Children

Evidence Review and Mental Health Pilot Community Consultation for Girls' Fund Programs

The Girls’ Fund supports programs that give girls and gender-diverse youth tools to develop into confident, resilient people, right when they need this support most. In preparation for the next Girls’ Fund cohort, The Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) has commissioned an update of the evidence informing Girls’ Fund programming for adolescent girls and gender-diverse youth. Based on needs identified stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, CWF is also engaging with community organizations to understand their experiences with anti-oppressive mental health approaches for children and youth, in preparation for designing and implementing an anti-oppressive mental health pilot in Girls’ Fund programming.

Start-end date: September 2022 - March 2023
Sponsor: Canadian Women’s Foundation

Improving student success in Surrey School District (Phase 2)

SRDC is undertaking qualitative fieldwork, working with the school district’s own data and with Statistics Canada’s Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform to undertake a study focused on understanding student transitions and success within the Surrey School District education system. The aim is to develop key indicators in partnership with the district and answer questions with respect to student transitions through the K-12 system in Surrey, including the needs of those who leave education prematurely, to the extent the data allow.

Start-end date: July 2021 - June 2022
Sponsor: Surrey Schools

Learning outside together: Incorporating traditional wisdom and promising practices to futureproof child care programs

This project aims to increase knowledge and skills among early care and learning (ECL) professionals related to outdoor play and to the Indigenous practices and educational concepts of “land as teacher”. Key activities include developing an online training and mentorship program, recruiting participants from across BC, and implementing and evaluating the resulting program. ECL programs face barriers to spending more time outdoors due to licensing requirements, available physical space, and lack of supportive workplace policies. Thus, one goal of the project is to support participants, via mentors, to enable them to work through implementation barriers. The legacy goal is to generate evidence, through the project evaluation, that demonstrates the effectiveness of the project’s approaches. This evidence would be used to inform, support, and sustain implementation of these approaches long after the initial funding period has ended. This three-year project is a joint partnership between the Early Childhood Educators of BC (ECEBC), the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society (BCACCS), and SRDC.

Start-end date: April 2021 - March 2024
Sponsor: Early Childhood Educators of BC

Improving student success in Surrey School District (Phase 1)

SRDC is reviewing the school district’s datasets that could be used to undertake a study focused on understanding student transitions and success within the Surrey School District education system. The aim is to design a project to answer key questions within the context of a study of student transitions through the K-12 system in Surrey including entry from pre-K and access to PSE and the labour market, where data allow. Given successful grade to grade transitions provide evidence of progress towards graduation, the first question is what are some strategies and structures that support successful transitions? Other questions include: What does graduation mean for students? What factors influence transitioning into post-secondary education or training programs? What factors influence transitioning into sustaining employment? What are some of the barriers or limitations faced by students who don’t graduate within six years of entering secondary school in Surrey?

Start-end date: March 2021 - April 2021
Sponsor: Surrey Schools

Indigenous Students' Access to Post-Secondary Education in B.C.

The project examines the descriptive characteristics of Indigenous students in high school in British Columbia and accessing post-secondary education (PSE) to better understand academic pathways and transitions from kindergarten through to PSE. The results are intended to contribute evidence for policy development to support current and future generations of Indigenous learners to access higher education. Two specific research questions are addressed: What are the trends in access to PSE among Indigenous students in BC? and How is access to PSE related to a range of student and educational background factors, such as individual student characteristics; scores on standardized tests for reading, writing, and numeracy administered in Grades 4 and 7; participation in special programs; school characteristics and district; course choices; and academic performance. The main data source is BC linked administrative data.

Start-end date: November 2020 - June 2021
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Economic Feasibility Study: Public policy alternatives to promote education savings

SRDC is supporting Momentum to examine the economic costs of implementing policy options intended to ensure all eligible children claim their Canada Learning Bond. The principal methodology is economic modeling using tools such as the Statistics Canada Social Policy Simulation Database and Model to analyze three policy alternatives: establishing new Canada Education & Training Account; disbursing Canada Learning Bond funds through the Canada Student Loans Program; and expanding Ontario’s online Newborn Registration 5-in-1 Service Bundle nationwide. The aim is to estimate the potential costs that would result from developing and implementing the three policy alternatives in question, as well as any potential savings. The final report is intended to describe the methodology, analysis, findings, and limitations of costing for the three policy alternatives.

