Bulletin 23 - January 2022
Farewell to Sara Mohamed
We wish to congratulate Sara Mohamed who successfully competed for and accepted the position of Communications and Outreach Coordinator with Western Institute for Earth and Space Exploration. She began her new role on November 15, 2021. Sara has been an exemplary Research Coordinator with the Knowledge Hub. Among other responsibilities, she built meaningful relationships with our community of practice members, took on additional roles such as creating videos to promote projects throughout Canada, coordinated Research Briefings, maintained the Facebook platform for the LN and KH, updated the KH website, and coordinated the promotion and technical aspects of the LN and KH webinars. Sara has been a wonderful ambassador for the Knowledge Hub and the Centre! Sara, we will miss you more than you can ever imagine. At the same time, we are incredibly proud of you and congratulate you on your new position.
Website Changes
The Knowledge Hub team has made changes to the kh-cdc.ca website. We have updated the project pages to add project videos and research briefings, updated project descriptions, links to project websites and products developed, and placeholders for research final reports (when available).
Research Briefings
The Knowledge Hub continues to host Research Briefings with projects as they approach completion. We have recorded Research Briefings with 14 projects to date. The recordings (brief 15- minute videos) highlight learnings and outcomes from the implementation of the intervention projects. Access the recordings at Research Briefings recordings.
2 New Video Resources
With the support and participation of many Community of Practice members, promotional videos have been created focusing on “Lessons Learned” when conducting trauma and violence-informed research intervention projects. A series of 5 English and 5 French videos have been developed with more to come. The themes of these videos are:
- Foster cultural connectivity and safety
- Foster engagement
- Trauma-informed practice impacts facilitators
- Trauma-informed learning is integrated into daily life
- Empowerment is fundamental.
The videos are available on the project website at: Lessons Learned videos
Knowledge Hub Evaluation
The Knowledge Hub grant comes to an end on March 31, 2022. The Knowledge Hub has undergone ongoing evaluation by Dr. Marika Morris of Marika Morris Consulting. Many Community of Practice members participated in interviews at the mid-point of the project. Dr. Morris will be reaching out to some Community of Practice members in the coming weeks to conduct exit interviews for the final evaluation of the project. We thank you in advance for taking time to offer feedback about the Knowledge Hub.
Community of Practice meeting
The Community of Practice met on December 3, 2021 and discussed challenges to wrapping up a project during a pandemic, and how to wrap up a project using trauma-informed principles. Our panelists were:
- Mary Motz and Margaret Leslie from Building Connections
- Claire Crooks, MindUP
- Crystal Giesbrecht, nato’we ho win
- Renee Turner, Reaching out with yoga
Tip sheets are being developed by the Knowledge Hub team from the insights shared during this meeting. Some of the themes included collecting data during a pandemic, satisfying partner information needs, identifying sustainability strategies, and challenges in knowledge dissemination.
Promoting Program Evaluation Successes and Mental Health Outcomes
Many CoP project teams have recently published resources or journal articles related to their projects. Some articles and reports share the positive health changes experienced by participants and/or facilitators involved in the trauma-informed interventions. Other articles focus on evaluation findings and methodology of the implementation. A summary follows of recent publications by project teams:
The Bounce Back League (BBL) final report indicates that the BBL program was effective in promoting youth development and participants experienced enhanced well-being and improved life skill development. facilitators were able to foster safe environments and build caring and supportive relationships with club members.
An evaluation of the BBL implemented with Canadian newcomer children generated insights on how to offer culturally inclusive programs. The key takeaways from the results were that for programs to be trauma-informed AND culturally-sensitive, they must facilitate safety, awareness and respect of other peoples' cultures, inclusion of youth voice in programs, and opportunities for belongingness for both youth and their parents/caregivers.
A recently published journal article by the program’s evaluation team offers recommendations on how to conduct effective evaluations of sports programs including (a) appraise a program’s evaluation capacity, (b) establish partnerships and assemble an evaluation team, (c) evaluate how a program is delivered and a program’s outcomes, (d) use practical methods that fit the sport context to produce program-specific findings, (e) empower youth voice, and (f) reflect and revise on an ongoing basis.
Building Connections published an article in the Journal of Family Psychology regarding the implementation of their program and its success in improving self-esteem, self-efficacy, relationship capacity, and parenting stress among program participants.
A national implementation of a community-based intervention for mothers experiencing violence in relationships.
Another article focused on the success of the program in changing practice among service providers and facilitators. Participants were able to identify changes in the following areas related to trauma-informed practice: awareness, collaboration, competency, and safety. These changes were not limited to the program itself, but also applied to how they do their own work, and that of the organization and community.
The final reports for the project are available at Mothercraft - Building Connections
nato’we ho win has developed a Program Manual and Facilitator’s guide for its intervention program. Additionally, a journal article has recently been published in the Violence against Women journal which identified mental health changes among program participants including increases in self-reported sense of resilience, personal agency, connectedness, and post-traumatic growth, as well as decreases in self-reported anxiety and depression.
Assessing the Efficacy of a Cultural and Artistic Intervention for Indigenous Women Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence - Crystal J. Giesbrecht, Laleh Jamshidi, Carrie LaVallie, JoLee Sasakamoose, R. Nicholas Carleton, 2021
MindUP has shared summary reports for the school board and parents of children participating in their program. These reports are available at MindUP for Young Children
A recent journal article shares results of the MindUP program which was successful in reducing burnout and improving self-efficacy and sense of personal accomplishment among teacher facilitators.
An evaluation of the P.E.A.C.E. project found that participants valued the safe women-only space, and participation in the intervention resulted in improvements in confidence, coping, health, relationships, and future directedness.
Promoting Wellness and Recovery of Young Women Experiencing Gender-Based Violence and Homelessness: The Role of Trauma-Informed Health Promotion Interventions - Nadine Reid, Amie Kron, Thanara Rajakulendran, Deborah Kahan, Amanda Noble, Vicky Stergiopoulos, 2021
Safe and Understood has recently published an article evaluating the success of the Mothers in Mind program. Participants of the Mothers in Mind program reported greater parenting self-efficacy, healthier parenting and enhanced psychological well-being.
