About the Project
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Towards a Brighter Path for Every Child in Hamilton
This project unites Hamilton’s child health researchers, doctors, patients, families and community organizations around a common goal – improving health outcomes for children across the city and surrounding region through access to better care and services.
Connect with us at brtrpath@mcmaster.ca for more information about the Brighter Path and how we can work together.
The Brighter Path project is funded by the Juravinski Research Institute.
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Why it matters
How do we enable healthy pathways for all children in Hamilton? This question drives world-class researchers, doctors, and organizations across our city. Major differences in health exist depending where in the city of Hamilton one lives. Social disadvantage and health inequities can have major impacts on children’s physical and mental health, but the underlying factors are not well understood. Harnessing the city’s collective expertise and working together with families and community partners, we will begin to understand and collaboratively address these factors to improve the well-being of children in Hamilton.
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How it works
The project envisions a Brighter path for every child in Hamilton through 2 aims.
First, researchers, doctors, patients, families and community organizations are partnering on a research project taking place within Hamilton communities and at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Together, we will design and test new ways to ensure children and families in Hamilton get connected to the care, services, and resources they need to thrive. Through this work, we will better understand factors at the child, family, and community levels that are related to overall health and wellbeing.
Second, we are building a strong foundation that will enable collaborative child health research in Hamilton for years to come. We are investing in support for successful partnership of people (families, researchers, doctors, health care workers and community organizations) and systems to create and use new knowledge to improve care and services. Three pillars will support the Brighter Path project and future child health research in Hamilton:
- Meaningful patient and family engagement in research through training and support
- Sustainable academic and community partnerships
- Dynamic informatics platforms for collection and use of data
Project News
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The Family Engagement in Research (FER) Course Learn More
Get involved! Applications are now being accepted from child health researchers, healthcare providers, families, and youth for the Winter 2025 Family Engagement in Research Course offered by the Brighter Path collaboration.
Student Volunteer Opportunities Available – Sign up now Learn More
Are you a current McMaster University student passionate about improving the health and well-being of children in our community?
Hamilton researchers chart a healthier future for children April 27, 2023
Five McMaster University researchers are joining forces with local health-care partners to promote children’s health in Hamilton, with $1.175 million in funding from the Juravinski Research Institute (JRI).
The Family Engagement in Research (FER) Course
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The Family Engagement in Research (FER) course is being offered in Winter 2025 as part of the Towards a Brighter Path for Every Child in Hamilton (Brighter Path) collaboration funded by the Juravinski Research Institute.
The course is free for eligible researchers, healthcare providers, families and youth (see Eligibility below) and participants will be invited to connect back with the work of the Brighter Path. Families and youth will also be compensated for their time.
The FER course aims to inform and empower patients, families, researchers and healthcare providers about how to engage together at all stages of the research process to produce meaningful results.
The 10-week (~30 hours) online course, developed and instructed by the FER Training Program at CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster University, covers principles and frameworks of family engagement in research alongside discussions of the practicalities and challenges of research partnership. Participants develop competency and confidence in both the theory and practice of family engagement in research. The course offers a safe space to explore ideas and approaches to research partnership. A unique component of the FER course is that individuals with lived experience (themselves or as a family member) and researchers/clinicians are placed in groups and co-create a Knowledge Translation (KT) tool.
By the end of the course, FER graduates are:
- Are knowledgeable about family engagement in research
- Are capable and confident to partner on research projects
- Earn a McMaster University certified micro-credential.
Expandable List
The course is free for eligible researchers, including staff and trainees, healthcare providers, and families (criteria below). Participants will be invited to connect with the work of the Brighter Path. Families will also be compensated for their time.
- Researchers – child health researchers of any career stage affiliated with McMaster University, Hamilton Health Sciences, and/or St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
- Research Trainees – McMaster University graduate students and postdoctoral fellows working in child health research
- Research Staff – Research staff working in child health research at McMaster University, Hamilton Health Sciences, and/or St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
- Healthcare Providers – pediatric healthcare professionals (e.g. registered nurse, occupational therapist, child life specialist, physician, etc) providing care in the Greater Hamilton Area
- Family Caregivers – parents, siblings, grandparents, or anyone with a caregiving role for a child with a developmental disability or chronic health condition(s) in the Greater Hamilton Area
- 10 weeks | 30 hours total
- Weekly group work & activities
- Four 2-hour online classes during weeks 1, 4, 6, 10 – choose Tuesdays 12-2 pm OR Wednesdays 7-9 pm EST
- Earn a McMaster University microcredential
Upon completion, learners will be able to:
- Define and describe the benefits of family engagement in research.
- Identify family/research partners and understand how to engage individuals with lived/living experience throughout each step of the research process.
- Discuss the roles and responsibilities of researchers and individuals with lived/living experience on integrated teams.
- Understand the ethics surrounding family engagement in research as well as the rights and responsibilities of research ‘participants’ versus research ‘partners’.
- Recognize the barriers and facilitators to family engagement and identify strategies to support family engagement in research (at the individual and team levels).
- Understand and utilize tools and resources available for the implementation and evaluation of family engagement activities.
- Communicate ideas related to family engagement verbally and in writing.
| Week 1* | Week of January 13 | What do we mean by family engagement in research? |
| Week 2 | Week of January 20 | Why is family engagement in research important? |
| Week 3 | Week of January 27 | Building an integrated research team: How can we find each other? |
| Week 4* | Week of February 3 | Building an integrated research team: How can we work together? |
| Week 5 | Week of February 10 | Roles and responsibilities of families and researchers |
| Week 6* | Week of February 17 | Ethics of family engagement in research |
| Week 7 | Week of February 24 | Barriers and facilitators to family engagement |
| Week 8 | Week of March 3 | Evaluation of family engagement activities |
| Week 9 | Week of March 10 | Family Engagement tools & resources |
| Week 10* | Week of March 17 | Building a community for partnership |
*Online session this week. Choice of attending Tues. 12-2pm OR Wed. 7-9pm EST.
Complete the online application form here before November 30, 2024 (5:00 pm EST) to be considered for the 2025 cohort.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions at fer@mcmaster.ca
Co-Principal Investigators
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The Brighter Path leadership team includes physicians and researchers spanning 3 academic Departments (Pediatrics; Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences; Obstetrics & Gynecology) and 4 research centres (Centre for Metabolism, Obesity, & Diabetes Research; CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research; Offord Centre for Child Studies; Chanchlani Research Centre) in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University.
