SHRTN Communities of Practice (CoP)

In SHRTN, a CoP is a group of people who come together to exchange information on a topic related to seniors’ health, health system, or disease. This can take the form of interactive education programs, awareness initiatives, and networks, among other things.

A CoP is a community or group of people who have made a commitment to be available to each other, offer support to share learning, and to consciously develop new knowledge. A CoP makes the intentional commitment to advance the field of practice and to share those discoveries with anyone engaged in similiar work (Wheatly 2005).

Support for CoPs

SHRTN supports CoPs in a variety of ways, including:

Access to a knowledge broker who will partner with the CoP lead to identify and capture knowledge, facilitate translation, and identify the need for new knowledge.
Access to an Information Specialist who will help identify and access information related to the CoP and deliver education services.
Access to evidence through the SHRTN Library Service.
Access to e-meeting software.
Access to toll-free teleconference line.
Seed funding to assist members to meet, and work together to achieve goals.
Interactive engagement activities that bring together (in person and via teleconference technology) like the thousands of participants that took part in hundreds of meetings throughout the year.
Dissemination and support of research, including evaluation of CoP efforts.

How to become a SHRTN CoP

The SHRTN Collaborative Community of Practice Orientation Guide provides a variety of resources useful to people who are interested in sponsoring, starting up or maintaining a Community of Practice with the Seniors Health Research Transfer Network (SHRTN) or the Alzheimer Knowledge Exchange (AKE).

The SHRTN call for proposals is now closed. Thank you to all 2010-2012 applicants. Check back in the fall of 2011 for the next round of CoP.

For more information on the SHRTN CoP call for proposals process, consult the SHRTN Community of Practice Application Package and the SHRTN 2010 CoP Application Form.

The SHRTN CoP Planning and Review Committee has reviewed all applications and provided the 2010-2012 applicants detailed feedback. Those that met the criteria have been invited to participate in the Planning Process.