Grant: Op. Grant: NWHRI: Innovation Fund - Healthcare implementation research

The Canadian government recently described gender-based violence-family violence, gendered adverse childhood experiences, and intimate partner violence-as an epidemic. This was based on rising rates and severity of violence against women, and Statistics Canada's report that nearly 4/5 victims of family violence are girls or women. Our objective is to address this epidemic by undertaking community-engaged implementation science research to help the under-resourced community healthcare sector promote the health of girls, women, and gender-diverse people (GWGDP) who are at-risk or survivors of such violence. Research questions focus on understanding and addressing the barriers and facilitators to implementing effective, evidence-based solutions within the community healthcare system for vulnerable GWGDP. This project leverages the existing Alliance against Violence and Adversity (AVA) Health Research Training Platform and Women's and Girls' Health Hub (both funded by CIHR). AVA offers extensive training opportunities and shares knowledge to improve relevant healthcare for GWGDP across Canada. The proposed research will be led by a multidisciplinary team of Academic and Community Partners who are: 1) building trainee and community capacity, and 2) undertaking research on and sharing knowledge of effective evidence-based solutions. Supervised by academic and community partners, trainees will do the research as part of their theses or dissertations. By addressing the research questions, AVA contributes to a more equitable and evidence-based community healthcare sector. Impacts include: 1) Availability of more effective, implemented, and sustainable evidence-based solutions that promote the health, health equity, and reduce marginalization of GWGDP affected by gender-based violence, and 2) Enhanced capacity of community healthcare agencies to undertake relevant implementation science research on evidence-based solutions that promote vulnerable GWGDP's health in the future.