Importance of Youth Voices

The Importance of Youth Voices project seeks to understand the current, on-the ground landscape of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to youth engagement in health spaces across Canada. This project was inspired by an evaluation that the Students Commission of Canada did on the YCRH in 2019, looking at some of the promising practices the YCRH was engaging in within the youth health space. The YCRH aimed to expand on this report and learn more about what other youth committees and councils that are in the youth health space in Canada are doing in terms their youth engagement practices, challenges they encounter with youth engagement, how they’ve addressed challenges, how they incorporate equity into their youth engagement.

The YCRH held conversations with over 30 youth advisory committees (YACs) to understand what has been working and not working in their contexts. YACs are a group of young people that are selected by organizations to work in partnership with them and to often advise on issues that affect youth. Characteristics of YACs vary widely and are becoming popular, structured ways to engage youth.

There were many recurring themes, indicating there were common challenges but also some promising practices:

  • Walk the talk and ensure youth engagement is not tokenistic

  • Work with youth to create the opportunities, spaces, and processes that would enable optimal engagement

  • Demonstrate value placed on youth input and unique experiences

  • Provide supports and maintain flexibility to enable engagement from all participants

  • Ensure you have representative membership at the table

The Importance of Youth Voices project is still in the process of being completed. The YCRH will be holding conversations with YACs across Canada and use the findings to inform knowledge products on meaningful youth engagement in health spaces across Canada. Using the findings from this project and our experiences as the YCRH, the YCRH hopes to create an online campaign to raise awareness about why youth engagement is necessary to better the health of youth in Canada.

We would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for providing their insights to this project:

  • Jayne Morrish, Brock Lifespan Institute Youth Engagement Committee

  • Brianna Nelson, CAMH National Youth Action Council; YouthCan Youth Advisory Group

  • Jacqueline Relihan, CAMH National Youth Action Council; YouthCan Youth Advisory Group

  • Stefanie Goertz, CASA Youth Council

  • Jennifer Nasr, CASA Youth Council

  • Corinne Lalonde, CHILD-BRIGHT National Youth Advisory Panel

  • Alyssa Frampton, Children’s First Canada; Wisdom2Action

  • Drew Bowman, HEALab Youth Advisory Council

  • Suraj Paul, HEALab Youth Advisory Council

  • Dolly Menna-Dack, Holland Bloorview Kids Advisory Council

  • Lara Killian, Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health Youth Advisory Council

  • Megan Van Massenhoven, Kids Help Phone National Youth Council

  • Jennifer McDonald, Lions Gate Hospital Foundation Youth Advisory Council

  • Katie Horton, McCreary Society Youth Advisory and Action Council

  • Tracy Akitt, McMaster Children’s Hospital Youth Advisory Council

  • Tija Praulins, McMaster Children’s Hospital Youth Advisory Council

  • Jill Stringer, Mood Disorders Society National Youth Advisory Council

  • Josh Vetere, Mood Disorders Society National Youth Advisory Council

  • Mark Aitken, Norwest Coop Community Health Youth Ambassadors

  • Jana Kocourek, Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health Youth Advisory Council

  • Katarina Daignault, Teenmentalhealth.org Youth Advisory Council

  • Katherine Jarrell, Teenmentalhealth.org Youth Advisory Council

  • Sophia Di Nicolo, Toronto Youth Cabinet Urban Health Working Group

  • Bemnet Teferi, Toronto Youth Cabinet Urban Health Working Group

  • Michelle Donaldson, The Lung Association Youth Advisory Council

  • Stefania Pasternak, About Face

  • Stephanie Wang, Health Out Loud

  • Charlotte Burke, Jane Goodall Institute

  • Celeste Turner, Niagara Falls Community Health Centre

  • Nicole Soble, Niagara Falls Community Health Centre

  • Kelly Petrunka, PREVNet