The Knowledge Exchange: A Partnership-in-Action Podcast

Embedded Research and Evaluation in Integrated Youth Services with Foundry

Mon, 25 May 2026 19:14:47 +0000

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Skye Barbic and Dr. Julia Langton from Foundry, which offers integrated youth services through a province-wide network of health and social services for young people and their families in British Columbia. Skye is an Associate Professor in the University of British Columbia’s Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy and Foundry’s Head Scientist. Julia is the Director of Research, Evaluation and Data at Foundry.

In this episode, you’ll hear about Foundry’s embedded program of research and evaluation and how youth and families are involved in both research and service design; how COVID-19 shaped their work and relationships with communities; and how research supports accountability to young people and communities in BC.

Transforming Child Welfare: Queering Child Welfare and Child Well-Being (Part 2)

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 18:45:32 +0000

This episode is Part 2 of a special two-part feature from the Centre for the Study of Services to Children and Families’ annual Transformative Child Welfare Panel, held on February 27, 2026.

In this second half, we move into an open and unstructured Q&A with panelists Kayla Kenney, Kristi Pinderi, Marko Aguilar Maurer, Emma McIlroy, and Kyle Turone. Building on the research and reflections shared in Part 1, this conversation creates space for deeper dialogue on practice, policy, and lived experiences related to 2SLGBTQ+ children and youth in the child welfare system; offering further insights and considerations for how child welfare systems can continue to evolve in more inclusive, affirming, and responsive ways.

If you haven’t yet listened to Part 1, we recommend starting there for the full introduction and overview of the panel.

Transforming Child Welfare: Queering Child Welfare and Child Well-Being (Part 1)

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 19:00:11 +0000

This episode is a special edit of the Centre for the Study of Services to Children and Families’ annual Transforming Child Welfare Panel event which was held on February 27, 2026. This year, the panel presentation focused on queering child welfare and child well-being, and featured researchers and graduate students whose research examines the experiences of 2SLGBTQ+ children and youth.

The topics ranged from foster caregivers supporting 2STNBGD youth in care, the experiences of former 2SLGBTQ+ youth in care, queering children’s rights, to challenging assumptions of the child welfare system, and healthcare social work practice with younger trans and gender diverse people. Joined by Kayla Kenney, Kristi Pinderi, Marko Aguilar Maurer, Emma McIllroy, and Kyle Turone, the panelists share their findings from their research and discuss the ways in which the child welfare system has evolved, and the ways that the system can continue to still evolve to better support 2SLGBTQ+ children and youth.

Rahi Care: Supporting Punjabi and South Asian Communities

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 19:52:29 +0000

In this episode, we’re joined by Gary Thandi and Dr. Nitasha Puri. Gary is a social worker with over twenty years of experience in social services and counselling, and he is the Executive Director of Moving Forward Family Services, a non-profit counselling organization. Dr. Puri is a family physician with training in addiction medicine. She works with Fraser Health, and she is also a Clinical Associate Professor in UBC’s Department of Family Practice.

Their conversation centers on their decade-long partnership and the Rahi Care Program (RCP), a community co-created initiative supporting Punjabi and South Asian communities impacted by substance use. You’ll hear how they bring social work, primary care, and community organizations into the same room to reduce barriers; how the program is designed with community members; and how they find a way to make support happen in real life for individuals and families.

Seeing the Whole Person: What Students Learn When Patients Become Mentors

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:20:29 +0000

This episode features Mandy Young, parent of a medically and behaviourally complex child and a long-time partner with the University of British Columbia’s Patient and Community Partnership for Education (PCPE). Mandy has volunteered for over a decade in the Interprofessional Health Mentors Program, both as a Health Mentor for health care students and as a Community Engagement Coordinator. Joining her is Lelainia Lloyd, a rare disease and disability advocate with 13 years of experience as a Health Mentor. Also with us is Pooja Kadakia, now a first-year internal medicine resident in Winnipeg, who joined the program as a student mentee three years ago. Together, they reflect on how the Health Mentors Program fosters interprofessional learning, reshapes students’ professional perspectives, and improves the way that healthcare providers can interact in the system with their patients and with their colleagues.

