Sébastien Savard

Sébastien Savard, Ph.D., Full Professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Social Work, is Co-director of FORCES-Santé and one of the founding members. He is also the current Co-director of the nationally recognized Groupe de recherche sur la formation et les pratiques en santé et service social en contexte francophone minoritaire (GReFoPS).

His research focuses primarily on the recruitment and retention of bilingual staff in Francophone minority communities; the specific needs of these communities in terms of social and health services; the implementation of initiatives to improve French-language services; support for managers wishing to strengthen French-language service delivery; and training related to the active offer of social and health services.

Partnership-based research is central to Professor Savard’s work. In particular, he contributed to the ARIMA research partnership on social action and intervention networks, led by Deena White. As principal investigator, he obtained an SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2018-2021) in 2018 to validate a self-assessment tool for social and health service managers wishing to improve service delivery to Francophones in minority communities and to support organizations in implementing new initiatives. Since April 2025, he has been co-directing an SSHRC Partnership Development Grant with Isabelle Giroux, which is dedicated to simulation-based training in the active offer of social and health services to Francophones in minority communities.