In partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada, the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (Yale PRCH) begins the eleventh cohort of the LET(s)Lead Academy on September 12, 2024, with 13 emerging leaders with lived experience. After eleven weeks of classes about transformational leadership, mental health advocacy, and cultural humility and justice, Fellows will be assigned mentors to support them in creating a transformational community project to use their newly developed leadership skills in their local area. The academy will continue to meet monthly for leadership development and project support until graduation in 2025.

Momentum is a mental health counselling agency, supporting clients who would otherwise be unable to access counselling because of long wait lists or financial barriers. They are a non profit, registered charity led by a team of passionate mental health advocates who collaborate to provide Solution Focused Therapy.

The YCRH is a group of strong youth leaders who are driving meaningful change toward better health and wellbeing outcomes for young people living in Canada.

Co-producing a youth engagement guide for mental health policymaking with youth participants thatpresents practical ideas and guidance to promote meaningful youth participation in mental health policydevelopment and evaluation. This guide will: a) provide practical strategies, special considerations, andengagement tips for organizations and individuals who support youth at various stages of mental healthpolicymaking processes; and b) provide practical and accessible information for diverse groups of youth who are new to mental health policymaking processes to engage in a meaningful way.

Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) is all about turning knowledge into action. In the mental health space, knowledge is generated through a variety of sources and may come from research, new or innovative practices, or most importantly, from people with lived and living expertise. At Frayme, we aim to capture and share knowledge across the youth mental health and substance use system. Our goal is to influence policies and programs and ultimately help shape practice and improve mental health and substance use services for youth. Thus, we aim to have a system-level impact through knowledge use. The fellowship program runs for a duration of 4 - 6 months, depending on the year. During this time, Fellows participated in 5-6 training sessions focused on the fundamental skills and theories of knowledge mobilization. During the training, Fellows work with Frayme to combine personal passions with sector knowledge gaps to create a knowledge product of their choosing. Based on their interest, Fellows worked together in pairs to co-develop a knowledge product. During this time, they had bi-weekly allyship check-ins with a Frayme ally, regular one-on-one and group check-ins with their peer mentors, independent peer-review sessions led by fellows, and completed bi-weekly evaluations. At the end of the fellowship, Fellows and peer mentor present their products and share their experiences from the program at Frayme’s annual Learning Institute to a national audience that typically exceeds more than 500 attendees. They also received a certificate from Frayme for completing the training and fellowship program.

The Canadian Mental Health Association – Edmonton Region, United Way of the Alberta Capital Regionand the City of Edmonton are currently building a Strategy for Community Mental Health with leadershipfrom a community governance team made up of individuals with lived experience, family members,frontline service providers, and others directly impacted by mental health issues. When the strategy iscomplete, it will be implemented across Edmonton and is expected to result in a well-integrated systemof community-based mental health services and supports that are reliable and logically connected so that people using these services and supports will have clear and predictable paths to receiving help.

Lift/Futur en tete Youth Council made up of youth advisors with lived experience who provide guidance on research and programming activities.

The purpose of the Youth Advisory Council is to bring a youth perspective to the planning and delivery of addiction and mental health projects, programs, and policies across Alberta.

This youth engagement and capacity building project is comprised of a series of Collaborative Policymaking Workshops to promote skills-building and collective action for youth mental health. Youth who experience intersecting health and social inequities will be engaged as collaborators in policymaking activities.Akinnawonu T., Bidoyan S., Mancuso R., Martens H., Mooney S., Quickstad J., Scarrett S., Shaffer B., McGuinness L., Kruz T., Wandolo J., Jenkins E. (2023). How to Engage Youth in Policy Decision Making: A Synopsis of the Evidence and Key Recommendations. Vancouver: Wellstream: The Canadian Centre for Innovation in Child & Youth Mental Health & Substance Use.