Evidence-Informed Mental Health Social Work: Insights from the 2025 Inspiring Social Worker of the Year with Brandon Wong, MSW

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 14:45:05 +0000

In this episode, the 2025 Inspiring Social Worker of the Year Award Winner, Brandon Wong, joins the podcast. Brandon Wong, a mental health social worker within the Vancouver Coastal Health authority, practicing in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. He reflects on his journey from a health sciences background in Australia to frontline social work in complex mental health and substance use settings. He shares what drew him to social work practice, why social workers are essential within interdisciplinary mental health teams, and his experience and insights of engaging in evidence-informed practice and knowledge exchange within healthcare. He further reflects on what it meant to be named inspiring Social Worker of the Year and co-authoring an award-winning article in the Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity and Social Work. Brandon’s insights help foster a greater understanding of how social work research can be used to inform best practice, both currently and in the future.

Season 2 Kick-Off

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 19:03:04 +0000

Dr. Barbara Lee, Host, welcomes us back to The Knowledge Exchange: A Partnership-in-Action Podcast for a second season! This upcoming season will expand beyond our UBC community to bring you inspiring stories from across the province. We have an exciting line-up of partnerships who will share their projects and shine a light on how communities and researchers are co-creating knowledge to advance equity, improve services, and drive meaningful change. Stay tuned!

Season 1 Wrap-Up

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Dr. Barbara Lee, Host, celebrates and concludes the first season of The Knowledge Exchange: A Partnership-in-Action Podcast. Over 12 episodes, this season has discussed inspiring community-engaged research, knowledge mobilization, and collaborative partnerships in the University of British Columbia’s School of Social Work.

Dr. Lee also announces Season 2 of the podcast which will highlight community-engaged research beyond UBC and across the province of British Columbia. 👀

Thank you for your support and see you in September 2025!

Eloping: Autism & Community-Driven Research

Mon, 12 May 2025 19:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Nicole Corrado, Sandra Nakata, Tina Wilson and Meg Gibson discuss their community-led research project that explores autistic people's perspectives and experiences of elopement, which is when autistic individuals depart suddenly from supervised settings and relationships without permission or notice.

Rooted in lived experience and informed by a participatory action research approach, the project explores the potential that partnership offers in transforming current practices of policing autistic people's behaviours and encouraging belonging through understanding. Together, the team shares how the project emerged from community needs, reflects on the harms of epistemic injustice, and explores how rethinking social norms can better support autistic individuals' safety and autonomy.

The conversation invites listeners into insights into the experiences of elopement and shares hopes for the future of their community research partnership.

Yarning about Yarning – Knowledge Mobilization in an International Decolonizing Dialogue

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Dr. Donna Baines, Professor at the University of British Columbia School of Social Work, and Dr. Bindi Bennett, Professorial Research Fellow at Federation University discuss yarning, the Indigenous practice of preserving the oral cultures of storytelling. Reflecting on their international grant, Emancipatory Dialogue, with academics and non-academics across Canada, Australia and Taiwan, Dr. Baines and Dr. Bennett talk about yarning with Indigenous-led organizations in the project and the facilitation of a decolonizing dialogue between Western anti-oppressive and Indigenous approaches. Their conversation together produces learning about conducting research that respects cultural values and teachings, and emphasize the co-creation and co-ownership.

