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 transition strategy team and the Teaching and Learning Institute. The service, 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 adulthood and adult care.
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.
The Centre for Interprofessional Education (CIPE) 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 CIPE and focuses on advancing SLEs across the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network, provincially, nationally and internationally.