Queen’s-led, community-based research team receives $172,000 from the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area

News & Announcements | 28 Oct 2024

I-CREAte, a local health research initiative, has been awarded $172,000 in funding from Community Foundation Kingston from their Sisters of Providence Community Impact Fund.

i-create team members — *I-CREAte team members*

I-CREAte is a community-based participatory action research initiative that conducts meaningful and action-oriented research to improve the health and well-being of children, families, and communities in Kingston and the surrounding region. Its Principal Investigators are Queen’s University professors Dr. Eva Purkey and Dr. Imaan Bayoumi (Department of Family Medicine).

The funding will support I-CREAte to build a community-based participatory research hub through the Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resilience Coalition of KFL&A (ARC), which is convened by the Community Foundation.

“Systems change requires us to first to see and understand the system,” says Stacy Kelly, Executive Director, Community Foundation for Kingston & Area. “The Community Foundation’s grant will enable I-CREAte to use their proven community-based participatory research approach to involve community members as researchers and experts to inform a network of agencies about the realities of those experiencing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in our region.”

The Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul Community Impact Fund prioritizes high-impact, local initiatives to achieve transformative, sustainable, systems-level change. Systems-level change involves improving structures, policies, and practices to better meet the needs of children, youth, and families in the KFL&A region. Funding from the Sisters Impact Fund supports innovation by bringing together interested parties committed to preventing and mitigating ACEs and building resiliency in in our community to achieve lasting impact.

“With this support, I-CREAte can work directly with ARC to bring together partners and interdisciplinary collaborators in research, program and policy development to implement and test solutions identified by local families and partners that could create high-impact, transformative, sustainable, and systems-level change,” says Dr. Purkey, co-lead of I-CREAte.

The funding will allow I-CREAte to expand capacity for multidisciplinary community-based research supporting children and families experiencing ACEs within KFL&A, including building a hub for research and evaluation for ARC and partner organizations’ projects.

“This funding will support I-CREAte to build community capacity to prevent and mitigate the impact of ACEs by building research and evaluation capacity in the partners we work with,” says Dr. Bayoumi, co-lead of I-CREAte.

I-CREAte’s initial project, "Engaging Families to Build Healthy Communities", identified twelve areas of intervention that are needed to improve the lives of families with young children who experience ACEs and adversity in KFL&A. The second phase of the project involved extensive community engagement to identify solutions that could improve these areas resulting in a detailed Community-led Action Table.

I-CREAte’s goals line up with the vision of the Community Foundation, Kelly says: “Our goal is to equip our dozens of community partner organizations with tools to develop community resilience, strengthen their capacity for program evaluation, and improve outcomes by mitigating and reducing the harmful effects of ACEs for Kingston and Area children and families.”

Learn more about I-CREAte's research in this feature story.

Queen’s-led, community-based research team receives $172,000 from the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area

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