With Residents in Mind: Partnership-Driven Research for Supportive Housing Practices

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 19:50:00 +0000

This episode features Dr. Christiana Bratiotis, Dr. Sheila Woody, and Jana Sasaki. Dr. Christiana Brotiotis is Associate Professor in the UBC School of Social Work. Her research focuses on hoarding treatment and intervention, particularly in the contexts of affordable and community-based housing. Dr. Sheila Woody is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Director of the Centre for Collaborative Research on Hoarding. Her research interests are on hoarding disorder, with an emphasis on understanding its behaviours in order to improve treatments and interventions. Jana Sasaki is the Director of Operations for Vancouver Region at Lookout Housing and Health Society, Jana has significantly contributed to Lookout’s harm reduction approach to decluttering in housing through the creation of Assisting Reduction in Cluttering and Hoarding (also known as ARCH) team. Coming together, Jana and Drs. Bratiotis and Woody discuss their multidisciplinary collaboration and the development of the Home Environment Assessment Tool for Hoarding (HEATH). Their conversation highlights the importance of knowledge exchanges which advances the practice and scholarship on hoarding and decluttering.

An International Learning Exchange on Global Mental Health

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 18:50:00 +0000

This episode features Dr. Grace Mwangi, a health psychologist and addiction specialist at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) in Nairobi, where she serves as Deputy Registrar of Student Affairs, supporting the college’s mission to train healthcare professionals in Kenya. Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, an Assistant Professor at the UBC School of Social Work and a Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar, joins Grace to reflect on their five-year partnership between UBC and KMTC. Dr. Mohamed’s research focuses on global mental health, addiction, and psychosocial support, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Grace and Mohamed discuss their global mental health course, which includes an interdisciplinary learning exchange with students from various health fields. They also discuss global South-North exchanges based on their collaboration, highlighting how transnational cooperation is advancing mental health education and practice.

Fostering Social Change through Storytelling and Community Collaboration

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Antoine Coulombe, Assistant Professor of Teaching at the UBC School of Social Work, and Lama Mugabo, community planner and Founding Director of Building Bridges with Rwanda, discuss their collaborative work in education focused on community organizing and participatory learning. Their efforts aim to help students build reciprocal and respectful relationships with communities, with students gradually expressing their understanding of these relationships through their own actions. The conversation highlights how "storytelling" has become a powerful tool for transformation in the Hogan's Alley neighborhood and how this approach is being integrated into education. They also introduce an ongoing national project focused on amplifying the voices of African youth and young African newcomers, contributing to meaningful social change through a "meandering process."

Developing, Implementing and Evaluating the BC Settlement Collaborative Case Management Service Model

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Funded by Immigration, Refugee, Citizenship Canada, the Innovative BC Settlement Case Management Service Model Project (Project) aimed to develop an evidence and outcome-based Settlement Case Management Model. The overarching goal of this project is to support new members of Canadian society to fully participate and contribute to society in a meaningful way. The Project enhances approaches and tools of Settlement Case Management Model to maximize settlement and integration outcomes of vulnerable newcomers, namely Government Assisted Refugees (GARs), Privately Sponsored Refugees (PSRs) and Newcomers with complex and multiple barriers. Led by MOSAIC, nine settlement service organizations (SSOs) and a research team from the University of British Columbia collaboratively conducted a baseline study of existing case management service, developed, implemented and tested a new model, namely the Collaborative Case Management Service Model over a 2-year period. This podcast highlights this collaborative work.

Together with Fairness: Research and Advocacy for Kinship Care

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 20:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Dr. Barbara Lee talks with Shari Monsma (President) and Gail Moilliet (Vice President) of Fairness for Children Raised by Relatives - a 100% volunteer-run non-profit society made up of kinship caregivers who advocate for equitable rights and support for the children in their care. They discuss the ongoing process of collaboration, developing research evidence to advocate for equitable kinship care support, and how this work has generated new opportunities and ideas. With openness and gentleness, Shari and Gail mentored and supported Master of Social Work (MSW) students while learning alongside them, fostering intergenerational connections and meaningful conversations. They have continued expanding their advocacy through research, digital storytelling, and public engagement. This episode is a celebration of learning by doing, embracing new opportunities, and finding joy in the process of research and advocacy.

