A Pan-Canadian engagement of policy, practice
& research in youth health: Lessons from Youth Excel CLASP
Antony Card, Memorial University (Grenfell)
Barb Riley, Propel Centre for Population Health Impact, University of Waterloo
Donna Murnaghan, University of PEI (on behalf of Youth Excel collaborators)
Collaborators: With thanks to
• ON: Steve Manske (Propel, U Waterloo) Heather Manson, Jennifer Robertson, Melody Robertson (Public Health ON)
• BC: PJ Naylor, Karen Strange (Uvic)
• AB: Kate Storey, Marg
Schwartz, Paul Veugelers (U Alberta)
• MB: Jane Griffith, Kate McGarry, Tannis Erikson (Cancer Care MB)
• PE: Brandi Bell (UPEI)
• NB: Bill Morrison, Lynn Ann Duffley (UNB)
Marlien McKay (NB Gov’t)
• Katherine Kelly (pan- Canadian Joint
Consortium for School Health)
• And many more…
Introducing: Youth Excel
• Youth Health Collaborative:
‘Excel’erating Evidence-Informed Action
– Funded by Canadian Partnership Against Cancer
(Oct09-Mar12)
– 2 national partners & 7 provincial teams – Purpose: to accelerate the generation and
use of evidence amongst policy-makers,
practitioners, and researchers to inform and improve youth health policies & programs
Introducing: Youth Excel
• Background rationale for our Coalition Linking Action and Science for Prevention (CLASP)
• Developing capacity to enable rapid generation and use of evidence to inform and continuously improve policies and programs to enhance youth health
• Systemic change
• Enduring tools and processes to support evidence in action
Introducing: Youth Excel
Project objectives & aims
1. establish and advance priorities for a) moving evidence to action b) deriving evidence from action;
2. accelerate development of knowledge exchange capability in provinces, by doing and sharing case studies to guide this work;
and
3. strengthen collaboration among research, policy, practice, and youth leaders by creating mechanisms to enable mutual learning about how to effect efficient and productive knowledge
exchange.
4. conduct a developmental evaluation at the outset of Youth Excel
Introducing Youth Excel Goals
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Impact Goal
Reduce youth chronic disease Risk
Community Monitoring
Using Evidence
Move Evidence to
Action Learn
from Action Impact
Goal
Capacity Development
Goal
Youth Health Collaborative:
‘Excelerating’ evidence-informed action
Perspective /
Level Policy Practice Research
Provincial National
Health Education
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Introducing Youth Excel
Key Activities
• Two national roundtables
– Priorities for Comprehensive School Health
– Catching the Jellyfish: Knowledge Development & Exchange for Advancing Youth Health
• 16 provincial roundtables – provincial priorities and systems to advance youth health
• 4 case studies of provincial knowledge development and exchange systems; cross-case analysis
• Creation of Core Indicators and Measures for Youth Health:
– tobacco control, physical activity and nutrition – Individual level, school level
Youth Excel Case Studies
• Purpose: to accelerate the development of effective knowledge exchange (KE) capacity in diverse
provincial contexts
• PE, MB, and NB selected as case sites due to existing capacities in youth health knowledge exchange
• Exploratory case study using a multiple-case design (Yin, 2003)
• Individual case studies
• Cross-case analysis
Provincial Youth Health KE Systems
• Prince Edward Island
– School Health Action Planning & Evaluation System – PEI (SHAPES-PEI)
• Manitoba
– Manitoba Youth Health Survey (YHS)
• New Brunswick
– NB Student Wellness Survey and Knowledge Exchange Initiative (NBSWS/KE)
SHAPES – PEI
School Health Action, Planning, and Evaluation System –
Prince Edward Island
Underlying Research School
Health Assessment
Feedback for Planning
Action Evaluation and
Adaptation
“Local”
Strategy and Contexts
SHAPES - Conceptual Model
SHAPES–PEI Development
• Planning began in 2007
– The CSHR Group (UPEI, Dr. Murnaghan) and the PEI Dept. of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD)
• Support/Partnerships
– Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Departments of EECD & Health – University of Waterloo
– PEI School Boards (3) & Schools
– NGOs & associations (e.g., CCS, PEITF, Home & School)
• Funding
– DEECD: SHAPES-PEI
– Health Canada: Youth Smoking Survey (YSS), implemented simultaneously
• Every 2 years:
– 2008-09 and 2010-11, expected 2012-13
– Over 85% of schools participated in 2008-09 and 90% in 2010-11
• Student survey & administrator survey:
– Students in grades 5-12 (on four health behaviours)
– Administrator at each school (on policies and programs)
• Profile reports:
– School-level – Board-level – Provincial-level
Data Collection & Reports
Knowledge Exchange & Use
• Focus of activities in 2009-10, 2011-12, and 2013-14
• PEI School Health Grant Program
– Schools/Boards encouraged to use Profiles as basis of application – Provides funds to implement, improve, and/or evaluate one or more
of the four health behaviours studied
• Presentations & Meetings
– With schools, teachers, students, parents, etc.
