News

» Go to news main

Restorative Lab Awarded $1 Million by Research Nova Scotia for Community‑Focused Project

Posted by Stephanie Hurley on January 29, 2025 in News, Research
Jennifer Llewellyn (Provided Photo)
Jennifer Llewellyn (Provided Photo)

On January 28, 2025, Research Nova Scotia (RNS) announced a $1 million investment in a social impact research project led by Professor Jennifer Llewellyn, director of the Restorative Research, Education and Innovation Lab at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie, through its Focused Research Investments (FRI) initiative.

The project, titled Creating Integrated Restorative Communities for Locally Engaged Solutions (CIRCLES-NS), will create pathways to healthier communities and better quality of life for Nova Scotians by taking a restorative approach to tackle pressing issues at the community level.

As the idea of community and social connections has changed, Nova Scotians report being less healthy, feeling less safe, and less happy – especially among those who are vulnerable or marginalized. CIRCLES-NS will reimagine how communities can work collectively to address complex issues at the local level, such as keeping each other safe, attracting and retaining doctors, addressing child poverty and food insecurity, embracing newcomers, and being prepared to respond and recover from emergencies.

This project will build on Nova Scotia’s track record as an international research and practice leader in a restorative approach. It will apply and test this approach to create the relational conditions and capacity needed for communities to face their challenges and thrive.

“It is inspiring to see the excitement and engagement of communities across the province and departments across government committed to CIRCLES-NS and to see the potential it has to make a real difference in the lives of Nova Scotians,” says Llewellyn. “To help find solutions to social challenges, Nova Scotia needs to restore the sense and capacity of community as a problem-solving force. This project will empower communities to build the knowledge, connections, capacity, and resources needed to get to the root causes of local issues and to help craft meaningful solutions.”

This investment will seed the first phase of the project that will ultimately establish “living labs” in communities across the province. These living labs will take a restorative approach to bring people together within the community to identify issues, make plans, and create the connections required to solve the local challenges they face. They will then implement these plans and apply what they learn to find lasting pathways to well-being and success. The first living lab will be established in the Annapolis Valley with a focus on community safety.

CIRCLES-NS is one of four projects RNS is investing $27 million in through its FRI initiative. This is RNS’s largest and most significant investment to date in community-engaged, outcomes-driven research.

“Research Nova Scotia developed and launched Focused Research Investments to pursue discovery on important matters that are timely, relevant, and actionable for those who need it,” says Stefan Leslie, CEO of RNS. “The researchers funded through FRIs are driven to search for answers to some of Nova Scotia’s most urgent questions, devoting their expertise in service of their communities.”

Each research team worked with communities to build a research plan that is focused on that community’s needs. Those communities will be active participants in the projects, and RNS will continue to engage with the teams as a collaborator and supporter.

To learn more about the other community-focused research projects, visit RNS’s official announcement on their website.