Knowledge Hub Presents
The Knowledge Hub Presents series features information on trauma- and violence-informed research and practice developed by members of the Trauma-Informed Community of Practice in their work related to the Preventing and Addressing Family Violence: The Public Health Perspective (2022-2026) investment of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The series provides a platform for the Trauma-Informed Community of Practice to share their expertise with a larger public audience and encourage knowledge mobilization opportunities. Recordings are available on the website after the live event.
Let's Connect, Share, Learn Together!
Upcoming Events
iHEAL
Date | Time: Tuesday, April 30th, 2024 | 1:00-1:30pm Eastern Time (ET)
The iHEAL app is a free ‘made in Canada’ safety and health resource based on over 30 years of research and developed for Canadian women who are experiencing or have experienced intimate partner violence. Available in English and French, the app helps women consider their priorities and needs and access information and resources to help them on a path to improved safety, health and well-being. The app can also be used by family members and friends and those who provide direct services to extend the support they already provide to women. Join the app developers for a live demonstration of the iHEAL app and a discussion of it’s features and possible uses, followed by a Q and A.
**Please download the iHeal app before the presentation**
Learning objectives:
Participants who attend this session will be able to:
- Appreciate how and why the iHEAL app was developed and the research behind it
- Identify the main components and features of the app, and how to navigate it
- Consider how they might use the iHEAL app in their work.
For more information or to download the app and follow along: www.ihealapp.ca
Presenters
Dr. Marilyn Ford-Gilboe, RN, PhD, FAAN, FCAHS, FCAN (Lead) is a Distinguished University Professor and Women’s Health Research Chair in Rural Health, Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University. With a background in public health nursing, for the past 25 years, her research and community work have focused on improving the health and quality of life of people affected by violence and inequities by improving services and policies. Most of her research focuses on women’s health, violence, health equity and place, particularly testing online and F2F safety and health interventions for women who have experienced partner violence.
Dr. Colleen Varcoe, RN, PhD, FCAHS, FCAN (Co-lead) is a Professor Emeritus in the University of British Columbia School of Nursing. Her work aims to decrease inequity and violence including interpersonal and structural forms of violence such as racism and poverty. Her completed research includes studies of risks and health effects of violence and how to promote health for women who experience violence, especially Indigenous women. She has studied how to promote equity-oriented healthcare (cultural safety, harm reduction, and trauma- and violence-informed care) at the organizational level and worked with various Indigenous communities, organizations and issues, including in health care and criminal justice contexts.
Dr. Kelly Scott-Storey, RN, PhD (Co-lead) is a health researcher and Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick, Director of Community Research, Scholarship and Teaching at the Fredericton Downtown Community Health Centre and a Research Fellow with the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Center for Family Violence Research. Her program of research is broadly in the intersection of violence, gender and health and focuses on health interventions and measurement of violence/scale development and community action.
Learn more about the iHEAL project.
Recordings
Trauma and violence-informed movement
Recorded on March 27, 2024
In this presentation Dr. Francine Darroch and Gabriela Gonzalez Montaner will present an overview of trauma- and violence-informed physical activity (TVIPA). The presentation will introduce a newly developed online training program designed to facilitate the implementation of TVIPA in diverse settings. The presenters will highlight the influence of trauma- and violence-informed approaches on module development and outline the evaluation plans for the program.
Learning objectives:
- Understand the significance of trauma- and violence-informed physical activity (TVIPA) and gain insights into its application in diverse settings.
- Acquire proficiency in utilizing the newly developed online training for implementing TVIPA, including an awareness of trauma-informed approaches influencing module development.
Presenters
Dr. Francine Darroch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Carleton University. She is an interdisciplinary researcher with expertise in qualitative health research, public health, inequities in pregnancy and physical activity, maternal health, and the intersections of racism, gender-based violence, substance abuse, trauma, and structural violence. As founder of the Health and Wellness Equity Research Group at Carleton University, Dr. Darroch leads feminist participatory action research that focuses on leveraging physical activity to improve the quality of life of self-identified women and their families. Her current work aims to address inequities in physical activity for pregnant and parenting individuals and families through trauma- and violence-informed approaches to physical activity. While Dr. Darroch’s research is predominantly focused on self-identified women and children, her work also extends to explore and advocate for gender-sensitive programming for fathers living in marginalizing circumstances. Dr. Darroch’s main overarching goal is to co-create programs and resources to increase access to physical activity, enhance social cohesion, community connections, and improve overall health by way of addressing individual, systemic, and structural barriers to health and well-being.Overall, Dr. Darroch’s multi-faceted research efforts are a reflection of her passionate commitment to social justice, health equity, and challenging power differentials in research practices as an advocate for populations that experience systemic marginalization.
