Canada Research Chair,

Social Services for Vulnerable Children

Our program of research is grounded in a commitment to deepening understanding of the structural, spatial, and policy factors accompanying involvement with child welfare systems in Canadian settings. Based in Montreal, Quebec, Prof. Esposito and the CRC team are emerging leaders in child welfare administrative data science and are focused on better understanding the implications of using administrative data in longitudinal studies to better inform child welfare practice and policy. Prof. Esposito and his team seek to understand the broader systemic, socioeconomic, and neighbourhood factors that keeps children chronically involved in child welfare and negatively impact parental capacity. Many of our projects consider the trajectories and outcomes of children involved with child welfare, as well as the influences of social spending, socioeconomic vulnerabilities, and neighbourhood-level services on children and families.

In Quebec, we’ve created one of Canada’s largest, most comprehensive longitudinal child welfare administrative data sets which has informed influential studies illustrating previously unexamined trends. We are now collaborating with partners across Canada to develop capacity for capturing child protection data in ways that will contribute to longitudinal, multi-level analyses. Studying patterns of child welfare involvement federally will improve possibilities for national-level studies and cross-jurisdictional comparisons, improving information available to policymakers as well as practitioners working with child welfare-involved families. It is crucial to understand patterns of child welfare involvement for particular populations who are overrepresented in these systems, as Indigenous children are in Canada and many other settler-colonial contexts. Our growing expertise in data science in child welfare is geared to further these efforts in Quebec, across Canada, and internationally.

Ultimately, our program of research aims to create more robust understanding of the context and challenges facing children and families involved with child welfare systems. Our goal is that our ongoing work to deepen analysis of child welfare involvement trajectories and contexts can inform policy decisions related to children and families across Canada, particularly in terms of social service prioritization and recurrent child welfare involvement.