Start-end date: November 2020 - March 2021
Sponsor: Momentum

Evaluation of the Girls' Fund

Since 2006, the Canadian Women’s Foundation’s Girls’ Fund has supported dynamic programs and networks for girls aged 9-13, investing in programming where girls can develop critical thinking, leadership, and relationship-building skills. In its most recent grant cycle, the Canadian Women’s Foundation selected 19 organizations to run multi-year funded projects, with a particular emphasis on programming for girls facing multiple barriers. These include girls programming, mentorship programs, and national or regional networks.

The Canadian Women’s Foundation is interested in leveraging strategic learning to support grantees’ projects, as well as maximize impact at individual, program, and sector levels. In partnership with the Foundation and grantees, SRDC is designing and implementing an evaluation strategy for the Girls’ Fund, grounded in an intersectional feminist, anti-oppression, and participatory approach. This will include developing and deploying youth surveys, conducting interviews with grantees, reviewing grantee program reports, authoring annual issues briefs, and supporting knowledge mobilization and capacity development.

Start-end date: October 2020 - August 2024
Sponsor: Canadian Women’s Foundation

Supporting Vulnerable Children and Youth During COVID-19 Through Safe and Accessible Digital Programming

The Boys and Girls Club of Canada is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for children and youth where they can experience new opportunities, overcome barriers, build positive relationships, and develop confidence and lifeskills. With the pandemic shifting programming online, Clubs are faced with the need to ensure that child and youth safety is prioritized, and any risks mitigated. Sixty Clubs across Canada have been funded to receive training and monitoring supports for virtual program delivery, to conduct outreach and ensure families have access to online programming. SRDC as the evaluation partner will be tracking the numbers of children/families accessing virtual programs, outcomes of the online contacts, and any challenges faced along the way. Findings from the evaluation of virtual programming at participating Clubs will support a national initiative led by BGCC and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation to curate resources and identify best practices in online safety for vulnerable youth.

Start-end date: September 2020 - March 2021
Sponsor: Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada

Nurturing the future!

The project is testing an intervention aimed at promoting conditions conducive to the development of children's socio-emotional competencies, a key determinant of well-being and mental health throughout the lifespan (CASEL, 2013). The project takes place from January 2020 to March 2022. The piloted intervention is made up of three components of integrated and complementary activities whose objectives are to: (1) build the knowledge and enhance the capacity of early childhood professionals to offer a quality program promoting the development of the social-emotional competencies of children aged 0 to 12 years old; (2) build parents' knowledge and capacity to support the overall development and well-being of their children by building on the alliance between early childhood personnel and parents; and (3) establish or strengthen intersectoral collaborations between childcare services and community and public organizations in order to achieve the first two objectives. The project also seeks to explore the strategies for extending the influence of early childhood professionals and key contributors to families in the community. The evaluation looks at the implementation of the intervention and its effects on intersectoral collaboration, early childhood professionals, parents, and children.

Start-end date: February 2020 - March 2026
Sponsor: Association francophone à l'éducation des services à l'enfance de l'Ontario (AFÉSEO)

Raise the Grade Phase 3

Since its launch in 2012, the Raise the Grade (RTG) program from Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada (BGCC) has provided youth ages 12-18 across Canada with academic support, career discovery, mentoring, and interest-based activities in dedicated RTG Tech Centres, all within the safe and supportive Boys and Girls Club environment. Now in 46 Clubs, RTG promotes academic engagement among young people, and aims to increase their rate of high school completion and participation in post-secondary education. With funding from RBC Future Launch and ESDC, BGCC has once again partnered with SRDC in a third project phase. This phase will see RTG expanded into five new communities and an even larger, highly trained community of RTG mentors. In addition to analysis of program implementation and youth outcomes, this utilization-focused evaluation builds on learnings from prior phases to develop and pilot enhancements to core program components through an innovative, Club-led Incubator model approach.

