International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD)
“Child Protection in Development Phase I and Phase II”
2013 – 2017
Phase I (2013–2015)
The Child Protection in Development program helped to create a strong cohort of 28 young Aboriginal leaders, and supported them to address child, youth and family service provision in ways that empower their communities by drawing on culturally grounded and contextually specific models. Leaders have applied tools from CPID’s certificate programs with youth and Elders in their own communities. Practitioners have continued with their learning through formal education (2 Masters and 3 Doctoral students enrolled through Royal Roads University) as well as 6 young Aboriginal leaders, who are applying for post-secondary at other institutions. A partnership with Royal Roads University was formalized to support this laddered educational programming and mentorship model. An online platform for collaborative learning between Indigenous and international practitioners has also been developed and supported.
A key insight from this work:
The cohort training model has potential for positive impacts at different levels, but expansion will require diverse support systems. The cohort model can provide an interactive setting for practitioners to grow their knowledge and skills while building communities and a sense of belonging. However, IICRD will need to continue to adopt multiple, creative approaches to meet the wide range of learners’ ways of knowing and their diverse needs.
Phase II (2015–2018)
Through transformational leadership programming, YouLEAD (formerly known as CPID) builds your capacity to support the well-being of young people and to strengthen the resilience of communities in Canada and around the world.
The International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD) seeks to contribute to the following long-term goals through YouLEAD, an Aboriginal Community-Based Capacity Building and Leadership Training initiative.
- To expand this laddered Aboriginal youth capacity development and leadership training program, which is grounded in community development and culture in communities
- To strengthen the capacity of Aboriginal youth and family service professionals to promote well-being in the lives of young people and the lives of other community members through education, capacity
building, and local mentorship in the existing and new project sites. - To enhance the career/post-secondary readiness and capacity of Aboriginal youth.
- To create new and diverse employment and leadership opportunities for Aboriginal youth and young professionals within their communities.
YouLEAD advisors filmed a short video to share the impacts of this work.
In addition, an educational framework including 20 competencies to support young people’s strengths, leadership and well-being was developed.
A key insight from this work:
The balance between providing structure and allowing for emergent planning is important. IICRD strived to provide a flexible container to support the goals and parameters of the program while allowing room for responsiveness and innovation. This allowed IICRD to create new training certificates based on practitioner needs/interests. However, we also heard from Advisors that sometimes more clarity was needed —particularly when trying to recruit community partners.
About IICRD
The International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD) is a unique hybrid organization: part non-governmental organization (NGO), part academic institution, located in Victoria, British Columbia (BC), focused on social innovation with and for children and youth. For the past 20 years, IICRD has been a bridge building organization working with a wide variety of partners in participatory, applied research, professional education, and community capacity building initiatives. Our programs and projects catalyze change, transformation, and healing for the most vulnerable young people in our society, in Canada and in over 30 countries around the world.