Organizational Structure

The CDPA was born out of a rich partnership of academics and community partner representatives who had worked together on previous projects in disability policy research. When the partners desired to deepen their working relationship they applied to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to be funded under their Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) program. In 2008 this proposal was funded for a five year program of research that will continue into 2014. When funded, it seemed fitting to translate the CURA's strong collaborative roots into a governance structure that reflected this spirit of partnership.

Like many not-for-profit organizations, our CURA is governed by a "board of directors" that is made up of all of the original founding partners. This body meets semi-annually to report on the activities of the various teams, to conduct PDSA learning sessions, and to make decisions about the overall direction of the CURA for the next stage of the research agenda.

Between governance meetings the day to day operations of the CURA are overseen by members of the Secretariat, who meet at least quarterly with a leadership group made up of the Academic and Community Partner leads for each policy area team.

Each policy area team has multiple research projects going on simultaneously. Researchers, community partners, and policy makers with specific expertise are invited to join the CURA as associates for one or more projects, or as long as they wish. Students who have qualified for a scholarship through the CURA are also considered to be associates of the CURA.

The following chart depicts the organizational structure of the Canadian Disability Policy Alliance: