This project is to develop trauma-integrated practices (TIPS for…) knowledge briefs that will serve as a knowledge dissemination and mobilization initiative that touch on a variety of topics and audiences.

Despite efforts of Canadian governments to address problems created by service fragmentations, many children and youth with complex needs continue to fall through the cracks in the siloed systems of care. Children with mental health struggles/issues/concerns are significantly affected by service fragmentation as they are typically dependent on a variety of support service systems. These children experience the poorest outcomes in academic performance and graduation rates, dependence on social assistance, and justice system involvement. Cross-sectoral collaboration has been advocated as a tool to overcome existing silos through providing coordinated support services. TRiP (The Regina intersectoral Partnership) is a collaboration across 6 human service organizations (Saskatchewan Health Authority, Regina Public School Division, Regina Catholic School Division, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Social Services, and Regina Police Service) in Regina delivering coordinated support services to children and youth in vulnerable contexts. TRiP has served approximately 1000 clients since inception in 2010 of which 94% have improved school attendance. Using TRiP as a case study, this research aims to investigate the formation and patterns of collaboration, factors influencing collaboration and service coordination across sectors, and processes and structures involved in building and maintaining a strong cross-sectoral collaboration. We will also examine TRiP’sthe governance, organization, and delivery of coordinated services across sectors, funding structure, and accountability mechanisms in TRiP. Findings will have policy implications for improving coordinated service delivery across health and other human service organizations and ultimately improved health outcomes among children and youth. Findings can guide the implementation of context-driven strategies to sustain and maximize the impact of collaborative efforts across sectors.

The Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation launched its Win With Wellness Presentation Series, an interactive presentation designed for grades 5 to 9 students that focuses on giving students the tools they need to understand and manage their stress and anxiety and build supportive and healthy relationships. This presentation series tours schools across Saskatchewan and the CTRC is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the SRF.

May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, a day to fight for the rights of LGBTQ2SIA+ people all over the world. Beginning in 2005, the day’s roots reach back to May 17, 1990, the day that homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases by the World Health Organization. The rights of the LGBTQ2SIA+ community continue to be questioned and under threat all over the world, and today serves as a reminder that education, community, and mutual support are necessary in the face of hate and bigotry. The CTRC has gathered some supportive resources.

Speak Truth To Power Canada is an organization that supplies lesson plans for teachers targeted at specific grade levels about various topics related to human rights, including gender and sexual diversity. 

Gender Diversity is an organization committed to offering resources about gender diversity and trans-inclusive practices within the workplace, and schools, as well as general information for all ages. 

Sex Life Sask is a Saskatchewan-based organization that offers a variety of resources, including resources on proper terminology within the LGBTQ2SIA+ community, how to be an ally, and health services available for LGBTQ2SIA+ in Saskatchewan. 

OUTSaskatoon has publicly available free resources on the LGBTQ2SIA+ community, with specific resources for children, adults, professionals, and caregivers. 

URPride is an LGBTQ2SIA+ organization in Regina that offers LGBTQ2SIA+ programming, workshops, training, and resources in Regina. 

May 15-20 is Sexual Violence Awareness Week (SVAW) in Saskatchewan. SVAW is dedicated to raising public awareness on issues of sexual violence in Saskatchewan through a variety of educational resources and events, aiming to change attitudes and conversations around sexual violence. Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan’s theme for SVAW 2023 is “The Power of Collaboration: Creating Safe Communities,” highlighting the importance of mutual and community support, and how we all contribute to a safe and supportive community. The CTRC has collected some resources and events to support you in shifting the conversation.

Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan is offering a virtual event series this week that are free to attend. 

Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan also offers a variety of resources about sexual violence in Saskatchewan. One we recommend is the Saskatchewan Sexual Violence Education initiative Learning is Healing, a report that provides a detailed look into the reality, myths, prevalence, and issues surrounding sexual violence throughout Saskatchewan. You can find the executive summary here and the extensive report here. 

In 2021, the CTRC had the privilege of collaborating with two keynote speakers, Dr. Lori Haskell and Dr. Jennifer Mullan, at the From Awareness to Action: Supporting Systemic Responses to Sexual Violence conference we held partnered with the Regina Sexual Assault Centre. We would highly recommend seeking out their work. 

The Regina Sexual Assault Centre and the Saskatoon Sexual Assault & Information Centre both offer a variety of resources focused on providing general educational resources for all, as well as information and services specific to their respective areas. 

Little Warriors is an organization dedicated to raising awareness about child sexual violence, offering free resources, events, and programs.

May 5th is Red Dress Day, also known as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S). This day honours and raises awareness for the thousands of Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people who experience disproportionate individual and systemic violence. A human rights crisis of racialized and gender-based violence, the crisis of MMIWG2S in Canada is exacerbated by systemic issues these communities face when seeking protection and justice from these horrific acts. The CTRC has gathered some resources to support the required learning and action journeys as we all work towards fighting the multiple injustices faced by the Indigenous community in Canada.

We encourage engagement with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Final Report, as it was integral to bringing widespread attention to this crisis, and its importance can not be overstated. 

The Native Women’s Association of Canada has developed and shared a Red Dress Day toolkit for teachers, with lessons, discussion questions, videos, and activities to help children understand the weight and severity of Red Dress Day. 

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released Their Voices Will Guide Us, a report designed for student and youth engagement. This report provides guidance for teachers in their role as educators and provides information focused on different grade groups.