– At academic conferences
• Future considerations
– Continue to encourage schools to use their data
– Engaging stakeholders in conversations about data needs and use – Academic publishing
Newfoundland & Labrador YE CLASP
• Priority areas: Physical Activity, Healthy Eating, Tobacco Free
• Provincial Forum – Policy, practice and research
- Outcomes:
- Formation of Provincial Physical Activity Coalition - 2013 School Administrators Conference focused on
school health
- Networking & priority setting across sectors
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Lessons Learned: Methods
• Telephone interviews with Youth Excel provincial (7) and national (2) partners.
• Participants: 21 Youth Excel researchers, practitioners, and policy makers
• Selection: Direct involvement in the design,
implementation and/or evaluation of Youth Excel
• Purpose: to understand key ingredients in building KDE capacity, including assets, drivers and constraints
• Coding and analysis by themes
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YE Lessons Learned:
Community Monitoring System
• Backbone of KDE capacity, but needs coordination (reduce burden and cost) and tailoring
• Core indicators and measures (CIM) for comparative analyses, evaluation
• Frequent dialogue - “democratic conversations” for win-win solutions
• Mutually beneficial partnerships – those connected across sectors
• Building trust: negotiating various perspectives in non- judgemental environment
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YE Lessons Learned:
Knowledge Exchange
• Transforming (especially local) data into
knowledge products – “can’t talk with gov’t without the evidence”
• Sharing & learning across jurisdictions &
sectors especially in neutral space (for national & provincial levels)
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YE Lessons Learned:
Ability to Use Existing Evidence
• Optimized through
– Partnerships across R/P/P
– Ability to “pull up data instantly” to support partnerships
– Natural knowledge brokers / champions who know data exist, understand meaning, take action
– Clear knowledge products – Training opportunities
– Initiatives that “require” use of knowledge products – The “right people” with passion for KDE
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YE Lessons Learned:
Capacity to Generate Evidence from Action
• Ability to “learn as we go”
• This component is under-developed
• Move beyond “know what” to “know how”
including stories, lessons learned
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YE Lessons Learned:
KDE Capacity Overall
• Finding a common language & meaning
– Investments in terms / concepts (CSH, HPS) mean it can be challenging to change
– “differences between the language and priorities of
research versus policy and practice are a challenge and it takes time and effort “
• Vision & strategic leadership – co-created,
maintained over time, resonant with partners
• Funding: KDE funds often not dedicated or sustained
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Youth Excel Successes
• Collective agenda setting in youth health – space for dialogue, neutral broker, catalyst
• Developing tangible assets to accelerate collective priorities in youth health
• Peer learning across jurisdictions to
strengthen fledgling KDE infrastructure
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Way Forward
•Future for Canadian KDE capacity mixes hope with sober reality of challenges
•Process
•Relationships
•Evaluation / Learning
•Integration
Discussion
Donna Murnaghan Barb Riley Antony Card
The Propel Centre for Population Health Impact was founded by the Canadian Cancer Society and the
University of Waterloo.