Start-end date: December 2019 - October 2021
Sponsor: Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada

Early Intervention Services for Children with or at risk of Developmental Disability

The Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) is currently developing a Child and Youth with Special Needs (CYSN) Service Framework to provide overarching policy and guide investment for the suite of CYSN services, ready for a phased implementation in April 2020. SRDC was commissioned through the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research to complete an international literature review and a national environmental scan focused on early interventional services for children who have, or who are at risk of developmental delays or disability. This work will inform the ongoing development and implementation of the CYSN Service Framework in BC.

Start-end date: September 2019 - April 2020
Sponsor: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research

Evaluation support for the Eating Disorders – Promotion, Prevention & Early Intervention (ED-PPEI) model

Eating disorders can be extremely debilitating, yet symptoms often go undiagnosed until the point of medical or psychiatric crisis. While there is a network of treatment services in Ontario funded by the Ministry of Health, these are designed to serve those with the most severe conditions, and to date, prevention programming has been virtually non-existent. The exception to this has been CIHR-funded intervention research trials led by Dr. Gail McVey in partnership with Ontario public health practitioners.

The ED-PPEI model is designed to build capacity across the province for delivery of effective health promotion, prevention, and early intervention programs that address eating disorders and their risk and protective factors. Led by Dr. Gail McVey, the Ontario Community Outreach Program for Eating Disorders at the University Health Network in Toronto is leading an initiative to implement and scale evidence-based training models and programs in all regions of Ontario, beginning with five regional lead sites that are contributing to the provincial build of the framework and implementation plan. SRDC has been engaged to support the provincial build by working with pilot communities to identify their needs and capacities with respect to such programming. Using a developmental evaluation approach, SRDC will also document the successes and lessons learned from the build process, to inform further systems development and performance measurement.

Start-end date: February 2019 - March 2023
Sponsor: University Health Network

Preliminary assessment of the scale and extent of student hunger in BC's K-12 school population

SRDC is undertaking a project to define the scope of student hunger in K-12 BC public school students. This includes the degree of occurrence, frequency, seasonality, and the location of high risk areas. It is reviewing the literature, undertaking an environmental scan of funding options available to school districts to address hunger/food insecurity, and analyzing four existing datasets. The project aims include: to understand the dependencies and factors affecting student hunger in K-12 BC public schools; to identify areas for improvements; and to provide recommendations and identify options that are having a positive or negative impact in addressing food hunger.

Start-end date: January 2019 - March 2019
Sponsor: British Columbia Ministry of Education

Sector-led Evaluation of the Early Care and Learning Recruitment and Retention Strategy in British Columbia

The Province of B.C. is making a $136 million investment in an Early Care and Learning Recruitment and Retention Strategy (R&R Strategy) for B.C.’s Early Childhood Educator (ECE) sector. This sector-led evaluation is part of a larger 10-year plan to increase the quality and availability of childcare spaces in B.C. The evaluation project will help provide continuous feedback for strategies that are implemented. SRDC is helping to develop a framework that will assess the effectiveness of the R&R Strategy. Evaluation questions include: whether there is less turnover in the skilled Early Care and Learning workforce; whether the numbers of certified Early Childhood Educators are better able to meet demand; whether careers in Early Care and Learning become more popular; and whether public confidence in Early Care and Learning is increasing.

Generally, these outcomes are being measured as trends across the Early Care and Learning system in B.C. Evaluation methods include: cross-sectional surveys of providers of early childhood education and care in B.C., and their employees; creating and maintaining a unique database of the province’s providers to include licensed and unlicensed, registered and unregistered carers; public opinion surveys; media and social media analysis; key informant interviews; analysis of micro-data from the 2016 Census; and compilation and analysis of administrative data. SRDC is collecting, analyzing, and reporting on these measures to determine whether the R&R Strategy is on track to achieving its long-term goals and expected outcomes until 2022. A sector steering committee made up of individuals involved in B.C. childcare will guide the work. The project is being led by the Early Childhood Educators of BC, with funding and approvals of project deliverables through the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training.

Start-end date: December 2018 - July 2024
Sponsor: Early Childhood Educators of BC

Fresh Gardens and Growing Program Tool Development

Recently, Food Banks Canada has been offering funding to support garden and growing programs and would like to provide food banks across Canada with the tools to make decisions on expanding or creating a garden/growing program. Growing programs can enhance the accessibility of fresh produce for food banks, and the individuals and families they serve. There are many types of growing programs delivered by food banks within the extensive Food Banks Canada network and food banks across Canada more broadly. SRDC will work with Food Banks Canada to develop a resource and set of tools for food banks to assist them in approaching the development of new growing programs as well as providing information about best practices in terms of expanding currently operated growing programs.

