Research

Relationship building is the foundation for impactful child maltreatment and child welfare research

National platform puts community partners first when training interdisciplinary group of up-and-coming researchers.

Group of people at a museum
Estimated Read Time:
3 minutes
Group of CARe RTP team and students during tour of CMHR.
Group of CARe RTP team and students during tour of CMHR.
Estimated Read Time:
3 minutes

“There’s a disconnect across disciplines and between people working in the academic environment and in the community,” said Dr. Tracie Afifi, Canada Research Chair in childhood adversity and resilience, professor in the College of Community and Global Health (CCGH), and co-director of the Childhood Adversity and Resilience Research Training Platform (CARe RTP), at a recent workshop in Winnipeg. “There's not a lot of training on how you do impactful research to bring everyone together.”

CARe RTP, a University of Manitoba collaboration between CCGH and the Faculty of Social Work (FSW), trains students to conduct community-led, impactful research in the fields of child maltreatment and child welfare.

Group sitting in circles in discussion.
Group of people sitting around tables in discussion.
Group sitting at front of room in discussion.

The platform launched its third cohort of students at a workshop at The Forks in late September with 16 research trainees in psychology, social work, sciences, community health and nursing from universities across Canada.

One research trainee thought the workshop was a great way to kick start the training program and to connect with everyone in the cohort.

“It was a motivating space, and it felt like a lot of care and attention went into our days,” said Naomi Abrahams, a University of Ottawa PhD candidate and part-time professor in social work.

Dr. Ashley Stewart-Tufescu, co-director of CARe RTP, assistant professor and registered social worker in FSW, said the platform tries to bring the interdisciplinary perspectives together when addressing issues of child maltreatment and child welfare.

“Relationship building is the foundation to doing any kind of meaningful, good work,” she said.

Two people at the Inn at the Forks.
Dr. Ashley Stewart-Tufescu and Dr. Tracie Afifi
Person sitting and talking into microphone.
Elder Norman Meade

Elder Norman Meade shared wisdom to open day one on September 28. Elder Meade held the sweet grass in his hand and acknowledged it is one of the medicines that Mother Earth provides to us as we work together. He said when it is braided together we are strong and not easily broken, but as one strand we are much weaker and can easily be broken.

CARe RTP brings together community partners, researchers, trainees and mentors. Community research partners come to the workshop with a general area they want to focus on and the joint projects between organizations and learners are built from there.

The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (MACY) is one of four community research partners in this cohort. MACY amplifies the voices of children, youth and young adults by holding the government accountable and advises the government on issues and areas of concern.

“This is our third round, and it's always been positive for us”, said Sherry Gott, the Manitoba Advocate at MACY. “The outcomes of the work that we do here informs some of the work that we do at our office.”
This year MACY is looking at youth-centred practices.

“Centring the child’s needs means putting the child in the centre of all these systems they have to come across. And how can we get those systems to work together to improve the services for children and youth and young families?” said Gott.

Eighty-five to 90 per cent of MACY’s client population is Indigenous, said Gott, noting the importance of decolonizing their practice and policies, as well as implementing trauma-informed care.

Person sitting in front of window.
Sherry Gott

Indigenous-centred research and trauma-informed practices are two of the five guiding principles of the CARe RTP, which were introduced during the afternoon’s panel discussion.

Trainees found that an important part of the workshop.

“There’s lot of valuable information [here]. Especially with the panel discussion and talking about the guiding principles and the diverse perspectives that everybody brought to the table,” said Jacklyn Desharnais, a UM MSW student partnered with MACY.

Person sitting passing microphone to person standing.
Two people smiling.

Day one ended at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights with a tour focused on child welfare and maltreatment followed by a dinner.

Day two brought the groups back together to share their research ideas. Groups continue developing their projects over the next 18 months through regular virtual meetings.

By Liane Carter

To learn more about this national training platform, visit the Childhood Adversity and Resilience Research Training Platform website.

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