Co-creation of an IT platform optimizing the work of community workers to support school perseverance

Principal investigator

Anne Lessard

Project status:

Completed

Years:

April 2022 - March 2024

Abstract

Despite progress in graduation rates, the fight against dropouts remains a priority issue. The Accès 5 program has demonstrated its effectiveness in supporting academic perseverance and the well-being of young people and their families. This program is based on the support of speakers at the Maison Jeune-Est (MJE). Since the start of the Accès 5 program, they have done a remarkable job of collecting information on young people, on the activities in which they participate as well as on the psychosocial interventions that concern them from Excel files. Given the success of the program and the sustained commitment of the stakeholders, the tools initially put in place no longer adequately respond to reality. The development of an efficient and adapted IT platform is a crucial step in optimizing the Accès 5 program and ensuring its sustainability. The knowledge acquired in recent years via the Accès 5 program would have the potential to guide future interventions and support the development of the skills of stakeholders if it were integrated into a platform designed for this purpose. On the one hand, it would be possible to mark future interventions by formalizing the interventions that have been used until now by the stakeholders within the framework of the program. This platform could consolidate all the documents relating to interventions and propose sequences of interventions since the experience of recent years allows us to have a clear vision of the activity of the participants. An IT platform could also systematize, standardize and accelerate the entry of data relating to the young person and the interventions. On the other hand, a suitable IT platform would support the development of the skills of community stakeholders. Among other things, new stakeholders could more quickly master the intervention methods recommended in the community environment since, to our knowledge, there is no university training dedicated to youth intervention specific to this environment. The knowledge acquired in the program is a rich and relevant source for learning about effective interventions and identifying the methods of implementation or monitoring. The general objective of this project is to design and implement an efficient IT platform optimizing the monitoring of interventions carried out within the framework of the Accès 5 program and supporting the development of the skills of stakeholders. To do this, this project is part of a co-creation process which is based on a rich and regular dialogue between actors in the world of research and actors in the field, inviting these people to be both learners and experts. , and this, at all stages of the process. This approach is carried out in three main stages: 1. analysis and exploration of the situation; 2. design and construction and 3. evaluation and reflection. Consistent with this, this project has three specific objectives: 1. Describe and analyze the interventions and activities carried out by MJE stakeholders. 2. Develop an IT platform to compile youth files, systematize monitoring and catalog effective interventions. 3. Test the platform in a real context.

Funding Organization:

Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (FRQSC)