Start-end date: November 2018 - February 2019
Sponsor: Food Banks Canada

After the Bell and Food Explorers – Program Evaluation Frameworks

Food Banks Canada delivers two programs aimed at reducing childhood food insecurity and increasing food literacy (food knowledge, attitudes, and skills) – After the Bell and Food Explorers. Food Banks Canada is planning to increase the scale of its child hunger programs, and understanding how best to measure the influence of these programs on children and families accessing food banks is an important step to exploring how increasing the scale of their delivery may improve food security and literacy across Canadians at risk of food insecurity. SRDC is working with Food Banks Canada to synthesize current evaluation practices for these programs, as well as current trends and best practices for evaluating programs delivered within organizations with a similar socially driven vision and mandate. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop an evaluation framework that Food Banks Canada will use to track outputs and outcomes of child hunger initiatives within its network, and to report to donors about Food Banks Canada child hunger programs.

Start-end date: November 2018 - February 2019
Sponsor: Food Banks Canada

Evaluating the Success of the Ministry of Education's Implementation of Financial Literacy Education in Ontario Schools

SRDC is conducting a comprehensive program evaluation of the Ministry’s financial literacy education strategy embedded in the Grades 4-12 curricula. The evaluation is collecting information from students, parents, teachers, school administrators, and school board staff. As part of the project, SRDC is developing self-assessment tools for boards and schools to support them in continuing to monitor progress and deepen student learning. Findings will be compiled into a final report with recommendations on measures to strengthen the financial literacy education strategy.

Start-end date: January 2018 - April 2019
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Education

Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health (QCTH) – Evaluation of School and Community Programs

For over 20 years, the QCTH has offered a variety of tobacco prevention services to Quebec’s Directions de santé publique (DSP), as well as directly to school and community groups. In order to keep its services relevant to its partners and to better highlight the needs of each community, a retrospective and summative evaluation of the activities of the QCTH was conducted in June 2017 among the DSP. This second phase rather constitutes a formative evaluation that targets school and community groups. The main objectives of the project are to: identify the elements that contribute to carrying out the prevention projects within schools and community settings; identify the missing elements in the provision of tobacco prevention services; and obtain recommendations to improve the provision of tobacco prevention services.

Start-end date: September 2017 - December 2017
Sponsor: Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health

Evaluation of the Child and Youth Diabetes Strategy

In the 16 years since it first launched the Diabetes Strategy, the Lawson Foundation has granted $13 million for applied diabetes research and a broad range of community-based projects that translate knowledge into clinical practice and community programs. In 2016, the Foundation launched its new targeted focus on the challenges faced by children, youth, and their families with or at risk for diabetes and its complications. SRDC has been engaged by the Lawson Foundation to examine how the new Child and Youth Diabetes Strategy can enhance its impact on the prevention and management of diabetes in Canada. We will also look at how the Foundation’s cohort approach to supporting grantees adds value to projects and supports them in furthering the Strategy’s goals. SRDC’s evaluation will take a developmental approach, in which staff of both organizations will work collaboratively to assess ways the Foundation can enhance delivery of the Strategy and its impact.

Start-end date: March 2017 - June 2021
Sponsor: Lawson Foundation

Kid Food Nation

Canadian children are entering adulthood without sufficient knowledge to make healthy food choices. Moreover, rates of childhood obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes are increasing. In collaboration with SRDC and other partners, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada is designing and delivering a food skills and healthy eating curriculum for children aged 7-12 in select Clubs. This food literacy program will be supplemented by a national media campaign, and recipe competition and gala event for children. SRDC is evaluating the design and delivery of the initiative, as well as the extent to which food literacy and other outcomes have been achieved.

