Policy Internships and Fellowships (PIAF)
The Policy Internships and Fellowships (PIAF) Program began as
a pilot program, placing nine interns and fellows in a host organizations
either in federal government departments or voluntary sector organizations,
from fall 2002 to spring 2003. PIAF has been managed by the Centre
for Voluntary Sector Research and Development (a joint initiative
of the University of Ottawa and Carleton University) and the Centre
for Public Sector Studies of the University of Victoria. The program
was funded by Human Resources Development Canada and Health Canada
through the Capacity Joint Table of the Voluntary Sector Initiative.
The objectives of PIAF were:
- To develop policy knowledge, experience
and skills in both sectors and
- To enable the voluntary sector to
become a more viable partner in the development of public policy.
The Internships were integrated operational placements, with
a focus on public policy development, the intern was incorporated
into an existing work team and assigned regular work tasks. The
Fellowships were stand-alone policy research projects in specific
policy areas that were anchored to work teams but not part of
the regular workflow.
It is anticipated that the benefits of the PIAF experience will
have multiple effects as interns and fellows return to their home
organizations, enriched and inspired by their experiences, applying
what they have learned, and sharing their learnings within and
beyond their own organization and sector.
To view the PIAF Summary Reports of June 2003 and June 2004 “Policy
Internships and Fellowships – Bridging the Policy Dialogue
Between Voluntary Organizations and the Federal Government”
please select one of the links below:
June 2003: PDF (323 KB) or HTML
June 2004: PDF (323 KB) or
Text-only, unformatted (193 KB)
To view the reports completed by each of the 14 participants
please go to the CVSRD site, http://www.cvsrd.org/eng/piaf/index.html
and scroll down to the "Summary Reports and Final Reports"
section.
The Capacity Joint
Table Advisory Committee is working to improve the voluntary
sector’s ability to provide input into policies of the federal
government. This work complements the Voluntary Sector Initiative’s
Code of Good Practice on Policy Dialogue,
which builds on An Accord
Between the Government of Canada and the Voluntary Sector.
Policy Internships and Fellowships (PIAF) is one of two projects
on policy capacity that the Advisory Committee directed; the other
is Participating in Federal Public
Policy: A Guide for the Voluntary Sector which was released
in Fall 2003. Earlier consultations, through policy workshops
across the country in Winter 2002, resulted in the report, Policy
Grass Roots: Consultant’s Report on Eleven VSI Policy Workshops
Held in All Provinces January to March 2002, which informed
the development of these two projects.
For further information on PIAF, please go to http://www.cvsrd.org
or http://publicadmin.uvic.ca/CPSS,
call (613) 520-7444 or email admin@cvsrd.org.
