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The History of the Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services (CRECS)

The Community Services Research Unit (CSRU) was founded in December 1996 by Drs. Robert Flynn and Tim Aubry as a unit in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa. The primary objective of the CSRU was to facilitate collaboration between university researchers and community agencies on research that would contribute to developing and improving health and social services. The CSRU was successful during its three years of existence in initiating over 20 studies with a range of community and governmental agencies in the Ottawa-Carleton and Outaouais regions in such diverse areas as child welfare, community mental health, developmental disabilities, and homelessness.

In the fall of 1999, the CSRU received official status as a research centre at the University of Ottawa and became the Centre for Research on Community Services (CRCS) in the Faculty of Social Sciences. With its official status, the CRCS was granted office space at 34 Stewart and resources to hire a research coordinator.

In 2006, the Faculty of Education joined the Faculty of Social Sciences to co-sponsor the CRCS and adopted its new name that it is known for today: the Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services (CRECS). CRECS became the first research centre at the University of Ottawa to be collaborating with two faculties simultaneously.

In association with CRECS, the Faculties of Social Sciences and Education launched, in September 2006, a new Graduate Certificate Program in Program Evaluation at the University of Ottawa. The inauguration of this program greatly assists in resolving the widening gap between the demand for the critical knowledge and skills represented by this field and the paucity of trained and competent evaluation professionals.

In 2012, CRECS moved into new quarters on the fifth floor of Vanier. The move provided CRECS faculty, research staff, support staff and students with consolidated space among colleagues in Education and Social Sciences. The new location also provided CRECS the opportunity to work together amidst state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to pursue their research knowledge production and transfer objectives.

CRECS is continually growing and today there are forty five Senior Researchers, fifteen Affiliated Researchers, and over twenty CRECS Staff on the team. In addition, CRECS provides training to many graduate and undergraduate students. To complete the team, CRECS also have an Advisory Committee, consisting of external partners representing health, government, education and social organizations at the local, provincial and national levels. The Advisory Committee provides guidance and direction to CRECS using their vast experience, knowledge and skills.

Together, the CRECS team is making immense strides in the world of research and is continuing to meet their goals of civic engagement, production and knowledge transfer as well as training and capacity building.