Government news release

Start-end date: November 2016 - March 2021
Sponsor: Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada

Evaluation of the AILE program

Launched during the 2012-13 school year, the Appui intensif en lecture et écriture program (known under its acronym as AILE) is part of the Ontario Ministry of Education goal of improving the literacy achievement of children enrolled in grades one to six. The program aims to offer additional supports to students in grades one to three at risk of a delay in their reading and writing skills conducive to educational achievement. The intervention takes place outside the classroom, in small groups of three students for about 30 minutes, five days per week over a period of 12 weeks. The program AILE is the subject of an implementation study and outcome evaluation.

Start-end date: September 2016 - May 2017
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario

Active outdoor play

This project was initiated in response to two main needs identified by the community: (1) counter organizations’ tendency to limit occasions for children to engage in self-directed outdoor play, and (2) encourage children to engage in self-directed play. Project activities first focus on developing resources to inform adults as to the benefits of self-directed outdoor play to optimize child development and encourage lifelong healthy habits. Second, project activities center on the development and piloting of a series of workshops whose goal is to enhance the capacity of educators in offering children, aged 3 to 12, with opportunities for learning through exploration, outdoor play and inquiry. The project takes place in four schools, involves more than 600 adults (administration, early childcare educators, teachers and parents) and more than 400 children. To successfully carry out the first phase of the project, SRDC has partnered with the Association francophone à l’éducation des services à l’enfance de l’Ontario (AFÉSEO) and the Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario (CEPEO).

Aféseo notice (in French only)

Ontario Trillium Foundation award notice

CEPEO notice (in French only)

Project results (full report and summary) (in French only)

Start-end date: July 2016 - October 2017
Sponsor: Ontario Trillium Foundation

Evaluation of the Active Outdoor Play Strategy

'Active outdoor play' is unstructured and of varied intensity, takes place outdoors with natural materials, and involves an element of risk (e.g., due to the height, speed, context, or tools involved). A wide range of sectors and organizations has recently begun to promote active outdoor play as a means of correcting a perceived over-emphasis on safety/risk and injury prevention, as well as promoting healthy child development in the long term.

The aim of the Lawson Foundation’s Outdoor Play Strategy is to better understand how to support Canadian communities to foster children’s opportunities for outdoor play; in other words, how to create environments that enable – rather than hinder – such play. The Strategy is designed to support the development and implementation of a variety of creative ideas across sectors and a range of contexts, including community programs, services, and supports as well as policy and research initiatives. SRDC conducted an evaluation of the Strategy to develop understanding about how and why funded initiatives experience success, and to what degree. The evaluation includes information about both implementation and early impacts of the Outdoor Play Strategy, at three levels: individual projects/grantees; the collective cohort of grantees; and the broader landscape of stakeholders involved in outdoor play. In addition to examining multiple levels of operation and impact, the project takes a developmental evaluation approach – one that is flexible, future-oriented, and focused more on learning and performance improvement than on narrow definitions of merit and accountability.

Read more

Start-end date: November 2015 - April 2019
Sponsor: Lawson Foundation

Social Assistance Rate Level(s) and Withdrawal Models

The project generated three products to inform the ongoing review of social assistance in Ontario. These include: a literature review on existing theoretical and empirical evidence from Canadian provinces and internationally on approaches to setting income assistance rates and withdrawal rates; an environmental scan of existing practices; and an options paper comprising a set of alternative future models for setting social assistance rates and withdrawal rates. All three consider the implications of different approaches for work incentives, fairness and adequacy.

Start-end date: June 2015 - December 2015
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services

Transformation of CEPEO school readiness programs

This project aims to develop a suite of workshops targeting the parents of children aged 0 to 3.8 years old. Workshops will be offered in schools of the Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario (CEPEO) starting in the fall of 2015. The intent is to equip parents so that they may better support their child’s school readiness and smooth transition to school. Topics covered will address the following: parent involvement over the short and long term, the construction of a family identity, the notion and importance of attachment to a significant adult, learning through play at home, and resilience in young children. The project is conducted in collaboration with the AFÉSEO (Association francophone à l’éducation des services à l’enfance de l’Ontario).

Start-end date: February 2015 - May 2015
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario

Students' exit profile

The goal of this project is to develop qualitative and quantitative measurement tools to collect an exit profile for each student. This profile includes the main attitudes, values ​​and competencies that the Board wants to develop in every student from kindergarten to Grade 12. The tool will be used to populate the Board's Accountability and Improvement Framework. This framework will serve the planning and evaluation needs of teachers as well as those of principals and senior administrators. SRDC's mandate is to provide technical support toward completing the profile.

