About
Project Description
What?
RAISE is a research–practice project focused on the promotion of social-emotional development and mental health in young children and families. The two goals of the project were to implement and evaluate: 1) a needs assessment of the mental health, social-emotional development, and needs of children and caregivers living in the Peel region, and 2) a training initiative supporting caregivers’ and EarlyON and Child Care educators’ capacities to promote child social-emotional development and mental health. The needs assessment and pilot training were implemented in Peel region in 2021.
The resulting RAISE training serves as the CCDMP's foundational social-emotional development training. Our approach is designed to be flexible and adaptable, allowing the training to be tailored to the unique strengths, needs, and priorities of different communities. The training has since been adapted and piloted with a focus on different community groups, including Syrian newcomer families (see the SPRINT training) and Black children and families (see the R-BLISS training).
Why?
Children’s well-being and positive development are of utmost importance to the future of our society. This project aims to proactively address the opportunities to support potential and address challenges by gaining a better understanding of the current strengths and needs of children living in Peel, and by applying this knowledge to provide direct support to children and families through a training initiative. In addition to applying knowledge of the strengths and challenges specific to Peel, 20+ years of research on social-emotional development from Dr. Malti and the Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy were applied to develop and implement a training initiative for caregivers and educators. The focus of the training is on caregivers and educators as they are key support figures for children during the early years. If caregivers and practitioners can promote young children’s social-emotional capacities (e.g., emotion regulation, empathy, self-reflection) and mental health, children may be better equipped to reach their full developmental potential and navigate well-being challenges as they develop.
Who?
For the needs assessment and training initiative, we focused on children, families, and educators in Peel. Caregivers of children ages 0 to 8 years completed an online survey. To supplement the survey, a select group of interested caregivers and educators participated in virtual interviews to answer questions about the strengths and developmental needs of children and families from the Peel region. For the training initiative, caregivers of children ages 3 to 8 years and educators (i.e., those working with children ages 3 to 8 years in EarlyON or Child Care centres in Peel) participated in a 1-month training program (~1.5 hrs per week).
How?
We recruited a sample of families to appropriately reflect the broad diversity of the Peel region. The needs assessment was conducted using an online questionnaire and virtual case study interviews. The virtual interviews were conducted one-on-one with a trained facilitator from our team. The pilot training was delivered online using a Learning Management System (LMS) with a hybrid model of self-paced training and virtual live group sessions facilitated by our team at the CCDMP.
Impact?
This project provides direct support to families and educators living in the region of Peel by 1) increasing understanding of children’s and families’ strengths and needs, and 2) applying this knowledge to inform the development and implementation of a training aimed at supporting children’s and families’ strengths and needs. This interdisciplinary partnership also provides an opportunity to increase communication and collaboration between research, practice, and policy leaders in the community, and to better understand the strengths and challenges related to the implementation of our research-based training initiatives. This will ultimately inform large-scale rollout and public health initiatives.
Advisory Committee
RAISE reflects a multidisciplinary collaboration with several Early Years and Child Care sector organizations in the Peel Region. The RAISE Project’s Advisory Committee played an essential role in the development, implementation, and evaluation of our training.
| Co-Chairs: | |
Suzanne Finn, Region of Peel Tina Malti, University of Toronto Mississauga (Project PI) | |
| Members: | |
Nakiema Palmer, Region of Peel Heather Watts, Region of Peel Joanne Soares, Region of Peel Habiba Mahmood, CDRCP Melanie Araujo, CDRCP Priyanka Sheth, Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre Magdalena Diaz, Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre Suzana Miletic, Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre Yanqiong (Angela) Ma, Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre Mirella DiSanto, EveryMind Mental Health Services Zoe Dawe, EveryMind Mental Health Services Diane Phu, PLASP Ami Mehta, Community Advisor Ashma Saldanha, Community Advisor Michelle Zhang, Community Advisor |
Our Partners
This project would not be possible without the support of our community partners in the Early Years and Child Care sectors in the Peel region (e.g., practitioners, service providers, and policymakers) and nationally. We are thankful to partner with:
⇾ Region of Peel, Early Years and Child Care Services, Region of Peel
⇾ Child Development Resource Connection Peel
⇾ Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre
⇾ EveryMind Mental Health Services
This project was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grant awarded to Dr. Tina Malti and approved by the University of Toronto Research Ethics Board.
