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Henry Parada

Henry Parada

Professor
EducationBSW, MSW, PhD
Phone416-979-5000, ext. 556223
https://henryparada.ca

Prior to his academic appointment, Henry Parada spent nine years working as a child protection worker, conducting family counseling, and working as a sexual abuse specialist within Toronto’s social service sector. His academic experience includes working in the Caribbean, Central America, and other parts of Latin America on issues of child protection, human rights, and youth participation. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses at Toronto Metropolitan University and has guest lectured in universities in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Honduras. 

Henry Parada’s combined research expertise includes the areas of social development, children’s and women’s social welfare, and violence prevention. He has also developed practical skills in the areas of counselling, development, and social work. As a committed action-oriented researcher, he has valuable national and international expertise facilitating the gathering of relevant knowledge as well as the transfer into the hands of the organizations and agencies that are equipped to implement the partnership’s research findings. 

His projects have received funds from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Global Affairs Canada (formerly the Canadian International Development Agency), Latin American and Caribbean Exchange Grant (LACREG), UNICEF-Santo Domingo, Italy International Cooperation, Ryerson International Initiative Funds and Network of European Foundations. His ongoing program of research – focused on child protection, family violence, and children’s rights in seven regional areas of concentration – was awarded the SSHRC Partnership Grant for a seven-year, international project titled The Rights for Children and Youth Partnership (RCYP).

Teaching responsibilities (Canada):

  • IS8904: Research Methods
  • IS8931: Refugee Studies

Teaching responsibilities (International):   

  • Thesis Development, Pontifical Catholic Universidad Madre and Maestra, Dominican Republic
  • Research Methods, Pontifical Catholic Universidad Madre and Maestra, Dominican Republic
  • Epistemologies of Social Work, Pontifical Catholic Universidad Madre and Maestra, Dominican Republic and Universidad La Plata, Argentina
  • Critical Research Methodologies, National University of Managua, Esteli Campus, Nicaragua
  • Foundations of Social Work, Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  • Theories of Social Work, Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  • Introduction to Forensic Social Work, Pontifical Catholic Universidad Madre and Maestra, Dominican Republic

Henry Parada’s program of research – focused on child protection, family violence, and children’s rights – has been directly shaped by his theoretical training in sociology, his on-the-ground social work experiences, and his personal ties to the Caribbean region and Latin American culture. In particular, his combined research expertise includes the areas of social development, children’s and women’s social welfare and violence prevention.

Informed by his career as a social worker in Toronto during the 1990s when the Ontario government implemented significant child welfare reforms, his doctoral thesis was an institutional ethnography of the Ontario child welfare system. Useful for understanding the ways that people function within and across institutions, his utilization of institutional ethnography yielded valuable insights about how these policy reforms limited both the professional autonomy of social workers and their ability to respond to their client needs.

He is currently involved in a large scale SSHRC funded Partnership Grant aimed at increasing knowledge of factors which support or hinder the protection of children and youth rights in the Caribbean, Central America, as well as the diaspora populations in Canada, which are disproportionately represented in the Canadian child protection system.

Research projects: 

  • Project: Arab Refugee Families’ Experiences in the Ontario Child Welfare System
  • Year: 2022 - 2025
  • Role: Principal Investigator
  • Funding Received: $157,650
  • Funded by: SSHRC, Insight Grant

 

  • Project: Fostering Latinx Resilience to Trauma between El Salvador, Canada, and the United States
  • Year: 2022 – 2025
  • Role: Co-Applicant (Maria Liegghio, PI)
  • Funding Received: $71,500
  • Funded by: SSHRC, Partnership Development Grant

 

  • Project: Strengthening Institutional Responses: Exploring Intersections of Child Protection, Immigration, and Criminal Justice to Better Support Caribbean and Latin American Children and Youth in Canada
  • Year: 2021 - 2022
  • Role: Principal Investigator
  • Funding Received: $25,000
  • Funded by: SSHRC, Connection Grant

 

  • Project: Exploring the Role of Cultural Brokers as Intermediaries Between Immigrant and Refugee Families and Child Welfare Workers. 
  • Year: 2018 - 2021. 
  • Role: Co-Applicant. 
  • Funding received: $ 172, 018. 
  • Funded by: SSHRC, Insight Grant. 

 

  • Project: Journey Home: Refugee Settlement and Integration Project. 
  • Year: 2016 - 2020.
  • Role: Principal investigator. 
  • Funding received: $152, 749.
  • Funded by: SSHRC, Insight Grant. 

 

  • Project: Study on the Experiences of Institutionalized Children and Youth in the Dominican Republic. 
  • Year: 2016 - 2018. 
  • Role: Principal investigator. 
  • Funding received: $31, 018. 
  • Funded by: UNICEF.

 

  • Project: Rights for children and youth partnership: Strengthening collaboration in the Americas
  • Year: 2015.
  • Role: Principal investigator.
  • Funding received: $4,216,583.
  • Funded by: SSHRC, Partnership Grant.

Articles:

Books:

  • Parada, H., Escobar Olivo, V. & Cruz, K. (2023). Central American youth migration: Coloniality and epistemologies of the South (external link) . Routledge. 
  • Parada, H., Escobar Olivo, V. & Cruz, K. (Forthcoming). Central American youth migration: Coloniality and epistemologies of the South. Routledge.
  • Parada, H., Villeda, B., & Cruz, K (eds) (2022). Derechos de la niñez en Centroamérica y República Dominicana: Un acercamiento a los sistemas de protección y sus prácticas institucionales. IPNUSAC.
  • Parada, H., & Wehbi, S. (Eds.). (2017) Reimagining anti-oppression social work: Reflecting on Research. Canadian Scholar Press.
  • Wehbi, S., Parada, H. (Eds.). (2017.) Reimagining anti-oppression social work: Reflection on Practice. Canadian Scholar Press.

Book Chapters:

Reports: