The power of youth engagement in policy, programs and knowledge translation

Authors

  • Lisa Lachance

Keywords:

youth engagement, child and youth

Abstract

Engagement in the decisions that affect them is positive for both youth and services across many sectors. Youth engagement is at the heart of all that we do at Wisdom2Action. It‘s a commitment, an approach and a promising practice that we promote across the youth serving sector. Young people gather on our Youth Advisory Committee, they sit on our Governing Board, identify and develop projects, lead mentoring projects with other organizations on youth engagement and lead our community engagement events. Since 2013, we have been providing guidance and training to organizations and governments across Canada and internationally on youth engagement. We have also modelled youth engagement as a promising practice through our public events.

 In 2013, we completed a knowledge synthesis report on youth engagement (Zinck, Ungar, Whitman, Exenberger, LeVert-Chaisson, Liebenberg, Ung, & Forshner, 2013). In 2018, this report was updated in advance of the first national Canadian conference on youth engagement led by Wisdom2Action.  This presentation will engage participants in shared learning about how to implement youth engagement in diverse organizations and contexts.

References

Burns, J., & Birrell, E. (2014). Enhancing early engagement with mental health services by young people. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 7, 303–312. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S49151

Checkoway, B. (2011). What is youth participation? Children and Youth Services Review, 33(2), 340–345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2010.09.017

Dunne, T., Bishop, L., Avery, S., & Darcy, S. (2017). A Review of Effective Youth Engagement Strategies for Mental Health and Substance Use Interventions. Journal of Adolescent Health, 60(5), 487–512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.11.019

Kwan, B., & Rickwood, D. J. (2015). A systematic review of mental health outcome measures for young people aged 12 to 25 years. BMC Psychiatry, 15(1), 279. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0664-x

Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health. Editorial – Aiding adolescents in distress. Lancet Commission. Retrieved from http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanchi/PIIS2352-4642(17)30096-2.pdf

McGorry, P. (2014). Early intervention, youth mental health: The value of translational research for reform and investment in mental health. Australasian Psychiatry, 22(3), 225–227. https://doi.org/10.1177/1039856214532580

Zinck, E., Ungar, M., Whitman, S., Exenberger, S., LeVert-Chaisson, I., Liebenberg, L., Ung, J., & Forshner, A. (2013). Working with Children and Youth in Challenging Contexts to Promote Youth Engagement. Halifax, NS: CYCC Network. Retrieved from: http://wisdom2action.org/engagement

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Published

2019-07-03

Issue

2018: Healthy Living, Healthy Life Conference Proceedings

Section

Theme 4: Health equity, inclusion, diversity, and social determinants of health

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