Carolyn Roberts is an Indigenous academic and educator who specializes in Indigenous studies and educating others on the ways colonialism still shapes and impacts our world today. Her article Thinking about Red Dress Day for students? provides valuable resources and book recommendations on how to talk to young students about Red Dress Day, murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit people, and the rights and history of Indigenous people in Canada, some of which are reflected in this article.

The REDress Project by Métis artist Jaime Black is the inspiration for the name Red Dress Day. A visually striking piece, it highlights the horrific amount of missing bodies of Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit people. 

The first week of May is the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) 72nd Mental Health Week! A week to remember how important it is to check in with ourselves and each other. The theme for this year is #MyStory, a theme to promote the idea that sharing our own stories of mental health and our mental health struggles helps to destigmatize the conversation and supports others in doing the same. The CTRC has gathered some resources to support your learning journey, and also to assist you in supporting those around you. We also encourage you to think of mental health as inextricably woven with all aspects of health, both individual and collective.

The CMHA has a wide variety of resources about and for mental health. In particular, we would like to direct you to Share Your Story Safely, a resource highlighting the importance of sharing your story in a way that feels safe for you. The CMHA also provides a list of mental health support programs across Canada, categorized by province. Lastly, they offer a 2023 Toolkit that is easily downloadable.

The Canadian Pediatric’s Society has put together a resource on how to talk with your child about their mental health and how to support them. 

The Mental Health Commission of Canada has a plethora of mental health resources for all ages and covers a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences. 

Mentalhealthliteracy.org is an organisation that supplies accessible and digestible educational resources on mental health, and on reducing the barriers around mental health struggles by supporting healthy understanding and communication.

Congratulations to the CTRC’s Post-Doctoral Scholar Dr. Hang Thi Huy Tran!

American Educational Research Association’s

Outstanding Dissertation Award

Dr. Tran joined the CTRC in 2021, and we can think of no one more deserving of this award. Below you can find the abstract for her award winning doctoral dissertation entitled

Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of Vietnamese Children and Mothers Composing Lives in Transition to Canada.

In this narrative inquiry, I attended to the experiences of three newcomer elementary-age children and their mothers of Vietnamese heritage who were composing lives in transition to Canada. My passion for this inquiry came from my experience as a mother as I lived alongside my young daughters and their struggles, tensions, and tears when we were first composing our lives in transition to Canada. Many of my daughters’ storied experiences of their new schools were upsetting. As I began to think narratively with my daughters’ and my stories, I better understood my children and myself and was able to dwell in/with my tensions in educative ways. Attending the child and mother co-researchers’ lived and told stories of their experiences, I came alongside them in their family and community places. The child and mother co-researchers and I came alongside one another for two years as we explored the mothers’ stories of their homeland culture. We attended to past and present intergenerational narrative reverberations in language, culture, and education traditions and experiences that shape their familial curriculum making and too, the child and mother co-researchers’ lived and told stories of composing lives in transition to Canada. … Our narrative inquiry shows significant aspects of the everyday fabric of the children’s and mother’s lives in the making, including the spatial, linguistic, and temporal nature of their lives in transition as well as the children’s familial curriculum making worlds. Our narrative inquiry opens potential avenues for understanding cultural ethics within the relational ethics of narrative inquiry, as well as familial narratives in relation to institutional and social narratives. Our narrative inquiry encourages teachers, researchers, cultural brokers, immigrant facilitators, education policy makers, teacher educators, and newcomer parents and families to more deeply understand and support, by travelling to their diverse worlds, children and families who are composing lives in transition to Canada.

You can find Dr. Tran’s dissertation at: https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-3xcz-wt20

Her work will also soon be published as book!

Since the spring of 2022 the Child Trauma Research Centre, and the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation Professional Learning have been working alongside a dedicated group of Saskatchewan-based educators to create a microcredential named: Trauma-Informed/Sensitive Pedogogies and Practices. The facilitator community was honoured with the presence of both an Elder and a Knowledge Keeper to support its commitment to developing the microcredential content by practicing 2-eyed seeing (Marshall, 2012). 

The third and final badge of this microcredential is entitled Walking alongside Indigenous children and youth in schools and is set to launch May 2, 2023. There are still a few spots left and the CTRC and STFPL are inviting anyone interested to register as soon as possible at (306)585-5748. 

Because this is a first-time pilot of the badge it is being offered at a significantly reduced rate. Normally the badge would cost $695, but this pilot version is being offered at the one-time-only price of $150. The dates and times of the badge are May 2, 9, 16, and 23, 2023 at 6:30-9:00 p.m. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to nathalie.reid@uregina.ca.

April 12 is the International Day of Pink, dedicated to fighting bullying, homophobia, transphobia, and anti-2SLGBTQ+ efforts worldwide. The International Day of Pink began in 2007 in a high school in Nova Scotia after two senior students witnessed a young student being harassed with homophobic remarks for wearing a pink shirt to school. International Day of Pink reminds us of the power of standing together and standing up for one another when faced with discrimination, hate, and adversity. The CTRC has compiled a list of resources to support your learning journey and support you in supporting those around you. 

Speak Truth to Power Canada is an organization that offers lesson plans on a variety of human rights topics, including gender and sexual diversity. 

Gender Diversity offers resources and webinars on gender diversity and trans-inclusive approaches for schools and workplaces. 

The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity offers quick and comprehensive resources for all ages and backgrounds.