The Manitoba Research Alliance has for over a decade been bringing together academics and community organizations to study and promote solutions to inner city and Aboriginal poverty, ill health and social exclusion. Through their involvement in the MRA, communities drive research priorities, the evaluation and selection of projects, the conduct of research and the dissemination of results.
                                                                                                                                                                  – Community Campus Partnerships for Health 

The Manitoba Research Alliance (MRA) is a group of academic researchers, students, and community and government partners producing community-based research. The MRA, hosted by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Manitoba, has held 4 successful Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grants.

In our current grant entitled Community-Driven Solutions to Poverty: Challenges and Possibilities, the MRA is preparing to support  community-based research projects within four priority areas:

  • Community Economic Development (CED)
  • Housing
  • Education, Employment and Social Inclusion
  • Justice, Safety and Security

The MRA’s research is interdisciplinary, widely accessible and facilitates the multi-directional flow of knowledge. The training of future scholars and community researchers is an integral part of all our projects. Our genuine partnerships have given us unique opportunities and enabled original contributions to an understanding of the complex problems we want to continue to study, and a clear understanding of our next steps.

While we focus on Manitoba to build on previous research and ensure an in-depth analysis, our research has broad importance. Because inner-cities, Indigenous communities and marginalized individuals everywhere face similar issues and have opportunities to share better practices, our findings will interest academics, policy makers and community organizations at local, national and international levels.

Our Logo
Our logo brings our name together with the Medicine Wheel, visually integrating Indigenous wisdom and leadership in research through the long and respectful relationship with Indigenous organizations, communities and people in Winnipeg and Manitoba.