| Principal Investigator: | Nico Trocmé |
| Co-Investigators: |
D. Collin-Vézina, B. Fallon, L. Lach, H. MacIntosh, D. Rothwell, C. Blackstock, |
| Collaborators: |
E. Bouchard, L. Coughlin, H. Montgomery, N. Rosebush, S. Sinclair, |
| Funding Source: | Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada |
| Period: |
2012-2018 |
The partnership has been developed to better understand the dynamics and outcomes of child protection services delivered to First Nations (FN) and non-FN children and to support youth protection (YP) organizations' capacity to conduct such research. Although there is a wealth of administrative and census data available that could inform service planning and policy making, YP organizations have not had the analytic tools or training required to make effective use of these data. By creating a cross-sector collaboration between researchers, provincial service associations and direct service providers, the proposed partnership will address the following objectives: (1) understand the dynamics and outcomes of child protection services delivered to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children; (2) support FN and YP organizations' capacity to analyze clinical, administrative and appropriate population statistics to support them in planning and evaluating their programs and services; and (3) train researchers in longitudinal and ecological methods using administrative data within a participatory research approach.
The first cohort of 11 students was recruited in summer 2012. They have participated in a number of training activities facilitated by BRC researchers to develop their data analysis skills and expertise in child welfare policy and practice. These trainings ranged from learning about participatory research to qualitative interviewing to multiple regression. The second cohort of 9 students will be starting this fall. In addition, 2 postdoctoral students have joined our team this year.
Students, researchers and representatives from partner agencies have engaged in a variety of projects specific to the needs and interests of the agencies involved. While the partner identifies the goals of each individual project, it is led by a graduate student from McGill or the University of Toronto who is supervised by a team researcher. The student is responsible for the coordinated management of project activities and is supported by the designated researcher and the Administrative Team.