On May 26th and 27th I was fortunate enough to attend the Indigenous Health Conference at the Hilton Mississauga Meadowvale Hotel on behalf of the Young Canadians Roundtable on Health and The Sandbox Project
The conference provided a fantastic opportunity to learn about current initiatives to promote the health of indigenous communities from across Canada.
The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal, recently published a Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. The Commission is a thorough look at the current global state of health and wellbeing among young people, and as a young person myself, I found it did great justice, uncovering truths and combining both research and the voiced needs of young people.
The Commission focuses, in part, on how law affects adolescents and their access to resources and services. Access is something that the Young Canadians Roundtable on Health (YCRH) and the Young Health Program (YHP) have been investigating through the Health Rights and Responsibilities project that we are collaborating on.
I’m still not even sure how I got involved with the Young Canadians Roundtable on Health (YCRH). Like many other Canadians I spent a quiet evening harmlessly scanning through my Facebook feed trying to sort out what to do with my life, ignoring “Candy Crush” requests when I came I across this organization. I had begun a journey into the world of massage therapy so anything with an aspect of health felt like a good investment for my career and resume.
I clicked on the link to discover The Sandbox Project. Its mission to make Canada the safest and healthiest place for our youth to grow up was a statement I was eager to stand behind. I submitted my application and within a few weeks I was granted the honour of becoming a part of this group of talented individuals.
From November 18-21, 2015, 1300 diverse young people from around the globe, bonded by a desire to improve the world, gathered together in Bangkok Thailand. We addressed significant topics such as health, disability, refugees, climate change, and prevention of hate and terrorism. As the days progressed, it became clear to me that each of these topics influences the others.
If we don’t have a safe place to live, how can we maintain good health? If the environment around us is getting progressively worse, how will we continue to have access to good food and healthcare (especially in island states around the world that are sinking)? These are the new perspectives, projects and ideas that I am excited to bring back to the Young Canadians Roundtable on Health. They will influence our work going forward.
From October 8 to 10th, I had the extremely humbling and exciting opportunity to represent the Young Canadians Roundtable on Health (YCRH) at the International Association of Youth Mental Health conference in Montreal, Quebec. This opportunity would not have been possible without the generous support of the Graham Boeckh and two other Foundations.
I started off my conference journey by attending the pre-conference workshop around using social media to engage youth and the opening reception. I spent hours getting to know the folks in the workshop, learning about best practices and the process of rapid prototyping as problem solving. My greatest take away from the session however, was around language and words from various countries and the way they resonate with different people. The day concluded with the opening reception where I had the chance to meet with many people from various countries such as Australia, Scotland, and the USA and I met the Norfolk and Suffolk youth advisory council for the first time, who in the end became my adopted family.
