Project 458387

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), most notably family violence and maltreatment, disproportionally affect girls and women. Females who are Black, Indigenous or People of Colour (BIPOC) may be even more negatively affected. Linked to a host of poor physical and mental health outcomes, ACEs and violence tend to be transmitted intergenerationally within families. For nearly 30 years, preventing and addressing violence against girls and women has been a policy priority across Canada, yet this social problem persists with family violence rates increasing and girls and women's health outcomes worsening. We contend that this is due to four research training gaps and thus insufficient capacity to: (1) conduct collaborative community-based research; (2) undertake transformative strategic planning, management and evaluation for multi-level (service to system) changes needed; (3) develop, test, implement, scale and spread evidence-based innovations/interventions; (4) work across disciplinary (e.g. health, social science, justice, education), sectoral (e.g. health, social services) and jurisdictional barriers in Canada. To address these gaps, we seek to offer a collaborative, transformative, innovative, and barrier-breaking training program to develop national capacity to support girls and women's health and wellness, halt intergenerational negative outcomes and promote resilience from exposure to ACEs, especially family violence. Thus the objective of AVA's Training Platform is to create capacity to transform health and social services delivery in communities to dramatically improve the health of girls and women exposed to ACEs. AVA is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, patient engagement and gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) in team activities. Educating the next generation to undertake community-based research will enable population and social service improvements that promote the intergenerational health of girls and women affected by violence and adversity.