⇾ University of Toronto Mississauga
RAISE Materials
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Speidel, R., Tsang, C., Day, S., DiSanto, M., Keel, A., Phu, D., Diaz, M., Miletic, S., Dhaliwal, T., Saldanha, A., Zhang, M., & Malti, T. (2024). Keeping the lamp lit: A program profile of a community-based social-emotional training for caregivers and educators. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy, 4, 100048. ⇾https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sel.2024.100048
Speidel, R., Wong, T. K. Y., Al-Janaideh, R., Colasante, T., & Malti, T. (2023). Nurturing child social-emotional development: Evaluation of a pre-post, and 2-month follow-up uncontrolled pilot training for caregivers and practitioners. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 9(1), 148–168. ⇾https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-023-01357-4
Reports and Infographics
Speidel, R., Walker Mitchell, A., Haseeb, Z., El-Karout, R., & Valenzuela, B. (2023). Research and Practice Partnership: Results of a Community Needs Assessment of Children and Families Living in Peel Region. Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy. ⇾RAISE Needs Assessment Report
Speidel, R., Tsang, C., Walker Mitchell, A., Mui, C., Valenzuela, B., Bahreini-Esfahani, A., Olapade, S., Colasante, T., & Malti, T. (2022). Research and Practice Partnership: An Evaluation of the RAISE Project Pilot Social-Emotional Training Program. Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy. ⇾RAISE Pilot Training Report
Speidel, R., Tsang, C., Fatima, N., Mui, C., Valenzuela, B., Bahreini-Esfahani, A., Colasante, T., Malti, T., & The Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy. (2021). Project RAISE. Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy. ⇾RAISE Infographic
Speidel, R., Tsang, C., Fatima, N., Olapade, S., Valenzuela, B., Bahreini-Esfahani, A., Mui, C., Colasante, T., & Malti, T. (2021). Training Report: Research and Practice Partnership: Building Awareness and Increasing Social-Emotional Capacity in the Early Years (RAISE). ⇾RAISE Pre-Pilot Training Report
Other Related Publications
for a complete list of publications, go to: Journal Articles, Chapters, and Books | Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy (utoronto.ca)
Malti, T. (2020). Children and Violence: Nurturing social‐emotional development to promote mental health. Social Policy Report, 33(2), 1-27. ⇾https://doi.org/10.1002/sop2.8
Malti, T. (2020). Kindness: a perspective from developmental psychology. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1-29. ⇾https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2020.1837617 ⇾PDF
Malti, T., & Song, J. -H. (2018). Social-emotional development and aggression. In T. Malti & K. H. Rubin (Eds.), Handbook of child and adolescent aggression (pp. 127-144). New York, NY: Guilford Press
Malti, T., Beelmann, A., Noam, G. G., & Sommer, S. (2018). Innovation and Integrity in intervention research: Conceptual issues, methodology, and knowledge translation. Prevention Science, 19(3), 271-273. ⇾https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-018-0868-7 ⇾PDF
Malti, T., Noam, G. G., Beelmann, A., & Sommer, S. (2016). Toward dynamic adaptation of psychological interventions for child and adolescent development and mental health. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 45(6), 827-836. ⇾https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1239539 ⇾PDF
Malti, T., Chaparro, M. P., Zuffianò, A., & Colasante, T. (2016). School-based interventions to promote empathy-related responding in children and adolescents: A developmental analysis. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 45(6), 718-731. ⇾https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2015.1121822 ⇾PDF
Malti, T., Dys, S.P., & Zuffianò, A. (2015). The moral foundations of prosocial behaviour. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development [online]. CEECD, SKC-ECD; May 2015. ⇾ https://www.child-encyclopedia.com/prosocial-behaviour/according-experts/moral-foundations-prosocial-behaviour
