Grant: POR Awards - Transition to Leadership Stream - Phase 2

The Family Engagement Program is creating an international community of researchers, trainees, individuals with lived/living experience, families, service providers, and decision-makers who are championing meaningful family engagement in health research and practice. Graduates of the Family Engagement Program are creating a social movement that disrupts traditional research practice and is transformative to the way health research is conducted. To assist graduates in their family engagement implementation efforts, they have asked for ongoing training, networking, mentorship, and collaboration opportunities. As such, we propose to: i) build an international Family Engagement in Research Champions Community of Practice (FER Champions CoP) to offer these continuing opportunities for networking and knowledge exchange; and ii) conduct a series of studies to evaluate the impact of the FER Champions CoP and advance our understanding of how to support champions who are leading family engagement efforts. Through the FER Champions CoP, we believe we can move best practices of meaningful patient and family engagement into practice more quickly, and ultimately impact the way health research is conducted and health care is delivered.