The Canadian Child and Youth Advocacy Research and Knowledge Centre was founded through a partnership between Luna and the University of Calgary Faculty of Social Work. It is an opportunity for CYACs, system partners, researchers, evaluators and people with lived experience to collaborate on the generation of evidence and sharing of knowledge.
The Canadian Child and Youth Advocacy Research and Knowledge Centre exists to generate and integrate new evidence and knowledge about child and youth advocacy into everyday practice.
Our Objectives
The Research and Knowledge Centre will facilitate connections for ideas, research, analysis, and understanding in order to:
Generate diverse, multi-disciplinary evidence to inform policy and practice through research
Enhance outcomes for children, youth and families through quality research, evaluation, advocacy, and policy development
Share evidence and knowledge with practitioners, policymakers, funders and donors, and researchers for improving client service, practice, and societal systems
Project Areas
We will achieve our objectives by conducting projects in four areas:
Evaluation. Evaluation should be used to learn and improve and typically has four overarching questions: What happened? Why it happened? Why do these results matter? What’s next? Robust evaluation practices are contextual, participatory, and rigorous. It is our intent that all types of evaluation projects will be considered through the CYAC Research and Knowledge Centre.
Research. Research is needed to build new evidence and knowledge, prove theories, provide the latest information, and build credibility. Through the Centre we will conduct research into the effective practices and strategies for preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect. This research will generate new evidence to inform and improve child protection policy and practice.
Literature Reviews. Quality evidence is needed to inform good practice and should be responsive to the practice and policy needs. Through the Centre we will conduct rapid and scoping reviews to synthesize available information and evidence on a specific, timely, context-specific question. These reviews will be used to provide guidance and promote evidence-informed decision making.
Knowledge Mobilization. Knowledge mobilization facilitates the use of research by other researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and external stakeholders to inform decisions that are rooted in evidence. Our goal is to not only share knowledge, but to share it in such a way that is easily accessible and useful, particularly to non-research audiences.
Our Principles
Working in a principles-based way, we will promote sustainable, long-term relationships and partnerships; mutual benefit and respect; shared responsibility; and responsive evidence generation.
Useful and Relevant. Our work has clear developmental and practical value. It should only be undertaken when there is a clear gap in knowledge and used to learn and improve. We share and disseminate findings and knowledge to our policy, practice and research partners.
Participatory and Context Specific. Our work genuinely involves Luna staff and partners in all stages of the research design, implementation, and interpretation. We value, recognize, and respect the diverse expertise and knowledge that each partner brings. Our findings will be interpreted and understood in partnership and turned into actionable steps to guide policy and practice improvement at Child and Youth Advocacy Centres.
Collaborative. We foster reciprocity among stakeholders, learn from one another, and build on our mutual strengths and resources. Our work will be marked by mutual respect; recognition of the knowledge, expertise, and resource capacities; and open communication. Our collaboration will be demonstrable and transparent, reflecting trust and authenticity.
