Human Services Provision in Tough Times

My name is Dr. John Shields.  I am a Professor at Ryerson University in the Department of Politics and Public Administration.  I would like to invite you to take part in my research study.  

The results of this research will provide evidence based information on the impact of recent changes to human service work, employment conditions and service provision to your community members/clients. The outcomes of this research will assist me and other researchers and interested organizations to more effectively advocate for program and policy reforms that  address problems such as expanding employment precarity, growing service gaps, and challenges to the quality of service provision in our communities.

There will be approximately 3,000 participants recruited for this study. In order to be eligible to participate, you must be involved in paid employment in the human services field. This study is being undertaken in collaboration with Toronto Neighbourhood Centres.

The survey involves questions about how services are provided at your workplace, the type of work you perform, your working conditions, how policy changes impact your work with community members/clients, and general information about you.

The survey should take about half an hour (30 minutes) to complete.

Your answers are anonymous, you will not be asked to provide your name or organization's name. Only the researcher/s named in this study will have access to the data collected. Any future publications will include aggregate data. Individual survey responses will not be available to anyone outside of the research team.

Please review our full consent document before taking part in this study.

Participation in research is completely voluntary and you can withdraw your consent at any point up to clicking the submit button at the end of the survey. However, because the survey is anonymous, once you click the submit button at the end of the survey the researchers will not be able to determine which survey answers belong to you so your information cannot be withdrawn after that point.

Please note, that by clicking submit at the end of the study you are providing your consent for participation. By consenting to participate you are not waiving any of your legal rights as a research participant.

Thank you so much for participating in this research. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Dr. John Shields
jshields@ryerson.ca

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