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The Impact Studio at CERi produces several types of outputs, ranging from lighter touch graphic design of content provided by clients, to intensive knowledge translation of academic content to accessible, visually engaging content for various audiences.

Handbooks & Toolkits

Created in collaboration with researchers, students, and community partners, these guides offer clear frameworks, actionable steps, and real-world examples to help strengthen community-engaged work across disciplines

CER during Health Crises Handbook 

  • Client: Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics,

  • and Society (PIPPS)

  • The need: Researchers needed practical guidance for working ethically and effectively with civil society organizations during health crises.

  • Studio contribution: design, data visualization, student mentorship and printing. 

  • What we created: A professionally designed handbook with adaptable tools and considerations for community-engaged research during health crises.

  • The result: The handbook helps researchers build equitable partnerships, engage priority populations and develop more community-informed responses to health and social inequities. Read more...

Climate Resilience Roadmap

  • Client: Vancity Community Foundation

  • The need: Downtown Eastside nonprofits needed practical, coordinated strategies to prepare for extreme heat, wildfire smoke and other climate impacts.

  • Studio contribution: communications strategy, writing, editing, design, data visualization, student mentorship and printing.

  • What we created: A designed Climate Resilience Roadmap, a detailed technical report and an at-a-glance implementation summary.

  • The result: The resources help organizations coordinate responses, share supplies, pursue funding, strengthen climate planning and advocate for community-informed policy. Read more…

ʷməθkʷəy̓əm Housing Community Engagement Handbook​

  • Client: xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Indian Band Housing Department

  • The need: Musqueam Housing needed practical guidance for strengthening community engagement, initially for its energy-efficiency program and later across all housing programs.

  • Studio contribution: writing, editing, design and development of customizable community-engagement tools.

  • What we created: A practical handbook outlining community-engagement principles, considerations, strategies and adaptable resources for staff and practitioners.

  • The result: The handbook helps Musqueam Housing design culturally and contextually appropriate engagement, encourage participation and ensure community voices inform housing programs. It also offers valuable guidance for non-Indigenous organizations, practitioners and researchers working—or seeking to work—respectfully with Indigenous communities. Read more…

Research Reports

Reports document projects and initiatives in detail, serving as an archive of CER projects and knowledge mobilization or advocacy tools. Reports make complex research easier to understand for public audiences. The Impact Studio team collaborates with clients to ensure research findings are clearly and effectively communicated, including through custom visuals such as illustrations and infographics.  

Quiet Alarm - A Review of CBC's Climate Reporting

  • Client: Climate Emergency Unit

  • The need: The Climate Emergency Unit needed credible evidence to advocate for stronger climate reporting at CBC.

  • Studio contribution: communications strategy, writing, editing, design, data visualization, student mentorship and printing.

  • What we created: A professionally designed research report and three audio demonstrations illustrating what a daily climate emergency broadcast could sound like.

  • The result: The project gave advocates evidence, recommendations and communication tools to engage CBC leadership, mobilize the public and make the case for climate-reporting reform. Read more…

Rebuilding Through the Aftermath: Wildfire Governance, Care, and Climate Futures

  • Client: Sarah Wiebe, UVIC + SSHRC knowledge synthesis grant

  • The need: A research team wanted to make a complex knowledge-synthesis report on wildfire aftermath governance accessible to policymakers, practitioners and communities.

  • Studio contribution: communications strategy, writing, editing, design, data visualization, student mentorship, artist liaising, and printing.

  • What we created: A professionally designed knowledge-synthesis report featuring custom illustrations, along with an accompanying public-facing blog post.

  • The result: The resources make complex research easier to understand, share and use in recovery planning, policymaking, community advocacy and future funding proposals. Read more…

Walk With Me: A Community-Engaged Response to the Drug Poisoning Crisis

  • Client: Walk With Me

  • The need: The project needed to translate an academic paper into a public-facing, plain-language report that showcased its research, methodology and community-led response to the toxic drug poisoning crisis.

  • Studio contribution: Report development, plain-language writing, editing, design and knowledge mobilization.

  • What we created: An accessible report exploring how story walks, creative practice and sharing circles can mobilize lived-experience knowledge within research, community action and policymaking.

  • The result: The report makes Walk With Me’s research and methodology accessible to broader audiences while demonstrating how community-engaged research and creative practice can support community-driven systems change, policy change, well-being and belonging. Read more...

 

Community Publications

Community publications help organizations transform their research into accessible, public-facing reports that can support fundraising, share findings with the communities they serve and contribute to broader conversations within their sector.

Write to Read BC: Supporting literacy and connection in Indigenous communities (2011-2026)

  • Client: Write to Read BC

  • The need: Write to Read BC wanted to understand and demonstrate the long-term impact of its libraries and learning spaces in Indigenous communities across British Columbia.

  • Studio contribution: communications strategy, writing, editing, design, data visualization, student mentorship and printing.

  • What we created: A professionally designed evaluation report showcasing the program’s development, community-led model and impact from 2011 to 2026.

  • The result: The report helps Write to Read BC communicate its value, celebrate participating communities, strengthen partnerships and support future fundraising and program development. Read more…

Frontline Workers on the Back Burner: A Call for Systemic Accountability in the Gender-Based Violence Sector

  • Client: Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society (VAFCS) and SFU Faculty of Health Sciences

  • The need: The Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society and SFU researchers wanted to make two years of research on working conditions in the gender-based violence sector accessible to funders, policymakers, sector leaders and community organizations.

  • Studio contribution: Communications strategy, design, and printing.

  • What we created: A professionally designed research report and an accessible action plan featuring 20 recommendations for systemic and organizational change.

  • The result: The resources give VAFCS and its partners evidence and recommendations to support advocacy, influence policy, strengthen funding requests and improve working conditions across the sector. Read more…

Event Reports

Event reports help organizers capture and share the ideas, learning and outcomes generated through conferences, workshops, symposiums and other gatherings. Event reports can help organizers extend learning beyond attendees, recognize contributors, demonstrate impact to partners and funders and create a useful record for future programming and collaboration.

The Impact Studio offers two levels of support depending on how much content development is needed:

  1. Design of client-provided content

    For organizers who already have a completed report, the Impact Studio can provide graphic design and layout using photographs, brand assets and other materials supplied by the client. This is the simplest, fastest and most affordable option.

  2. Full report development

    For events requiring documentation and knowledge synthesis, the Impact Studio can develop the report from the event itself. A CERi team member may attend the event to document sessions and identify key themes, or organizers can provide detailed session notes using our provided note-taking templates. The Impact Studio then synthesizes the material, writes and edits the report and develops the final visual design. Because full report development depends on factors such as event length, location, number of sessions and desired depth of documentation, the scope and cost are developed collaboratively with clients during the proposal process.

Questions?

Joanna Habdank
Program manager

joanna_habdank@sfu.ca  

Tara Mahoney
Research and Engagement Lead

tara_mahoney_2@sfu.ca

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