Trent University Geography

Barriers Preventing Youth From Using Transportation in Peterborough was a community based research project that was completed in the 2017-2018 academic year at Trent University,Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. The purpose of the project was to expand on information previously obtained by the Peterborough Youth Council (the host organization of the project), being that the youth demographic of Peterborough experience issues when accessing the local pubic transit system. Specifically, this project illustrated the expansion of this information and through research it was identified that the perception of transit accessibility vary significantly across socioeconomic cohorts. Through performing a literature reviews and conducting interviews, several attributes were identified as having influence over transit accessibility including: frequency, overall route and network coverage, as well as user's proximity to transit stops. However it was noted that through research that different perspectives exists in regards to which attribute is considered the most important or most significant. Ultimately, these different perspectives present the suggestion that citizens from different life-stages and social statuses hold distinctive attitudes regarding transit accessibility. As result, several research tools were created with the intention of being used in further studies conducted by the Peterborough Youth Council that would be used to investigate the specific factors that lead to youth in Peterborough having issues and feelings of anxiety when accessing public transit. Furthermore, several strategies that could improve transit accessibility, by targeting specific attributes that were deemed as having significant influence over transit accessibility were suggested.

The following research paper investigates the effects of two of Peterborough City and County's affordable housing programs: the Peterborough Renovates Program and the Homebuyer Assistance Loan Program. The goal of the research was to determine whether the programs were meeting their objectives, which were, primarily, positively impacting the quality of life of participants. Additional data about how participants heard about the program and whether they understood the terms of their loan were also collected. To determine whether the programs were meeting their goals both a quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed using data from a survey mailed to participants in both programs. The researchers found the programs do have a positive impact on self- reported quality of life of participants. However, future research into these phenomena is still needed in order to provide specific policy recommendations.

The Seasoned Spoon Café is a non-profit, vegetarian, cooperative cafe located in Champlain College on Trent University's campus in Peterborough, Ontario. The Season Spoon Cafe is committed to improving food security of the local community. The Cafe Producer and Supplier Profiles community research project was designed to showcase the Season Spoon Cafe's producer and suppliers through a web-based mapping application developed and embedded on the Spoon's website along with a storyboard created for display at the cafe. These two deliverables highlight the organic, natural, and locally sourced food served at the Cafe and is intended to connect the Spoon's community to a variety of their producers and suppliers. The main findings of this report show that: food sourcing occurs primarily within the desired foodshed; produce (fruits and vegetables) is the dominant type of food producer; and the Seasoned Spoon Cafe sources from a combination of small and large business operations for various products. Community members are encouraged to use these educational tools to meet their food producers and suppliers, and potentially source their household food from them. These actions aim to strengthen local food security of the Seasoned Spoon community.

Recreation is a much more important aspect of children's lives- today than previously [sic]. Today's children are not leading the active lives that young people did fifteen or more years ago.

This research project is one of the first studies of litterless lunch programs in Ontario schools. Our research project was done in conjunction with Peterborough Green-Up, an environmentally friendly community organization, who enlisted our assistance for this research.