History of the Social Innovation Research Group

The Social Innovation Research Group (SIRG) was born in 2003 as a result of community social work students’ desire to create community amongst themselves as well as learn the "art and science" of community engaged research. Additionally, the Director was seeking to create an entity that would be a crossroads of students, academics, and community partners not only interested in research but also community development and ways to interact and discuss current issues. For example, in March 2003, the war in Iraq was in full swing and one of the very first SIRG gatherings was a discussion on the impact of the Iraq war in Canada and the reverberations that social workers would be facing as a result of the war.

Shortly after this first circle discussion, SIRG was also launched amongst feminist circles after organizing a one-day symposium titled "Globalization on the Backs of Women." Audience members in attendance were largely from equity- and female-led organizations and, as a result, SIRG developed and maintained a close working relationship with many women’s shelters, counselling agencies, and the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region for almost 20 years.

SIRG’s very first community partner, with whom we are still working, is The Healing of the Seven Generations (H7G), which is a local Indigenous organization dedicated to survivors and intergenerational survivors of the Residential School System. Over the years, SIRG has journeyed with the H7G on grant proposals, organizing seminars and events, as well as various trainings in culturally relevant board governance and other leadership matters.

In 2026, after 23 years of working as a research group, SIRG applied to be a faculty-wide research centre and received confirmation in February that we were successful. Given that we are known as "SIRG," our research team decided to keep the nomenclature of "research group" even though we are a "research centre." We were intentional in keeping our name as "SIRG" given our name recognition both within WLU and more importantly within the larger community. We hope that our new status will allow for more expansive research opportunities as well as formalizing the administrative structure of SIRG to include not only faculty and students from the FSW, but also community partners and individuals interested in our work and social justice practices.