June 2024

Relationships Matter

Written By: Carla Southward, PhD

Last week I had the pleasure of travelling with Isra Amsdr, a POPCORN Research Advisor and youth partner on the Indirect Consequences project. We were headed to Montreal for the 2024 Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum (CKF2024). This conference takes place every two years; after six years, this was the first time it had returned to being in-person. Despite the conference being Canadian, there were many international attendees. We met folks from the US, France, and even Madagascar!

I was impressed to see the breadth of people there, all working in their own way of bringing knowledge to action, and research to impact.  Isra and I were no exception. Our talk focused on the importance of partnering with youth in research and building lasting, meaningful relationships. 

Lasting, meaningful relationships. Those three words resonate even more with me now. Back in March when we submitted the abstract for this talk, Isra and I had already had a few interactions by phone, text, and Zoom. We had not met in person, but we touched base regularly. Last week, we were travel companions, we ate breakfast together, conferenced together, explored Montreal together, and laughed together – a lot! Someone asked me after our talk about the difference between rapport and relationships, and if a good rapport was “good enough”. I can only speak from my own experience, and a good rapport is good, but never enough. I think the two words are pretty synonymous, but a lasting, meaningful relationship goes beyond rapport.

To me, it is investing time in someone, showing them respect, caring for their well-being, and being present. I don’t just want to have a good rapport with our youth and parent partners, I want them to know that they feel heard, feel safe, feel respected, and cared for. Peter Levesque was the keynote speaker at the CKF2024 conference and his message to everyone was “Relationships matter”, and I couldn’t agree more.

To learn more about ways to get involved in POPCORN research, please email:

Carla Southward, Patient, Family, and Engagement Coordinator
carla.southward@sickkids.ca.