December 2010 PREVspectives Networks of Centres of Excellence - New Initiative Volume 4, Issue 2 Inside this issue: A Message from the Scientific Co-Directors A warm thanks to all those who are involved in or 2010 in Review - 1 support PREVNet. We have had an outstanding year A Message of of progress in promoting safe and healthy relation- Thanks from ships and want to update you on how we have been PREVNet’s Scien- working with researchers and partners across the country. tific Co-Directors We have just come through Bullying Awareness Week in Canada. This year, Bullying Awareness PREVNet’s 5th 2 Week was particularly relevant in light of the numer- Annual Conference ous suicides linked to homophobic bullying. PREV- Highlights Net’s partnership with Family Channel has opened so many opportunities to share PREVNet messages and our scientific perspective. This year, we consulted on HRSDC Grant 3 an episode of Wingin’ It, which you can watch on the Awarded - Family Channel website (http://www.family.ca/video/ #video=2386). Family Channel reaches into 6 mil- Community of lion homes in Canada with positive messages about Practice healthy relationships and “Standing Up” to prevent From left: PREVNet Scientific Co-Director, Dr. Wendy Craig, bullying. Chair of PREVNet’s Board of Directors, Mr. David Sculthorpe, Our funding as a Networks of Centres of Excellence – PREVNet’s Partnership Director, Dr. Joanne Cummings, and Featured NGO - 4 PREVNet Scientific Co-Director, Dr. Debra Pepler, attend New Initiative is coming to an end. When a door Canadian Coalition PREVNet’s 5th annual conference in Hamilton, Ontario. for the Rights of closes, we work hard to find another that will open for PREVNet. We owe a debt of thanks to the Vice- In closing it is important to note that none of this Children Presidents of York and Queen’s who advocated for a would be possible without our amazing team. We NCE funding opportunity that might be relevant to welcome Kelly Petrunka back to PREVNet and cherish PREVNet. We prepared an application for the new Bullying Awareness her organization and leadership. Cathy Loblaw has 5 NCE-Knowledge Mobilization grant and are delighted been invaluable in spearheading projects with the Week 2010 to let you know that our Letter of Intent (LOI) was Public Health Agency Canada and the Wynford Group, moved to the next stage, so we are now preparing as well as opening many other doors. Cathy will re- the full application. The NCE-KM will take a different main on our Board, as she takes her amazing network- shape than our NCE-NI activities. We will partner Upcoming Events ing skills and enthusiasm to the Ronald McDonald 5 with government NGO, and corporate leaders to Foundation. Stacey Garwood has been the glue that expand our reach and our potential for achieving holds PREVNet together on a day-to-day basis in the social change. We have identified 11 KM projects to Kingston office. She is so gentle and effective with be co-created and implemented. Each signature pro- reminders and general organization. Joanne Cum- ject represents the priorities of our receptor commu- mings has been an invaluable “third leg on the stool”, nities and will be co-led by a Project Partner and a collaborating fully with us on the NCE-KM application PREVNet researcher. Many thanks to the partners and the PREVNet publication series. She has taken and researchers who have been involved in this proc- the lead in our HRSDC Community of Practice grant, in ess. We could not do it without you! work with PREVNet graduate students, and in our In addition to pursuing funding through the NCE, we partnerships. As we finish the first NCE-NI phase of are actively seeking funding opportunities for PREV- PREVNet, we wish to extend our deepest appreciation Net projects with our partners. We are currently to all the PREVNet partners, researchers and graduate preparing a LOI for a Social Sciences and Humanities students who have worked together to promote safe Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership grant with the and healthy relationships for Canadian children and Canadian Red Cross. We are proposing a partnership youth. We have come a long way in the past five project examining the community mobilization proc- years, but there is still much work to be done to en- ess within the Walking the Prevention Circle program sure that all children and youth are living in healthy for Aboriginal communities in Canada and Australia. relationships in all the places where they live, learn, We are indebted to Shelley Cardinal of the Red play, and work. Cross, Kathy Absolon, Susan Dion, and Claire Crooks for their leadership on this application. Page PREVspectives PREVNet’s 5th Annual Conference “Healthy Relationships, Healthy Development, Healthy Communities” PREVNet’s 5th Annual Conference “Healthy Nina Jetha from Public Health Agency Relationships, Healthy Development, Healthy of Canada provided an overview of the Communities” Canadian Best Practices Portal. The Portal is a virtual front door to community and popu- was hosted in partnership with the Community lation health interventions related to chronic -University Research Alliance for the Preven- disease prevention and health promotion. tion of Bullying (mac-cura.ca) at McMaster We encourage everyone to visit this site University in May. We thank Dr. Tracy Vaillan- Nina Jetha (Public Health Agency of Canada) http://cbpp-pcpe.