CYRRC’s Knowledge Mobilization Strategies
Knowledge mobilization (KMb) is the process of creating and sharing research in ways that are meaningful for policymakers, practitioners, and communities. It is generally understood as a process based on collaboration between knowledge producers (often researchers, but also includes tacit knowledge from people with lived experience) and knowledge users (such as policymakers and service providers) to inform program and policy decisions or provide the basis for community-focused action. In knowledge mobilization, the goal is to maximize the impact of research and to capture and communicate those impacts as widely as possible.
Knowledge mobilization, knowledge transfer, and implementation science are all terms used to describe the process of moving research into practice, through the engagement of knowledge producers with knowledge users.
CYRRC is increasingly emphasizing the importance of involving people with lived experience in all stages of the research process, and striving to involve youth with refugee experience in our research and knowledge mobilization activities.
What it Means to be a SSHRC Partnership Grant
CYRRC was created in 2017 through a Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Partnership Grants support formal partnerships between academic researchers and community partners, where shared intellectual leadership allows research to be mobilized in accessible ways. CYRRC encourages community partners to be involved in all stages of research and governance. For the majority of CYRRC research projects, academics, service providers and policy makers have partnered to achieve joint outcomes. CYRRC also encourages projects to involve youth with refugee experience as peer researchers.
At the end of 2022, there were 55 projects with community partners and 17 that involved youth with refugee experience as co-researchers.
CYRRC’s Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) Working Group
CYRRC’s Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) Working Group was formed in 2018 to assist researchers in translating their findings into formats most useful to service providers. The Working Group includes eight settlement Service Provider Organization (SPO) representatives, a KMb Assistant, and CYRRC’s Project Manager.
KMb Products
CYRRC is committed to sharing research findings in a variety of formats to appeal to diverse audiences. For every completed CYRRC project, the KMb Working Group develops and disseminates executive summaries and infographics to make research findings quicker and easier to access.
At the end of 2022, CYRRC had created 28 sets of infographics and executive summaries.
The Refuge & Policy Matters Podcast
In 2021, CYRRC’s KMb Working Group launched a podcast to share our research with even broader audiences. The Refuge, hosted by Israel Ekanem, is a nine-episode podcast series that brings together academics, community partners, and people with lived experience to discuss key issues from our research.
More recently, CYRRC launched The Refuge: Policy Matters, a three-episode mini-series, hosted by Wegdan Abdelmoemin. This mini-series brings together policy makers, academics, and community partners to discuss policy implications of our research, and to offer policy recommendations on issues affecting children, youth, and families with refugee experience. The episodes cover the following three themes:
How to foster collaboration between policy makers, academics, and community
School supports for children and youth with refugee experience
How to help newcomers feel a sense of belonging in their new communities