HEALTH ENGAGING YOUTH (HEYou)
THE NEW MENTALITY
Pauline Fogarty and Katie Robinson are regional leaders for The New Mentality, a project linking youth networks across the province around mental health issues. The goals of the project are to:
Create a youth-driven network giving young people the opportunity to play a meaningful, ongoing and sustainable role in promoting mental health and advocating for a high quality mental health system that best suits their needs
Develop new stigma reduction activities helping public awareness of mental health as a health priority in the way it is viewed and resourced
Expend the role of youth in the governance of organizations that deliver mental health services and programs for children and youth
Engage youth to speak about mental health locally and provincially
Engage youth as volunteers at many levels in the mental health system so that they can speak of the system as informed observers and participants
Establish commitment to and support for youth engagement by mental health organizations, agencies and funders
The underlying principles are:
Youth are directly affected and will be more closely listened to
Effective advocacy needs youth and adults working and standing together to deliver a strong message that can’t be ignored
An integrated and connected process involving group action and a broad partnership is necessary to achieve the project’s goals
Systems must create the opportunities for youth to be engaged
The core group in Thunder Bay will be meeting to discuss the local needs, programming, and big event for Children’s Mental Health Week in May 2008. Please contact the Regional Multicultural Youth Centre for more information. You can email to manwoyc@tbaytel.net or call 622-4666.