In Pursuit of Impact

In Pursuit of Impact pushes researchers and policymakers to reflect, rethink, and reconnect with their purpose to support the greater good by developing meaningful public policies. Through a multidisciplinary lens, Nadia Ferrara, draws on research, clinical, and policy experience to show how we can engage in learning, and building more effective relationships to better support the development of responsive policies. Ferrara offers a refreshing analysis while integrating a new approach to understanding trauma and resilience that places a humanizing emphasis on the power of narratives and storytelling. Revisiting the theories of pioneer thinkers and showing the relevance of their work is the necessary rethinking required to support the shift towards an evidence-informed policy development process. Ferrara highlights the fact that people, and their own lived realities, are defined by trauma and resilience and are engaged in the development of public policy and are affected by implemented policies. This book is recommended for scholars and practitioners in the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, political sciences, clinical psychiatry, and philosophy.

"Pursuit of Impact: Trauma- and Resilience-Informed Policy Development is a powerful call to action that offers new inroads for meaningful, impactful, and effective social policy development grounded in individual lived realities, multidisciplinary dialogue, decolonized processes, ethical commitments, holistic framework, and practical wisdom. Based on an impressive scientific literature and brilliantly written, this book is a policymaker’s toolbox, an experience of transformative learning, an invitation to all to participate in mindful action and purposeful practices leading to social policy innovation, social justice, and the common good."—Anny Morissette, Saint Paul University

Nadia Ferrara is departmental liaison for Status of Women Canada and adjunct professor at McGill University.