Dr. Claire Crooks

Claire Crooks is the Associate Director at the CAMH Centre for Prevention Science in London, Ontario and an Associate Professor at Western University in the Faculty of Education. She is one of the lead developers and evaluators of the Fourth R program, an evidence-based healthy relationships and violence prevention program that is now in more than 2000 schools around Canada. Her particular emphasis is on strengths-based programming for Aboriginal youth. She is currently working with partners in Yellowknife, Northern Saskatchewan, and Alaska to adapt the Fourth R for Aboriginal communities and evaluate it in culturally appropriate ways. She is also partnering with N’Amerind Friendship Centre in London to pilot Healthy Relationships Plus, a small-group healthy relationships program that has been expanded to emphasize mental health promotion and suicide prevention. Claire is a co-applicant on a SSHRC-funded project to evaluate the Red Cross Walking the Prevention Circle program in three First Nations and two Inuit communities in Canada, in addition to two Aboriginal communities in Australia. She is co-author of more than 50 articles, chapters, and books on topics including school-based programming with Aboriginal youth, children’s exposure to domestic violence, child custody and access, adolescent dating violence and risk behaviour, and trauma.