PART: Practice and Research Together Translating Knowledge into Practice
By Katharine Dill

Those who are enamoured with practice without science are like a captain who goes into a ship without a rudder or compass and never has any certainty where he (or she) is going.   -Leonardo da Vinci ¹

Introduction

Child welfare practitioners’ conceptualization and development of research and practice in their field have evolved over time. The da Vinci quote points to the need for child welfare practitioners to engage in evidence-informed practice in ways that will give rise to the following outcomes: (a) better situations for children and families (b) improved accountability mechanisms in work with children and families, (c) increased competence for child welfare practitioners, (d) future research and policy directions for the field.

A team of executive directors from the Eastern Zone developed a vision with respect to the future direction of child welfare practice in Ontario. The directors foresaw the need to infuse evidence informed practice into their agency’s daily work of protecting children and strengthening families. The team highlighted the need to integrate research into practice in the following strategic areas:

• ·Accountability to the mandate protecting children and youth
•  Practitioners’ knowledge
•  Integration into the current training agenda
•  Policy development
•  Organizational change initiatives

After setting these priorities, the team began to collaborate with the Research in Practice (RiP) team in England. Analysis of the consultation that was done with the RiP team made it clear that there were significant opportunities in the Ontario child welfare field for use and integration of key elements of the UK model.

This process set in motion for the development of the provincial project entitled Practice and Research Together (PART). The project received full endorsement from all provincial executive directors at the September 24, 2007 conference. It is supported in part by the OACAS.

What is Practice and Research Together (PART)?

The goal of PART is to integrate research knowledge and translate this information into user-friendly materials, training opportunities, organizational change projects and networking with colleagues and researchers from across the country and around the world. Through PART, the concept of evidence-informed practice comes alive.

What PART is not...

The intent of the project is not to conduct research but rather to provide member agencies with information and knowledge translation that will assist them in using evidence-informed practice to improve clients’ outcomes. PART creates organizational and systemic change by bridging the gap that currently exists between child welfare practitioners and researchers. The project is not simply a website, but rather a structure that provides member agencies with hands-on support and tools that assist with the integration and utilization of evidence-informed practice.

What is Evidence-Informed Practice?

Evidence-Informed Practice utilizes a combination of the best research evidence and clinical knowledge that has been developed to date. A practitioner whose work is grounded in evidence uses research to guide his or her daily decisions, documentation, and engagement with clients. The distillation of key research findings to practitioners will support the evolution of evidence-informed practice in Ontario.

Why is Evidence-Informed Practice important?

Evidence-informed practice provides practitioners with a decision-making framework that may be useful in dealing with problems and issues that affect individual children and families. These issues could include the following: choices about when or how to apprehend children, supervision of clients with addiction issues, and management of adoption breakdowns. The framework may also help practitioners to resolve macro level issues such as organizational change and the development of tools for supervision in the context of the Differential Response Model of practice. The overall intent of the project is to provide ready access to the most up-to-date empirical knowledge. In turn, this knowledge base has the potential to: 1) inform practitioners on how to effectively formulate case decisions and 2) generate policy that is informed by research.

PART Member Agencies to date include:

1. Algoma Children’s Aid Society

2. Brant Children’s Aid Society

3. Chatham-Kent Children’s Services

4. Durham Children’s Aid Society

5. City of Kingston and County of Frontenac Children’s Aid Society

6. Children’s Aid Society of Owen Sound and the County of Grey

7. Haldimand and Norfolk Children’s Aid Society

8. Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton

9. Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton

10. Hastings Children’s Aid Society

11. Kawartha-Haliburton Children’s Aid Society

12. Children’s Aid Society of County of Lanark and the Town of Smith Falls

13. Family and Children’s Services of Leeds and Grenville

14. London-Middlesex Children’s Aid Society | La Société d’aide à l’enfance de London et du Middlesex

15. Niagara Family and Children’s Services

16. Northumberland Children’s Aid Society

17. The Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa | La Société d’aide à l’enfance d’Ottawa

18. Peel Children’s Aid Society

19. Services aux enfants et adultes de Prescott-Russell Services to Children and Adults

20. Renfrew Family and Children’s Services

21. Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Children’s Aid Society | La Société d’aide à l’enfance des comptés unis de Stormont Dundas et Glengarry