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ court and her MAC-CURA team for their amaz- ing strengths and contributions that made this conference such a great success. A distinguished expert international panel on violence prevention. Thank you for generously sharing with our network We gratefully acknowl- and for the seeds of change you planted at our conference. edge our conference spon- Dr. Rowell Huesmann, University of Michigan sors: Queen’s, York and Dr. Marion Underwood, University of Texas at Dallas McMaster Universities; Dr. Charles Cunningham, McMaster University Tourism Hamilton; Social Sciences and Humanities Dr. Debra Pepler, York University Research Council of Can- ada; Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Net- works of Centres of Excel- Dr. Charles Cunningham, From Left: Dr. Patricia McDougall, Dr. Dr. Rowell Huesmann and lence. We also extend a Shelley Hymel and Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt Dr. Marion Underwood heartfelt thank you to Dee participate in a panel discussion on violence Gordon (from www.procameragirl.com ) who did an incredible prevention during day job of capturing the excitement and energy from our confer- one’s proceedings. ence so beautifully in photographs. Here are a few highlights of our conference! Hands-on learning experi- Keynote Address by Dr. Cindy Blackstock, ences offered in 24 workshops First Nations Child and Family Caring So- specializing in Children’s Mental ciety of Canada who encouraged all of us to help ensure First Nations children receive equi- Health & Healthy Relationships, table child welfare services on reserves. Here's Best Practices for Dealing with how you can help: www.fnwitness.ca Challenging Behaviour in the Early Years, Aboriginal Children and Youth, Bullying and Clinical Prac- tice, Neurobiology of Abuse, Working with Aggressive and Delinquent Youth, The Role of Dr. Cindy Blackstock delivers her Adults in Promoting Healthy Relationships, and Building powerful keynote address to con- ference participants on day two. Healthy Communities. Heartfelt and moving presentations by Rory Networking Butler and Cindy Gale opportunities from Your Life Counts. for our Graduate For more information Cindy Gale and Rory Butler of Your Life Students and Counts receive special recognition for their about the important work excellence in work with youth and suicide National Part- they do, please visit: prevention ners to share www.yourlifecounts.org/ their work. Congratulations to Your Life Counts for receiving the Canadian PREVNet Graduate Students attend the Wine and Cheese reception at McMaster’s University Club Association for Suicide Prevention’s 2010 President’s Award for “outstanding service to the people of Canada.” Page 2 Volume 4, Issue 2 Special appearance by Nico Archambault (winner of CTV's So You Think You Can Dance Can- ada) and Katia Piccolino from Montreal clothing company TXT Carbon. They presented a generous donation to PREVNet from the sales of the "Stand Up, Rise Above" bullying prevention t-shirt de- signed by TXT Carbon and Nico to raise awareness about bullying and to raise funds for PREVNet. Special guest Nico Archambault speaks with PREVNet conference participants and takes a moment to TXT Carbon’s Katia Piccolino joins PREVNet Silent auction winner of Nico Archambault’s auto- sign a few autographs. Scientific Co-Directors, Dr. Wendy Craig and Dr. graphed “Stand Up, Rise Above” t-shirts. Debra Pepler And we are grateful to the three local youth musical performance groups for sharing their time, talents and enthusiasm. Ancaster Senior Public Concert Band Father Henry Carr Drum Line Band Barton Secondary School Drum Band PREVNet Awarded Human Resources and Skills Development Canada Grant Supported by funding from the Government of Canada's Social effective in promoting healthy and preventing unhealthy relation- Development Partnerships Program, we are thrilled to announce ships for children and youth. Working together we are creating a that we have an unprecedented opportunity to focus on work Community of Practice and are developing training and program- being done by three of our network organizations – Big Brothers, ming resources for adult leaders. We are leveraging each part- Big Sisters of Canada, Scouts Canada, and the Canadian Red ner’s strong tradition of program success to effectively support Cross. Through a 3 year contribution of $600,000 we will be adults in their role of promoting healthy relationships and devel- able to apply PREVNet’s model of knowledge sharing, through opment for children and youth. The primary beneficiaries of this our four strategy pillars of education & training; assessment project are the adults working in the partner organizations as valuation; prevention & intervention; and policy & advocacy to professionals or volunteers.