Youth Engagement KM in the PM- December 2

The YorkU KM Unit will be hosting a KM of the PM event on Wednesday, December 2nd. The topic of the afternoon will focus on youth engagement, with brief presentations by researchers and community leaders, followed by ample time for questions, discussion, and networking.

Confirmed Panelists:

• Gordon Flett, Faculty of Health, Associate Dean of Research, Canada Research Chair (Personality and Health)

• Sandra Cunning, Clinical Director, Research and Evaluation, Kinark Child and Family Services

• Joanne McQuiggan, Executive Director, Thrive! The Canadian Centre for Positive Youth Development

Invited Panelists:

• Ontario Ministry of Child and Youth Services, to speak about their recent document – Realizing Potential: Our Children, Our Youth, Our Future: Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services Strategic Framework 2008-2012.

• Mobilizing Minds, Youth-friendly mental health resources and decision aids that will assist young adults and those who support them make informed choices about mental health treatment options.

Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Time: 1:30 to 4:00 pm. Coffee and light refreshments will be served.

Location: York University, Keele Campus, York Research Tower, 5th Floor, Board of Governors Room

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Space is limited. Kindly RSVP kejensen@yorku.ca to confirm your attendance.

What’s old is new again – test your knowledge about knowledge systems

Many of us think that KM (KT/KE/KTE/KI/KMb… whatever) is an emerging discipline.  It may be an emerging academic discipline but the practice isn’t new.  Jonathan Lomas [Brit Med J (2007) 334:129] reports that KM-like networks of industry and academics were active in the German dye industry in the late 1800s (side bar, this might have been more like industry liaison than KM, for more on that see our blog August 6, 2009).  Also, the University of Wisconsin State Agents performed a KM-ish role for local agriculture at the turn of the 20^th century [Educational Record (1992) 73(2): 12].  Nonetheless, I still get pleasantly surprised when I read an “old” article that reads like it could have been written today.  In 2003, David Cash (then at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) wrote “Knowledge systems for sustainable development” [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 100: 8086].  Read the full article here.

How many of these key points from the article sound familiar to you?

1. Effective knowledge systems engage in communication, translation and mediation
2. Efforts to mobilize are more likely to be effective when they manage boundaries between knowledge and action
3. Active, iterative, and inclusive communication between experts and decision makers proves crucial to systems that mobilize knowledge
4. Mobilizing requires active mediation (at ResearchImpact we call this knowledge brokering)
5. Mediation works through increasing transparency (for more on transparency, see our blog on August 25, 2009)
6. Systems mobilize knowledge for action by translations that facilitate mutual comprehension
7. Mediation activities help make the boundary between experts and decision makers selectively porous

If you got 7 out of 7 congratulations, you’re new knowledge isn’t so new!

Employing these methods of communication, translation and mediation enables an organization to become a boundary organization.

“These functions can be institutionalized in ‘boundary organizations’, organizations mandated to act as intermediaries between the arenas of science and policy. As originally conceived, boundary organizations have at least three features: (i) they involve specialized roles within the organization for managing the boundary; (ii) they have clear lines of responsibility and accountability to distinct social arenas on opposite sides of the boundary; and (iii) they provide a forum in which information can be co-produced by actors from different sides of the boundary through the use of ‘boundary objects’”

Note the emphasis on co-production, something we highlighted in our recent paper in Evidence & Policy.

So, we might as well all go home as in 2003 David Cash and his colleagues wrote all that I could ever want to write in 2009.  The challenge now is to practice what he preached.  York University, the University of Victoria and ResearchImpact are boundary organizations.  Our knowledge brokers have a foot in both (ok, many) camps and seek to continuously make boundaries pourous by increasing transparency allowing knowledge to be co-produced by researchers and decision makers.

Hold the date of February 9, 2010 for our 3^rd annual KM Expo that will feature discussions of boundaries and means of overcoming them.

Everything is ready to go for another GS 500 Interdisciplinary Graduate course at the University of Victoria!

These courses match interdisciplinary graduate students up with real life research questions coming from a partnering agency in the community. For the fall 2009 course the Community partner is the BC Ministry of Housing and Social Development. Questions coming from the Ministry will focus on topics such as: homelessness in our community; rental market and market housing; housing needs in Aboriginal communities; sustainable and green housing, and much more.

The course will be co-taught by Dr. Bernie Pauly from the UVic faculty of nursing, and Dr. Cecile Lacombe, director of housing research for the BC Government. The Knowledge Mobilization Unit will facilitate the matching of graduate students to research questions appropriate for their area of study. The students will then work one on one with a research partner from the BC Ministry of Housing and Social Development, with a focus on action and recommendations to the Ministry. The end of the term will be marked by student presentations at a knowledge dissemination event that will open to all people who are interested in the topic.

York Community Data Sharing Symposium II

The KM Unit at York University is pleased to be co-hosting the second York Community Data Sharing Symposium being held on Thursday, June 4 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

York Community Data Sharing Symposium II

The second in a series of sessions highlighting the power of data to strengthen the capacity of York Region’s human service agencies.

How an Electronic Commons Can Help Us Tackle Poverty in York Region

Thursday, June 4, 2009
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m

Morning Session
How the emergence of the “electronic commons” will help agencies and organizations share data and information?
How can new ways of information-sharing change the way people talk to each other?
How to use the web to create more options for mobilizing action among and within communities?

Afternoon Session
How can we transfer our knowledge to interactive discussions about efforts to address poverty in York Region?
How can we use new information-sharing tools to change the ways we collectively tackle poverty in York Region?

Guest Speakers, Panellists and Interactive Group Discussion
At the end of the day, you will have a better understanding of new and upcoming web-based social networking technologies and how they can be used to share information and knowledge to better serve the needs of children, youth and families in York Region.