Kiaras Gharabaghi
Dean, Faculty of Community Services
Professor
Faculty of Community Services
School of Child and Youth Care
Toronto, Ontario
k.gharabaghi@torontomu.ca
Office:
(416) 979-5000 ext. 554812
Expert In
Child welfare and youth justice
Educational performance of youth in care
Engagement of marginalized communities
Integration of child services
Inter-sectoral collaboration of child services
International child and youth care practice
Justice, equity and society
Organizational change
Residential care and treatment
Social innovation
Theme: Democracy, justice and governance
Theme: Health and wellbeing
Youth entrepreneurship
Youth homelessness
Bio/Research
My personal biography includes a multi-ethnic, multi-faith heritage, growing up in the midst of a violent revolution, escaping to Germany via Switzerland, settling in Germany as a teenager and experiencing conflict with the law, and ultimately immigrating to Canada to study and start a new life. ...
Click to Expand >>
Click to Expand >>
Bio/Research
My personal biography includes a multi-ethnic, multi-faith heritage, growing up in the midst of a violent revolution, escaping to Germany via Switzerland, settling in Germany as a teenager and experiencing conflict with the law, and ultimately immigrating to Canada to study and start a new life. Thirty-five years later I live on the edge of beautiful Lake Simcoe north of Toronto, watching my three young adult children determine their life journeys with energy, positivity and creativity. My professional career started before my academic career as a way of financing my pathways through post-secondary education, eventually leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Guelph in Ontario and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
I spent the first 25 years of my professional career working as a practitioner, manager and director in the social sector. During this time, I worked with young people, their families, and their communities in the context of youth justice, child welfare, child and youth mental health and youth homelessness. Throughout my professional career, my focus was on ensuring that young people and their families who encountered services did so with their dignity preserved, and their voices at the centre of the service delivery. In 2006, I decided to join the School of Child and Youth Care. From 2014 to 2020, I was the director of this school. In that role, I worked to grow the school by expanding the student population, renewing the undergraduate curriculum to reflect the latest research and trends in child and youth care professional practice, championing the establishment of the second graduate degree program in child and youth care in Canada, and significantly expanding the international opportunities for all of our students through partnerships with universities and NGOs in the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and South Asia. I am also very proud to have contributed, on behalf of the school, to the development of highly diverse and deeply engaged faculty and staff groups.
Click to Shrink <<
I spent the first 25 years of my professional career working as a practitioner, manager and director in the social sector. During this time, I worked with young people, their families, and their communities in the context of youth justice, child welfare, child and youth mental health and youth homelessness. Throughout my professional career, my focus was on ensuring that young people and their families who encountered services did so with their dignity preserved, and their voices at the centre of the service delivery. In 2006, I decided to join the School of Child and Youth Care. From 2014 to 2020, I was the director of this school. In that role, I worked to grow the school by expanding the student population, renewing the undergraduate curriculum to reflect the latest research and trends in child and youth care professional practice, championing the establishment of the second graduate degree program in child and youth care in Canada, and significantly expanding the international opportunities for all of our students through partnerships with universities and NGOs in the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and South Asia. I am also very proud to have contributed, on behalf of the school, to the development of highly diverse and deeply engaged faculty and staff groups.
Click to Shrink <<