23 August 2010
Dr William Turner from the School's Centre for Gender and Violence Research has been awarded the Leonard E. Gibbs Award for a review published by the Social Welfare Coordinating Group in 2008-2009. Dr Turner and his co-author, Professor Geraldine Macdonald (Queen's University Belfast), won the prize for the review, "Treatment Foster Care for Improving Outcomes in Children and Young People".
Treatment Foster Care (TFC) is a foster family-based intervention targeted at children/youth in care that, due to their behaviour or circumstances, are at high risk for placement instability or entry to more restrictive forms of out-of-home care. Results indicate that this intervention may improve children's lives across a range of outcome indicators.
Dr Turner is a Lecturer at the School for Policy Studies and has research interests in practice and outcome evaluation in social policy, psychotherapeutic approaches in working with young people, and gender identity and development in children and young people.
Dr. Leonard E. Gibbs (1943 to 2008), Professor Emeritus of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, was an internationally recognised expert in the field of evidence-based practice (EBP) and was a fervent proponent of EBP in the helping professions. He epitomized this approach even as he fought his own battle with advanced metastatic prostate cancer. As part of his legacy, Len's widow, Betsy McDougall-Gibbs, has established the Leonard E. Gibbs Award for Outstanding Contribution to Evidence-Based Practice, through the Campbell Collaboration. Each year, the Leonard E. Gibbs Fund will honour the winning review team with one fully paid registration to the Campbell Collaboration Colloquium, where they will be recognised for their groundbreaking work.