Gabby Gonzalez Montaner is a Research Manager at the Health and Wellness Equity Research Group at Carleton University. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Health Studies and a Master of Public Health. Motivated by her previous work with community-based trauma-informed housing, mental health, and physical activity programs and her own passion and need for physical activity and movement, her interests are in improving access to, and the availability of, trauma- and violence-informed physical activity programming for self-identified women. Currently, she is supporting the research group’s Public Health Agency of Canada funded project, Leveraging trauma- and violence-informed physical activity to support individuals who have experienced family violence: A community-based participatory approach.
Learn more about the Trauma and violence-informed movement project.
ConnectED Parents
This presentation was recorded on March 7, 2024
Since 2019, Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence has been spearheading the design, implementation, and evaluation of ConnectED Parents, an innovative approach to support parents and caregivers in preventing adolescent dating violence. ConnectED Parents simplifies and accelerates the learning process for parents and caregivers through 60 interactive text messages, offering a quick and accessible way to enhance their skills in fostering healthy relationships for their children. Beyond individual learning, ConnectED Parents involves training community and parent leaders to create a support system and a healthy social environment around parents, reinforcing healthy relationship behaviours.
In this presentation, Lianne Lee will provide an overview of the ConnectED Parents approach, highlight emerging lessons that can shape effective strategies for engaging parents and caregivers in violence prevention efforts, and share the exciting launch of their text-learning modules across Canada.
Presenter
Lianne Lee holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Research, and Bachelor’s Degrees in Education, Economics and Society, and English. Since 2006, she has led a broad range of community programs and systems-change initiatives that seek to enhance the wellbeing of children and youth from diverse backgrounds. Included is frontline work in after-school community programs early in her career and managing undergraduate programs and research projects at the Werklund School of Education’s Youth Leadership Centre. In addition to directing the Alberta Healthy Youth Relationships Strategy at Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence, Lianne has helped to lead the design of a provincial primary prevention framework for Alberta to guide policies and practices that stop violence before it starts. Lianne is the Project Manager for this project.
Learn more about the ConnectED Parents project.
MODELSS - Moving On: Digital Empowerment and Literacy Skills for Survivors
This presentation was recorded on October 25, 2023
October 24-27, 2023 was Media Literacy week. We are pleased to be partnering with MediaSmarts, Canada’s Centre for Digital Media Literacy for this Knowledge Hub Presents.
An introduction to MediaSmarts' intervention research project titled Moving On: Digital Empowerment and Literacy Skills for Survivors, which aims to adapt, deliver, and evaluate digital media literacy resources for survivors of technology-facilitated violence and abuse (TFVA) and the practitioners in the violence against women (VAW) sector who support them. This presentation covers the project’s trauma-and violence-informed lens, its qualitative methods, key findings, and ongoing development of resources.
Presenter
Dr. Kara Brisson-Boivin is the Director of Research at Mediasmarts, Canada’s Centre for Digital Media Literacy. Kara is responsible for the planning, methodology, implementation, and dissemination of key findings from original MediaSmarts’ research studies as well as evaluations of MediaSmarts’ programs. Kara researches the various impacts of digital technology and culture on digital citizenship, digital well-being, and online resiliency for Canadians broadly and youth in particular. Kara works with a number of academic partners on tri-agency funded research projects, private and public sector groups, as well as federal departments on online issues including; digital equity and inclusion, digital well-being and online resilience, privacy, online hate, mis/dis information, and algorithms and artificial intelligence. Kara brings to MediaSmarts extensive publication experience in academic journals, magazines, news op-eds and research blogs; and a background in presenting research to key stakeholders on parliamentary committees, at academic conferences, invited talks, panels, keynote addresses, and in media interviews.
Learn more about the MODELSS project.
Connections for Breaking the Cycle (C-BTC) of Violence - Developing and Testing a Readiness Tool for Partnerships with Community-Based Projects
This presentation was recorded on October 18, 2023
The goal of the Building Connections initiative (2016-2020) was to enhance community capacity to identify and respond to interpersonal violence of mothers parenting infants and young children. It was important to thoughtfully and systematically engage community partners that would have the capacity, resources, and systems of support in place to safely deliver and evaluate the intervention. Using trauma-informed and relational approaches, we developed a tool to assess projects’ readiness called Your Starting Point Story (YSPS). This presentation will describe the development, testing, and usefulness of the YSPS tool for understanding projects’ capacity to provide trauma-informed services to vulnerable families with complex needs.
Presenter
Mary Motz, Ph.D., C.Psych. is a Clinical Psychologist at Mothercraft’s Breaking the Cycle program in Toronto and an Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Psychology at York University. Since obtaining her degree in clinical-developmental psychology at York University in 2003, she has been working with pregnant people, mothers, as well as their infants andyoung children who are at risk for maladaptive outcomes because of challenges related to substance use and mental health difficulties, interpersonal violence and trauma, marginalization by society and systemic violence, and poverty.
Learn more about the Connections for Breaking the Cycle (C-BTC) of Violence project on the our project profile page and on Mothercraft's website.
