Call for expressions of interest — Community consultation on research training for Veterans and Families

The Atlas Institute for Veterans and Families is dedicated to integrating the lived experiences and expertise of Veterans and their Families through active community participation in research projects. This year, we are excited to announce a collaboration with Dr. Colleen Reid, an independent consultant and expert in community-based participatory research in Canada, to develop and deliver a peer researcher training program tailored for Veteran and Veteran Family members who are currently engaged with groups or projects at the Atlas Institute.

About the research training program

The Atlas Institute’s research training program aims to provide valuable and relevant research training to Veterans and Veteran Families through regular educational modules delivered online. Our goal is to enhance the confidence of Veterans and Veteran Family members in advising on research projects and to support them in providing their expertise to the development of new research within the Atlas Institute and beyond.

What is community-based participatory research (CBPR)? How is the community involved?

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach to research that is collaborative, inclusive and action oriented. The community is at the centre of CBPR because the research is conducted by, with and for communities.¹ CBPR is rooted in lived experience and focuses on issues of importance to community members.^2,3 Community members are recognized as active agents in telling their stories.

Collaborators on a CBPR project are seen as co-researchers as they each uniquely and importantly offer their lived experience to the research project. It is also common to have peer researchers involved who contribute lived experience as members of the community or group that is the focus of a study. They can be paid or unpaid, and can be formally or informally connected to the project. Often, peer researchers work actively and closely with their collaborators and contribute to study design, execution and dissemination, sharing their perspectives and insights on aspects that might otherwise be overlooked. Peer researchers play a critical role in making research and research findings more accessible, equitable and relevant to the communities that benefit from it.

Get involved

Your input will be crucial as we develop this training. In July 2024, we will be hosting a series of consultation focus groups to learn more about your goals when it comes to learning about research methods, from mode of delivery to ideal format, time commitment and scheduling. Your insights will shape the development of the program, which will be piloted in early 2025.

Participation is open to those who primarily identify as Veterans or Veteran Family members, and who are active on at least one Atlas Institute group or project (e.g. Strategic Reference Group, Cadre, project advisory committee).

What to expect

Participation in the focus group includes two parts: a focus group discussion and an optional follow-up meeting to verify results. Atlas Institute honorarium policies will apply to both sessions.  Depending on the number of responses, we may not be able to include everyone in the consultation focus groups. If this is the case, we will be selecting participants to maximize representation of diverse voices and experiences.

If you are interested, please complete this short form to express your interest in attending a 1.5-hour focus group:

The application for the pilot trial will be circulated in fall 2024. To be notified about the pilot trial, contact the project team at researchtraining.atlas@theroyal.ca

Please note: Participation in a focus group does not guarantee participation in the research training pilot.

Please note that due to capacity constraints, focus groups and the pilot trial will only be available in English.

Meet Dr. Colleen Reid, PhD

We’re excited to be working with Dr. Colleen Reid, an expert in community-based participatory research (CBPR). Dr. Reid has been actively engaged in research and advocacy in health promotion and is interested in how social context and status influence well-being. Her research program concentrates on health inequalities, community development, access to leisure and recreation and CBPR. She has taught and worked towards democratizing research, which involves increasing the ways people use and engage with research to ensure that it is relevant, meaningful and action-oriented.

She is a faculty member at Douglas College and was the Principal Investigator on three CBPR projects:

• Imagining inclusion: Creating upstream change in community mental health (2013 – 2018)
• The Imagination Network: Raising the curtain on the lived experience of dementia (2017 – 2023)
• Who cares? Cultivating a community of elder care on the Sunshine Coast (2023 – 2026)

Her research projects feature strong participatory and knowledge translation components, with high levels of student and community involvement. Together with these research teams, she has created artistic outputs to showcase results and published and presented widely on study findings.

Dr. Reid has published widely on CBPR and is eager to engage with Veterans and Veteran Families to develop and deliver this training in collaboration with the Atlas Institute.

Get updates

If you’d like to receive updates about registering for the research training pilot, send an email to researchtraining.atlas@theroyal.ca to be notified.