Start-end date: April 2014 - May 2014
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est de l’Ontario

Measuring the Impact of the YMCA of Greater Toronto on Community Health

The project supports the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s 2010-2020 Strategic Plan and the establishment and continuous improvement of its new Centres of Community by identifying a community health monitoring strategy that cuts across life stages and the community level, the regional level, and the GTA. The project provides a set of options for a community health monitoring strategy based on an analysis of other community health monitoring initiatives in Canada and abroad, data availability and quality for selected indicators in the GTA, and the YMCA’s outcomes of interest related to its programming.

Start-end date: November 2013 - March 2014
Sponsor: YMCA of Greater Toronto

Evaluation of the Healthy Eating After School project

Healthy Eating After School (HEAS) is a pilot project funded by the Ministry of Health and implemented by the YMCA of Greater Vancouver. SRDC was contracted to conduct the evaluation. The purpose of the project is to create an environment that supports healthy eating in the after-school care setting. The objectives of the project are to: 1) improve the knowledge and confidence of after-school care staff in healthy eating and in food skills and their confidence to implement these; 2) develop and implement healthy eating policies/guidelines for an after-school care setting; 3) engage parents of children in after school care, in implementing and maintaining children’s healthy eating behaviours; and 4) increase the interest and ability in food skills for children attending after-school care programs.

Start-end date: July 2013 - March 2014
Sponsor: YMCA of Greater Vancouver

Evaluating the impact of patients’ direct lab access

As part of the move toward a more modernized health care system, tele-health and digital health services provide patients with direct access to health information and advice 24/7, 365 days a year. The aim of this study is to understand the impact of direct patient access to laboratory results in B.C. in terms of healthcare access, quality, and productivity. Through interviews with physicians and a survey of service subscribers and a general population panel, the study examines how direct access to lab results compares to traditional means of access (i.e., via the physicians’ office) in terms of service reliability and efficiency, patient experience, patients’ utilization of healthcare services, and physicians’ practices and workloads. Results of this study support future planning around patient access to health information and contribute to the peer-reviewed literature.

Start-end date: July 2013 - March 2014
Sponsor: Canada Health Infoway

Development of a master plan for the implementation of the Ontario Early Years Policy Framework

The Conseil scolaire catholique Franco-Nord (CSCFN) retained the services of SRDC to evaluate the current state of the implementation of the Ontario Early Years Policy Framework with the aim to produce a master plan for its full implementation across schools. The master plan provides a guide for a collective approach to the development and delivery of early years programs and services for children and families. Its development was based on several sources of information: (1) an environmental scan of existing programs and services (i.e., quantity and quality; strengths and weaknesses), gaps in services targeting young children and their family, and overlaps in and links between services; (2) a comparative analysis between best practices and the current status of programs and services offered by the school board and by community partners; (3) winning practices and training needs identified by teacher/early childhood educator teams; and (4) a series of consultations on the shape an integral implementation of the framework could take.

Start-end date: June 2013 - February 2014
Sponsor: Conseil scolaire catholique Franco-Nord

Moving on Mental Health – Toronto Implementation Panel

Working with the Ministry and sector stakeholder groups to develop a report that outlines options and recommendations for system reform consistent with Moving on Mental Health, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services policy framework for child and youth mental Health (A Shared Responsibility).

Start-end date: April 2013 - October 2013
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services

Evaluation of WellnessFits

The Canadian Cancer Society, BC and Yukon Division, in partnership with Healthy Families BC Initiative, has developed a comprehensive workplace health promotion program, WellnessFits. The aim of WellnessFits is to help employers and employees address key health behaviours that can reduce an individual’s risk for cancer and other chronic diseases. The program’s three principle strategies of educate, act, and support guide the overall development and delivery of the program. SRDC was commissioned to conduct an initial evaluation of this program.

