The document summarizes a presentation about the WITS (Walk In Their Shoes) program, which aims to promote healthy relationships in young children. It discusses an ongoing randomized controlled trial assessing the program's effectiveness on outcomes like victimization and mental health. It also describes knowledge transfer activities like qualitative research on program uptake and going-to-scale efforts with organizations like the RCMP and PREVNet. Marketing strategies to promote awareness of the WITS program are evaluated.

1. The Strategic Initiatives and Innovations Directorate of the PHAC
Innovation Strategy "Equipping Canadians –
Mental Health Throughout Life" projects
Knowledge Development and Exchange
Montreal , February 28 and 29, 2012
IS Project: Creating Responsive Communities to
Promote Healthy Relationships in Young Children
Bonnie Leadbeater, PhD
Professor, University of Victoria
&
David Valentine, MA
Board President, The Rock Solid Foundation

2. Objectives
Assess the effectiveness of the WITS program in a RCT
1,658 children and their families and teachers have completed 2 of 5
waves of data in rural WITS and control schools in Alberta, NB, and Ontario
Assessing impact of program on victimization, school climate, mental
health, aggression.
Knowledge transfer activities
1. Longitudinal qualitative study of uptake, program use and
strategies for sustaining program in 7 rural BC schools
2. Going-to-scale activities
 RCMP pilot study
 Marketing strategies evaluation
 PREVNet collaboration & evaluation tool
 Aboriginal dissemination projects in BC and Nunavut

4. www.witsprograms.ca

5. Where is WITS working?

6. Themes in interviews
• Pathways leading to the discovery of the
programs,
• Personalizing motivations for learning about and
adopting the program in the school context,
• Aligning program characteristics with ongoing
teaching strategies, school polices and other
programs,
• Influencing others to use the program or to
overcome the barriers that challenge program
adoption.

7. “Getting started: Assimilatory processes of uptake of
mental health promotion and primary prevention
programs in elementary schools.” Leadbeater, Gladstone, Yeung
Thompson, Sukhawathanakul, & Desjardins
• Figure 1: Iterative process of program uptake in elementary
schools

8. One champion describes how she incorporated the WITS
Programs into “her program” saying:
• WITS is easy to integrate it into my program. And I am a very
big advocate for having children stand up for themselves and
giving them the skills they need, because every Friday in my
class, we have classroom meetings and you know what, [WITS]
goes hand in hand with classroom meetings because in a
classroom meeting we have a time where we give everyone
compliments, we have a time where they get to discuss how
they feel on a scale of one to ten, and we’ll deal with problems
that come up. And we also say, well ‘Did you use your WITS?”
Can you tell us what you did first to help solving the problem?

9. Going-to-scale RCMP pilot

10. RCMP sites
1. Clarenville - Bonavista (Newfoundland &
Labrador (population 5,274)
2. Consort (Alberta, 689)
3. Cut Knife (Saskatchewan, 532)
4. Morris (1,700) & Emerson (671) detachments
(Manitoba)
5. St. Peter's, Cape Breton (Nova Scotia)
6. Campbelton Detachment (New Brunswick,
7,385)

11. RCMP feedback - bi-monthly
• French translation needed for national youth officers’ program
•

12. Marketing strategies: How do people find out about WITS?
Traditional Communication Networks:
Letters
• To Members of Parliament and Provincial Ministries
• To District Superintendents
• To Directors of Instruction
• To Health Agencies
• To Media Outlets
Faxes
• To school districts across Canada
Conference Presentations
• Canadian and International
Media Interviews - 2011
• 14 news articles
• 4 radio/television broadcasts

13. Online and Social Media Networks:
Google Ads:
• At the beginning of school terms
• Before professional days
• To promote national awareness days
(Bullying Awareness Week, Nov. 2011 and Pink Shirt Day February 2012)
Social Media Networks:
• WITS YouTube Channel
• WITS Vimeo Channel
• WITS Facebook Page
• WITS Twitter @witsprograms

14. Online and Social Media Networks:
Online Conversations
• Forums
• Blogs
Links from other sites:

15. What are the results?
www.witsprograms.ca
Visits To WITS Website
100000
90000 86,212
80000
70000
60000
Visits
50000
2010-2011
40000
2011-2012
30000 24,687
20,558
20000 14,082
10000 6,613
3,919 2,332 1,595
0
Visits Unique Visits Returning Pageviews
Visits

16. UTF-8
FORID:9
00639625
Go
WITS Teacher
Accreditation Program
The WITS Teacher
Accreditation Program is a
free 90-minute online
training module
Teacher Accreditation
Program Screshos
Mouse over images to
enlarge
Questions?
Contact us at
wits@uvic.ca.

17. What are the results?
WITS Training Sites http://moodle.psychology.uvic.ca/
2011-2012

18. What are the results?
WITS Training Sites http://moodle.psychology.uvic.ca/
2011-2012

19. PREVNet (Promoting relationships
eliminating violence)
• A national network of Canadian
researchers, non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) and governments committed to stop
bullying
• Advancing uptake in Ontario (Limestone
District School Board)
• Created a self-assessment tool for schools to
monitor effects of prevention programs on
children, which will be used in our large scale
assessment of impact.