Partnering for change
Support from the Winnipeg Foundation advances groundbreaking SPECTRUM research, informing policy for First Nations children in care
Social Policy Evaluation Collaborative Team Research at the University of Manitoba (SPECTRUM) is completing transformative policy research in collaboration with over 100 community, government, and academic partners.
“What makes SPECTRUM unique is having those three different perspectives involved in producing rigorous evidence to inform policy—evidence that can actually be acted upon and will make a difference,” says SPECTRUM co-lead Dr. Marni Brownell. Brownell, who was just elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, is also SPECTRUM’s founding director.
Dr. Marni Brownell speaks at a SPECTRUM workshop.
SPECTRUM researchers celebrated a milestone last fall when their first study was published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas.
In this study, SPECTRUM partners found that children taken into out-of-home care by First Nations Child and Family Service agencies suffered more adverse health and legal outcomes than children who stayed with their families.
“In child welfare research broadly, it is understood that outcomes for kids in care are poorer, but it has been difficult to separate the adverse effects of care from the adverse effects of the things that sent them into care,” Brownell explains.
As the authors write, to their knowledge, this study is the first in Canada to use a methodology that isolates the impact of out-of-home care and demonstrates that, above and beyond, placement in care leads to worse outcomes for children.
Donor generosity a bridge to transformative award
This first publication is the result of months of workshopping, relationship building, and data analysis—work that continued thanks to donor support.
After earning a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant in 2019, SPECTRUM launched, connecting with partners, devising mission and vision statements, identifying their four research themes, and generating their core research questions.
“The Winnipeg Foundation was instrumental in continuing to fund our students and develop knowledge mobilization that would get our work out to the community. There was also a significant gift from an anonymous donor that helped us fund students, run workshops, and complete the demonstration project,” says Brownell.
Bolstered by giving and the dedication of their partners, SPECTRUM successfully secured a $2.5 million grant from SSHRC in 2024.
Dr. Anita Durksen
Dr. Anita Durksen [PhD/24], a SPECTRUM fellow and post-doctoral researcher who completed her doctorate in Community Health Sciences, recalls how each milestone in funding felt like a win, not just for the researchers.
“When that news was circulated, we’d all see this stream of congratulatory emails from our partners taking the time to reply and express excitement, gratitude, and pride. That really struck me because I haven’t experienced that kind of celebration on other projects.
“It showed me how committed the partners were and how much they were invested in the work that we were doing together,” says Durksen.
And the relevance of this work felt immediate and immense.
Shifting policy for children in care
Published in September 2024, the study precedes announcements made by the Province of Manitoba to amend the Child and Family Services Act as well as a class-action lawsuit aimed at seeking justice for the harms enacted on children in care.
“[Our study] provides quantitative evidence for what First Nations advocates have been talking about for decades,” Brownell adds. “It truly emphasizes the significance of partnerships and collaboration with First Nations researchers and community organizers in completing this work.”
Building relationships, gaining momentum
SPECTRUM aims not just to produce research that makes a difference, but to conduct research differently, emphasizing the necessity of relationships, trust, and accountability to partners in their work across four themes: mental health and addictions, housing and homelessness, income, and child and family services.
“One of the biggest goals for SPECTRUM has been building relationships and trust among partners,” says Brownell.
“We all come at these problems from different perspectives, but through building relationships and spending time together—months of meetings and workshops—we started to see that we all really want the same thing.”
Delivering solutions with impact
Both Brownell and Durksen are excited to continue this work in child and family services, while starting conversations around SPECTRUM’s three other research themes.
With community collaboration and interdisciplinary expertise, SPECTRUM continues to tackle questions that matter to uncover answers and solutions for real, informed, and sustainable impact.
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