Researching Child, Youth, and Family Services: A University-Ministry Partnership

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 20:30:00 +0000

In this episode, Dr. Barbara Lee and Michelle O’Kane, course instructor for UBC School of Social Work, are joined by Shea Karst, Research Coordinator at MCFD, and Dr. Peter Rudiak-Gould, Manager of Research at MCFD. Together, they discuss the innovative partnership between the UBC School of Social Work and the Ministry of Child and Family Development (MCFD) which is centred around a Masters of Social Work research and evaluation course that engages students in meaningful applied social research.

This University-Ministry partnership is based on mutual benefit: students gain hands-on experience in research processes by conducting projects that address timely, relevant, and actionable issues, while MCFD benefits from enhanced organizational research capacity tailored to their priorities and needs. The discussion highlights the collaborative efforts involved in course delivery and the impactful, actionable research that students produce through their work, bridging academia and practice to drive meaningful change.

Partnering with Communities to Transform Inclusion through Collaborative Research

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Dr. Tim Stainton, Professor Emeritus at the UBC School of Social Work and co-Director of the Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship, and Karla Verschoor, Executive Director of Inclusion BC, discuss their collaborative work advancing inclusion for individuals with disabilities in British Columbia. They reflect on the evolution of the Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship, including its policy advocacy during the Covid-19 pandemic. They highlight several projects, including exploring and addressing inequalities arising from the intersection of gender and disability, and how participatory theater productions help share lived experiences with a broader audience. The conversation also touches on the importance of people with disabilities as self-advocates and researchers to drive meaningful change.

Collaborating with Family Partners in Dementia Research

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 19:10:00 +0000

Karen and Lily discuss their experiences collaborating on research projects at the UBC IDEA Lab related to aging and dementia in different settings, such as long-term care and the hospital. One example they raise is the dementia-friendly video project which introduced dementia-friendly videos to older adults with moderate to severe dementia in care settings to support their psychosocial well-being. Another example they raise is the Overcoming Loneliness project. The team interviewed residents in long-term care remotely about their experience of loneliness during COVID-19. They referred to the de Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale and found that residents had challenges answering the questions on the scale. They then came up with an idea to let people, especially healthcare providers, know about the challenges for residents using the scale and to propose recommendations by publishing and presenting at international conferences. Their paper was awarded Publication of the Year 2023 by Health Policy PIA of the International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART) and ImpactBC Scholarship in Health Care Research and Development 2024 by UBC Health, recognizing its implications in practice.

Mothers Leading Change: Transforming Lives through Participatory Action Research

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 17:30:00 +0000

Vivica Ellis from the Centre for Family Equity and Dr. Lea Caragata from the UBC School of Social Work discuss how their participatory action research has helped to address family poverty in British Columbia (BC). They speak to several projects, like the Making Mothers Matter project which explored how low-income mothers’ health and wellbeing are affected by childcare access, and the Justice at Work project which examined the impacts of COVID-19 on income and the precarious labour and employment of lone-mothers in BC. The participation of women and gender diverse peer researchers allows a greater understanding of the diverse experiences of lone mothers and has resulted in sound public policy recommendations grounded in lived experiences.

Rediscovering Roots: An Indigenous Scholar’s Story of Connection and Reclamation

Sun, 15 Dec 2024 18:50:00 +0000

As a Professor Emeritus at UBC's School of Social Work, Dr. Vedan reflects on his career, from his beginnings in the Canadian military to his academic achievements and community leadership. He discusses the ongoing impact of intergenerational trauma, the importance of addressing systemic inequities, and the complexities of Indigenous identity in contemporary Canada. This episode offers a powerful narrative of community resilience, healing, and the continuous advancement for equity.

Introducing The Knowledge Exchange: A Partnership-in-Action Podcast

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Dr. Barbara Lee, Host, introduces our new podcast called The Knowledge Exchange: A Partnership-in-Action Podcast, which highlights community-engaged partnerships. This season will showcase the inspiring work within and outside the University of British Columbia’s School of Social Work. We have an incredible line-up of faculty members and their community partners who will share their projects and the impact of their joint work together.