself is: how can I talk about this so my 16 year-old can understand what I'm doing? Anybody could read your application. They're not going to be an expert in what you're doing.

“Someone who's in biology or economics could be reading this, so, how do I make a case for what I'm doing in a way that they understand and can get behind?" Hoselton adds. "You have to really sell yourself. And it's uncomfortable, I think, especially for people in social work, because that's so contrary to our discipline.”

More information on the SSHRC grants if available on its and .