Project title
Intervention Research and Evaluation Activities for the “Building Community Responses to 2S/LGBTQIA+ Youth Dating Violence” Project

Study investigators
Principal Investigator: Ricky Rodrigues, Director, Evaluation and Reporting, Community-Based Research Centre. Phone: 416-908-9212; email: ricky.rodrigues@cbrc.net

Research Coordinator: Andy Lessard, Evaluation and Reporting Manager, Community-Based Research Centre. Phone: 647-270-1968; email: andy.lessard@cbrc.net

Research Coordinator: Adam De Silva Jivraj, Evaluation and Reporting Coordinator, Community-Based Research Centre, Phone: 403-863-1874; email: adam.jivraj@cbrc.net

Funding source
This study is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada through a program/initiative called “Preventing Gender-Based Violence: The Health Perspective.”

Invitation to participate
You are being invited to participate in a research study aimed at understanding the experiences of young people who take part in a new dating violence prevention program designed for 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth. This component of the research study is specifically looking to understand the impact of community projects designed by 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth for 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth. Choosing whether or not to participate in the study is entirely your choice. If you decide not to participate, there will be no impact on any of the programs or services that you might access now or in the future from CBRC or any of the partner organizations involved. The information provided in this form tells you about what is involved in the research, what you will be asked to do, and any potential risks or benefits. Please read this form carefully, take all the time you need, and ask any questions you may have. You may also wish to print this form or save it as a PDF to keep a copy for your records.

Consent is an ongoing process that continues for as long as you are in the study. If something changes during the research study or there is any new information that could affect your willingness to continue to participate, we will tell you and ask whether you still consent to participate in the study. Remember that you are free to withdraw your consent at any time for any reason, even if nothing in the study has changed.

Purpose of the research study
2S/LGBTQIA+ youth are more likely to experience dating violence than their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Despite this, there are few programs that specifically address the unique experiences and needs of 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth with regard to dating violence. Therefore, the goal of this research study is to understand young 2S/LGBTQIA+ people’s experiences with a new youth dating violence prevention program to evaluate how effective the program is at increasing the knowledge, skills, and other strengths that help 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth prevent dating violence and maintain healthy relationships. As part of this program, 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth have designed community projects for other 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth participants. Through a brief survey, we will learn about the impacts of the resource(s) on resource-users and collect their suggestions for improving the resource(s), so that we can develop stronger resources that can be shared more widely with 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth.

What you will be asked to do
If you decide to continue to take part in this research, you will be asked to complete a brief, confidential survey.
  • The survey will take about 15 minutes to complete and will be completed online.
Who can take part in the research study?
This research study is open to anyone in who has accessed one of the community resources. Participants must be able to complete online surveys in either English or French. We hope to recruit about 60 participants in total.

Possible risks and benefits
There are limited risks associated with participating in the research study. In particular, it’s possible that answering some of the survey questions might be emotionally difficult. If you find yourself feeling upset during or after the survey, please see this list of mental health support resources that you can access. You can also choose to skip certain questions or end the survey at any time without consequence. By agreeing to participate in this research, you are not giving up or waiving any legal rights in the event that you are harmed during the research.

You may not receive any direct benefit from participating in this study. However, through your participation, you may contribute to an increased understanding of how to best support 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth with recognizing and preventing dating violence, and with creating and maintaining healthy relationships.

Compensation/reimbursement
There is no compensation/reimbursement provided for completing the Community Resources Survey.
Privacy protections and confidentiality
The survey being conducted is confidential. In the survey, you will be asked to provide feedback about the resource(s) you accessed so that we can learn about the resource’s effectiveness and how we can improve the resource(s)

You will access the surveys via a QR code or link and enter your responses directly into a password-protected survey platform (SurveyMonkey) that only CBRC evaluation staff can access.

When we share study results, we will not share any quotes or information that could identify a participant.

All survey data will be kept indefinitely and stored under password protection on the CBRC evaluation team’s SurveyMonkey account. Any potentially identifiable information included in open-text survey responses will be removed and replaced with generic/non-identifying text. Individual-level, de-identified data will be stored indefinitely in a restricted folder on CBRC’s Google Workspace account and accessed only by those team members involved in data analysis. Summary-level, de-identified data will be stored in a separate folder on CBRC’s Google Workspace account for sharing with other staff from CBRC and the partner sites collaborating on the project (Halifax Sexual Health Centre, Health Initiative for Men, Les 3 sex*, and Sexuality Education Resource Centre).
Reporting of results
Learnings from the study will be shared with academic, service provider, and community audiences (including participants) in the form of project presentations, reports, articles, and/or research papers (shared on the CBRC website wherever possible), and will be shared with funders in the form of required project reports. We will only report summary-level results; therefore, you will not be identified in any way in presentations, reports, articles, and research papers. Quotes from respondents may be included in these materials, but without any personally identifying information about participants.

Withdrawing from the study
Your participation is completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to participate and are free to withdraw at any time without consequence. Your decision to withdraw will not influence your relationship with any of the organizations involved in this study now or in the future.

Please note that, since the survey does not collect directly identifiable information, it will not be possible for us to remove your responses once you have entered them into the survey.

Conflicts of interest
We have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Questions and contact information
If you have any questions about the study, please contact:

Adam De Silva Jivraj
Evaluation and Reporting Coordinator
Community-Based Research Centre
adam.jivraj@cbrc.net
403-863-1874

Andy Lessard
Evaluation and Reporting Manager
Community-Based Research Centre
andy.lessard@cbrc.net
647-270-1968

Ricky Rodrigues
Director, Evaluation and Reporting
Community-Based Research Centre
ricky.rodrigues@cbrc.net
416-908-9212

If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, you may contact:

Health Canada-PHAC Research Ethics Board Secretariat
70 Colombine Driveway, Room 941C, PL: 0909C
Brooke Claxton Building, Tunney's Pasture
Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9
613-941-5199
reb-cer@hc-sc.gc.ca


This research study was reviewed by the Health Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada Research Ethics Board.

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