Writing About Female Homeless Populations in Canada

The Cost of Surviving in a Male Dominant Environment: How Can Resource Structures in Kelowna, Canada, Improve to Help Homeless Women

For this research paper we paired up and worked together through the following steps:

1. Coming up with a research topic
2. Conducting a literature review
3. Write a research proposal
4. Orally presenting the research proposal to the class
5. Providing and receiving feedback 
6. Writing the research paper

 

1. Coming UP WITH A RESEARCH TOPIC

My partner and I chose to talk about homelessness since we were both interested in this population and we were both involved in different organizations that were related to homelessness outreach.

We first had to think of a purpose. What is the objective? Why do we want to research what we want to research and how will it add to the already existing published research and knowledge. We had to think of the knowledge gaps that existed in research on our specific topic. We found that there was a lack of research done on homelessness among female populations, specifically in places outside of Vancouver, and we decided to tackle that.

The purpose of our academic research study was to recognize some of the reasons for this lack of resources offered and to encourage organizations to improve this resources by developing better support systems that are directed to homeless female populations. By doing this we hoped to increase the awareness of the importance of having more resource structures focused on the needs of homeless women in Kelowna, Canada.

 

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review consists of the gathering and organizing of information already available. It involved a lot of research and reading papers that were already published. We had to choose and pick which ones were the most relevant to our research topic and how would we use them to help us write our own paper.

We also had to implement our knowledge about APA referencing for this assignment.

 

3. Research proposal

The research proposal is important because this is what determined whether we are going to be able to move on with the research or not. In a research proposal we have to lay out our research topic, literature review, and the methods we are planning to implement in order to gather data for our research.

 

4. oral presentation / 5. Feedback

We then had to present our information to the rest of the class through an oral presentation. This gave us all the opportunity to receive feedback from our classmates which were very helpful and helped us improve our approach to this research paper.

 

 

6. research paper

The writing of the research paper was done collaboratively. This was an interesting assignment since it pushed us to really communicate and work together as a team.

"We believe that it is extremely important to keep increasing the amount of research on the resource structures in order to raise awareness, as it is one of the key factors of homelessness and vulnerability among homeless women. Further research could aim to focus on the ‘hidden homeless’ populations, which also include homeless first nation groups, in smaller cities around Canada. It’s important to bring up these considerations because they contribute to the physical and mental safety of vulnerable populations such as homeless women and minority homeless populations. With this research we hope to keep the conversation relevant and hopefully raise enough awareness for bigger organizations to take action and improve their service." (Chacon & Antoine, 2019)

Conclusion

The topic we chose was very interesting and enjoyable to read and write about. I still believe that there are so many marginalized populations that do not get as much attention in the media. Women living in poverty and homelessness are such groups and they do not get enough attention and enough importance. I still believe that this is a very important subject, and the topic should be brought up more often.

 

Share this learning activity with others