About us We bring people and knowledge together to strengthen the quality and effectiveness of mental health services for children, youth and their families and caregivers. SERVICE AREA SUPPORT SYSTEM SUPPORT IMPACT AND INNOVATION strengthen skills and provide consistent inspire excellence and knowledge in key areas evidence-informed innovation through that lead to improved approaches that continuous learning, outcomes enhance service evolution and planning and innovation delivery
Acknowledgements • Before we begin, we would like to acknowledge that we are on un-ceded and un-surrendered • Thank you for inviting us!
Definition “ Empowering all young people as valuable partners in addressing and making decisions about issues that affect them personally and/or that they believe to be important.” - The New Mentality
Guiding Principles 1. Value youth as community assets 2. Commit to participatory leadership 3. Build authentic relationships 4. Strive for health equity 5. Meet youth where they’re at 6. Use a whole community approach 7. Put safety first
Types of youth engagement Tokenism Manipulation Decoration
• Improves program effectiveness • Increases the visibility of mental health services • Promotes a culture of inclusion Agency • Increases agency credibility and Benefits appeal to funders • Increases community reach • Fosters greater staff commitment to the agency • Decreases operational cost
Youth Engagement Organizational Change
Theory of Change
Agency readiness
Agency readiness Factors get buy in • Discuss: identify resources • • Prepare staff • As a leadership team, which Set realistic expectations • factors do you feel are well • Recruit young people established in your agency/ service area? Build a team • Which factors need to be • Engage communities • worked on and sustained? • Create youth friendly spaces Co-create plans • • Communicate Monitor and co-evaluate •
Treatment & Advocacy & Wellness Education Openings Research & Governance & Evaluation Policy
Building and Sustaining a Core Team • Enriches the change process. • Helps identify the challenges and Benefits opportunities in YE and pools resources to overcome them. of a team • Helps in creating a common vision to support and sustain youth engagement. approach • Team members can act as ambassadors to the practice of YE which supports staff readiness
Building and Sustaining a Core Team – Tips and Considerations v Ensure the team is intergenerational and diverse in both professions within your agency and demographics within your community v Review existing committees, identify opportunities for alignment v Focus and spend a significant amount of time building trust and relationships between team members v Co-develop a terms of agreements with the team. Have the terms visible at each meeting and allow for ongoing changes. v Ensure ongoing communication and co-evaluation with the team. v Beware of tokenizing youth voice on the team. v Partner youth on the team with an adult ally as direct support for their involvement
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