About The Project:
Solid State Community Industries, Freedom Dreams Cooperative Education and New Dawn Enterprises received a grant from Employment and Social Development Canada for a longitudinal project studying co-op and social enterprise development in Black, immigrant and racialized communities. The core research questions include:

● Who are Black and racialized CSE workers and owners?

● What are their economic, social, and organizational needs?

● To what extent do CSE forms and the sector support those needs?

● How can the hegemonic whiteness of the sector be transformed to be more supportive of Black and racialized workers and owners?

This is a 4-year longitudinal study that is in its final year. The study works with 9 co-operatives and social enterprises to recursively investigate these questions using a variety of cooperative and community-based participatory action research methodologies.

Responsibilities:

Research

○ Undertaking and coordinating online or in person, asynchronous and synchronous participatory action research and data collection via questionnaires, asset mapping, intersectionality mapping, and journey mapping

○ Conducting qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and initiative impact evaluations

Knowledge production and mobilization

○ Develop final report and learnings and deliver in print, web, audio, video and social media forms and distributed widely through partner organization and collaborators' networks

○ Generate research participants relevant project outputs e.g. individual case studies, development initiative evaluations, development journey maps etc.

Conference

○ Planning and developing a project concluding 4-day conference for research groups and project partners.

○ Solid State staff will support the conference organizing.

Project and budget management

○ Coordinating and liaising with research teams from Solid State (Surrey, BC), Freedom Dreams (Greater Toronto Area, ON), and New Dawn (Sydney, NS) which includes traveling to each of these sites periodically

○ Vendor management and procurement for knowledge production and mobilization, and concluding conference

○ Project accounting, budget adjustments and proposals, and processing invoices

○ Identifying and connecting with core stakeholders (e.g. researchers, participants, co-op developers, partners, funders) and conducting and organizing regular meetings with them

Who we’re looking for

This position is remote, with a preference for candidates based locally in British Columbia or the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Solid State is an economic development agency that creates businesses in the form of worker cooperatives with a focus on racialized immigrants and Black communities. We adhere to the principles of Solidarity Economics and operate on the values of democracy and equity. We are an unusual workplace in that relations are congenial, and we operate non-hierarchically (i.e. no bosses). We value relationality, getting along and eating together.

As such, we are looking for someone who is:

● Comfortable and has the flexibility to work across Pacific, Eastern, and Atlantic time zones during the day and early evenings. This is to centre and accommodate the needs of the 9 groups.

● Comfortable stepping into an already established project with existing relationships, processes, and history, and able to build on what has been done rather than starting from scratch.

● Conversant in non-extractivist, community-centred, social impact evaluation, and participatory action research methodologies. You have a strong research background but also understand the harms of traditional top-down approaches.

● Experienced with qualitative and quantitative data analysis e.g. thematic analysis of cross sectional study, qualitative coding applications, prevalence analysis, segmentation etc.

● Good at working autonomously and in teams. You take initiative but also respond well to feedback and collaboration.

● Ready to lead a research project with a complex team and has strong project management skills.

● Comfortable with financial management and reporting.

● An easy-going, kind person who is able to work in an evolving environment and handle conflict in a healthy way.

● Hard-working, well-organized, able to coordinate a large and complex research project over duration, able to build relationships with a wide variety of people, and not daunted by the scale and import of this research.

● Knowledgeable and willing to learn about solidarity economics, social enterprises, and co-op movements and development.

● Aligned with our values and politics. We are all in the process of learning and we respect each other's differences, but we have zero tolerance for racist, sexist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic attitudes and behaviours.

● It would be an asset if you are a Black or racialized individual.

What You Can Expect From Us

● A supportive and welcoming community

● Resources and professional support

● A shared office you can use for studying, working, hosting events and gatherings at Solid State Surrey HQ (available if the successful candidate is within commutable distance to the Surrey, BC office)

● Daily lunch served at Solid State Surrey HQ (available if the successful candidate is within commutable distance to the Surrey, BC office)

If the information above resonates with you, please email info@solidstate.coop with subject line "Mobilizing Black and racialized worker coops in Canada research" along with some relevant information about yourself: your education, past projects you've completed, current ones you're working on, why you're interested in this role, anything else you want us to know.