The CCDMP's vision is to foster every child’s healthy development and potential for kindness, both locally and globally. To achieve our vision, we conduct research that advances a holistic understanding of children and generates services and practice solutions to enhance their potential and healthy development. Our centre unites child development and child mental health specialists from diverse backgrounds in an environment that inspires innovations in research, practice, and policy to promote the mental health and potential of all children.
The CCDMP was formed in 2019 out of Founding Director Tina Malti’s Laboratory for Social-Emotional Development and Intervention (SEDI Lab). The SEDI Lab is a research-focused laboratory in the Department of Psychology at UTM that was established in 2010. The objectives of the SEDI Lab are to understand the roots, pathways, and consequences of kindness and aggression in children, with an emphasis on the role of environmental adversity in harmful and benevolent orientations. The SEDI Lab now serves as part of the research arm of the CCDMP in order to extend our reach and to support the application of our research on social-emotional development and adversity into meaningful practice and policy initiatives for children in need.
