KBHN’s national training program prepares the next generation of professionals to foster better outcomes for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs) and their families. It’s a unique experience: Not only do participants help to lead our research projects, they also get rich learning opportunities beyond the lab, from professional-development seminars to frontline internships.

Our trainees include students, postdoctoral researchers, members of our partner organizations, people with lived experiences and other allies who are interested in NDDs.

In 2021-2022, KBHN embedded 222 trainees into its research teams. Plus, another 150 people joined them at the network’s training events, courses and conferences throughout the year. They all developed competencies that will help them advance on their career paths, whether in academia, government, industry, the non-profit sector or elsewhere.

An elected organization of 14 trainees called the Policy Advisory and Research Training (PART) Committee works to enhance the networking and professional development opportunities for all KBHN trainees. In 2021-2022, PART members:

• Began developing initiatives to promote more equitable and inclusive access to network-related funding and training opportunities
• Organized a professional-development webinar series
• Played a significant role in planning the 2021 KBHN Annual Conference: they helped to select abstracts for e-posters and lightening talks, they contributed to the adjudication of these presentations for awards, and they organized trainee events with guest speakers.

Certified by McMaster University and co-sponsored by Kids Brain Health Network and CanChild, a 10-week course called the Family Engagement in Research (FER) Course brings families and researchers together to learn from each other about how to build a productive partnership. By doing so, it aims to shape the future of Canadian neurodevelopmental research, anchoring it in the real-life needs of children and their families.

Dr. Andrea Cross, Connie Putterman, Donna Thomson, Dr. Dayle McCauley, Dr. Patty Solomon and Dr. Jan Willem Gorter of CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster University

The course ran twice this year, allowing 61 new people to complete it. What’s more, FER’s founders and instructors introduced a new FER Leadership Academy to extend graduates’ impact in the community. It allows them to deepen their family-engagement skills through an enhanced curriculum and small-group mentoring.

As part of the requirements for the FER course, researchers and family members partner to create resources such as the infographic and the checklist below, both developed this year. They’re known as knowledge-translation tools because they help to spread knowledge and put it into action.