With the support and supervision of clinical educators and family as faculty leaders, OnTrack SLEs enable student leadership and innovative thinking.
OnTrack began in the spring of 2016 with OnTrack Concussion, a partnership between the Bloorview Research Institute (BRI) and the Teaching and Learning Institute to address a gap in education for concussion prevention and early education for concussion management.
The program expanded in January 2020 with the creation of OnTrack Transition, a partnership between the Transitions Strategy (2018-2022) and the Teaching and Learning Institute. The initiative, informed by over two years of human-centred design work by the transition strategy team, addresses a gap in clinical care and support for transition of youth with disability to adult services and a meaningful adult life.
OnTrack Transition Navigation students take a leadership role to support various initiatives including Transition Pop-Up events in partnership with Family as Faculty, Youth Leaders, and community partner agencies. Initiatives focus on resource navigation for the transition to adulthood and warm links to adult agencies.
A third SLE, OnTrack Music Therapy, emerged in the fall of 2020 to address the gap in access to arts-based services and provide a wellness service to caregivers. OnTrack-Music Therapy is a partnership between the music and arts team, the Teaching and Learning Institute and Wilfrid Laurier University.
System navigation skills for all clients and families, informed by social determinants of health, remain a significant need and, as a result, a Family Navigation SLE was created.
Supported by a grant from the Ontario Autism Program, “Student-Led Environment for Delivery of Virtual Autism Supports for Wait-Times” (SLED-VAST), a virtual program where students from different health professions collaborate to address gaps in client care under the supervision and support of preceptors and facilitators from multiple health professions.
The Centre for Advancing Collaborative Healthcare and Education (CACHE) at the University of Toronto and members of a community of practice for SLEs have co-created core principles for SLEs, including:
- Collaboration and partnership
- Interprofessional learning
- Safety
- Student learning through leading
- Addressing gaps
- Adaptability and flexibility
- Transparency
- Show impact
All OnTrack services are generously supported by the Holland Bloorview Foundation.
Dr. Kathryn Parker, senior director of the Teaching & Learning Institute, also supports the work. She is an associate director at CACHE and focuses on advancing SLEs across the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network, provincially, nationally and internationally.