Start-end date: December 2012 - April 2013
Sponsor: Canadian Cancer Society, BC and Yukon Division

Summative Evaluation of HealthLink BC – Phase Two

HealthLink BC (HLBC) provides BC residents with 24-hour, 365-day access to medically approved information and advice. The aim of the second phase of this project is to conduct a summative evaluation of HLBC client facing services. This includes examining awareness, use, satisfaction, outcomes, impacts, and cost-benefit associated with the HLBC programs and services.

Start-end date: December 2012 - June 2016
Sponsor: BC Ministry of Health, HealthLink BC

Evaluation of HeartSmart KidsTM

HeartSmart KidsTM has trained over 8,390 educators to deliver health education to elementary school students. Its curricula based program is designed to help educators teach young people to have a healthy lifestyle and a healthy heart. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC and the Yukon commissioned SRDC to conduct an evaluation of this program to provide information for future development by identifying components that worked well and aspects of the program that could be improved.

Start-end date: August 2012 - March 2013
Sponsor: The Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC and the Yukon

Welcome to Kindergarten Program National Evaluation, Phase II

The Welcome to Kindergarten Program aims to prepare children and families for the important transition to school. The first phase of the current Welcome to Kindergarten Program National Evaluation began in 2009, which resulted in an evaluation framework and plan, cost proposal, and literature and policy review. SRDC conducted the Phase II of the Welcome to Kindergarten Program National Evaluation, to compare 20 high implementation fidelity schools across Canada that have two years of experience participating in the program against 20 non-program schools to determine program effects. This pan-Canadian evaluation is being guided by Dr. Fraser Mustard.

Start-end date: March 2011 - July 2012
Sponsor: The Learning Partnership

Children’s Lives in Context

A panel discussion was held with experts in child and adolescent development with a focus on the importance of time (e.g., age, cohort) and place (e.g., home, school, social interaction) in conducting research as intervention. Three Canadian projects are presented: Better Beginnings Better Futures, Pilot Project: Readiness to Learn in Minority Francophone Communities (formerly the Child Care Pilot Project), and Understanding the Early Years (UEY). Invited panellists examine the element of time and place according to their unique perspectives.

Start-end date: February 2011 - July 2011
Sponsor: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

Healthy After School Pilot Project

The aim of this project is to develop a program around physical activity and healthy eating in after-school care. The program will provide after-school care providers with a range of supports and resources to encourage and facilitate children to be more active and to choose healthy foods. After-school care sites participating in the project will be trained and given a resource bin that will include some equipment and tools to help staff incorporate the program into their activities. Ongoing training and support will also be provided to staff and they can choose what to use from these resource bins. Lines of evidence: consultations, interviews, observations, surveys, and measurements of physical activity.

Start-end date: February 2011 - October 2012
Sponsor: Public Health Agency of Canada

Petits pas à trois – Monitoring System

To provide advice and technical assistance with the development of a program monitoring system with the objectives of ensuring that the program delivered is of high quality and that the training needs of early childhood educators are identified and addressed in a timely fashion.

Start-end date: October 2010 - July 2011
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est de l’Ontario

Family Partnership Framework for Integrated Family Literacy Planning Project

To provide advice and technical assistance for the development of a partnership framework and cross-ministerial engagement strategy that forms the basis of a province-wide family literacy strategy.

Start-end date: February 2010 - October 2011
Sponsor: Ontario Literacy Coalition

Sip Smart! Education Module

A process evaluation of a short-term early prevention school-based education program to inform students in grades 4, 5, and 6 about the risks of sugar-sweetened beverages. The resources were delivered by classroom teachers.

Start-end date: January 2010 - July 2010
Sponsor: BC Pediatric Society

Petits pas à trois

Impact and outcome evaluation of a new preschool program targeting minority Francophone preschoolers and their families.

Start-end date: July 2009 - June 2010
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est de l’Ontario

Comité d’action local des Promenades de Gatineau

Funded by the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon as part of an activity of the Québec Enfants’s initiative, the Comité d’action local des Promenades de Gatineau (CAL) is a partnership between local community groups that aims to answer the needs of children, and their families, living in the Gatineau community via different activities. SRDC helped refine the logic model of the six activities already in place to define their objectives and their expected impacts. SRDC designed an evaluation plan and proposed tools to measure the implementation of the activities and follow children’s development. A summative evaluation identifies which activities were the most promising for the children and their families.

