Knowledge Hub Bulletin 32 - October 2024
GOODBYE AJIRIOGHENE
It is with sadness and pride that we announce that Ajiroghene Evi is leaving the Knowledge Hub team to take the role of Chief Executive Officer at the Ontario Association of Social Workers. As we say goodbye, we want to take a moment to reflect on what a wonderful year it has been with Ajirioghene. Her contributions to the Community of Practice (CoP) have been invaluable, and the guidance and wisdom she shared with the Knowledge Hub will leave a lasting legacy. Ajiroghene, congratulations on your new role! We will miss you dearly, but we’re excited to see all the great things you will accomplish. Join us in thanking Ajirioghene for all that she has shared with us over the year.
Empowerment through Exchange: Trauma-informed solutions for violence prevention. Knowledge exchange report
A report summarizing the activities and discussions held at the Knowledge Exchange held on June 4 and 5, 2024, in Montréal, Quebec, is available on the Knowledge Hub website marking the third in-person gathering of this initiative funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The event titled “Empowerment Through Exchange: Trauma- Informed Solutions for Violence Prevention,” brought together representatives from 22 of the 24 funded projects to foster collaboration and relationship-building, with key attendees including Alice Echaquan, Debby Flamand, Melissa Coutu, Nancy Poole, and Kathryn Babcock. The report offers summaries of the presentations, workshops, and social activities held over the two days and links to all the resources mentioned throughout the event. We are currently exploring hosting the next Knowledge exchange in November 2025 in Toronto. This will be the last knowledge exchange of this investment.
Sustainability
The Knowledge Hub partnered with capitalW to create the Gender-based violence Charities Data Platform which identifies funding for organizations who self-declare doing gender based violence work in the T3010 Charitable donations tax forms that are submitted annually to Canada Revenue Agency. The database is available in the Community of Practice (CoP) portal. Sustainability has been identified as a key interest for many CoP members. The Knowledge Hub has engaged Kathryn Babcock to explore sustainability of projects with a focus on fundraising. A meeting was held on September 27, 2024, to begin the discussion and explore how we might work together on this issue. Conversations were held around collective impact and possibilities of assembling a working group to explore options for financial sustainability was discussed. A recording of the meeting is available in the portal. We look forward to hearing from you as we outline next steps.
Annual reports overview
A presentation was made by Program Officers from the Public Health Agency of Canada to the Community of Practice on September 25, 2024, which summarized information submitted by projects in the annual reports. An overarching theme identified in the reports was adaptation. Many projects worked hard to meet needs and expectations through adaptations to what was done, how things were done, when things were done and for how long, and resources required to achieve something. The PowerPoint slides and a recording of the presentation are available in the CoP portal.
KH MID-TERM EVALUATION
Thank you to the CoP members who participated in the mid-term evaluation of the Knowledge Hub this summer conducted by Jenna Lopez and Ajirioghene Evi. A full report will be made available this Fall regarding results.
- 22 CoP members completed survey
- 9 members participated in focus group sessions
Project Pages – Telling your Story
Each project has a page on the Knowledge Hub website which provides a brief description of the project that was provided to us as the projects were getting started. We encourage projects to share updates and progress with us so that we can include on the project pages to tell a more fulsome story about activities, progress, results and knowledge mobilization. Please contact the KH team for any updates you would like included.
RESOURCES
Trauma-and Violence-Informed Care Foundations Curriculum
Trauma- and Violence-Informed Care Foundations Curriculum - EQUIP Health Care | Research to Improve Health Equity This free e-learning curriculum developed by Western University, EQUIP Health Care, and the University of British Columbia consists of 7 sections of self-directed, online participation and can be completed in about 7 hours. This course offers practical guidance on how to provide care in a trauma-and violence-informed way. A certificate of completion is awarded upon successful completion of an end of module assessment.
Implementing Trauma-and Violence-Informed Care. A Handbook.
University of Toronto Press - Implementing Trauma- and Violence-Informed Care (utorontopress.com) This book with contributions from several CoP members including Marilyn Ford-Gilboe, Colleen Varcoe, Annette Browne, Francine Darroch, Gabby Gonzalez Montaner and Jessica Webb takes a handbook and case study approach to provide guidance for practitioners and organizations to implement trauma-and violence-informed care (TVIC) in a range of health and social service system organizations. The first section includes chapters about why service providers should be using TVIC, followed by case studies in the second section in a variety of settings (public health, schools, policing, community physical activity programs) and with specific populations. The third section provides an intersectional approach to TVIC in various contexts including services for Indigenous people, immigrant and migrant workers, people coping with substance use, trauma, and chronic pain, and in the context of war. The fourth section “Bringing it all together” offers strategies and tools for adopting TVIC in organizations and options for evaluation.
Reframing Trauma Through Social Justice: Resisting the Politics of Mainstream Trauma Discourse
Reframing Trauma Through Social Justice. This cross-disciplinary volume edited by CoP member Catrina Brown with contributions from Amanda Dupupet examines and reframes trauma as a social and political issue in the context of wider society, critiquing the widely accepted pathologizing of trauma and violence in current discourse. Rooted in critical social theory, this insightful text reinvokes the critiques and analysis of the women’s movement and the “personal is political” framing of trauma to unpack the mainstreaming of trauma discourse which has emerged today. Accomplished contributors address the social construction of femininity and masculinity in relation to trauma and violence, and advocate for a broader framing of trauma away from the constrained focus on pathologizing and diagnosing trauma, individual psychologizing and therapy. Instead, the book offers a fresh and compelling look at how discursive resistance, alternative feminist and narrative approaches to emotional distress and the mental health effects of violence can be developed alongside community-based, preventive, political and policy-based actions to create effective shifts in discourse, practice, policy and programming. This is fascinating reading for upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and academics in a broad range of fields of study, including psychology, social work, gender and women’s studies and sociology, as well as for professionals, including policy makers, clinical psychologists and social workers.
Community of Practice meetings 2024-2025
Save the Date! 
Please mark these dates in your calendars. All meetings take place from 1:00- 2:30 ET on Zoom and offer opportunities for CoP members to share information about their projects, including challenges, successes and outcomes.
• November 6, 2024
• January 22, 2025
• March 5, 2025
Knowledge Hub Team
- Anna-Lee Straatman, Project Manager, astraat2@uwo.ca
- Jenna Lopez, Research Coordinator, jlopez45@uwo.ca
- Jade Vajna, Media Technician, jvajna@uwo.ca
- Jessica Webb, Implementation Coordinator, jwebb63@uwo.ca
- Katreena Scott, Academic Director, kscot47@uwo.ca
Check Us Out on Social Media
Facebook: facebook.com/LNandKH
Twitter: twitter.com/lnandkh
Website: http://kh-cdc.com/
