What are the best strategies for pursuing translational research during the COVID-19 pandemic? This is a topic that ACT for Youth, a BCTR project focused on positive youth development and adolescent health, is exploring in partnership with the Fuse, the centre for Translational Research in Public Health. Fuse is a collaboration of five universities in northeast England which aims to improve well-being and reduce health inequalities by translating health research into policy and practice.
In September, ACT for Youth participated in a virtual conference hosted by Fuse which addressed “knowledge exchange in public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.” In addition, ACT for Youth Director Jane Powers, a Fuse board member, along with Amanda Purington, ACT for Youth’s director of evaluation and research, is helping to plan the next in-person Fuse international conference scheduled for June 2022.
Heather Wynkoop Beach, Amanda Purington, and Jane Powers from ACT for Youth gave a presentation about innovative strategies for virtual training sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was part of a virtual conference hosted by Fuse, the Center for Translational Research in Public Health.
“Our partnership with Fuse is an illustration of our reach and engagement with translational research across the globe,” Powers said.
For the September virtual conference, Powers, Purington and Heather Wynkoop Beach, director of training and technical assistance at ACT for Youth, gave a presentation about innovative strategies for virtual training sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our role is to train educators how to interact with youth,” Beach explained. “We not only have to navigate the technology ourselves, but we have to teach our educators how to do the same with young people. We wanted to make sure our trainings continued to be highly engaging and interactive, so we had to get creative, make changes, and be really honest about our challenges. Being transparent about the problems we faced gave educators the permission not to be perfect.”
An essential element of ACT for Youth virtual sessions – and a practice they encouraged youth educators to use – is checking the emotional pulse of participants in a training session before getting down to business.
“With people experiencing so many challenging situations and so much stress, you can’t just go about doing your training,” Beach explained. She helped ACT for Youth develop memes to check with training participants. “It’s something that is more difficult to do virtually, so you have to build it into your program. It became a real staple in helping us to engage virtually – and it was a big hit at the Fuse conference.”
Moving forward, Powers and Purington, are working to plan the fifth Fuse International Conference. Planners are hoping to hold the two-day conference on translational research in person this year, but they will remain flexible based on how the pandemic progresses.
“It’s really interesting to hear international perspectives on translational research,” Purington said. “Both ACT for Youth and Fuse emphasize connecting with policy makers and practitioners. It’s incredibly helpful to hear how this works in different places around the world.”