Start-end date: May 2009 - July 2010
Sponsor: Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon and Société de gestion du fonds pour le développement des jeunes enfants

Family Dynamics

An evaluation of indicators used to measure family dynamics influencing child development.

Start-end date: October 2008 - October 2009
Sponsor: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

Literature Review for the Evaluation of the National Child Benefit Reinvestment Initiatives for First Nations Individuals and Families on Reserve

Start-end date: July 2007 - November 2007
Sponsor: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Audit and Evaluation

Evaluation of the BC Healthy Living Alliance (BCHLA) Initiatives

BCHLA is a provincial coalition of organizations working together to improve the health of British Columbians. The coalition has implemented 16 initiatives in the health promotion and population health areas, designed to deliver activities across the province in three themes: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Tobacco Reduction. In the first phase of the evaluation project, SRDC conducted evaluability assessments for each initiative as well as the clusters or themes to produce evaluation plans and budgets for “evaluable” projects and clusters. In the second phase, SRDC evaluated 6 of the 16 initiatives, as well as a case study of the Community Capacity Building Strategy and provided technical assistance to the other BCHLA initiatives that were not part of the evaluation project. Some of the evaluations involved vulnerable populations, such as Aboriginal communities.

Start-end date: July 2007 - May 2010
Sponsor: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research

2006 Manitoba Parent Survey

A one-hour telephone survey of 1,005 parents of kindergarten children in Manitoba whose children were assessed using the Early Development Instrument (EDI) in 2006, the creation of a linked (survey and EDI assessment) research file, and the preparation of a descriptive analytical report summarizing results including descriptive analysis and multivariate analysis of child development outcomes.

Start-end date: June 2006 - March 2007
Sponsor: Healthy Child Manitoba

2006 Manitoba Parent Survey Development

Start-end date: April 2006 - May 2006
Sponsor: Healthy Child Manitoba

Readiness to Learn in Minority Francophone Communities

This large-scale demonstration project was part of the Government of Canada’s 2003–2008 Action Plan for Official Languages and was continued under the 2008–2013 Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality. The tested preschool program combined a childcare component developed specifically to meet the needs of Francophone children in minority settings with a family literacy component targeting the parents of these children. The program aimed to develop children’s language skills, knowledge and use of French, knowledge of and engagement in Francophone culture, as well as to foster their school readiness and overall development. The project involved some 400 children living in six minority Francophone communities in New Brunswick, Ontario, and Alberta. A mixed-methods approach was used to conduct an implementation study and an impact evaluation. Project findings will serve to inform decision-makers, service providers, and program developers on the delivery, effectiveness, and efficiency of a program whose aims are ensuring children master the language of instruction in addition to the preservation and strengthening of minority Francophone communities’ vitality.

Start-end date: March 2006 - May 2013
Sponsor: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

Research and Services for the Healthy Child Manitoba Office (HCMO)

Providing advice and consultations on the development of data collection methodologies for informing policies on child well-being.

Start-end date: April 2005 - March 2006
Sponsor: Healthy Child Manitoba Office

Feasibility of a Birth Cohort Study

A background paper on the feasibility of designing and implementing a birth cohort study in Manitoba.

Start-end date: March 2005 - May 2005
Sponsor: Healthy Child Manitoba Office

2004 Manitoba Parent Survey

A survey of 1,000 parents of kindergarten children in Manitoba whose children were assessed using the Early Development Instrument (EDI) in 2004, the creation of a linked (survey and EDI assessment) research file, and the preparation of a descriptive analytical report summarizing results.

Start-end date: April 2004 - March 2005
Sponsor: Healthy Child Manitoba

Research and Services for the Healthy Child Manitoba Office (HCMO)

Providing expert advice and design options for a longitudinal survey of parents and children.

Start-end date: April 2003 - March 2004
Sponsor: Healthy Child Manitoba Office

Understanding the Early Years

A study of community process focusing on how information was absorbed, interpreted, and acted upon by community members.

Start-end date: February 2002 - June 2005
Sponsor: Social Development Canada

Facilitation for the Consultation on the National Child Benefit Assessment

Start-end date: February 2000 - March 2000
Sponsor: Human Resources Development Canada (Evaluation and Data Development)