On this Page: MISSION | MANDATE | FUNDING | BY-LAWS | ANNUAL REPORT
MISSION
The Centre conducts and disseminates research on effective programs and policies for vulnerable children and youth and their families.
Vulnerability is broadly defined to include social, family, emotional, cognitive and health related problems that place children and youth at risk of developing serious psycho-social problems and not being able to achieve their full developmental potential. These can include a range of problems such as poverty, family violence, youth violence, mental health problems and disabilities.
Programs and policies include prevention and intervention programs to support vulnerable children and their families that have been developed in a range of settings, including but not limited to child welfare, children's mental health, education, recreation, and health care.
MANDATE
- conducting research on effective prevention and intervention programs for vulnerable children and their families, including (i) research to understand risk and protective factors, (ii) efficacy and cost-effectiveness of prevention and intervention programs, (iii) analysis of administrative datasets to describe services and track outcomes, and (iv) in-depth studies to explore process and contextual factors that effect program implementation;
- developing partnerships between researchers, service providers and policy makers, with a specific focus on (i) promoting research in partnership with Batshaw Youth and Family Centres and other child and youth health and social service agencies in Montreal and across Quebec, particularly organizations serving the Anglophone community, and (ii) providing a bridge between Quebec's extensive network of francophone community-university child and family research groups and other McGill, Canadian and international research groups focusing on vulnerable children and youth;
- providing research training for graduate and post-graduate students, as well as supporting the development of research capacity in child and family service agencies;
- ensuring timely dissemination of Centre-based research in a manner that is accessible and relevant to policy makers and service providers.
FUNDING
The core infrastructure for the Centre is supported by several operating endowments. The Alva Foundation, which has established both the Philip Fisher Chair and Directorship of the Centre and created an endowment that provides operating income for the Centre. The Centre's operating endowment has also been supported and significantly increased through the support of an anonymous donor.
A generous ten year grant from the The Royal Bank of Canada has permitted the creation of the RBC Children’s Services Research & Training Program at the CRCF which will support two key initiatives. The first initiative is to provide technical support and research training to assist policy makers and community-based children’s mental health service providers in developing their research and program evaluation capacity. In addition, the funds will be used to staff and maintain a data laboratory set up to extract and house administrative children services data from across the country. The second initiative is to support an RBC Internship Program that allows community professionals and students with research internship and training opportunities to develop their capacity to use research tools to evaluate the effectiveness of programs and services.
The centre’s research, training and dissemination activities are supported further by a number of research grants and contracts held by centre researchers. A complete list of these grants and contracts can be seen on our Projects page.
BY-LAWS
In accord with the university regulations for Research Centres at McGill, the following by-laws describe the governance structure for the Centre for Research on Children and Families:
Passed by the CRCF Advisory Committee, May 2007, pending APPC approval.
ANNUAL REPORT
Director’s Message
On October 8th and 9th 2009, The Centre hosted the Second National Roundtable on Child Welfare Outcomes, bringing together child welfare policy makers from all provinces and territories, from various departments in the Federal Government and from First Nations organizations with leading outcomes researchers from across North America. The meeting was an opportunity to review the progress that had been made on coordinating a common set of outcome indicators , and developing a common vision for a national data collection strategy. The meeting also provided an opportunity to formally launch the Children’s Services Data Lab (CSDL) and Data Analysis Internships and thank RBC for its generous gifts. Three major sets of databases are being prepared for analysis at the CSDL: (1) the three Canadian Incidence Study cycles (approximately 30,000 child maltreatment investigations) including a dozen oversampling studies; (2) longitudinal administrative data from Youth Centres across Quebec; and (3) aggregate data from provinces and territories through the national outcome indicator initiative.
After a period of rapid expansion, research activity at the Centre is stabilizing, with 34 projects receiving over 1.5 million dollars in funding. The projects range from evaluations of community-based prevention and early intervention programs, to systematic literature reviews, to analyses of administrative data, to data cleaning and analysis for the 2008 cycle of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect. Thirty five students and trainees have been involved in centre research activities. Through the lunch time research seminar series (see page 18) and two monthly journal clubs (child welfare and children’s disabilities), the Centre continues to be a dynamic site for exchange between faculty, students and community professionals. The Centre’s reach across Canada and internationally has expanded through hosting the Canadian Child Welfare Research Portal (see project # 18)).
Our fifth year of operation marks a transition point for the Centre as we move from serving primarily as a research support centre to developing and formalizing our dissemination and training activities. Over the past year we have worked with Centre researchers to transfer grant administration functions to their project managers. This has also been the final year for completing CFI (Canadian Foundation for Innovation) supported renovations and equipment purchases (see projects # 2), 19) & 24)).
Follow these links for the full versions of the :