22. Sudbury-Manitoulin Children’s Aid Society | La Société d’aide à l’enfance des district de Sudbury et du Manitoulin

23. Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto | La Société catholique de l’aide à l’enfance ville de Toronto

24. Family and Children’s Services of Guelph and Wellington County

25. Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society | La Société d’aide à l’enfance de Windsor-Essex

26. York Region Children’s Aid Society

PART Elements

1. Learning Events:
These are regularly scheduled evidence-informed conferences that support the integration of research into practice. This first learning event on Kinship Practice was held April 29 and 30, 2008. Presenters included:

• Dr. Mark Testa, School of Social Work, University of Illinois
• Rob Geen, Child Trends, Washington
• Dr. Esme Fuller-Thomson, Factor-Inwentash School of Social Work, University of Toronto
• Professor Joan Hunt, University of Oxford, England
•  Betty Cornelius, Director of Cangrands
• Regina Whelan, Manager, Children’s Aid Society of London and Middlesex
• Ruth Tansony, Supervisor of Kinship Program, Toronto Catholic Children’s Aid Society
• Laurel Choate, Art Therapist

What people had to say about this first Learning Event:

“Great opportunity to network and to listen to struggles and similarities”

“Great work….left conference with more ideas and food for thought”

”Thank you for recognizing the great need and helping to make this event happen…wow!”

“I very much appreciated the wealth and range of knowledge...”

The topic for the next learning event is Sibling Connections in Care (kinship and foster placements) scheduled to take place on November 11 and 12 in Ottawa, Ontario. Other learning event topics include:

• Adoption related research
• Aboriginal perspectives in child welfare
• Outcomes for children in care
• Research related to supervised access programs
• Research related to substance misusing clients

Link PARTners

Link PARTners are integral to making PART a successful program. One person per member agency is assigned as the agency’s link to the PART project. This person is the conduit between the agency and the PART team. On May 27 and 28, 2008, PART hosted a Link PARTners retreat to assist child welfare member agencies consider how to integrate research into practice. The goal of PART is to build on the inherent strengths of Link PARTners and member agencies to make research an absolutely vital part of everyday work for all child welfare professionals.

3. Evidence Informed Practice (EIP) Toolkits:

EIP Toolkits involve the development of helpful materials that integrate wisdom that emerges from research, policy and practice. These projects are collaborative endeavours between child welfare practitioners and PART staff members. Examples
of possible EIP Toolkits include:

•  Leading Evidence Informed Practice in the Context of Clinical Supervision
•  Integrating Research in Child Welfare Court

4. Website Development

The evolving PART website will be more than one more place to ‘click’. Rather, the website will be the portal to all of the knowledge translation, documentation and e-learning platforms available  through PART. The site will be a user-friendly resource that is easily accessible by busy child welfare practitioners and organizations.

While the PART website is under construction, we have managed to purchase access to the Research in Practice website from the UK. Through 11 years of experience, the RiP team has assembled an excellent array of evidence informed practice materials related to children and families. All member agencies benefit from access to the Research in Practice website.

5. PARTicles:

PARTicles are three page literature reviews on various topics. We are currently working
on the development of six PARTicles topics on the following subjects:

•  What is strengths-based practice?
• Sibling connections in care (kinship and foster care)
• Utilizing stakeholder feedback to inform service delivery
• Differential Response
• Substance misusing parents and effective child welfare interventions
• Outcomes related to long-term foster care versus adoption

If you are interested in joining PART please contact Katharine Dill at kdill@partontario.org  or by phone at 905-433-1551 ext. 2473.

¹ M.Chaffin, B. Friedrich, Evidence-based treatments in child abuse and neglect, Children and Youth Services Review, 26 (2004) 1097-1113.

About the Author

Katharine Dill is the director of PART and a PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.

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