Lessons from implementing an Alberta-wide train-the-trainer approach for scaling-up evidence-based healthy youth relationships programs in schools and communities

Presented by Lianne Lee, Director of the Alberta Healthy Youth Relationships Strategy at Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence.
Between 2011 and 2019, Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence (https://preventdomesticviolence.ca/) led a multi-pronged Alberta Healthy Youth Relationships Strategy to cultivate social-emotional competencies in youth across Alberta in order to prevent adolescent dating violence. A core component of the strategy was working with the developers of healthy relationships programs (Western University’s Centre for School Mental Health and PREVNet) to create a cascading network of leaders across Alberta who had the competencies and institutional support to provide training and support to individuals within their community/region, who could then implement three evidence-based and evidence-informed healthy youth relationships programs within schools and community settings. The presenter will provide an overview of Shift’s train-the-trainer approach and highlight key lessons that can inform future trainer-the-trainer approaches for scaling-up evidence-based healthy youth relationships programs.