Grant: Team Grant: Healthy Youth - 2S, Trans, Non-binary, Gender Diverse

By actively participating in research projects as partners or leaders, Indigenous and Marginalized Youth (IMY) have the potential to enhance research relevance, feasibility, and impact while developing skills to become future healthcare leaders. However, there is currently a lack of IMY voices and representation in research, leading to missed opportunities to address health inequities and design care that is more culturally tailored to their needs. The current study will address the barriers to IMY engagement in research by testing 3 strategies: 1) Adapting educational training materials and conducting training for IMY and child health researchers; 2) Creating IMY Advisory Circles for Research (IMYACRs); 3) Creating a Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP will foster collaborative learning between IMY and researchers and enhance capacity for meaningful research engagement. Throughout our study, IMY will work alongside the research team, from designing to testing to analyzing and sharing findings. We will integrate Indigenous and Western ways of approaching health and research. Our team has experience with youth engagement in research and research involving IMY. We designed this study with input from Indigenous youth and family services in Canadian children's hospitals. Our team is also closely linked through various research networks that involve all children's hospitals in Canada (including Pediatric Outcome imProvement through COordination of Research Networks [POPCORN], the Canadian Pediatric Inpatient Research Network [PIRN], Pediatric Emergency Research Canada [PERC], and Maternal Infant Child and Youth Research Network [MYCIRN]). These established relationships will help ensure success. We will advance reconciliation by empowering Indigenous youth perspectives in research. IMY will gain skills to lead youth-relevant research and advocacy aimed at improving healthcare experiences and outcomes; these experiences will endure beyond the grant timeline.